I have been getting into migrating all my media to Plex. If you do not know what Plex is, I encourage you to give them a visit, This application may change your life forever. It integrates your entire media library and allows you to access it with various hardware. The one that sold it for me was the Roku. The app is able to read my movies and pick up the meta data contained in the files, making it easy to scroll through my media as if it was Netflix. It is an OCD person’s dream come true. I did however come across a few roadblocks when setting up Plex. I feel the need to share these in case others come across the same problem as I did, I will give you a list of problems I met with Plex and of course the corresponding solutions.
Problem 1. There was a problem in connecting my server – Solved
This drove me nuts, but like a lot of problems, the solution is much simpler than we might think. One of the solutions I looked through was to open port 32400 on the router. Doing this did nothing for me, and after further inspection I noticed that my internal IP address was using a 172 number. That 172 number came from my ooma. I had my ooma behind the router and from there, it went to the computer. I had no idea how to solve this problem. There was no solution available, and most threads said that the router should be set up behind the ooma. I didn’t feel like messing with this and was fortunate enough that an advancement in technology solved the problem. Ooma now has a wireless adapter (something I thought didn’t exist for VOIP). I immediately bought the adapter, set up a wireless connection for my ooma, and the Plex Server instantly established a connection. I was ready to Plex! Also you can get some help from Plex support – Troubleshooting Server Connections.
Problem 2. Plex can’t play VOB and ISO files – Solved
One of the fibs I read online was that Plex would be able to read ISO and VOB files. This is true, it does. However, if you try and play the file on Roku, it is really unstable. The ISO file would not show the video, and the VOB files would cut off at 27 minutes. There was no other alternative. I am now in a quest to convert my entire DVD collection to mp4 files. This file format is stable, plays on the Roku, and keeps all the meta data. And thanks God, I found a perfect program in this article: Ideal ISO Streamer: Roku 3 + Plex
Problem 3. Subtitles won’t show up on the Roku – Solved
My remaining issue is that the Roku won’t display embedded subtitles. The subtitles can play on the Plex mobile APP, but not the Roku. I looked into a lot in Plex forums, to my relief, there are a lot of users suffered from this issue. One guy said that the Roku’s only natively support .srt subtitles external to the media, all other formats need to be burnt in by the transcoder.
Yeah, the guy was right, it doesn’t play VOBSUB subtitles. Set your subtitle to English (TX3G). If that option is not available, you can convert your VOBSUB subtitle to a .srt file. Here I recommend using Pavtube ByteCopy to convert the subtitle, an efficient, safe, fast, easy-to-use Blu-ray/DVD converter and convert movies to MKV/MP4/MOV with multiple audio tracks & subtitles, and export single SRT subtitle file which is a special function of it. Once your subtitle file is converted, place the .srt file in the same directory as your movie. Plex will instantly pick it up and it will show in the subtitle dropdown menu.
Problem 4. Can’t update poster image – Solved
I was having major problems one day updating poster images to my TV shows. I thought it may have been some odd issue on my computer so I tried updating on a different computer and still received the same error message. It seems that the Plex server just needed a refresh. I restarted my computer and I could upload my poster image easily. Good, odd refresh did the trick!
Problem 5. Audio Sync issues – Solved
I had audio sync issues with some of my TV shows when played on my wii u. I went to the settings, clicked on “player”, then select “show advanced” at the top right. From there you’ll see options for “direct player” and “direct stream”. I checked these off and checked “direct play of A3 audio” and “prefer AAC audio”. Once I did this, everything worked perfectly.
Feel free to share your better solutions in the comments below. We will keep collecting Plex problems and solutions. Thanks in advance!
Further Reading:
Plex Media Server Supports Media Formats and How to Use It
Add Movies to Plex to Make Your Media Experience Easy and Enjoyable
Master Your Plex Media Server with a QNAP NAS
Stream Your Personal Media to PS4 without DLNA