Plex Buffer Issues

Server Version#: 1.14.0.5465
Player Version#: Chrome 3.75.3

Server OS: Linux 14.04
Server: Intel Xeon E3-1225v2, 32GB DDR3, 1GBPS
Internet: 1 GBPS over Ethernet

Hello,

I’ve been having issues with plex for the past few versions. I’ve only recently been looking into it but it seems when I’m transcoding (Ex. 720p MKV to 720p MP4) my player suddenly stops and buffers for long periods of time. Sometimes it just loops and I have to exit and reopen. I have Tautulli running and it is showing that over 15% of the stream is already transcoded ahead of where I’m at yet my player is still “buffering.”
When I close and reopen the stream sometimes it will play but mostly it just goes back into the buffer loop.

Any ideas what could be wrong?
Let me know if any specific logs are needed… mine are fairly large at the moment.

Thanks!
–Delview

Your logs only are about 30MB uncompressed at worst. PMS only keeps the 5 most recent plus the current one. Zipped, they are about 4-5 MB.

Please verify DEBUG logging only (not verbose)
Recreate the problem.
Let it run until it buffers twice
Stop playback
Collect the ZIP
Attach it here.

Logs have been attached.

Thanks for your help!

You can turn IPv6 back off (Settings - Server - Network). No benefit there.

Please recreate again and then also include:

  1. Local or remote (this is impacted by Settings - Server - Network - Streaming limits.
  2. Also impacted by Playback settings
  3. Lastly impacted by subtitles

I therefore also need the XML of the title being played

Settings - Server - Troubleshoot - Download Logs
this is best for me… It’s packaged in a form I’m configured for.

I’ve attached the logs you’ve requested, although the problem was not as bad as it previously has been… In this instance I was buffering for 10 seconds, play for 10 seconds, buffer, play, etc.

Thanks again!

Plex Media Server Logs_2018-11-19_18-15-28.zip (4.4 MB)

Attached are logs from when subtitles were enabled

Plex Media Server Logs_2018-11-19_19-05-01.zip (4.2 MB)

Thank you for that…

That CPU does not have enough performance to do what you’re asking with subtitles for the Apple devices. This is why it plays, then catches up, then plays again when the buffer fills.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+W3530+%40+2.80GHz&id=1267

The processor is 10 years old.

Thanks for your reply ChuckPA.

I’m not using an apple device. I’m getting this issue using the web player in chrome.

Also, I’ve had this server running plex for over 3 years and never had any problems like this is the past. Even with up to 5 streams going at a time. It has just been in the recent updates…

I read previously that the “basic formula” to transcodes was something like “cpu_benchmark/1500 = # of 720p transcodes you can support”
Following that I should be able to get at least 4 transcodes going before I see any issues. I’m experiencing this just with one stream…

Did something change in previous updates that made plex not as optimized as it used to be?

the formula is:

1500 Passmarks for each 10 Mbps of 720p video being transcoded.

At 5000 Passmarks, this means you have at most 3 streams. It does not include subtitles

Thanks for that, I’ll use that to pick out a new server in the future.

If my processor can support 3 streams though I don’t understand why I’m getting this issue with only one stream going.

Also, it looks like the video is only using 1.3Mbps of bandwidth. Some rough math with the file at about 600Mb and a hour long, I know it doesn’t work like this, but that would come down to about 0.167Mbps that the server really only needs to process. So I shouldn’t be anywhere near the 10 Mbps that you’re saying I should be able to support 3 of.

Thanks!
–Delview

Hey Gents, so far I am reading a lot conversation and not seeing any solution. Is PLEX actively working on a solution? I have been buffing for about two or so months, has not happened before, and was hoping to find a solution. I saw quite a bit of forum conversations from 2017 when this was happening then and it was attributed to a version release, much as this appears to be. Not a techie, so what was the last good known version?

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