Server Version#: 1.32.8.7369-7000
Player Version#:various (doesn’t matter)
Not specific to the server version, nor the client. I’ve been experiencing this issue for several years and I finally took the time to physically test.
Since I lost my synology drive array (and all the movies) I had to rebuild the array and re-install Plex with zero content - fresh install.
Previously I would limit any movie file size to no more than 5GB - anything over that would incur either the buffer spinner every few seconds or the warning message. Since I had a clean install and a quiet network now, I ran the test. 90GB 2160p movie streamed to multiple devices over WiFi (have a Ubiquity network stack with meshed WIFI APs around the house and yard). Got it up to four (two NVidia Shields, two iPhones) before it started buffering.
Stopped playback on all but one Shield device, then went back to work. First thing I did was start moving files over WIFI up to the NAS and Plex immediately started buffering. Canceled the move, buffering stopped. Restart the move, buffering resumed. Ran a CAT-5 cable from my laptop to the nearby switch and turned off WIFI on the laptop - no more buffering.
So, ultimately I swamped the WIFI. Why that happened is another investigation (it shouldn’t have). Might have to look into QoS settings. Over cellular, it’s a bit glitchy (minor snag in playback here and there, but no buffering).
Listing the gear for reference, but I do not think my setup makes much of a difference here - it just cost too much.
The Gear:
Synology DS3617xs, 32GB RAM, 2xM.2 447GB Read-only cache, 8x10GB array (54TB) for media + second array 4x8GB (14TB) for other.
Ubiquity UDM-Pro + Network PoE 24 switch + 6 meshed FlexHD APs + several switches. 40 client devices (laptops, desktops, IOT stuff, a bunch of security cameras)
Word to the wise, what actually put me in a position to test this was having to rebuild my library. I wanted to leverage higher-quality videos (of course, now I have to re-rip my blue-ray’s). Had ~5,000 titles, now have 31. Anyway, what caused the failure was having the M.2 cache on the drive array in a read-write mode over a btrfs filesystem. Power glitch passed through the UPS and caused the M.2 to wig, drive went offline. Spent three days trying to recover before I gave up the ghost and just rebuilt the drive a a data loss. File system was completely hosed.
But hey, I was finally able to figure out whether or not I should re-encode vids to a certain size. Nope, just clear your wifi or wire it.
