Server is on a 100meg down 10 meg up cable connection, upload seems stable, tests work great when the destination is on a faster lower latency connection like an iPhone on LTE.
On a 6meg dsl connection, even using 2meg as the speed on the Roku player and verifying bandwidth usage it seems to buffer too often. Is there a way to have the Roku client pause for 10 seconds and build up a buffer before playing? Kind of like when watching recorded tv, it will preload a ton of data at the beginning and then sip data as you watch. I didn’t see anywhere to configure that. Doesn’t seem like actually pausing the live tv on the Roku does anything, it still sips the data and too susceptible to issues over a slower dsl connection. The dsl connection is capable of 5-6megabit all the time it seems and this just seems to be an issue with live tv.
No. Roku’s don’t allow for that type of buffering, on any video app, not just Plex.
Sounds like the DSL, even if capable of 5-6mbps down, has high latency and/or jitter, or, all of the above combined with potential server CPU binding for transcoding down to 2mbps.
If that were the case then Netflix would be horrible, it runs just fine, it preloads a bunch up front and then sips the data infrequently to keep a buffer. That’s why when I restart a router Netflix will still play for a good 10-20 seconds past that. The live tv seems to do no buffering and requires a constant stream - it needs to be a little less live , like a 8 or 10 second option would make due, then it always has 10 seconds it can grab ahead and has 10 seconds to get it done if there are peaks and valleys.
Either way, I’ve seen this discussion before (sorry, can’t find the post from the Plex devs), it’s not possible on most Roku’s.
You could try pausing and watching the time shifted content, but if that’s not working for you either, it’s not your Roku buffer at fault, it’s the poorer quality DSL or server CPU combo + (any other local issue/wifi/etc)
Have you tried any of the Remote Access and Transcoder settings. I doubt anything will ever approach instant streaming when away from home. Trying to Transcode a MPEG2TS stream on the fly to h264 can be very processor intensive, couple that with streaming the data to a remote device only complicates the situation. I am able to stream with no buffering from my home WiFi network using my iPhone and Roku Stick. Once I disconnect my iPhone from my home WiFi and try streaming Live TV I encounter major buffering every 30-45 seconds. I have made multiple changes trying to get a mostly constant stream. Current settings on my MacBook Pro Test PMS Server are:
Transcoder:
Transcoder Profile: Make my CPU hurt
Transcoder default throttle buffer: 240
Background transcoding x264 preset: Very Fast
Use hardware acceleration when available: Checked
Remote Access:
Internet upload speed: 10 Mbps
Limit remote stream bitrate: 1.5 Mbps (480p)
These settings have allowed an almost constant stream on Cell network data. While typing this reply I have no had a single instance of buffering on the Live TV stream I left running.
I’ve played with all those settings. I have my speed set like yours and I’ve played with 2 and 3 meg limited settings. The remote Roku can be set too just like an iPhone and they have been using 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 3.0 settings and it doesn’t seem to make any difference with regular buffering. My cpu is fine it isn’t taxed - uses about 20-30% cpu during transcoding. Its a quad core i5 at 3.2ghz. I have hardware acceleration turned off - that seems to maybe have helped a tiny bit but not sure - definitely not worse with not using the intel hardware acceleration.
I made no changes to the iPhone while testing this last night, other than turning WiFi off. All settings were changed in PMS settings. My iPhone Plex Internet Streaming setting was unchanged at 20Mbps, 1080p HD.
@JamminR said:
Either way, I’ve seen this discussion before (sorry, can’t find the post from the Plex devs), it’s not possible on most Roku’s.
You could try pausing and watching the time shifted content, but if that’s not working for you either, it’s not your Roku buffer at fault, it’s the poorer quality DSL or server CPU combo + (any other local issue/wifi/etc)
It possible for this to work with Roku. I have 6 Premier+ and 1 Ultra in my apartment. All are talking to a QNAP TS-251+ installed at my parents house 200 miles away with a HomeRun Prime. Granted, the little ol gutless J1900 Celeron in the 251 can only serve one Roku at a time. But set at “Make My CPU Hurt” and 3Mbps 720p it does it flawlessly!
Now this is a cable modem to cable modem connection. However, in the past, I have used several different Verizon modems/routers or hotspots and had 1.5Mbps 480p work 98% of time.
Now the buffer is an issue with Roku. I wish they could create the same buffer as the Apple TV. That’s the one great thing about Plex on Apple TV! The Live TV experience is unbeatable compared to all the other platforms!!! I’ve tested every one of them!
You can see the buffer difference when skipping ahead. The Apple TV has 2 to 3 minutes already stored up and recovers almost instantly when you resume play. All the other platforms take 15 to 30 seconds to recover.
The Roku is capable of buffering - they just aren’t doing it with live-tv in plex, if you watch wifi bandwidth graphs on the router when watching non-live plex video, and Netflix, on a Roku - it loads a ton of data at first and then sips a little bit every few seconds. When you are watching live tv it isn’t buffering at all basically and you see more of a constant wifi usage with no big up front load-in.
I swapped the remote Roku for a 2017 quad-core model and all non-isp caused issues are totally gone. It recovers from isp related micro-outages way faster too.
