# Plex Bandwidth Limits Inconsistent between Client Platforms

**URL:** <https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-bandwidth-limits-inconsistent-between-client-platforms/833751>\
**Category:** Plex Players\
**Tags:** apple-tv, ios-legacy\
**Created:** [March 8, 2023, 1:02am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-bandwidth-limits-inconsistent-between-client-platforms/833751 "2023-03-08T01:02:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![speeddemon](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/speeddemon/32/158554_2.png) [@speeddemon](https://forums.plex.tv/u/speeddemon)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 1:02am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-bandwidth-limits-inconsistent-between-client-platforms/833751/1 "2023-03-08T01:02:16Z")

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I’ve noticed I can Direct Play a `3982Kbps` version on the following platforms with a 4Mbps Bandwidth Restriction:

- Plex for Web (Chrome, Edge, Safari, & Firefox)
- Plex for Windows
- Plex for Mac
- Plex for Android (CCwGTV, Fire TV, & Pixel)

But Plex always Transcodes a `1990Kbps` or `3982Kbps` version on the following platforms with a 4Mbps Bandwidth Restriction (both Direct Play with a no Bandwidth Restriction):

- Plex for tvOS/iOS

PMS’ Media Decision Engine (MDE) Logs state the following while playing back to tvOS/iOS while Transcoding the `1990Kbps` file:  
`Streaming Resource: Calculated bandwidth of 4179kbps exceeds bandwidth limit. Changing decision parameters provided by client to fit bandwidth limit of 4000kbps`

The Direct Play behavior is what I would expect with a `3982Kbps` or `1990Kbps` file with a 4Mbps Bandwidth profile.

I’m aware of [Plex’s Streaming Brain and Deep Analysis](https://support.plex.tv/articles/227715247-server-settings-bandwidth-and-transcoding-limits/), but it doesn’t make sense to me why only Apple Devices are affected and why files that haven’t had Deep Analysis ran on them are calculating 2.1x rather than 2x (1990Kbps x 2.1 = 4179Kbps).

Given that only a single platform is behaving this way, could the Plex team please consider this a bug and change tvOS/iOS behavior to be the same as Web, Windows, Mac, Android?

Thanks!

Server Version#: 1.31.1.6733  
Player Version#: iOS/tvOS 8.15 (5092) AVPlayer & mpv

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 7:56am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-bandwidth-limits-inconsistent-between-client-platforms/833751/2 "2023-03-08T07:56:58Z")

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Different client types have different sizes of network buffers.  
The bigger this buffer is, the larger the bandwidth of a stream is allowed to fluctuate without producing buffering pauses during streaming.  
That’s why the detailed bandwidth analysis is producing not just one bandwidth value, but a whole lot of them. Each tailored for a certain buffer size.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![speeddemon](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/speeddemon/32/158554_2.png) [@speeddemon](https://forums.plex.tv/u/speeddemon)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 9:44am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-bandwidth-limits-inconsistent-between-client-platforms/833751/3 "2023-03-08T09:44:48Z")

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@OttoKerner Is the buffer actually half the size on a iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV compared to all the other platforms I listed in my OP?

If not, then it looks like that network buffer data is outdated and should be updated so the Streaming Brain MDE behavior for Apple devices matches the other platforms which all behave identically to each other.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 9:52am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-bandwidth-limits-inconsistent-between-client-platforms/833751/4 "2023-03-08T09:52:02Z")

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Please post the first ~20 lines from the [Plex XML info](https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201998867-Investigate-Media-Information-and-Formats "Plex XML info") of an affected video.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![speeddemon](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/speeddemon/32/158554_2.png) [@speeddemon](https://forums.plex.tv/u/speeddemon)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 5:06pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-bandwidth-limits-inconsistent-between-client-platforms/833751/5 "2023-03-08T17:06:00Z")

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@OttoKerner here you go:

```auto
<Media id="55107" duration="6640128" bitrate="1990" width="1280" height="720" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="aac" videoCodec="h264" videoResolution="720" container="mp4" videoFrameRate="24p" optimizedForStreaming="0" audioProfile="he-aac" has64bitOffsets="0" videoProfile="high">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="56109" key="/library/parts/56109/1678227090/file.mp4" duration="6640128" file="file.mp4" size="1651649244" audioProfile="he-aac" container="mp4" deepAnalysisVersion="6" has64bitOffsets="0" indexes="sd" optimizedForStreaming="0" requiredBandwidths="6673,4954,3074,3074,3074,3074,3074,3074" videoProfile="high">
<Stream id="166998" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="1919" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" anamorphic="0" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" codedHeight="720" codedWidth="1280" colorPrimaries="bt709" colorRange="tv" colorSpace="bt709" colorTrc="bt709" frameRate="23.976" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="720" level="40" pixelAspectRatio="1233:1232" profile="high" refFrames="8" requiredBandwidths="6602,4887,3011,3011,3011,3011,3011,3011" scanType="progressive" streamIdentifier="1" width="1280" displayTitle="720p (H.264)" extendedDisplayTitle="720p (H.264)">
</Stream>
<Stream id="166999" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="aac" index="1" channels="2" bitrate="66" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="stereo" profile="he-aac" requiredBandwidths="67,67,67,67,67,67,67,67" samplingRate="48000" streamIdentifier="2" displayTitle="English (HE-AAC Stereo)" extendedDisplayTitle="English (HE-AAC Stereo)">
</Stream>
<Stream id="167000" streamType="3" default="1" codec="mov_text" index="2" bitrate="0" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" captions="1" hearingImpaired="1" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" streamIdentifier="3" displayTitle="English SDH (MOV_TEXT)" extendedDisplayTitle="English SDH (MOV_TEXT)">
</Stream>
<Stream id="167001" streamType="3" codec="mov_text" index="3" bitrate="0" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" streamIdentifier="4" displayTitle="English (MOV_TEXT)" extendedDisplayTitle="English (MOV_TEXT)">
</Stream>
</Part>
</Media>

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![speeddemon](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/speeddemon/32/158554_2.png) [@speeddemon](https://forums.plex.tv/u/speeddemon)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2023, 7:02pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-bandwidth-limits-inconsistent-between-client-platforms/833751/6 "2023-03-12T19:02:32Z")

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Could a Plex Employee please comment on whether you’ve heard of this issue and/or are able to investigate?

I think consistency between client platforms could really help end-users.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2023, 7:03pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-bandwidth-limits-inconsistent-between-client-platforms/833751/7 "2023-06-10T19:03:29Z")

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