I have a robust connection between my server and the Roku. I find the re-buffering annoying every time I Fast-forward or Rewind before it starts playing again. I’d like to decrease the buffering that it does so that it starts playing faster.
Is this possible?
Does this happen with ALL media?
Like does file size, format, bitrate etc change your experience.
What’s the server?
What Roku?
It only takes about 1 second to buffer, but compared to a computer using VLC, it is noticeable. It spends about 1 second going from 0% to 100% buffered. Fairly fast, but still noticeable.
Yes, happens with all media. No noticeable changes with other size sizes, formats, bitrates.
Server is Ubuntu 16.04 running on Atom Braswell system. Roku 5 (Premiere+).
The Roku only has a limited buffer ~50mb, so it’s common for it to need to buffer before playback/seeking. The 1 second buffer is actually very good in terms of Roku.
I agree, it isn’t a horrible delay, but since I have a solid connection to the server, it would be nice to optimize the size so it didn’t need to fill the current full buffer before starting playback.
I assume this is when you get 33% maybe 66% then back to the show?
My Roku 4 does that. And if the % didn’t come up I would probably not notice it!
For me a second or so - maybe
I suggest if it is that much of an annoyance buy a different client box - 
Roku should be a fairly mainstream implementation of the client, so I don’t know what other client I would want to move to.
I do think this should be able to be adjusted by the user for a better match for our network. In a home gigabit network it should be nearly instantaneous like the experience I get using VLC after clicking on a file in Windows explorer. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to get just as snappy response as using VLC.
Also, I probably won’t be able to convince my wife to use Plex unless I can eliminate the buffering which exists with plex but doesn’t exist when she clicks on the file through Windows explorer.
I think the experience you’re getting is pretty darn good for a Roku device. If your Roku 5 is capable of supporting DirectPlay for most or all of your files, then it’s functioning very well and as designed if a mere 1-2 second buffer delay occurs when seeking. Hell, if the server has to transcode and you’re still getting that low of a buffering delay, then I’d say you’re as optimized as you can get.
Also, the relation you’re making to VLC performance isn’t exactly a 1:1 comparison, to be fair. The Plex server/client system is inherently different than VLC, so it stands to reason that you may not be able to attain the same level of expected performance, even when your particular deployment of Plex is fully optimized and system/network resources are plentiful.
I certainly understand the desire for a seamless and responsive media interface, but I gotta be honest in saying I think that your expectations might be a little too high in this particular case. I’d love to see a real-time example of your client performance to get a better understanding of your perspective on this, but from what you’ve described, it sounds like things are as good as they’re going to get for your environment.
It’s just annoying when trying to skip commercials. If I only had the delay once that wouldn’t be much of an issue. But if I need to do it 8 times to navigate to the end of the commercial various times during a program, it gets annoying.
I don’t see why I shouldn’t be comparing it to VLC. It’s a viable alternative to using Plex. I’m fairly certain that plex is over-buffering given my environment and I think it is a reasonable thing to allow users to tune this for their environment.
@Reed97123 said:
It’s just annoying when trying to skip commercials. If I only had the delay once that wouldn’t be much of an issue. But if I need to do it 8 times to navigate to the end of the commercial various times during a program, it gets annoying.I don’t see why I shouldn’t be comparing it to VLC. It’s a viable alternative to using Plex. I’m fairly certain that plex is over-buffering given my environment and I think it is a reasonable thing to allow users to tune this for their environment.
VLC is a player - I think Plex does a little more !
Here’s an idea - Take out the commercials!
Have a play with MCE Buddy.
I agree, getting the shows without the commercials is the answer to your problem here, if this is your concern. The rare times I have to fast forward or rewind on the Roku I have (1st gen stick) a second or two is livable, at least for me. But I so rarely rewind or fast forward…
There are several apps available to strip out commercials from recorded broadcasts. I don’t know which is the best or the worst. Try a google search or spend a bit of time read up on the DVR board for the ones guys mention there.
I’m using Ubuntu (Server)/Roku (Client), so no Windows thus no MCE Buddy. But I am using Comskip/ffmpeg so I can do commercial skipping.
However, why shouldn’t I also want the Roku experience to be better performing? Would commercial skipping help, sure, but why shouldn’t the standard Roku experience also be able to be improved?
There’s no reason why the buffer settings shouldn’t be optimized to give a better default experience on the Roku.
@Reed97123 said:
There’s no reason why the buffer settings shouldn’t be optimized to give a better default experience on the Roku.
There just is no option to modify this. The reason I mentioned the little buffer is that it’s the only way roku may skip quickly. If the part you are rewinding or fast forwarding to is not in the buffer, then the roku has to request the streams data, which takes a little time.
Another option is to enable media previews, if you haven’t already in the server. That way you can use the left/right remote button during playback to seek in -10/+10 second increments and see a preview image. This provides a quick way to spot the position you want to seek to, then press ok and it will resume from there.
@Reed97123 said:
I’m using Ubuntu (Server)/Roku (Client), so no Windows thus no MCE Buddy. But I am using Comskip/ffmpeg so I can do commercial skipping.However, why shouldn’t I also want the Roku experience to be better performing? Would commercial skipping help, sure, but why shouldn’t the standard Roku experience also be able to be improved?
There’s no reason why the buffer settings shouldn’t be optimized to give a better default experience on the Roku.
Your expectations are unreasonably high. I would suggest a wired Raspberry Pi 3 wired with ethernet(and delay turned to zero if you want a quicker client. Waiting 1 second is perfectly acceptable and is better than a lot of clients.
I understand there is no way to do this as currently implemented. However, I don’t think this would be impossible to implement and I don’t think its an unreasonable expectation.
Why I think this wouldn’t be impossible to do:
So it’s not the Roku hardware, Netflix proves that. It’s not the Ubuntu Server, Windows proves that. It’s the Plex/Roku interaction that could use some tuning.
Just because you think 1 second is a reasonable buffering time doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try asking for more knobs to tune this or for them to optimize the Roku/Plex interface.
I don’t believe it is unreasonable to want Plex to be competitive with:
