Constant buffering

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

Server Version#: 1.18.1.1973
Player Version#: Plex for Samsung 4.5.1

Hello, new user… Just got everything setup and am running into repeated buffering issues when trying to watch MKV files over my local network.

I have the Plex Server installed on a Synology DS718+ (INTEL Celeron J3455 1.5 GHz w/ 2GB RAM) running latest DiskStation OS (6.2.2.xxx Update 3) with two 4TB Seagate IronWolf 6500 Gbs / 5900RPM hard drives, and I have hardware transcoding enabled.

I used MakeMKV to rip several BluRay movies to the NAS (Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope, Simpsons - The Movie, and Sherlock Holmes). For each movie I selected only the primary sound and subtitle options.

When playing the movie, the Plex dashboard shows that the CPU never got above 40% and the bandwidth maxed out at 60Mbps… The NAS is connected to my local network via a 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet Switch, which is connected to a Samsung Connect Home ET-WV520 Wi-Fi Mesh Hub.

Any ideas on what else to check?

2

Shield > AVR > TV = Success

The Server version you loaded introduced new features for music and hw transcoding, both of which are causing unexpected issues. Namely the HW transcoding is intermittently not working or causing video artifacts.

If you were direct wired to the TV with 100MB you might be successful but bouncing it through a mesh network introduces latency plus you have to share the bandwidth with all the other wireless devices.

Since you made the rips then you can control the video, audio and subtitles, you would have to keep the bit rate low 10-15MB , stereo and no subtitles or burn them in.

3

I also had this issue with the previous Plex Server version (1.16.???).

Based on another post, I tried re-ripping, but excluding all subtitles, and this seems to have fixed the buffering issue for now.

I’m also going to upgrade my ethernet switch, which currently has a max of 100Mbps, to a 1G/10G version…

Hopefully these changes will also help… Wish I could include subtitles, but at this point I’m just happy its working… lets hope it stays that way…

4

Once you fix the network the weakest link will be the INTEL Celeron J3455 in that NAS. It just doesn’t have a lot of muscle to deal with Audio or Subtitle duties.

If you have limited clients (samsung tv) you can optimize your rips for that target.

5

As an alternative, If your use of subtitles is limited to forced subtitles for foreign language speakers in an otherwise English track, you can simply burn the forced subtitles in externally and be done with it. This way, the forced subtitles are part of the video leaving you only the audio to contend with which the J3455 can do ok with for a few parallel streams.

6

I keep seeing people talk about “burning in” subtitles… don’t know what that means… Is there a way to do this with MakeMKV? Does this mean that subtitles always show regardless of whether you select them or not?

7

@pl_5309 We’re pretty much only going to be watching on Samsung 4K TV’s… How do I optimize specifically for them?

8

Which model? 2018’s and newer don’t support DTS. You can go through the Plex client options to see what it detects.

For subtitles, separate text .srt files are usually the best.

9

The primary TV is a 65" 4K Samsung Q7 I bought in 2017… but I have several others (all Samsungs) ranging from ones I bought in 2015 up to 2018…

10

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