Plex Media Server Samsung Smart Tv

Plex not working anymore on your smart Television set? This might be why

Trying to watch Plex on your smart TV but getting a message saying the server is currently unavailable? Your TV might be to blame. As it turns out, some manufacturers take stopped updating older smart Tv set models, leading to this issue. The expert news is there's a workaround to get you lot up and running again.

Plex has shared an important proclamation via its forums and sent out emails detailing how some older smart TVs will no longer be able to use secure connections to Plex servers. Manufacturers of the affected TV models are no longer supporting them via updates, and thus they no longer accept an updated certificate.

The issue affects TVs from Samsung, LG, Vizio, Hisense, and others on certain operating systems. A not-exhaustive list shared by Plex is shown below.

What went incorrect

The event appears to be a security document expiration. The culprit is likely the Permit'due south Encrypt's DST Root CA X3 cross-signed document, which expired on September 30th. Every bit noted by TechCrunch, Let's Encrypt'due south free certificates have been widely used across the internet since 2014, when the nonprofit began issuing gratis certificates for people to utilise. A whopping 380 1000000 certificates had been issued as of 2018 across 129 million unique domains.

When Let's Encrypt first started, they used the existing "DST Root CA X3" cantankerous-signature on all their certificates. This ensured that older and current devices at the time immediately trusted those certs. Permit'due south Encrypt now relies on their own "ISRG Root X1" signature for all certificates.

The problem arises on older devices that withal rely on but the CA X3 signature. Because that signature is now expired, devices like older smart TVs, older phones, and more volition no longer institute secure connections.

How to set up it

Plex states that if your server is located on the same network as your Goggle box, you won't have whatever issues. Nonetheless, if the server you're connecting to is remote, y'all'll demand to alter the Plex settings on your Goggle box to allow for insecure connections. To exercise this, get to settings and find the "Avant-garde" section. Set "Allow Insecure Connections" to "E'er" equally seen beneath. This setting may appear under the "Main" section on a few older TVs.

The Plex server itself will demand to have its "Secure connections" setting set to "Preferred." Almost default installs are already set to this. Nonetheless, if you have manually changed this setting to "Required" you'll need to change information technology back. This can exist done by going to Settings, finding the "Network" folio, and changing the setting from the drib-downwardly menu as shown below.

For those concerned about privacy, this is a pretty big effect. Connections between these TVs and the streaming server will exist unencrypted over the internet. Plex recommends users become a newer device, like an Amazon Fire TV Stick, Google Chromecast, or Roku, to continue using an encrypted connectedness.