My PMS is running on Windows 10. This is a remote streaming issue that i’m having. My PMS (running on the latest version) has a wired connection. MY PMS has an Intel quad core i5-4460S CPU @ 2.90 Ghz
The download speed from my PMS server is 126.19 Mbps
The upload speed from my PMS server is 11.86 Mbps
I’m streaming at the default setting of 4 Mbps, 720p. I’ve tried lowering the streaming quality on my various apple devices (Apple TV, iPad, iPhone) and i’m still having the same issue. Playback stops 30-90 secs in and starts to buffer.
I’ve checked the transcoding speeds while attempting to steam and it’s all greater than 1.0
uPNP is turned on in my router so i’m able to access my PMS remotely
This issue started happening to me in the past 2 weeks
Troubleshooting steps I’ve taken…
Uninstalled / reinstalled Plex
Got a new dual band Cisco router from my ISP (Comcast)
Downloaded a few mp4 movie files
None of the above steps i’ve taken resolved the issue. I’d prefer to not have to optimize videos in my library as it’s quite extensive. I prefer to watch movies randomly when i’m remote.
Now i’m starting to think it’s a setting that needs to be changed. I don’t know, I could be wrong about that assumption. Can someone help me? See attached screenshot of the error.
What is the download speed where you’re trying to play at? Also, note that the quality setting does not take into account audio, so if you are streaming DTS-HD MA audio or some other high quality audio, that may be the cause.
Normally the download speed (according to the details in the Plex app) is less than 4 Mbps
I don’t think I’m streaming any high quality audio. As mentioned before this recently started happening. It’s affecting playback on movies that I’ve played previously without issue
Easiest would be to use your iPhone. First restart PMS (this will clear out the log). Then using your iPhone on mobile data, access your server and playback something until you get the error. Put the settings to 8 Mbps so so we can trigger the error. After the error, follow the info above to get the server and iPhone logs. For the server, you should only need the one.
I kept the settings at the default 4 Mbps and the issue occurred 25 secs into playback of a 720p .mkv file.
I just did a speed test and this is what i’m getting…
The download speed from my PMS server is 126.16 Mbps
The upload speed from my PMS server is 16.01 Mbps
Latency is 8ms
Attached are 6 PMS logs (Plex Media Server.log is the most recent one) as well as the iPhone log (zip)
Aug 13, 2016 09:18:50.981 [7316] DEBUG - Request: GET /video/:/transcode/universal/session/7D7C7FB7-A806-4D42-A9A8-D708C5D955E9/base/00004.ts (26 live) TLS
Aug 13, 2016 09:19:05.028 [5720] DEBUG - Completed: 200 GET /video/:/transcode/universal/session/7D7C7FB7-A806-4D42-A9A8-D708C5D955E9/base/00004.ts (22 live) TLS 14050ms 2509800 bytes
So it basically took 15 seconds to send over that portion of the video file. For that session, each segment of video is 5 seconds. Since it took longer to send the file than the playback should take, you get the error message. It is unclear why your server took so long to transfer the file.
Aug 13, 2016 09:19:05.543 [7316] DEBUG - Request: GET /video/:/transcode/universal/session/7D7C7FB7-A806-4D42-A9A8-D708C5D955E9/base/00005.ts (24 live) TLS
Aug 13, 2016 09:19:16.418 [5720] DEBUG - Completed: 200 GET /video/:/transcode/universal/session/7D7C7FB7-A806-4D42-A9A8-D708C5D955E9/base/00005.ts (21 live) TLS 10872ms 2807780 bytes
Again, that one took 11 seconds.
Aug 13, 2016 09:19:17.075 [8100] DEBUG - Request: GET /video/:/transcode/universal/session/7D7C7FB7-A806-4D42-A9A8-D708C5D955E9/base/00006.ts (22 live) TLS
Aug 13, 2016 09:19:26.965 [9736] DEBUG - Completed: 200 GET /video/:/transcode/universal/session/7D7C7FB7-A806-4D42-A9A8-D708C5D955E9/base/00006.ts (23 live) TLS 9887ms 2113536 bytes
And again, almost 10 seconds.
There are no errors in either your PMS or the iPhone app logs, so it definitely points at a slow connection. Why, I have no idea as there are no clues.
Thanks for your help. This is very aggravating as I don’t know why this is suddenly happening. According to my most recent speed test my download / upload speeds shouldn’t be causing this issue
I would suggest checking if you have any virus/anti-malware/internet security programs running. Some of these will intercept the network traffic and scan it before letting it continue. Also since this is a remote connection, I would test the ping times from that location back to your server.
I mean if you have any of those programs, turn them off and see if they make any improvements. Some of these programs run something in the background even when disabled so you may need to check the Task Manager and make sure they are all stopped.
What are you using to do a speed test?
Many ISPs (like Comcast) greenlight Speedtest.net and a couple others so users will see great speeds.
Also, since you say this happens after 30 - 90 seconds. Could it be Comcast is noticing it and throttling you? (Not that Comcast would EVER throttle anyone … )
Just throwing things out there …
I use www.speedtest.net by Ookla. Do you have an unbiased site recommendation for doing a speed test? I did ask Comcast Support if they do any sort of throttling and they said no. Not sure how I can prove otherwise
Unfortunately you can never prove they are doing it.
You could try setting up a VPN tunnel to your home and running through that.
You say you got a “new dual band router”, how is the PMS machine connected, wired or wireless?
My sons use http://openspeedtest.com/ for speedtests (if you run an ad blocker it will bark at you but just ignore that).
And I sometimes use this but it is small files so not great: http://performance.toast.net/
Do you mind telling me what you have for these settings on your PMS?
I was thinking of changing my transcoder quality and segmented transcoder timeout (I think this is what was causing the delay from my logs that you reviewed previously)
Here are my settings. Although I doubt any of those will help. Those all control the transcoder and your transcodes are fine, it is the transmission of the file to the client.
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