Server Version#:1.32.6.7557
Player Version#:1.79.1.3984
As the title says, the first person to start to watch a movie gets all the bandwidth, So the first person will get 10mb and anyone else gets under 1mb. Only seems to have started since last update
This has been like that forever, IIRC. How should Plex know what streams may or may not be started in the future?
If I understand correctly, this is not the answer to the problem described.
@kleanphil states that other started streams only get a small fraction of the bandwidth instead of all started streams sharing it properly.
If the total upload bandwidth is only (set to) 15–20 mbps, then the described behaviour is expected.
Streams which are already playing won’t get a part of their bandwidth allotment retracted, just because the server now needs it to serve an additional stream.
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Hi, thanx for the reply. This seemed like a recent development as in the past the average usage was only between 1 and 4mb and so leaving enough for others to join, I see your point though, i suppose i didn’t realize that it can take so much bandwidth to play a 1080p movie. I have 2 people watching movies now, both are getting Direct Play/Direct Stream, the person watching the 1080p is using 1mb and the person watching 720p is using 3 which seems normal by past experience.
Thanx anyway, it’s good to know it’s nothing abnormal.
What was changed recently, was the default “remote” bandwidth pre-selected in clients. This was raised from 2 mbps to 12 mbps.
The reasoning is thus:
- internet connections got better over the years
- server machines are often small form factor PCs or NAS devices which are not well-suited for transcoding. So transcoding should be required less often.
If your internet upload is still rather low, but your server machine is well-equipped to perform transcoding, you might want to enforce an upper bandwidth limit that a single remote client can use. You should set the numbers in this dialog accordingly
Take a look at the Plex media info of various movies in your collection. It will tell you the average bandwidth of this file.
But the average bandwidth is often very misleading. The actual bandwidth which is required to stream a file, can be 2x to 5x the average bitrate.
You can see these if you look at the Plex media info XML.
Look for the XML property requiredBandwidths="...
It will contain several numbers which are the bandwidths required (in kbps), depending on the size of the network buffers of the Plex client. The first numbers are for the smallest buffer sizes. You can bet that Smart TVs belong into this category.
Here is an example:
<Media id="1328314" duration="5649898" bitrate="4493" width="1920" height="1040" aspectRatio="1.85" audioChannels="6" audioCodec="dca" videoCodec="h264" videoResolution="1080" container="mkv" videoFrameRate="24p" audioProfile="dts" videoProfile="high">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="1331036" key="/library/parts/1331036/1695810531/file.mkv" duration="5649898" file="J:\Animation4\Pompo the Cinéphile (2021)\Pompo the Cinéphile (2021).mkv" size="3161520055" audioProfile="dts" container="mkv" deepAnalysisVersion="6" indexes="sd" requiredBandwidths="21010,15562,8313,8095,8095,8095,8095,8095" videoProfile="high">
<Stream id="2373116" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="2495" language="Japanisch" languageTag="ja" languageCode="jpn" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" codedHeight="1040" codedWidth="1920" colorPrimaries="bt709" colorRange="tv" colorSpace="bt709" colorTrc="bt709" frameRate="23.976" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="1040" level="40" profile="high" refFrames="4" requiredBandwidths="18984,13537,6486,6486,6486,6486,6486,6486" scanType="progressive" width="1920" displayTitle="1080p (H.264)" extendedDisplayTitle="1080p (H.264)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="2373117" streamType="2" default="1" codec="aac" index="1" channels="2" bitrate="221" language="Deutsch" languageTag="de" languageCode="deu" audioChannelLayout="stereo" profile="lc" requiredBandwidths="222,222,222,222,222,222,222,222" samplingRate="48000" displayTitle="Deutsch (AAC Stereo)" extendedDisplayTitle="Deutsch (AAC Stereo)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="2373118" streamType="2" selected="1" codec="aac" index="2" channels="2" bitrate="221" language="Japanisch" languageTag="ja" languageCode="jpn" audioChannelLayout="stereo" original="1" profile="lc" requiredBandwidths="222,222,222,222,222,222,222,222" samplingRate="48000" displayTitle="Japanisch (AAC Stereo)" extendedDisplayTitle="Japanisch (AAC Stereo)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="2373119" streamType="2" codec="dca" index="3" channels="6" bitrate="1509" language="Japanisch" languageTag="ja" languageCode="jpn" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)" bitDepth="24" original="1" profile="dts" requiredBandwidths="1508,1508,1508,1508,1508,1508,1508,1508" samplingRate="48000" displayTitle="Japanisch (DTS 5.1)" extendedDisplayTitle="Japanisch (DTS 5.1)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="2373120" streamType="3" forced="1" codec="srt" index="4" bitrate="0" language="Deutsch" languageTag="de" languageCode="deu" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" displayTitle="Deutsch Erzwungen (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Deutsch Erzwungen (SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="2373121" streamType="3" forced="1" codec="pgs" index="5" bitrate="3" language="Deutsch" languageTag="de" languageCode="deu" headerCompression="1" requiredBandwidths="65,65,65,65,65,65,65,65" displayTitle="Deutsch Erzwungen (PGS)" extendedDisplayTitle="Deutsch Erzwungen (PGS)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="2373122" streamType="3" selected="1" codec="srt" index="6" bitrate="0" language="Deutsch" languageTag="de" languageCode="deu" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" displayTitle="Deutsch (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Deutsch (SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="2373123" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="7" bitrate="43" language="Deutsch" languageTag="de" languageCode="deu" headerCompression="1" requiredBandwidths="57,57,57,57,57,57,57,57" displayTitle="Deutsch (PGS)" extendedDisplayTitle="Deutsch (PGS)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="2373124" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="8" bitrate="0" language="Englisch" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" displayTitle="Englisch (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Englisch (SRT)"> </Stream>
</Part>
</Media>
As you can see, there are bandwidth numbers for the whole file (important when playback mode “Direct Play” is used)
as well as for each video, audio, and subtitle stream separately. These come into play if the server is only picking some streams and is remuxing or transcoding (playback modes “Direct Stream” or “Transcoding”).
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Hi, my current pc, even though a bit out of date handles things ok unless I start using CPU intensive apps at the same time Plex is being used. I have sitting in front of me all the parts for a serious pc, just waiting on an SSD. My weakest link is my upload speed of about 18mb. I will play around with those settings and see how I go.
Thanx again Phil
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