Hello.
I have been having persistent audio problems with Plex for at least the last 2 years. I have spent a substantial amount of time and effort to resolve this, but it has got to the point that I have to ask for assistance. I have trawled through countless forums and made multiple tweaks, bought new hardware, laid CAT6 cabling, and modified the overall setup, all to no avail.
I am experiencing regular audio dropouts both on 1k and 4k content. These are generally no longer than 1-2 seconds but are regular enough where it makes it pointless to use Plex to watch any of my content. As such, I have had to use VLC as this does not exhibit the same behavior.
So, this is how my setup looks and the changes made to try and get plex working.
Setup
Originally, I ran my server on an old AMD dual core ProLiant server running Windows server 12. This was sent through the plex player over 5 ghz wireless to a 7th gen Intel NUC. I have made several changes to this to reflect forum advice as follows:
Hardware
- Server and Player - Intel NUC 10th Gen BXNUC10i5FNK4 i5-10210U. This was a recent change from having a separate server (in study) and player (in lounge)
- Storage is on Synology DiskStation DS416j and ProLiant server running windows server 2012
- All HDD are WD red platter drives with 2 Seagate IornWolf being a recent addition
Physical layout
- Player is in the lounge, with Synology NAS and ProLiant server in study as storage. Approximately 15m of CAT6 ethernet between storage and player.
- Synology NAS and ProLiant connect to a gigabit switch, then a clear run of ethernet directly to the player. All interfaces are gigabit capable, all cables CAT6.
- Player is connected to Yamaha RX-V681 (Atmos and HD audio capable) with HDMI 2.0 cable, and from amp to 2019 LG 4k OLED with HDMI 2.0 cable. Newer (and insanely expensive!) HDMI cable has been tested between player and amp.
Settings
- Exclusive mode - enabled
- All audio formats set for passthrough
- OpenGL - disabled
- Hardware decoding - enabled
- Enable direct play – enabled
- Allow direct stream – enabled
- Sync mode – display (resample audio)
- ARC for amp & TV have been toggled between off and on
All of these settings have been toggled on and off, and with different combinations. Open GL makes the video so choppy it is simply not an option. I have tested performance in this setup (study to lounge) and with content stored on the local HDD of the player.
Software
- Windows 10 20H2 on player/ server
- PMP - 2.58.0.1076
- Server - 1.23.0.4438
- Amp – latest firmware
- TV – latest firmware
- All content is MKV in 1-2-1 rips
- All Plex software are recent installs with the NUC only being in place since the beginning of April
- Not COTS AV, just using MS Defender
I would appreciate some assistance as I have now reached the end of the road with this, and it has got so bad, we simply do not use Plex anymore.
Log capture is attached, please let me know if there is anything else needed here to assist trouble shooting
