“When watching content on your local network, the network speed usually isn’t much of a factor.” This is a joke, right? Because I have a wired Gigabit intranet set up for my in-home streaming, and every time I try to watch UHD or even 1080p content in its native resolution, I get the infamous “Your network is not fast enough” message. How can this be?
Even a video with a gloriously unnecessarily 100 Mbps won’t have any trouble traversing a 1 Gbps network.
You’ve apparently already found other forum postings on this topic. Were any of them applicable?
With that said, there are PMS configuration settings, bugs, and player limitations that can come into play. You’ll have to provide details as to your setup.
The error can be misleading.
The case which also causes it is when the Player sends a request to PMS but the reply (the audio & video) isn’t provided in time. In this case, “Your network is not fast enough” is most often the case. Also take into consideration that message applies to mobile streaming
When streaming UHD , the most common cause of stuttering is the conversion from HEVC to whatever is needed.
Without knowing particulars, anything else I suggest is speculative.
I would need:
- CPU specs (not the motherboard if a desktop/server machine)
- Details of the media (Get Info -> View XML), use of subtitles, etc
- Information about the player
2.8 GHz QuadCore i7 iMac
12 GB ram
no subs
watching on Android TV TCL U55C7006
ExoPlayer 2 (latest, updated)
latest update of PMS
So yeah based on that you need 4.5mbps to stream that file and 1Gig is plenty.
When you play this file does it need to do any transcoding?
I don’t know why, but yes, it is transcoding, even though I have Direct Play enabled.
The television apparently does not support MKV natively so transcode (container change) to MP4 is required.
Audio is being converted from multi-channel to, most likely, 2 channel because the TV likely doesn’t accept 7.1 in it’s current config
Regardin network demand. that’s a composite, audio + video of approx 6 Mbps
If you’re using Exoplayer 2 (Plex Media Player app), switch to Exoplayer 1. Give that a try. There are some reports of ‘kinks’ with Exoplayer 2
The TV does support .mkv natively; no transcode required (see attached pic) and the audio is not playing through the TV but through an ARCAM 5.1 AV receiver. The TV itself supports Dolby Digital Plus and DTS Premium sound, so I can’t imagine why it would transcode to 2.0
App settings & TV settings.
Getting all that to work is a hornet’s nest.
Sorry to tell you but it’s trial & error
@nokdim said:
So yeah based on that you need 45mbps to stream that file and 1Gig is plenty.
When you play this file does it need to do any transcoding?
How do you get that figure? Wouldn’t it be 4.5 mbps?
The TV does not have settings for specifying which codecs to use, and the transcoding was happening at the server, not the TV. I’m sure I sound ignorant, since I am, but what setting on the server app will help resolve this? The TV accepts other UHD sources, such as built-in Netflix and BluRay video from the PS3, without the slightest problems. Only when I use Plex, either directly through the Android app or through the Roku Premium (also on the same wired network), do I encounter this problem. That tells me the problem is not the TV but Plex.
Some backstory:
Plex Media Server acts as a middleman between your files and your client app (in this case, your TV). Each client has a different and varying set of specs that it can directly accept. Plex checks what the client can play and compares it to the specs of your file. If there’s a match, it plays direct. If it does not match, it transcodes on the server. Codecs and all processing happens on the server side. The client merely plays back what is sent.
This may help in understanding the full story.
@pbenzschawel said:
@nokdim said:
So yeah based on that you need 45mbps to stream that file and 1Gig is plenty.
When you play this file does it need to do any transcoding?How do you get that figure? Wouldn’t it be 4.5 mbps?
4.5 Mbps * 1.2 (20% TCP/IP overhead) = 5.4 Mbps.
I do not see what the Audio is to estimated you’d havev 256 KB / channel of stereo → ~6.0 Mbps combined payload
@AmazingRando24 said:
Some backstory:Plex Media Server acts as a middleman between your files and your client app (in this case, your TV). Each client has a different and varying set of specs that it can directly accept. Plex checks what the client can play and compares it to the specs of your file. If there’s a match, it plays direct. If it does not match, it transcodes on the server. Codecs and all processing happens on the server side. The client merely plays back what is sent.
This may help in understanding the full story.
I did understand most of this before, but it doesn’t answer any of my questions. Thank you, nevertheless. I need to know where in the Plex server app I can change settings so that - at least according to the TV specs and those of the file - there’s no reason why the video would be transcoding since I have set the server to Direct Play
there is a reason. it’s not been uncovered yet.
You previously showed the media info.
Would you please go back to that screen and click View XML and share what it reports here? That will be the definitive information about what PMS sees and why it makes the decisions it does
Also a set of log files (settings -server - help - download logs) as you recreate this would be great (NOT VERBOSE please. – Debug level only)
Does the Android app on the TV have information overlay capability?
This would provide more info about why the movie is transcoding.
See the pictures in this post for an example: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1514677/#Comment_1514677
The overlay works on my Nvidia Shield, Amazon Fire TV box, & Android phone. Hit a button on the remote (or tap phone screen) to pull up navigation overlay and info should be in top left corner.
Amazon Fire TV and Android phone are all Android. While not my area of expertise, what I have in iOS is also present in tvOS . It stands to reason you should have it
What are you thinking? That might help @webwebster ??
@ChuckPA said:
Amazon Fire TV and Android phone are all Android. While not my area of expertise, what I have in iOS is also present in tvOS . It stands to reason you should have itWhat are you thinking? That might help @webwebster ??
Yes. It is a quick way to see why the movie is transcoding.
I’ve seen messages with details such as “device does not support X codec,” both audio & video, unsupported containers, and problems with profile levels (media was high@4.1, device supported up to high@4.0). They can be very descriptive.
Could alleviate the need to pull logs, or provide another data point when digging into the details. And it takes all of 10 seconds.
The reason I asked if the client had the capability, instead of just typing “pull up the info overlay…” is that while I have Android TV & mobile devices, I don’t have an Android TV. My LG runs WebOS and the current Plex app does not have the info overlay.
Hope I didn’t offend. Not my intent. And certainly wasn’t trying to hijack the thread. Just thought it was an easy way to gather useful information.
i’m sorry, but for whatever reason I can’t copy/paste the xml here, nor will the site allow me to upload a text file.
And my TV remote does not have a button for Information Overlay
i did notice something odd, though. The files playing through the Roku are Direct Play, while those using the Android TV interface are all being transcoded.
Where do I find the log files?
paste the XML with one blank line above it and one below it.
Next highlight the entire block.
Go to the Paragraph formatting tool ^^ and select Code formatting.
You will see the text indent slightly.
That’s it. “Preview” will show you how it looks.
As for logs. *Settings - Server - Help - Download Logs
It will present you with a ZIP file. This is the file I am interested in.
It will take a bit to upload.
When complete, the forum will show a URL. This is your verification your logs are attached
