4K Direct play always buffering

[alec_hs]

Server Version#: Version 1.26.0.5715 (Windows Server 2022)
Player Version#: Version 1.44.0.2981-e2d72ac2 (Plex for Windows 11)
Player Version#: Latest LG WebOS Version

I have an issue where I cannot reliably direct play 4k and sometime even 1080p content.

The site the server is at has 1Gbps symetrical connection, the site where the players are has a 500Mbps/50Mpbs connection.

There is plenty of bandwitdth and the server never goes above 5% CPU usage when streaming, however I get constant buffering on all client types (mobile, web, windows, lg tv etc).

Any ideas?

[premikkoci]

Burning in subtitles

[alec_hs]

No subtitles are selected - surely that would only matter if I had subs selected?

[drslevy]

Check this out and then see if you can give additional details because the beast that is 4K remote playback is not an easy beast to slay:

[INFO] Plex, 4k, transcoding, and you - aka the rules of 4k

NOTE: for 2022 – Plex has come a long way since this FAQ was originally written, HW transcoding has become more available and more stable, and tone mapping was recently added to address the hdr/sdr color conversion issues. The first 4 ‘rules’ generally are no longer as important as they once were, but may still be a good thing to bear in mind. Dolby Vision, is an entirely other mess. THIS thread/FAQ is NOT about DV. DV work is still in progress, and there are no perfect TV’s or external devic…

Something else that needs to be considered when remote playing 4k content is how far away the client is and even though you have the requisite speeds, it does not mean that your routes that the ISP’s are using are stable enough to maintain a high bitrate stream. Just my 2 cents.