I’m here to voice my complete and total frustration with the Plex media server. Some years ago as I started to build my movie library. My choice at the time was to play my media on my Mac mini directly to my TV. This was OK as a starter, but I had no remote control options other than a simple apple remote from a previous iMac. It gave me the only option to pause and play, that’s it. Then I discovered Plex and I really thought of this as a blessing sent from the heavens above. After months of useful functionality I subscribed to a lifetime membership. As my library grew Plex was the bomb all that I needed. As time progressed I install plex client apps on all my devices how cool is that I can stream any of my movies to any of these devices. As my confidence with Plex built I found different uses. I ripped all of my audio books and added them to the server making them accessible to all devices, wow this is really getting fun and very useful. A couple of years later I got a new 4k smart TV. Now I don’t have to interact with my Mac to stream my movies, there’s an app for that. Downloaded to the app to my TV, login and everything is there. Now I can use the full functionality of the TV remote to control all of it, bam what a break through. A while after usage and plex SW upgrade things started to change the stream would stutter and lag, making for a terrible viewing experience. My belief was this was a poorly written app for this platform and I has suspicions about Samsungs roll in this. Just this year I migrated to Apple TV. I prefer to have all of my streaming options in one trustworthy place. This too was a marvel, this provided the functionality that I craved amazing! The last couple of months have been unacceptable with a rash of never before errors. Dealing with CPU ability to transcode, bitrate issues seems everyday another erroneous reason why I pull my hair out. Hours of forum research looking for a clue, a bone anything to put me on the path to a solution. Yet it seems none exist. I feel as if we are all beta guinea pigs in a completed version roll out to be play with until maybe just maybe the genius soft ware engineers figure this crap out. When a new update version is introduced I expect an improvement of some kind whether noticed or not. What I don’t expect is a downgrade to disfunction. I am not a software engineer I’m a consumer of quality software that makes my life better. This used to be Plex! I would gladly pay for a renewed subscription Plex effin worked consistently. Right now absolutely none of my movies are streamable on any devices through Plex. I’m convinced it’s the server software. I suspect that as none of the errors persist when playing my movies on the Apple TV app or Quicktime on my mac. What else can it be? I don’t want to get started on the lack of customer support. Ive spent hours today scouring this forum for solutions. Many experiencing the same problem that seem to be ignored or offer no deliverable remedies. My only option a this point is wait for the propeller heads to figure it out and to seek other possibilities of media servers. My needs are simple keep it that way!
Hi @sscha48,
I’ve experienced similar issues. The biggest culprit that is likely playing an impact is the type of video you’re using. Unfortunately, this is where things become technical heavy.
For example, I rip my BluRays and often convert them using H265 10-Bit HDR via Handbrake. What I didn’t know is that my Nvidia RTX 3050 doesn’t fully support this. Plex will then default to CPU conversion on my 12900k. Which required some additional work on my part to increase the power to the CPU (i.e., Intel Turbo Performance). When videos still struggled, I learned I needed to use a SATA SSD, or even an NVMe SSD for UHD files. Bear in mind, I’m familiar with Windows 11 Pro, Intel CPUs, and Nvidia GPUs. This was just a server-side analysis.
The other thing to consider is your client-side analysis. What device are you using? Does it still support Plex updates? Many Smart TVs no longer support Plex app updates, which creates issues when the server has updates and the client does not. Now it would be nice of Plex could notify us of incompatibility. But that’s basically the beginning of the issue. If the client device doesn’t support things like passthrough, the PC will then have to convert the footage. This is still an issue for my Roku Ultra when DTS-HD is involved. I have it set to convert audio to Dolby when DTS-HD is involved. My Sony TV, Roku, and Sound Bar are supposed to support DTS-HD. I confirmed Roku Ultra was the culprit.
In the case of a family member, his 1-year old TV no longer supported updates. This confirms that Smart TVs (in this case Google TV) isn’t a great option for client usage.
In brief, anytime you build a machine or setup a viewing device, you have to plan accordingly. Plex team does their best to support all features and hardware. But they can’t control the market. We have to diagnose every device and software, post on forums, search online (avoid AI responses), and so on. By taking steps to diagnose your hardware and software, you should be able to confirm if the issue is actually Plex or insufficient hardware/software deployment.
I recently upgraded from an old i7-4770K (13 years old) to a i9 12900K with RTX 3050. I run 4K and verify every client is up to date before conducting any troubleshooting steps. I hope this helps in navigating your stutter challenges.
Support for TV’s as stated above is not quite correct. LG promise is 5 Years software support now.
https://www.howtogeek.com/lg-five-years-of-updates-smart-tvs/
Samsung
The GPU in the 12900k will cope with H265 decodes and transcodes without breaking a sweat. There should be no reason to use a separate GPU or to mess with the clock speeds of the CPU.
That should also be unnecessary. Spinning rust (aka HDDs) has more than enough transfer speed to stream multiple high bit rate files. I would recommend an NVMe SSD for plex’s database and metadata tho.
This is a wall of text that I understand is a vent, but nowhere do you list the actual problems you are having and the steps to reproduce them.
If you’d like some help please list the problem, along with the hardware you are experiencing them on, steps to replicate, server versions, client versions and server logs.
In another thread you mentioned Apple TV and h264, but here you are saying cpu transcode. The Apple TV will direct play everything except AV1, so it could be as simple as changing a setting, but without actual details we can’t help you.
Thanks for you reply. I do not use my Sony TV to run Plex. I want to use AppleTV for that purpose.
Hey Bubba, you are right this was my rant for a program that functioned pretty much flawlessly for years with the same ripping process and hardware. If you want to attempt to help me with my issues I would appreciate your assistance. I will attempt to break this down to the best of my knowledge. Hardware Mac mini 2.6 GHz Dual core intel i5, 16 GB ram, intel iris 1536 MB onboard GPU connected to an external drive with 8TB of storage, running OS 12.7.6. Network starlink currently providing at least 296Mbps. Plex server (1.42.1.10060) running on Mac mini, AppleTV 4k v.18.6, client iPhone v2025. Here’s my issue Plex is not functional for streaming any of my content from any devices, including the server web page. Errors include mostly (not enough CPU for conversion of this item) on all devices. Issues about bandwidth (Playback Stopped-Something went wrong playing your media. Please try again.—Could not direct play because: Not enough band width for direct play of this item. Required bandwidth is 41410kbps and only 8000kbps is available. Could not transcode because: Not enough CPU for conversion of this item.) This has not been a problem in the past only recently. All movie file play just fine with Apple TV app on Mac mini or Quicktime. This indicates to me that it is not a CPU issue with the hardware and more likely related to server software. All of my files were ripped with MakeMKV then converted with UniConverter with standard settings, 1080p (H.264) 60 frames. One thing I’ve just noticed as related to bandwidth some of my files are converted at a much higher bit rate than other files. These are the files that have been a problem but, only recently. Many of them although a higher bit rate were playable. I’ve been relearning this again today. I reconverted a couple of titles with a lower bit rate more like my older rips at 8000kbps, this seems to help. Not sure why these rips were at such a high bitrate trusting the default settings I suppose. Maybe you can tell me why this has suddenly become a problem, some of the newer titles played fine a month ago now they are taxing the CPU. Thanks in advance I wish to keep the faith in Plex I want it to make it work.
Okay, so you are trying to play your videos on your local network, not remote, so ignore the starlink aspect at this moment. Is this all going over wifi?
Set your apple tv settings for Video Quality and Advanced to look like this and recheck the files you are having problems with.
When it experiences these problems, what does your plex dashboard show? Server logs would probably be beneficial after experiencing the problem.
@sscha48 I know Apple recently made the pivot away from Intel and towards their own proprietary chips. I don’t know if that’s playing an issue, but wanted to make note of it.
Regarding your conversions using UniConverter, you’ll want to keep movies at the original framerate. Increasing a BluRay from 24 FPS to 60 FPS will more than double the bandwidth rate of the file and transfer requirements.
Regarding your iMac specs, this appears to be quite an old device (2014?). The latest Plex Server hardware requirements likely exceed your hardware capabilities:
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iMac Mini came with MacOS 9
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Plex Server requires MacOS 10.13 High Sierra or newer
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CPU is an i5 and meets the basic requirement, but likely doesn’t recommended CPU needs based on the files you’re viewing
RAM and other specs look within acceptable performance. You can try running an app like Stats (free) to see if the CPU is hitting 100% and can’t keep up.
@TheLivingBubba offers some great tips on your network configuration.
Bubba thanks for your continued support for possible solutions. Yes this is all wifi connected. I tried your ATV settings and they don’t make a difference I still get CPU and bit rate errors which happen immediately upon play. I have been researching and trying different settings on both the server and client apps. I believe the problems arise with the ripped frame and bit rate parameters. I’ve never had to dive so deep in this in the past so all of this is a learning experience for me. This what i’ve noticed most of my recent rips have been at 60 frames with a bit rate around 20megs. Previous rips in the 30 frame and 8 meg or less bit rate play as they should on client platforms. This shift must have come from uniconverter lastest version defaults. I can go through and rerip the affected titles and hopefully move along. Here is my deepest quandary, most of these titles played just fine until recently regardless of bit and frame rate, I don’t understand what has changed. My main goal is to get the best video quality possible in conjunction the with the smallest file size. Can I remove my high internet speed from the equation? I’ve included my most current server logs. Thanks a bunch!
Plex Media Server.log (195.0 KB)
Can you tell me more about your network setup? I don’t think you are wrong on the 60 frames aspect, but your logs show a lot of these:
WARN - NetworkServiceBrowser: Error sending out discover packet from 192.168.6.48 to 192.168.7.255: Network is down
Your excessive bitrate also occurs:
Sep 03, 2025 13:03:12.523 [0x70000ac01000] WARN - [Req#e035/Transcode] Streaming Resource: Bandwidth exceeded: 21164 kbps > 20000 kbps
Hopefully someone more experienced comes along and can give better insight, but I would like to hear more about your network setup. Also you can try setting “Treat WAN IP as LAN bandwitch” Under : Server Name → Settings → Network
Thanks again Bubba. I sent my logs to you knowing that I understand none of it. Your catch has me looking in a different direction. Now it makes since that this is related to a network protocol thingy. It’s starting to get a little more convoluted as now I have another field of research. As I mentioned previously I have starlink, but that runs through a eero mesh. It’s quite possible that eero did a sys update and settings have changed. Seems to many players not playing together. The .6.48 is my plex server I can’t tell from the eero app what device is the .7.255. Network issues makes more since to me now as I had no problems with play back on new and some older rips until recently. Now that I have looked deeper into file makeup I have more high bitrate 60 frame rips than I thought. I really don’t want to redo them if avoidable. I did check the network settings in the server and your suggestion was selected. Perhaps for this to work best maybe plex needs a dedicated port?
Thanks Timeless. I had to do a SSD upgrade to further OS upgrades. I’m just not thinking at this time that it is processor issue. All that mini does is dish out 1 plex stream at a time. Up until recently it has not had a problem doing that. I’ll look into Stats to verify my beliefs.
You do know this isn’t an issue with you RTX 3000, it’s with Handbrake and it’s more limited HDR settings than for example ffmpeg.
If you have the proper software and license for the different HDR (propriety) versions then you can do whatever you want to - WITH the RTX 3000.
However, one of the standard Blu-ray and streaming HDR versions is Dolby’s DoVi which is propriety - nothing to do with your (and my) RTX 3000.
And in kind, Plex doesn’t have the licensing for DoVi, so there’s that too.
@jfreiman Not going to lie, your knowledge bombs have triggered my descent into a rabbit hole I should’ve verified before assuming 100% of my setup worked. I can confirm Dolby Vision works when transcoding isn’t involved. The issue was my Handbrake conversions.
I did a few conversions (to reduce file size) and failed to acknowledge what I read online was true about 4K HDR Dolby Vision conversions. Only the raw rips are showing up properly. Gah!
Thank you sir! This is easily the most valuable lesson I’ve learned in my Plex Server setup.
Thanks for the help from all. I believe I have solved my issue. In the past I’ve never had to look into the makings of my rips. This is what I’ve concluded. This has to do with Blu-ray codecs of the day. I’ve pretty much used the default settings on all my rips MP4 at original resolution and let Uniconverter do its thing and it has been just fine for the most part, reduction of file size with minimal quality loss. What I’ve come to notice is that most are 24 FPS at a bitrate of less than 9 megs. My problematic rips have been at 60 FPS at bitrates in excess of 19 megs, these settings are the original resolution. Not sure why that is but at least this is a reality that now I understand. As it stands with plex my network settings were generally set to between 8 and 20 megs. I’ve played with these settings and for some reason they never seems to stick. I thought I had but perhaps I never saved the setting. My internet speeds are usually many times greater than 20meg bitrate, so I set it to maximum to give plex plenty of room to operate. Any how all’s right with my world at least for now.
I learned the hard way too, but only around 3 movies made it into my Plex libraries before I discovered everything looked wrong.
It then took me hours and hours to find out Handbrake is very limited in HDR transcoding.
It’s always better to find out these issues sooner than later - I only keep my original rips for about 90 days before I trash them.
Lucky, I discovered the issue before the 90 day window. 
I can’t access my media. How many times to I have to keep installing Plex Media Server?
You usually won’t have to reinstall the server executables to fix issues. As for the issue at your hands, I can only guess (lacking any details on what you experienced).
Then you can imagine how I feel. All I want to do is access my media, and I’m given a screen that says “install Plex server”. So when I do, what happens? How many times do I have to install Plex server before I can see my media? Or is that it? Does it do nothing to install Plex server? Is there a differerent Plex server it’s looking for? I can only guess. LACKING ANY DETAILS ON WHAT I’M SUPPOSED TO DO.
