When trying to play “Original” content on a remote client (Fire TV, Roku, Plex Media Player on laptop), it will play for a few seconds, then buffer. At most, it needs 12 Mbps. The server is connected to fiber with 250/250 Mbps and the client is connected via ethernet with 100/20 Mbps so there is plenty of bandwidth on both sides. I’ve port forwarded on my server side router. PMS Version 1.9.4.4325 is the current version on my server. Kind of at wits end trying to get my content to stream. It only works if I have it transcode to 720 and 2-3 Mbps. Doing normal web browsing and downloading I can saturate the 100/20 Mbps connection no problem so it is capable of handling 12 Mbps down.
What am I missing? It should be able to playback my media without buffering or am I crazy?
The missing piece of the puzzle… What’s Plex Media Server running on? Processor?
It is a quad core i7. Can’t remember the exact specs. But with Original quality it shouldn’t be doing any processing. Just sending data over the network right? Local connections to the server play Original content without issue so I don’t think it’s the processor.
You never know… Sometimes a person can have the best network in the world, but when you ask them about the hardware, they respond that they have an AMD Sempron from 1992.
You can check whether or not things are direct streaming by logging into the webapp while a stream is running. It will tell you whether or not a conversion is happening.
Update to PMS version 1.9.5 not the latest. You will have much better results.
Another thing to check… I used to get buffering on playback of DVR files and always shook my fist at Plex… until one day when I was adding a piece of equipment in the back room and noticed one of the ports on a switch wasn’t hitting Gbps speeds causing a severe bottleneck. Replaced one patch cable and BOOM! Actually solved tons of small issues I’ve had.
EDIT: And powercycle your router just for giggles.
I’ll try those suggestions and verify gigabit connectivity. Thanks.
I’ve since moved from that remote location but never got it fully figured out. Between two separate ISP’s a little closer to home I don’t have an issue so I’m going to blame this issue on the other ISP. They have been known to throttle such bandwidth in the past.
