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sloburn

70 posts

Master Geek


#190873 14-Jan-2016 23:13
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Hi folks,

SO a bit of background, have had the fire tv stick for a while and it's been a rollercoaster. Basically all I use it for is Plex and Netflix. Had some stuttering issues which I narrowed down to network signal strength, fixed that and all was well for a long time. 

Now in the last few days it's having issues again. It'll be fine for a time and then either freeze whatever i'm watching or stutter a little. Often this is accompanied by a brief popup of "Your connection to the server is not fast enough to stream this video. Check your network or try a lower quality". Sometimes it totally cuts out, others it'll jitter for a bit then right itself. It's very random.

Have played with Plex settings extensively, have played with the settings server side too. Have even switched the server from my older media machine to my newer gaming machine which appeared to help (performance for higher quality was better) but has still started bugging out again. Have also uninstalled and reinstalled Plex on the stick

Netflix runs fine and only ever has quality issues during peak times and that's usually brief. Never stalls or buffers.

A bit of searching finds a lot of people having similar issues at varying times over the last couple of years and still recently. 

So tonight I got fed up and thought i'd side load Kodi and see if that was any better. Cue a whole other headache. Sideloading and running Kodi on the stick is fine but trying to add media to it is another kettle of fish. Kodi can see my networked PC which has various shared folders available. But it doesn't seem to accept the username and password I enter so won't/can't connect to scrape all the available media. I must be missing something but it's beyond my knowledge set :(

So? Advice for Plex, perhaps some secret I may have missed? Kodi advice? Advice on a better streaming device that will run Plex without issues (needs to be wifi, next house will have wired access)?

Thanks in advance for your help :)

Slo


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sloburn

70 posts

Master Geek


  #1471928 15-Jan-2016 13:37
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Update. Spent some serious time today playing with Kodi and network settings. Got to the point where I could add movies to the library but for some reason it wasn't adding all of them (for example the first pass it added a lot, then I had other issues and cleared the data and started again, next pass it missed a bunch of movies). Then it would come up with random "invalid argument" errors when going into the movies folder implying no connection to the network. Tried a different scraper but then it just wouldn't even go into that folder so I was stuck. I did manage at one point to get a few movies added and tried one out which seemed to play ok. Then sometimes it just wouldn't play as if it'd lost connection, then later I tried again and it played but stuttered a bit.

Beginning to wonder if it's a problem with the stick itself, I did notice it's really hot, wondering if the heat is causing connectivity issues? Either way i'm starting to think I should be looking for a better option...



sloburn

70 posts

Master Geek


  #1472071 15-Jan-2016 16:34
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Tried out a few more things.

Plugged the stick into a monitor right next to the router to make sure it's still not just a signal strength issue but it stuttered badly. 

Tried the web app on another wired PC and seemed to have no issues.

Tried the web app on the same PC switched to WiFi and it seemed ok but did have a couple of stuttering issues and once brought up the "Your connection to the server is not fast enough to stream this video. Check your network or try a lower quality" error.

Installed a phone app to test internal WiFi speed and it ranged from 16 to 60 depending where I was but the speed where the stick is usually plugged in was 30-60. Router is an HG630B supplied by Telecom.

Could it be wifi speed? Perhaps Plex is now pushing more data through the connections and my WiFi can't handle it? Having said that i've also tried playing it on my phone through WiFi and didn't seem to have any problems. I'll try casting from my phone tonight and see if that makes any difference.

kiwifidget
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  #1472075 15-Jan-2016 16:38
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Have you tried using a wired connection to test?
I run Kodi on my FireTV just fine, but it is hard wired.




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kiwifidget
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3413 posts

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  #1472078 15-Jan-2016 16:40
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Also for scraping, your folder/file names must match the name that your scraper is using.
Letter for letter.




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sloburn

70 posts

Master Geek


  #1472093 15-Jan-2016 16:53
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Yeah the scraping thing was odd though, it kept losing ability to connect and then some stuff that scraped ok initially didn't later.

Can't hardwire in the stick unfortunately

driller2000
935 posts

Ultimate Geek

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  #1472097 15-Jan-2016 17:04
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Re Kodi Scraping - As others have said to improve Kodis scraping accuracy the movie filename and the folder it's stored in must match the movie title exactly.

That said I use Ember Media Manager (EMM) to pre-populate my movies ie. scrape the poster / fanart etc into the movie folder beforehand - as it's far easier to edit this info using EMM if need be - and this way Kodi' scan is very quick and spot on.

This will also mean if you want to re-scan your library in the future this info - or for another Kodi install - this info is good to go.


sloburn

70 posts

Master Geek


  #1472101 15-Jan-2016 17:13
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Thanks. I really like Plex and it's been fine till a week ago so Kodi was really a last resort (tv watching was driving us nuts) and it's being a PITA for some reason. Currently more tempted to just stick a PC in the lounge and be done with the whole thing haha

 
 
 

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sloburn

70 posts

Master Geek


  #1472169 15-Jan-2016 19:33
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Definitely not a heat issue. Unplugged the stick for an hour and it was playing up right from the restart.

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