Plex Direct Play

Networking Networking Hardware
1

Hello all! Not sure where exactly to post this but here goes…

My friend and I both have Plex servers with nVidia Shield devices for playback. I don’t know when the change happened, but up until a few weeks ago I was able to play 1080p DTS-HD/TrueHD MKVs direct from his server with no transcoding (his connection is fast enough upstream to make it workable). He’s had his router go down a few times and I believe it needs to be replaced. Also I have switched from a UniFi USG3 to a UXG-Pro and I’ve added rules to isolate VLANs.

Both our routers have 32400 external forwarded to 32400 internal for the IP of our Plex servers. Mine is on a TrueNAS SCALE box running the official TrueNAS Plex server. He has a Synology NAS running the Plex Server app.

My Shield is on VLAN 60 (192.168.60.10) with a port forwarding rule to allow 32400 on VLAN 60.
TrueNAS SCALE on Default network (192.168.2.230)
UXG-Pro is forwarding external 32400 to internal 192.168.2.230:32400

Plex server on both sides has the Remote Access setup with manual public port set to 32400 and reporting fully accessible outside the network.

I can’t play anything from his side without it transcoding, Direct Play is no longer working and I can’t tell if the problem is on his side, my side, or both.

Is TCP 32400 the only port I have to forward to the VLAN? What about externally to the server IP?

On a more simple set up this was working, I’ve even put my Shield back on the default network 192.168.2.x and it still transcodes.

Can anyone chime in or point me in the right direction?

Thanks!

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I have plex setup at home myself and the only port I have forwarded is 32400. As for why it’s transcoding even locally it may be an issue of codec support on the client device. You may also have a setting set in the server config limiting upload bandwidth so the server is doing transcoding to reduce bandwidth usage. Or since you mention his router going down, it may be relaying stream data through plex servers rather than directly connecting.

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I forgot to mention that I can Direct Play locally. Even when the Shield is on VLAN 60. I just can’t get Direct Play to work when viewing from his server. Is there a way to tell if his server is relaying?

I mentioned his router going down as a way of saying his config may have changed on the router. We have his port forwarding set right. I am thinking maybe his Plex server setup may have changed due to an update maybe? Its hard to know when I am not at this desk looking at it myself. You know how that goes.

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Usually whenever my server is relaying the app would tell me.

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