Buffering isse back and worse than before

General Discussions
1

I replaced my server as testing indicated the original was just too slow. This resolved my constant buffering issue - for 2-3 weeks. That was several months ago, pre-2018. Since then the buffering frequency has been increasing steadily to the point now that I get 5-10 seconds of video, then 30sec to several minutes buffering, repeat.

No changes in PC (it’s dedicated to Plex), rebooting and clearing temp files don’t help, and no changes in ISP (100mps cabled, 35ish WifFi). Problem is only in-house. Shortly after buffering frequency started to increase remote access failed (attempts just state server is offline).

Stopped using system almost 2 months ago out of frustration. I see someone else is having buffering issues, although his seem to be only on remote access.

2

what does this mean ¨Problem is only in-house¨?

Buffering indicates a lack of resources, could be CPU, could be network bandwidth, could be disk speed. it is unlikely to be plex that it is the problem so you are going to have to look at the system as a whole and see what could wrong.

Which operating system are you using?, windows?, linux?

What kind of server is is? how fast are the disks?, how much RAM?, CPU?

Is anything else using a lot of CPU on the server?

Have you done a bandwidth test between the server and whichever client you are using?

Which client are you using? TV?, Web player, android app?

I am not saying that this is the problem but I once had a sluggish server like yours and could not figure out what the problem was. I eventually install netdata on it and that revealed that I had a massive disk queuing problem that was caused by a very slow hard disk.

With this information I was able to replace that HDD with an SSD and all my problems went away.

You need to get some better visibility of how your system is performing, tell me which OS you are using and i might be able to make some helpful suggestions

3

“in-house” means the server and my TV are in the same building connected to same router. I’ve been told that this setup doesn’t depend on high-speed internet, but I don’t think that’s the case; I can’t even log into Plex on a viewing device if there isn’t Internet. But, also in this case, I only mentioned that because I can’t remotely access the machine from outside the building so, …

CPU resources should not be any different than they were when the server was initially setup. The PC is only used for Plex. PC has Win10 Pro but I’ve stripped all of the bloatware (Office, OneNote, OneDrive, etc internet games, etc) that can be removed. Processor is an I-5 3470, quad core and I believe HDD’s are 5600rpm; they are external, USB3 (confirmed in USB3 slot). Physical RAM is 4gb, hdd’s are 2 8tb drives, one being used as backup the other for media.

I don’t doubt it’s something to do with my server setup or internet, I just can’t figure out what it could be and why it’s progressive - and always worse, not even occasionally better. It was working perfectly the first 3 weeks or so, then the downhill slide, so I know it can perform. No changes in hardware or environment.

I don’t see how an SSD would be of any help as that’s just the server, not the media - and there’s no way I could afford a 6tb SSD (if they were available), 2tb used

WiFi in house is fine, as far as I can tell. ISP is 100mps, WiFi speed at location is 30-40mps. Buffering issue doesn’t appear to depend on device; same results on RoKu or Google VR goggles.

I’ll try the NetData utility you mentioned.

4

@HFChristie said:
“in-house” means the server and my TV are in the same building connected to same router. I’ve been told that this setup doesn’t depend on high-speed internet, but I don’t think that’s the case; I can’t even log into Plex on a viewing device if there isn’t Internet. But, also in this case, I only mentioned that because I can’t remotely access the machine from outside the building so, …

Ok good so the server and clients are all on your LAN. Annoyingly, Plex implemented an online authentication system a while back which means that a standard login will go online but if there is no internet connection it should fall back to a local login.

CPU resources should not be any different than they were when the server was initially setup. The PC is only used for Plex. PC has Win10 Pro but I’ve stripped all of the bloatware (Office, OneNote, OneDrive, etc internet games, etc) that can be removed. Processor is an I-5 3470, quad core and I believe HDD’s are 5600rpm; they are external, USB3 (confirmed in USB3 slot). Physical RAM is 4gb, hdd’s are 2 8tb drives, one being used as backup the other for media.

ok so we have a windows 10 server and the media is stored on USB3 connected HDD´s.

As a test, you should try copying some videos to the local hard disk, the one inside the server, then add that path to your library and see if you have the same problems with those files. USB3 external disks sound good i know but I have had a lot of problems with them, using the same way. It will help to eliminate those from the equation first. Test to see if you have problems with local files.

I don’t doubt it’s something to do with my server setup or internet, I just can’t figure out what it could be and why it’s progressive - and always worse, not even occasionally better. It was working perfectly the first 3 weeks or so, then the downhill slide, so I know it can perform. No changes in hardware or environment.

Yes, something is obviously wrong, it is going to be a process of elimination to determine what the problem is. Remove the USB hard disks and see what happens, is it the same?, is it improved etc…?

I don’t see how an SSD would be of any help as that’s just the server, not the media - and there’s no way I could afford a 6tb SSD (if they were available), 2tb used

I was only telling you a story of how I fixed my problems with an SSD, Iḿ not saying that you have to do that. Not yet anyway.

WiFi in house is fine, as far as I can tell. ISP is 100mps, WiFi speed at location is 30-40mps. Buffering issue doesn’t appear to depend on device; same results on RoKu or Google VR goggles.

I’ll try the NetData utility you mentioned.

When you are playing back a video and there is a problem with buffering, is it transcoding or direct playing? It will tell you in the web player if you click in on the Status button on the top right of the screen and then hover over the playing video.

Netdata is a linux application so you cant use that I am afraid. You can use task manager though. I am interested in what it says your disk performance is like. Are you able to post a screen shot of the disk tab on task manager showing all of the disks, including the USB disks while the problem is being experienced?

Also how much CPU & is being utilised while the problem is ocuring?

I suspect that we will see a problem there.

5

You know, I have 4 advanced degrees in mathematics and computer science, and I can’t figure out how to use a stupid forum. Where the hell is the “Reply” button?! Here’s a cut/paste attempt

MattTwinkleToes Posts: 160Members, Plex Pass Plex Pass
March 24 edited March 24

Ok good so the server and clients are all on your LAN. Annoyingly, Plex implemented an online authentication system a while back which means that a standard login will go online but if there is no internet connection it should fall back to a local login.

It doesn’t - if there is no internet connection, it will not connect to Plex Server at all. Simply opens Plex app with “Offline” and no data

As a test, you should try copying some videos to the local hard disk, the one inside the server, then add that path to your library and see if you have the same problems with those files. USB3 external disks sound good i know but I have had a lot of problems with them, using the same way. It will help to eliminate those from the equation first. Test to see if you have problems with local files.

I did test that - no difference. I tried copying both a movie and several episodes of a TV series. But behaved the same way as the HDD

Yes, something is obviously wrong, it is going to be a process of elimination to determine what the problem is. Remove the USB hard disks and see what happens, is it the same?, is it improved etc…?

No. Same behavior

When you are playing back a video and there is a problem with buffering, is it transcoding or direct playing? It will tell you in the web player if you click in on the Status button on the top right of the screen and then hover over the playing video.

**At some point someone else mentioned “transcode” versus on-demand effecting speeds, but that was before I replaced the server. Even so, I can’t find anything in setup which indicates pre-translating or not. **

Netdata is a linux application so you cant use that I am afraid. You can use task manager though. I am interested in what it says your disk performance is like. Are you able to post a screen shot of the disk tab on task manager showing all of the disks, including the USB disks while the problem is being experienced?

If figured that out :slight_smile: Trying a windows performance monitoring (built into Win7), but I’ve been swamped at work and haven’t had opportunity to check results.

Also how much CPU & is being utilized while the problem is ocuring?

I suspect that we will see a problem there.

Will advise

6

@HFChristie said:
You know, I have 4 advanced degrees in mathematics and computer science, and I can’t figure out how to use a stupid forum. Where the hell is the “Reply” button?! Here’s a cut/paste attempt

You use the quote button, I know, it feels like they tried to make a more intuitive forum but it ended up being harder to use than the tried and tested forms that we are all used to.

I think that we can break this down further based on what you have so far discovered, the offline authentication problem can be treated separately for now, I don´t think that it has any bearing on the performance problem…yet.

Try this to work around that particular problem - https://www.howtogeek.com/303282/how-to-use-plex-media-server-without-internet-access/

¨Trick one¨ disabling authentication on the LAN ought to get you straight in assuming that there is indeed a stable, reliable network connection. To eliminate the network from our enquiries, you could open a browser on the server itself and check playback from there so that it is not streaming or attempting to stream across the network. The results of that test could narrow this down even further.

As for the rest of your problems, the server and network performance is still the most obvious thing to check but lets just make sure that you are using the latest version too.

Any errors or warnings in the windows event log? Anything weird or unusual in the plex log?
If you make a note of a time and file that you have this issues with and then look in the plex logs, do you see anything unusual or interesting ? com.plexapp.system.log seems to be the most useful log.

Look for high disk usage, high CPU, long disk queuing, basically high anything. Plex is pretty good in general, at resource usage so any big spikes that correlate to visible problems are of interest.

As a mathematician, think of this as a exercise in correlation. I am sorry that I cannot just say ¨oh i had that once, click this and type that¨ but the description of the problem is quite broad so I am just trying to help you to narrow it down or break it out into separate issues, you will most likely find the problem yourself as you go through this.

7

So fed up with the platform I took 6 months off. I’ll try some of the above suggestions this month. I keep reviewing the DVD investment costs an dcome back for another try :frowning: Will update when I can.

8

Errors/Warnings; A number of errors and warnings, but most seem to be innocuous. However, I do see one repeated;
Sep 06, 2018 09:44:40.200 [12124] WARN - HTTP error requesting POST https://plex.tv/servers.xml?auth_token=D4sMRPFa8yxaEDCTs2EC&async=1&asyncIdentifier=f3dceab9-2432-4057-a55c-9ff0856835b2 (0, No error) (Could not resolve host: plex.tv)

I’m not sure why as I’m currently logged into the server (and it’s open in browser). I just realized I don’t have a 3rd party antivirus (Norton), just Defender which is saying no problems. I guess that could block access to https://plex…, but then I’d expect no access at all, not just slow buffering.

I can’t find in settings about setting transcode up to be done ahead of time, but upped the transcode buffer from 60 to 360. That just meant that it buffers every 6 minutes, rather than 1, and takes at least 6 times longer to complete buffering.

Here are several of the logs. I’ve got no idea what to look for in any of them, and not sure which is more applicable. Most of the warnings and errors <a class=“attachment” I see have to do with access with plex.tv server in some way.

href="/uploads/default/original/3X/4/c/4c7249cef8082f73fc511712bbb7f7944fe1d1fb.log">Plex Media Scanner.4.log (16.3 KB)
Plex Media Scanner.3.log (15.4 KB)
Plex Media Scanner.5.log (27.3 KB)
Plex Media Scanner.2.log (22.0 KB)
Plex Media Scanner.log (92.5 KB)
Plex Media Scanner.1.log (526.4 KB)
Plex Media Server.1.log (1.8 MB)
Plex Media Server.log (1.8 MB)