Server Version#: 1.41.5.9522
Player Version#: 10.26.0.2578
Long time PlexPass user, looking for some confirmation to some thoughts I have about a playback situation.
The problem – on occasions I get very intermittent pauses (not stuttering) in playback (via Nvidia Shield Pro TV 2019) of media I have personally ripped from 4K discs. If I reverse and then replay the same sequence, it plays fine, so it’s not a media issue.
A high-level description of my setup:
1 Gb network all around. Synology NAS holds media and is on the same switch as my PMS running native on Windows 11 Pro mini PC Intel i5 16 Gb machine, it rarely runs over 8% CPU, other than AV and VNC, nothing else runs besides PMS (latest version). The PMS is connected via Ethernet to a Ubiquiti Switch in a different room that connects to the Nvidia Shield, which is connected to the Denon AVR via Hi speed HDMI 8K cable.
I have observed using the PLEX dashboard running on another PC that these brief halts always correspond to peaks in network traffic (CPU and RAM usage stay relatively constant).
The network speed, which assume is on the ethernet port of the PC, rarely goes above 180 Mbps as seen by the dashboard, clearly well-within the “expected” 1Gbps.
I have a backup PMS that runs on the Synology. Running the same movie on that device and looking at the Plex Dashboard, I see a fraction of the network traffic. Seems to make sense since the PC is sharing the LAN port between the Synology serving up the media and the PC feeding the Shield.
In all cases there is NO TRANSCODING going on, each PMS plays the content Direct and Local.
My assumption is that despite the rated 1GB spec, there is some occasions where the traffic is constrained. If that’s the case, would it be a worthwhile endeavor to source a PC with two LAN ports and directly connect it the Synology (which has two ports)? Since all my network equipment was just recently upgraded, I’m not considering going beyond 1Gb in the home (wiring alone would be a potential issue).
Does anyone run a similar setup and experienced similar issues? Am I overlooking something or jumping to a conclusion without gathering more data? Would Plex Server logging (or client?) show something more definitive?
Right now, this is just annoying and doesn’t happen on every movie and when it does, it may occur infrequently and to date, we just put up with it. But is does p*** me off not knowing why.
