Hey all, I’m very new to self-hosting and have no background in anything computer-related. I’ll explain in as much detail as I can. I’m running Plex on a Synology DS220+. I’m using the Plex app, i.e. not using Docker (see note below).
The issue: I can watch Plex on my local network in 4K, but outside my local network it barely makes it to 720p. I thought it was an issue with my upload speed, but I got gigabit last week and it hasn’t fixed the issue. I have remote access enabled in Plex through a manually-specified port. The issue persists with my own account and any friends who have access to my library.
I appreciate any advice, links or questions you can offer!
NOTE: I understand the benefits of Docker and I promise to transition in the future. I spent many hours learning and troubleshooting, and it was even functional at times, but eventually I needed something that just worked.
EDIT: You all have been so helpful and supportive. Thanks for meeting me where I’m at and sharing some potential issues.
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I have three hypotheses.
- There’s a setting for remote streaming quality. It may be set to 720p.
- The port isn’t open on your router and Plex streams via a Plex relay server which limits the quality.
- The CPU might not be fast enough to transcode beyond 720p and Plex might be transcoding for remote streaming.
Even if the port is open, Plex can sometimes use the relay server. You might want to explicitly disable that.
Also, you can check if the video is being transcoded on-the-fly by going to quality settings and seeing if it’s showing up as transcoded or directplay. Sometimes you might have to force the directplay on your client device (Playback might fail if your device doesn’t support the specific format).
Thanks for the concise reply!
-Streaming quality is set to original on every device I use to access Plex.
-I still get confused about open ports, but I’ll check again and make sure it’s not running through relay.
-I believe the hardware should be fast enough to transcode at least a couple streams, but I’ll check again.
I was talking about a server side setting under Remote Access. Check there.
Ah, okay. Thanks for the clarification.
The second one! That was also my issue when first setting up Plex. Found some good info on Plex forums & all is well now.
Sounds like you don’t have port forwarding setup.
I highly recommend setting up Nginx Proxy Manager and using it as a reverse proxy.
I have lots of services, but using a reverse proxy means I only have to expose 2 ports (80 & 443) and then I can serve whatever I want, like Plex, over https without a relay.
My fiber company double natted me.
It was really messing with my Plex remote connections and my VPN.
If you can’t sort it out locally might want to give your isp a call and find out if they e done the same.
P.s sorry for the shit website link.
Ah, Plex suggested I might be double-natted. Since fiber doesn’t need a modem (from my understanding) I have: fiber cable to box, box Ethernet to router, router ethernet to NAS. Maybe it would be better if I did box directly to NAS? Or would that put it on a separate network? I’ll look into your double-nat solution. Thank you.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters DNS Domain Name Service/System HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the Web IP Internet Protocol IoT Internet of Things for device controllers NAS Network-Attached Storage NAT Network Address Translation Plex Brand of media server package SSL Secure Sockets Layer, for transparent encryption VPN Virtual Private Network nginx Popular HTTP server
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This bot is a total CHAD but can bots really edit their post?
Have you enabled remote access? You may be using the proxy.
Remote access is enabled but whether I’m actually able to access the server or library remotely is intermittent. Plex says I may be double-natted but I was pretty sure I’m not. I’ll have to investigate again.
What IP is your router bound to? Is it a public IP?
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