I've done everything I can think of to fix buffering issues

Server Version#: 1.22.3.4392
Player Version#:

I have an i7 4770TE, Plex pass, and a GTX 1080 and for the life of me I cant figure out why some of my remote streams still have buffering issues. Currently a friend is streaming, Plex is transcoding h.264 to h264, no subs, audio is direct streaming, and yet the video is buffering. I should theoretically be abel to transcode a 4k video to 1080 without issue yet nothing i can do solves this issue. Any help is greatly appreciated. Short of nuking the whole system and rebuilding on linux I dont know what to do

What’s your upload speed?
I had to tell my mates and family to set the remote streaming limit manually to 1080p 12mb otherwise they were choking out my connection. (Usually 3 remote users streaming at same time and I only have 50mb upload)

Just so you know a Direct Stream is not being transcoded, Plex is changing the container to something that the remote accepts. The issue may not be on your end but on the remote. Is it showing on your end that the stream is going in to buffering mode?

I have gigiabit 1K down and 1K up. Speed shouldnt be an issue

The video is transcoding H.264 to H264 in this case, the audio was direct streamed. Yes, it showed that the video was buffering.

Does it buffer when you stream over say 4g to your own mobile?
If you have solid internet, which is sounds like you do, along with a pretty beefy system, I’d be checking your friends internet connections and what clients they’re using as the likely culprit if you don’t get the same issues testing with your own kit over mobile network.

I think the issue is with my system. For example I can direct stream a 4K video to my phone with no issues, but if I try to transcode that film into 1080p I get constant buffering. I have no reason to do that as i can direct stream it just fine, but with my system i should theoretically be able to transcode 4K to 1080P without issue but here we are.

Fair enough.

So when it is transcoding, it saying it’s using HW transcoding? Or just regular software transcoding?

I’m presuming it’s a standard setup of say (Just for clarity and get a picture of what we are dealing with):

i7 - 4770
16GB Ram?
OS - Windows 10 64bit On an SSD
Storage - Whatever large HDD’s you have
Wired in via gigabit ethernet
GTX 1080 with latest drivers installed?

When transcoding, what’s task manager looking like? AV software scanning your transcode directory etc?

All correct except 32GB Ram. Also 4770TE

Currently testing by transcoding a 4K video to 1080p on my phone. CPU is at 30%
Plex shows: Video

4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR) (hw)

1080P (H264)—Transcode (hw)

Constant buffering. Error on my phone states “This server is not powerful enough”

Your transcode test to 1080 is a useless test since you are comparing apples to oranges. As I said before your remote video is not being transcoded just the container is being changed, that is what direct streaming means so the video is not being changed at all. Transcoding the video is being changed which requires more recourses.

If you want to check something, check your hard drive and make sure that it is not failing. A failing hard drive will require multiple reads of the same data to get it all which slows down how fast the data can be read from the drive which would cause buffering issues.

My issue is my “beefy” server isnt able to transcode files without buffering, so not sure how you mean my transcode test is useless. Also, Nothing in my post has mentioned issues with direct streams buffering so im not sure why you are mentioning it

Try toggling off this setting in Server transcoder settings

Except you misread the OPs initial post.
This is from their first post (emphasis mine):

Currently a friend is streaming, Plex is transcoding h.264 to h264, no subs, audio is direct streaming, and yet the video is buffering.

The remote video, based on that, is being transcoded.

-Shark2k

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