I’m here to ask for some help - I’ve troubleshot this as much as I can and I’m hitting a brick wall, so any tips/suggestions/ideas are very welcome.
Problem: on my Apple TV 4k and PS5, I cannot play videos from my Windows 10 Plex server without frequent pausing / buffering / stalling. Both playback devices (Apple TV and PS5) give variations on the “Your connection to the server is not fast enough” error message.
Playback devices: an Apple TV 4k (fully up-to-date OS and apps) and a PS5 (fully up-to-date OS and apps)
Server: Windows 10 (64-bit) box with an Intel i7-8700 @ 3.7GHz, 16GB RAM and SSD + HDD (boots from an SSD, Plex media is stored on a 4TB spinning-rust drive). Windows 10 and Plex Server are both fully up-to-date
Network: eero Pro network with two “eero Beacon” satellite units, all fully up-to-date (running eeroOS 6.9.2). The Windows Plex server, Apple TV and PS5 are all connected to the eero WiFi (none are hardwired in).
ISP: Given that I’m only trying to play back via my home LAN I’m not sure this matters, but just in case, I have a 1Gbps Comcast line with 40Mbps upstream
This Plex setup worked beautifully for years using this same gear and network - I could play back TV shows and movies to my Apple TV without a hiccup. However, lately I’m barely able to watch anything - all my shows and movies (including content which we’ve watched without issue previously) pause and stutter. Sometimes it starts pausing right away within the first minute or two, while other times it only starts after 20-30 minutes. We mostly watch via Apple TV but when this started happening, I installed the Plex app on my PS5 to test from there - same issue.
I should note that I’m inclined to think that the problem is not with my server, since I can watch content from my MacBook Pro in Chrome without any problem, while the same show/movie will be stuttering and pausing like clockwork on the Apple TV and PS5. I can also watch videos in Chrome on the server itself and that works fine. Here’s a shot of the “Now Playing” details on the Plex Server page during a playback that was skipping / pausing every few seconds
A quick update: I’ve installed VLC and Infuse on my Apple TV and used them both to play videos from the Windows 10 Plex server described above, and they both had the same problem: videos play for 30-45 seconds (at best) before hanging and buffering / pausing. It’s infuriating! The Plex Dashboard on the server is indicating that I’ve got plenty of RAM and the CPU isn’t being hit very hard, and the bandwidth being used is way less than I successfully transit doing other activities.
Mostly, plex stuttering problem is caused by slow internet speed, incapable CPU, unsupported subtitle format, too many streams at a time, etc. Check themselves one by one.
One more quick update: I installed Emby Server on the same Windows 10 box and the Emby app on my Apple TV, and we were able to watch multiple shows with zero issues. Night and day difference vs. Plex. I’m honestly really disappointed - I’ve been a paying Plex Pass subscriber for years, but it’s clear that there are better options out there.
Just stumbled on this thread looking for a solution to a similar problem.
In my case, I have Apple TV HD, Plex Server running on Synology 918+ with SSD caching.
Most HD and 780p videos stall, pixelate and buffer when I watch via the Plex app. In the app, I have to set playback to “Convert Automatically” or choose a low playback resolution just to have a chance of watching the video.
However, if I watch the video using the VLC app accessing the Plex service, the playback is generally OK.
And, no playback problems at all if I watch via the Plex web interface on any device on my LAN.
Yeah, agreed. I’ve become convinced that there’s a significant bug involved, but I can’t quite pin down where in the chain the bug actually sits. Sometimes I’m convinced that it was related to the Plex Server app, but then it seemed to be on the player side (i.e, getting the same issues on both an Apple TV 4K and PS5). I dunno.
As noted in my last post a couple weeks ago, I dumped Plex in favor of Emby, and it’s been great. Their UI and overall feature-set is less rich than Plex, but it works, consistently and predictably, every damn time. I still hope Plex gets this sorted out, but for now I’m happy again.
I have this exact issue and it started with the latest Plex update, but i’m not using a windows computer as server instead i use a Mac Mini 2,6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 with 8 GB RAM. I don’t think my quite old computer is the issue because it uses 2 - 3 % CPU when watching a movie on the Apple TV. I have not been able to measure wifi speed between my server and my Apple TV but when measuring speed from Apple TV to my ISP i get 98 Mbps in both directions so i don’t think my Wifi is to blame either and it worked just fine before, even with 4K movies but since the last update i get this issue even with 1080 material. I’m using Version 4.76.1 for now. I hope this will get a fix soon, i’m not to keen to have to go back to Kodi or switch to another application to get it to work properly again.
I don’t know if this will help you but I had a similar problem. Stuttering playback because of transcoding, even though I had direct play enabled. What finally fixed it for me was in Settings → Remote Access adjusting my internet upload speed to my network bandwidth.
