# Plex Buffering On LAN **URL:** \ **Category:** Plex Media Server\ **Tags:** server-windows\ **Created:** [December 14, 2021, 9:49pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-buffering-on-lan/764426 "2021-12-14T21:49:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![hoojoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@hoojoe](https://forums.plex.tv/u/hoojoe)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 9:49pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-buffering-on-lan/764426/1 "2021-12-14T21:49:22Z")
Server Version#: latest Player Version#: Hello In the last 3 or 4 days, Plex has been buffering on the LAN. It was working fine before then. Here is the setup: Plex physical server: Win 10, Nvidia 1070 GPU, I5-6500CPU, 16GB RAM, 1GB ethernet wired videos are stored on a Qnap, hardwired, 1GB ethernet buffering happens on all devices: laptop, desktop, firestick. it does not matter if its hardwired or WiFi i have: updated/restarted plex, restarted router, restarted switches, ran a repair on plex, ran a repair on windows (sfc /scannow), restarted Qnap all resources (ram, cpu, gpu) on plex server are fine and running below 30% this seems to happen on all movies and higher quality shows (1080p, .MKV, no subs) i can also directly play the video from the Qnap (not using Plex) on any device and it works without issue. if i lower the quality down to 480p or the lowest 720p option in Plex, the video does play, but of course looks terrible. i can transfer video file from the plex server to the qnap and maintain a 100MB/s transfer speed. so i do not believe the network or Qnap is the issue, but either the plex server or plex itself. any suggestions on what or where i should be looking to trouble shoot this? thanks! edit: Plex physical server (OS and Plex) are running on a Samsung SSD drive ---
**Author:** ![tom80H](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/tom80h/32/19753_2.png) [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 10:18pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-buffering-on-lan/764426/2 "2021-12-14T22:18:59Z")
What information is showing in the “now playing” tile for that playback on the Plex server dashboard? I’m particularly interested if the video is considered streaming local, remote or indirect. ![Exemplary screenshot from the "now playing" section](https://support.plex.tv/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2013/11/Screen-Shot-2018-12-18-at-5.23.55-PM.png) > **[Server Status and Dashboard | Plex Support](https://support.plex.tv/articles/200871837-status-and-dashboard/)** > > The server status pages let you monitor what your Plex Media Server is doing and how it’s being used. There... ---
**Author:** ![hoojoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@hoojoe](https://forums.plex.tv/u/hoojoe)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 10:53pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-buffering-on-lan/764426/3 "2021-12-14T22:53:30Z")
it does say Local/Direct Stream ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/4X/5/1/b/51b6366d0a50372126a9459ddeee1ae92d4fb99d.png) ---
**Author:** ![hoojoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@hoojoe](https://forums.plex.tv/u/hoojoe)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2021, 8:48pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-buffering-on-lan/764426/4 "2021-12-17T20:48:15Z")
i should also add my internet bandwidth is 500 down and 100 up. ---
**Author:** ![tom80H](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/tom80h/32/19753_2.png) [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2021, 9:38pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-buffering-on-lan/764426/5 "2021-12-17T21:38:27Z")
From what I remember, decoding/re-encoding EAC3 can be quite heavy for the CPU; maybe not on the same level as video transcoding but way beyond what you usually see from audio transcoding. IIRC this encoder is running as a single thread. How is your Windows machine aggregating the performance of that 4-core CPU? Does it show as a max. capacity of 400% (each core w/ 100%) or does it show the capacity of all 4 cores as 100% (where each core will make up for 25%). I’m not sure if that could explain the approx. 30% total load while causing the stream to buffer. Do you see the same behavior if you use a file without EAC3 (e.g. using an optimized version using “classic” AC3)? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2022, 4:37pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-buffering-on-lan/764426/7 "2022-04-05T16:37:54Z")
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