Bandwidth limit with Plex

Plex Media Server Remote Access
1

Server Version#: 1.25.3.5409
Player Version#: 4.73.3

I have some bandwidth issues outside my LAN. In WiFi, I have no problem, I can play any content I want, 4K, Dolby Vision etc.
But my friends outside my home have buffering issues. After some tests, I figured out that content with more than 2.5 Mbps (as Plex says by filtering content) don’t work flawlessly from outside.
However, my connection is pretty fast (3 ms ping, 250 Mbps down, 260 Mbps up), so I can’t figure out why Plex is limited.

Some precisions: PMS is running on a Raspberry Pi 3b+ connected via Ethernet, nothing else is using the connection while I’m testing, and I only use Direct Streaming as the Rasp isn’t powerful enough for transcoding.

Thanks for your help!

2

Sounds like your remote access setup might be working flawlessly, pushing your friends to an indirect/relayed connection.

You should be able to confirm this on the now-playing tile of the server dashboard (streams showing as indirect or remote).

Exemplary screenshot from the "now playing" section
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200871837-status-and-dashboard/

If this is indeed the issue, you might want to troubleshoot your remote access setup

3

I checked, they use direct stream too and have a pretty good connection too (100 Mbps+ up/down).
However, the buffering is forcing my server to transcode…

4

I suppose we’re mixing up some things…

Above the tracks and how they’re handled you should see some information on the current avg. bitrate as well as information about the nature of the stream. This is usually on of the following values:

  • Local → direct connection between your server and their client inside your home network (therefore not applying to your case)
  • Remote → direct connection between your server and their client outside your home network
  • Indirect → connection through Plex relay servers as the client couldn’t establish a direct connection to your server

As for transcoding…

  • Direct play → file is transferred as-is
  • Direct stream → the tracks are transferred as-is but Plex is adjusting the container format (rather light on the CPU)
  • Transcoding → one or more tracks of the file are being re-encoded in a different format

So „direct stream“ and your server going to its knees due to transcoding don’t go together so well :wink:

5

Ok my bad, so here is what I was seeing:

Playing - (time)
Remote (IP) - 10 Gbps

Video 4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR)
    -> Direct play
Audio English (AAC 5.1)
    -> Direct play

Subtitles English (SRT)

Speed graph was not going upper than 47 Kbps with a spike at 117 Kbps FOR LOCAL
and for Remote it was at 0

CPU was slightly active for both, between 0% and 60% I would say

RAM was stable around 45% for System and lower than 10% for PMS

Finally, the media is a 5.39GB 4K file with a bitrate of 6102 kbps.

6

And except for the dashboard graph not showing the used bandwidth properly… what about that stream isn’t working?
Edit: you had mentioned Plex is transcoding everything above 2.5 Mbps which will be too much for your server?!

7

My friend tells me that the playback is buffering…
I say that value because we’ve tested with several contents: below 2.0/2.5 Mbps, it’s fine, the playback is working well, but as soon as he starts reading some media whose bitrate is above 2.5/3.0 Mbps, it’s buffering and becomes unreadable, thus PMS starts transcoding to try to provide a reliable stream.

8

Do they experience this buffering on all clients (e.g. Plex for Mac/Windows desktop app, Plex Web, mobile apps, big screen apps)?

9

They told me they tried on web app (chrome) and windows client

10

Do you have any idea?

11

Not sure… those puzzle pieces don’t necessarily fit together nicely.
Are you seeing the same limitations when streaming from outside your home network (e.g. using a mobile client)?

12

Can you provide some DEBUG logs which capture this happening?

13

In the bottom Console tab? and when?

14

Reporting issues with Plex Media Server

  1. Make sure your server is set for debug, not verbose, logging.
    Settings → Server_Name → General (not Plex Web → General)

  2. Have your friends play a video to recreate the problem. Let it play for 1 - 2 minutes after the problem starts.

  3. Stop playback. Wait ~2 minutes for the server to settle and capture everything.

  4. Settings → Troubleshooting → Download Logs

  5. Attach the entire ZIP file to the thread. Just drag it into the window. It will insert at the cursor location.

15

Hello, I have exactly the same issue, and I discover that :
My friend run plex on a MI BOX 4, with the user acount i made for him.
I log on his MI BOX 4 with my administrator account, and the problem disappeared…
The problem exist only with managed users…
I investigate more …

16

^^^ this is an indication that the bandwidth of the file hasn’t been computed (correctly).

17

Here is the zip file you asked for: Plex Media Server Logs_2022-01-30_21-37-31.zip (4,2 Mo)
It comes from another friend that played another film for a bit more than 2 min, as you told me. It was a direct playback from the Android app, casted to a TV. The test spent 2 min but only 0:03 min were played during that time, the rest was buffering. Me, my friend and this friend have all 3 200+ Mbps connection, up and down.
I didn’t check the value here as @OttoKerner mentioned in their last reply, unfortunately.

18

have you tried logging into your friend’s MI BOX with your admin account? I am convinced after several tests that managed user accounts are restricted by PLEX. I tried a concurrent software, I don’t encounter any problem…

19

they aren’t

20

Do you have any conclusion with my logs then?