Server Version#: 1.14.1.5488
Player Version#: web client, Android app
Trying to watch game of thrones and it works fine without subtitles but using vobsub forced subtitles makes it buffer every couple of seconds and say my server is not fast enough. My server has an i5 6500, 1050 ti, and 8 gb of ram. My cpu will only be around 40% when streaming with subtitles. I thought the issue might be a slow hard drive so I tried on an ssd but the issue remained. I looked at the verbose speed => and It would hover from 0.3 to 0.8. I’m not sure what to do becuase there’s no cpu limitation, network limitation, or hard drive limitation. Speed test shows upload for server is about 20 mbps and my download over here is even better so not sure what the issue could be. Bitrate I’m trying to watch is 3 mbps. New to this and don’t know much of the technical stuff
Here’s an example of one of the episodes
Part
Duration 56:18
File Game of Thrones S01E09 Baelor (1080p x265 10bit Tigole).mkv
Size 1.16 GB
Audio Profile lc
Container MKV
Video Profile main 10
Codec HEVC
Bitrate 2957 kbps
Bit Depth 10
Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
Color Range tv
Frame Rate 23.976 fps
Height 1080
Level 4.0
Profile main 10
Ref Frames 1
Width 1920
Display Title 1080p (HEVC Main 10)
Codec AAC
Channels 8
Bitrate 405 kbps
Language English
Audio Channel Layout 7.1
Profile lc
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Display Title English (AAC 7.1)
Codec VOBSUB
Bitrate 7 kbps
Language English
Header Compression true
Display Title English (VOBSUB)
Forced true
Codec VOBSUB
Bitrate 1 kbps
Language English
Header Compression true
Display Title English Forced (VOBSUB)
Codec VOBSUB
Bitrate 6 kbps
Play the file without subtitles and check the Plex web app to see how the file is playing back. Then play the file with subtitles enabled to compare.
In many scenarios, subtitles will cause a file to transcode, meaning that the subs are actually being muxed into the video portion of the stream. This requires a bit of CPU to do. The Passmark score of your CPU is around 7,200. Normally you should be able to transcode a 1080p stream per 2,000 score (estimated).
My guess is this is probably your issue, based on subs on/off causing different results. I know there are ways to use subtitles as overlay vs. burned in… but I’m not sure where those settings are, and which types of subtitles are compatible. I’ll have to let someone else chime in.
My cpu is around 40% with subtitles off and about 55-60 with them off. With the file format they are they automatically are being transcoded to h264. I don’t understand why they’d be buffering without any network or cpu bottlenecking. Server has 20 mbps up and pc I’m streaming on has something like 30 mbps down. I think my server is just having issues subtitles and non subtitle related now. Last time I tried using it on a TV on the same network and it buffered every 15 seconds on movies with no subtitles on.
Recreate the issue and let it buffer a few times. Wait a few minutes and download the zipped package of logs and post the entire package here. Someone will pop along and take a look at it.
