I attached a 4TB WD HDD to my wifi router (WRT1200AC) to serve as a media storage for PMS. The PMS is setup in my MacBook and I plan to watch my 1080p movies in my MacBook or in my ATV4.
In case I have MKV files stored in my MacBook, I got no problems to watch any 1080p movies or to stream them to my ATV4 (no buffering lags at all). I also made a test by downloading a file from internet (reaching 1.3 MBps in my 10Mbps link) while watching a 1080p movie and PMS plays everything just fine (even in ATV4).
However, if MKV files are stored in the HDD attached to the WRT1200AC, PMS has lots of buffering problems with any resolution (either warning about server not powerful or network no fast enough). I believe this issue is related to a specific feature|setting of network storage in WRT1200AC, since ethernet seems to hold the streaming across my devices plus my MacBook can transcode|stream any movie with no problem.
Does anyone has experience with WRT1200AC and network storage? Especially related to PMS?
Any suggestions would be very welcome.
PS: my network setup is a WRT1200AC connected by cable to the ISP modem. I’m currently using a 5GHz wifi link with 802.a/c, and both ATV4 and MacBook (late 2013) show strong wifi signal. My current PMS is 1.5.5.3634-995f1dead
ISP modem --(cable)–> WRT1200AC --(5GHz wifi)–> MacBook|ATV4
|-> USB3 HDD 4TB
The problem is quite simple:
If your media files are stored on your Plex Server, then they only have to travel wirelessly from your Plex server to the router and then to your Plex client device.
If you however attach a hard disk to your router, the data must travel
Hard disk > router > Plex server > router > client
So they must cross the ‘ether’ three times now, instead of twice. When they do that, they have to share the available bandwidth on the wireless channel (Even if your router claims to have MU-MIMO support, it is not guaranteed that it works as advertised under all circumstances. With wireless, there are a lot of IFs. )
If the source media file has a higher bitrate, which the server has to transcode down, the load on the wireless network gets even higher.
In general, it is recommended to connect the Plex server with a network wire to your router.
That way, the data must travel over the air only once (from router to client), instead of two or three times.
Thank you for your comments @OttoKerner .
I already thought about it. I agree with you when I use the client in ATV4. However, I have the same issue when watching a movie in my laptop, which runs the PMS and would use less bandwidth.
Besides, my test – playing a file that is stored locally and a starting download in parallel – would (sort of) mimic the use of bandwidth that I have when using ATV4. Surprisingly, I do not have any issues with Plex. Of course, this test would not recreate the same bandwidth usage as the ATV4 case, but I would expect (at least) a few chops in the streaming.
In case I’m not missing something crucial in my wifi setup, I would believe that there’s a limitation (?) with the use of network storage. Not sure what it could be, because the WRT1200AC is a dual-core router, which I believe can easily handle the traffic, and the HDD is connected via USB3.
(just to clarify: the downloaded file is saved directly to the network storage in order to use the ethernet.)
@diemort said:
(just to clarify: the downloaded file is saved directly to the network storage in order to use the ethernet.)
I’m not sure I understand. The only device connected per wire in your setup is the router itself. So then it would have to be the router itself which has to initiate and perform the download.
Does this thing have a torrent client which runs on the router directly?
But apart from that:
I wouldn’t be too surprised if someone would conduct a test and find out that the NAS functions of this router do suck.
A router is a router, not a NAS.
can we try a different USB drive with a few of the same files plugged into the mac?
sorry to say but using the USB port on a router with a USB hard drive is not the best performing NAS
you will find the reads/rights to be slower and if many requests really slow.
I have tried many different router USB ports and 98% of them suck
if you would like network storage that performs better you may want to invest in a small NAS that meets your needs
@OttoKerner said:
@diemort said:
(just to clarify: the downloaded file is saved directly to the network storage in order to use the ethernet.)
I’m sorry, bad choice of words. I meant that I download a file from the MacBook and save it to the network storage directly; this process use part of the bandwidth then.
@buba013
I was suspecting about that, although I found good reviews about the NAS support of this router.
I found a ethernet cable and made a few tests. The NAS support in WRT1200AC over wifi really sucks: the transfer rate over wired connection reaches >10MBps, which would be enough for 1080p movies, however it drops down to <1MBps over wifi. As @OttoKerner, it would be better to have a wired connection between PMS and the router, but for the above reasons. Apart of that, I believe that Plex transcoding|streaming would be satisfactory with a faster transfer rate over wifi.
I’d like to keep my laptop free from cables, thus I’ll try some alternative options to see if I can increase the transfer rate in my network setup.
Thank you for the comments guys.
