Not enough bandwidth for this item....even though my speedtest results are pretty good

General Discussions
1


I’ve been running in circles on the internet trying to figure out how to solve the “not enough bandwidth for any playback of this item. 103kbps required and you have 96kbps” problem. I’ve seen this happen just on my PC - whenever I stream videos from Plex to my iPhone, I’m able to watch the stream. I’m providing specs below of what I’m dealing with.

I do want to make a note that I am brand new to the world of Command Prompts and “good” or “bad” upload speeds, so please bear with me if the answer involves “navigating” to delete a setting or whatever - I’m fresh enough to the point that I have to be walked through “change directory” commands.

Specs of what I’m working with -
QNAP NAS for storage
Plex DVR with the HD Homerun Connect - The DVR and NAS are connected to the same 5-port switch.
Windows 10
Netgear Router with OpenDNS that I don’t have admin access to
-NOTE: it’s a family router I’m working with, so I have to run PIA VPN in order to breach the OpenDNS content filter over it.
Plex Pass
Firefox Web Client
PIA VPN is what I usually have on - not often I use the regular private home network.
Ookla Speedtest results off of VPN connected to a US Server. The results are very close to my home network’s speedtest results:
121.65Mbps - download.
10.46Mbps - upload.

2

You may be routing all your content through the internet even if you access you Plex server from inside your house due to the use of the VPN. It depends on how you have your VPN/Plex server setup. That would be a killer if you only have 10Mbps upload.

3

It super weird because I just discovered that I can even stream off of the iMac I have with me without any issue. Now, with my PC, i neglected to also mention that I have a USB wi-fi adapter I’m working with - maybe it is a hardware limitation?

4

So is your PC running Plex on it and it’s using WIFI and it also has to use a VPN?

5

This message is not hardware related but rather a result of client and/or server set limits. If you have bandwidth limits set on the server or you have limits set in the client and this file exceeds those limits, then you will see this message. Check your settings in both the client and server.

Given the available bandwidth number is 96kbps, I’m inclined to think this is a client setting on a far too low limit.

6

Thanks for the help @gbooker02 . How do you recommend I fix this? With the server client that I had set up in the past on my iMac, I never set any limits of any kind. It’s also confusing because other “tips” that I have seen people suggest involve configuring in the Server Settings

  1. Remote Access (specifically with setting upload speed, which is currently blank…)
  2. Network
  3. and/or Transcoder, when I have never even touched any of these.
    The only out-of-the ordinary configuration that I have ever done with the server has been transferring my library from the Mac system to the Windows 10 client.

@cayars - I can run it off of my home’s WiFi, but I can only gain access to it during the night with the VPN. I’m in a household with OpenDNS that has a content filter and also a time limit - usually, from 11pm-6am the domain name service shuts off and no one can access the internet until the morning. VPN connectivity is the only way I can access it at night/early in the morning. I have my reasons for wanting access at those times - specifically since I’m considering transferring the library again to a dedicated linux server with a VPN at some point and my friends and I could have 24/7 access to it.

7

@gbooker02 said:
Check your settings in both the client and server.

You only mentioned the server settings. Since it looks like a browser, go to the Settings → Web → Player and look at the settings there.

8


This solved the issue. I reset it to 320kps in the Local Quality box for the time being and will probably set it higher as I explore the limitations I have. But videos were able to play smoothly after fixing this. Thank you very, very much @gbooker02

9

Just a thought!

You may have the same problem I had. Every device APART from my PC was recognised by its assigned IP address by PMS. For some unknown reason my PC is listed as my routers IP address making it appear as a remote device and restricted to remote device bandwidth.

I had to set LAN networks to include my whole IP address range to include the router.
Settings -? Server → Network:

I think VPN is only for external internet access and you should still have a local IP address for the local network… I may be wrong. :smile: