Server Version#: 1.41.4.9463
Player Version#: Unknown, Chromecast 4k
So whenever I rip a bluray myself and encode, I end up with a file of about 10mb/s bitrate. Which is fine when direct playing at home - however when I’m at my partner’s, it buffers so we tend to reduce the quality to 8mb/s and it transcodes through Plex. Their internet speed is more than enough for even the full 10mb/s in theory.
I am, however, at my wits end to trying to make this work without buffering. I have plex plus, have enabled hardware accelaration, and have more than enough PC power to transcode:
Despite this, we get constant buffering making it impossible to watch. Watching through chromecast also does not allow downloading the content.
When watching Web DLs, this is not an issue - it’s only my own rips so it’s definitely related to the bit rate.
I don’t want to reduce down the bitrate to Web DL level when encoding my rips, as this would not result in the optimal picture quality for direct playing at home.
What solutions do I have here?
I’ve attached one of my own encodes for reference, and a Web DL encode for comparison. Web DL.txt (18.8 KB) Bluray Encode.txt (5.6 KB)
Theory isn’t real life, and this makes it sound like it’s maybe not fast enough. Has she tried selecting a lower quality/bitrate from the playback settings to force it to transcode to a lower bitrate? If that works, it’s probably her internet speed.
Yeah, we’ve done all this but sadly still doesn’t seem to make a difference. Lowest for 1080p is 8mbps, but I wouldn’t want to reduce lower than this into the 720p range.
Do you typically watch with subtitles enabled? Your encode includes PGS (image-based) subtitles while the web DL includes text-based ones. It can factor into transcoding performance due to how the PGS subs may need to be burned-into the video.
If you do use subs, do you see a difference in performance without them?
Thanks. This was the first thing I highlighted to my partner who doesn’t use the subs anyway. There are no foreign subs in Dexter so when they’re off they’re off. Last time I checked the dashboard when we were having issues, I could also see that subs were not enabled.
When streaming can you post a screenshot from the plex web UI of the activity settings?
FYI it is a combination of disk speed, upload speed, download speed, and player buffer size that can affect buffering, there are other factors but those are the primary ones.
Thanks, will do. I’ve also downloaded Tautilla so I can keep logs of this stuff, as my partner isn’t actively using right now, but will get a screenshot when I can.
When using CPU to transcode (only when testing - makes no difference to the issue), it never really goes above 50%. When using GPU, dashboard doesn’t seem to report on this but I’m hoping Tautilla does.
In terms of the disk, I’m using one of two discs depending on the content being watched:
I’m willing to bet it’s 100% her internet. I have a lot of people on my server that drop down to SD because their wifi is slow as ■■■■. Could be her overall internet speed, could be the router/AP, but it’s almost definitely her internet.
