Server Version#:1.330
Player Version#:Panasonic TV
Lifetime Plex pass.
MSI Gaming Laptop with i7 processor.
I have spent hours and hours trawling through posts on various forums tying to find a means of stopping the buffering with 4K movies. No success. Converted MKV to MP4 files, same issue.
The VLC player does it without any problems, even with 40Gb files. Mp4 or MKV, no issues.
Have now drawn the conclusion that Plex simply can’t do it. Unless you have some supercomputer that hasn’t been built yet.
Lifetime subscription was a waste of money. Almost half of my movies are 4K.
No direct support from Plex available, even paid for support isn’t available.
Some TVs might not be powerful enough to playback 4k without some buffering, especially high-bitrate videos. A streaming device is your best bet, but low powered ones can also struggle with it.
Also, I recommend a 5GHz wifi connection instead of Ethernet for TVs (in case you are using Ethernet). Most are capped at 100Mbps when wired, which can be a bottleneck.
Plex is entirely dependant on the device for direct playback, whereas VLC has additional software decoding capabilities that can assist in playback to help the device.
Plex is software only and performance is based on the hardware it is used on. So you need to look somewhere else to place blame. I have been using Plex for years and have many 4K HDR high bitrate movies and have no issues what so ever.
As already stated, if your using Plex on a TV, then get an external Player such as the Nvidia Shield which will play just about anything directly. Network and server hardware will also play a part on your user experience.
Of course its software only. But it seems to be bad software as VLC can do it without issues on the same hardware. VLC doesn’t have the good interface with all the presentation, but what good is that if it can’t play the video? The software is supplied with the 4K TV, why can’t it perform accordingly? If one needs an external player why bother supplying the software for the TV in the first place?
Generally the server side does not have any issues unless your trying to transcode 4K and or HDR tone mapping when your computer is not powerful enough. On the other hand the client is mostly reliant on the hardware you put it on. For example if you are using the client on a 4K TV that you have directly connected to your network, however most TV’s only have a 100 mbit Ethernet connection since most online streaming services do not require any more than that but if your trying to play a high bit rate movie from plex the speed could exceed the 100 mbit limit which can cause issues. Another issue is expecting TV’s to plat all 4K movies without any transcoding when the TV’s only support certain formats which also can cause issues if the server is not powerful enough. The list goes on. There is a good 4K thread you may want to read to get a better understanding on what is required to plat 4K movies reliably.
My Panasonic TV 75FX78 4K has just displayed a message that PLEX app will cease to work from 28 September. This topic has become mute for me. Using VLC now with Chromecast, no issue whatsoever.
