The buffering comes and goes with Plex. Lately, it has been very bad. It seems to only go away if I re-start my computer (why is that?) but after a few hours, the buffering always returns. I called my cable company, they claim that the reason is because my laptop doesn’t support their 5ghz connection, it only gets a slower one according to them. But, when I had my old provider, I did not experience this buffering as much. And the crazy part is, the internet I am on now is supposed to be better! What can I do? Is there something in the Plex app itself that will help with this? Like the transcoding? The player? I am really open to any suggestions at this point. I am not sure what info is needed for this. I am running the latest update of Plex on a 2011 ASUS laptop with Windows 7. I use a Roku 3 to play back Plex.
For a Roku the best way to help mitigate buffering is to encode videos that will direct play on the Roku
Format for Direct Play on Roku is as Follows
h264/(h265 for 4K and Roku 4) Encoding
mp4 Container
AC3 for both 2 channel and multi channel audio
Not only will all your video content direct play to the Roku. 4K will also direct play using h265 and a Roku 4
OK. I don’t have 4K or a Roku 4, I have the Roku 3. Where at on the Roku 3 do I make those changes? I went to settings and see nothing about it.
You are funny. You don’t have to change any settings, you have to change your media to this codecs.
Gerald
Glad I can entertain. So, are you saying one by one I change each media file to this?
Roku supported formats:
Video — MKV (H.264), MP4 (H.264), MOV (H.264), WMV (VC-1, firmware 3.1 only)
Music — AAC, MP3, WMA, FLAC (firmware 5.3 and later), WAV (firmware 5.3 and later)
Photo — JPG, PNG, GIF (non-animated)
There have been some changes and additions since I last looked but even with the changes I would stick with “MKV (H.264) or MP4 (H.264)” for video. Those should be fine for direct play unless you go with a high bitrate. Keep the bitrate reasonable and you should be fine re-encoding your videos into those formats.
Having said that your post makes it sound like your Plex server may have other duties and that is generally not the best idea. I had buffering problems but they all stopped when I got a computer for a dedicated server and set it up to be a Plex server with minimal other duties.
Also, if you connecting your server wireless you are asking for random varied problems. Servers should be connected to your network wired.
I have thought about using a wired connection before, I may try this. Also, what do you mean other duties? Like am I running other programs with it? Well, yes. I will browse online sometimes when using it and I use utorrent (its not open when Plex is on though obviously).
Other duties = just about anything that is not directly related to Plex. The server should just do Plex and the things that are needed to support Plex. This is not practical for many people as a decent computer just for Plex is not cheap nut it is a good idea.
Obviously the computer must do “some” other things just to run Plex well but the “other” things should be kept to a minimum. My server runs: Plex, Drivepool and TighgVNC (For remote access) and that is all it runs. I have another computer that I use for daily use and just about anything else I do and I never have buffering problems even with transcoding old avi files or others that are a bit of a strain to convert.
As far as being wireless that is just asking for problems. Even the best wireless connection is subject to brief interruptions that are OK for normal stuff but streaming is a color of a different horse.
Wow man thanks a lot cannot believe it was that simple. I just plugged the wire in and what usually takes a few minutes (to start playing a movie where you left off) took a second. I think this was the problem and I thank you. Glad I didn’t start messing with all 9,000 movie file formats!
@jbryan1984 said:
Wow man thanks a lot cannot believe it was that simple. I just plugged the wire in and what usually takes a few minutes (to start playing a movie where you left off) took a second. I think this was the problem and I thank you. Glad I didn’t start messing with all 9,000 movie file formats!
Yep hardwired is ALWAYS more reliable than wireless.
And make all your new stuff encoded in the formats as suggested by Roku and Elijah.
Me personally find mp4 the most reliable…
@spikemixture said:
@jbryan1984 said:
Wow man thanks a lot cannot believe it was that simple. I just plugged the wire in and what usually takes a few minutes (to start playing a movie where you left off) took a second. I think this was the problem and I thank you. Glad I didn’t start messing with all 9,000 movie file formats!Yep hardwired is ALWAYS more reliable than wireless.
And make all your new stuff encoded in the formats as suggested by Roku and Elijah.
Me personally find mp4 the most reliable…
MP4 is a container, not a format. They are equally reliable as MKV.
Roku supported formats:
Video — MKV (H.264), MP4 (H.264), MOV (H.264), WMV (VC-1, firmware 3.1 only)
Music — AAC, MP3, WMA, FLAC (firmware 5.3 and later), WAV (firmware 5.3 and later)
Photo — JPG, PNG, GIF (non-animated)
From MY experience I recommend MP4 as a container or format
Dolby Digital + and DTS audio tracks are not supported in the MP4 standard, though some players will go ahead and play them. My recommendation is H264 in MKV with first audio track being AAC stereo, second audio track best audio (DD+/DTS/whatever).
Those Roku formats are incomplete and outdated.
And it is not the Roku formats that count
it’s the supported formats of the Plex Client that matter
Below are the best format for Roku using a Plex App.
Believe me… I have physically tested it,
.h264/h265
AC3
MP4
If you do not use that formula on Roku / Plex App
In certain cases without AC3 audio the server will need to transcode audio and forces the remux of audio which triggers a full transcode.
And if you don’t believe me try it and look at the Roku logs… You will see exactly what I am talking about.
I hope That helps
