Remotely playing media from NUC (PLEX)

Klunt Bumskrint · 1 Oct 2024 at 18:14

Wasn't sure the best place to put this so I thought I'd try here.

I have a Plex server on a NUC (J5040 2GHz 4 core, 8GB RAM) I bought from MM. Everything works great.
Problem is I just can't get remote access to watch anything. When I'm on a mobile network or wifi outside of my home I just get the message "Unable to play media". I've got everything set to avoid transcoding so it uses directplay, I can see everything I have and can click through everything just nobody me or my kids can play anything unless we're on my home wifi. I have 100Mb upload speed so that's not the problem. Port 32400 is forwarded correctly etc I just cannot figure this out.

Any Plex masters in here?

Klunt Bumskrint · 2 Oct 2024 at 17:24

NutritioN said:
I don't have an answer, but I get that message if I tick "Disable video stream transcoding" in the Transcoder settings page.
I have terrible upload (12Mb), even if I enable transcoding, my lowest bitrate media will direct play to my phone remotely via 5G, it's about 700kbps. It depends on other settings, have you configured your upload speed at the bottom of the Remote access page?

Quick internet search found people chatting about video profiles - if you don't have a match then the stream might still transcode even if it's to the same codec. But that's beyond my knowledge.

Upload speed is configured to 100Mb. I've just tried putting the IP of the MUC into the DMZ via the router. I'll see if it works later when I go out.

Klunt Bumskrint · 2 Oct 2024 at 18:08

Begbie said:
Try it in the house but just switch to mobile internet.

I can't get it working because I use 5G as my home internet which causes issues. Though it does work using tailscale.

My signal here is trash so I have to leave my whole street to get a good signal

Klunt Bumskrint · 4 Oct 2024 at 14:03

rp2000 said:
What happens if you remove the Upload speed. Mine is blank and it shows "no upload speed set".

Just to clarify, if you have the same laptop and browser (or mobile device), you only get the issue when you are outside of your home network/LAN?

I would also recommend installing "Tautalli" on the server, as that will give you better, definitely more readable logs. It also shows you much more information about what and who is playing back content either locally or remotely, without paying for plex pass. I used it for troubleshooting many clients connecting to my server, locally and remotely and now I can stream every single file outside my home network without transcoding (I have 1000Mb internet speed).

rp2000

No different. Checked here to see if I've forwarded everything ok and it's fine. Just cannot work this out and it's driving me mad.
Could it be that the NUC is just too week? Tautalli seems a bit complex and I'm not a python afficionado

Klunt Bumskrint · 4 Oct 2024 at 14:15

Now, the https://canyouseeme.org/ is saying my port is blocked even though I've not changed anything and it was configured correctly and green yesterday.

"Please note that if the router is using a private WAN IP address (such as connected behind another router/switch/modem with built-in router/Wi-Fi feature), could potentially place the router under a multi-layer NAT network. Port Forwarding will not function properly under such environment."

Edit: I wonder if this might be my issue
My ASUS AX11000 is connected to my Virgin home hub that is in modem mode.