Plex for Windows - 4K and Live TV Stuttering

Plex Players Desktop Players
1

Server Version#: 1.25.0.5282
Player Version#: 1.37.0.2706-5b2cfe50

As the title states, and as many other threads have reported, my Plex for Windows playback is consistently stuttering while doing direct play via local network with 4K content, high quality 1080p content, and live TV from my HDHomerun.

Plex server specs:
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X @ 3.80 GHz
32 GB RAM
ASUS Turbo GTX 1060 6GB
Windows 10 Pro
Connected to router via Cat6

Router:
Netgear Nighthawk AX12 AX11000 (RAX200) Tri-Band router

Player specs:
Windows 10 Pro PC
AMD Ryzen 3 3100G @ 3.60 GHz
16GB RAM
Gigabyte GTX 1050 Ti OC 4GB
Connected to the router via WiFi, consistently gets 500-600 Mbps (I have gigabit up and down, which should not matter here; point being that my connection to the router is stable and high speed).

The player machine is connected via high quality HDMI 2.0 cables to an LG CX.

All 4K and even some higher quality 1080 content stutters pretty heavily. Additionally, live TV streaming via my hdhomerun stutters so badly I canā€™t watch live football without getting motion sick - Iā€™ve been having to use random streaming sites to watch the games in lower quality than I would get from my hdhomerun + Plex setup.

Some codec details on files. The below are specs for the same movie, three different versions. The first two (4K and 1080p Remux) stutter during playback. The third (35mm restoration) does not.

4K

  • Video: 4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR)
  • Audio: TrueHD Atmos 7.1 (English)
  • Bitrate: 86.04 Mbps

1080p

  • Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 26887 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
  • Audio: Dolby TrueHD Audio / 7.1 / 48 kHz / 5654 kbps / 24-bit
  • Bitrate: 33.3 Mbps

35mm Reconstruction (1080p)

  • Video: 1080p (H.264)
  • Audio: AC-3 LD 5.1
  • Bitrate: 38.06 Mbps

The playback stutter is a newer problem. Nothing has changed on my machines, only the updates to the server and player apps. The files are playing directly, no transcoding is happening.

Another of the files that was having issues was the first episode of Hawkeye (as has already been discussed in other threads). That file was encoded with HEVC Main 10 HDR and EAC3 5.1 audio, with a bitrate of 22.4 Mbps. Just giving this info to show that this happens across an array of codecs and bitrates.

If I play 4K content via the web player (which is far from ideal), it transcodes (obviously), but transcodes to 4K at the exact same bitrate. However, the playback is buttery smooth.

This is clearly an issue with how this player handles higher bitrate video. This is also obviously not a new problem. There are many threads posted on here that have been locked due to lack of response complaining of the same or similar issues.

Can someone from Plex PLEASE respond here and help me get to the bottom of this? I am a long time user, and a huge advocate for Plex, but Iā€™m strongly considering abandoning the platform. I cannot watch high quality content on my 4K TV with Plex right now. The frame dropping is awful. Tell me what additional information you need from me. Iā€™m here to work with you to figure out this problem. But stop ignoring it and acting like itā€™s not an issue with your apps.

Seriously. My machines are more than powerful enough to handle this content. My router is more than powerful enough to stream this content locally. My wifi connection is more than sufficient for this bitrate. The fact that a 38 Mbps bitrate file plays smoothly and a 33 Mbps file stutters shows that it has nothing to do with bitrate or data speeds.

Itā€™s happening with both direct play media AND HD live streaming TV from hdhomerun, and itā€™s happening with different codecs, so itā€™s not a file issue. Unless Plex is incapable of playing any modern codec smoothly, in which case your service has become obsolete.

So come on, letā€™s get to the bottom of this. Tell me what you need from me and letā€™s figure this out.

1 Like
2

I just tried to replicate your issue and cannot get the same result. I tried multiple high bitrate 4K files and couldnā€™t get any of them to exhibit the behavior you are describing here. I frequently stream content of all kinds from Plex at my PC when sitting at my desk and have never really had an issue. The big difference in my setup is that I am on a hardwired connection on my PC. I have two suggestions, try connecting your PC through a physical connection, and checking your connection through Wi-Fi on a site like testmy.net as it does a much more thorough check of your network and can tell you if you have any kind of significant variance in your speeds that could explain the issues you are having. Remember that the bitrates you see are just averages and do not account for the large spikes and changes in bitrate that occur throughout a file. For example an 80Mbps 4K file could have spikes as high as 150Mbps or more, and if you hit one of those spikes while experiencing some sort of dip over your Wi-Fi (which is an incredibly common thing even with high end networking equipment) you will get a stutter. This is why it is so frequently suggested that if you are watching high bitrate content that you use physical connections. I am not trying to say your issue isnā€™t real, I just think it is worth trying a couple things before we assume all is lost. It is absolutely possible that something is wrong in the app, but you may find that ethernet fixes everything right up.

3

My wifi connection between my player and my router is more than fast enough to even handle ā€œspikes as high as 150Mbps or moreā€, but to humor you I went ahead and ran a Cat6 cable and tested again.

Exact same playback issues.

And to clarify - this is consistent throughout the media. It is not intermittent.

I took the testing further:

I downloaded the asset, then played it from the ā€œDownloadsā€ collection in the Plex for Windows app. Same playback issue. This is direct playing from a file, so I have completely removed the network from the equation.

I played the downloaded file in VLC, buttery smooth playback with no issues. This is direct playing the file in another media player, and there are no issues.

I played it via web browser (transcoding to ā€œMaximumā€ of the exact same bitrate and resolution, maintaining the TrueHD 7.1 audio), buttery smooth playback with no issues. This is playing the file via transcoding, instead of direct playing, in Plexā€™s web player. There are no issues.

There is only ONE common denominator in all the tests that results in stuttering playback. The Plex for Windows player.

Now can we please start actually looking at this issue instead of deflecting back onto the user? Again, happy to do any other tests and jump through any other hoops anyone wants me to jump through, but I think this makes it crystal clear what the point of failure is.

4

I was not talking about average speeds or trying to say there was anything wrong with your Wi-Fi network, I was saying that ALL Wi-Fi networks experience dips and if a dip and spike hit at the same time that could cause the stuttering you are seeing. It was just a guess, so breathe a little.

No one was trying to ā€œdeflect back onto the userā€. I was trying to help you possibly troubleshoot the problem back to possibly an easy solution. It is fairly clear now that something is wrong outside of the network. But getting angry and being passive-aggressive with someone is not going to get you better help. I really suggest finding your cool before continuing because the way you are being right now is going to turn off a lot of people from wanting to help you. My next suggestion would be doing a fresh install of the most current Plex for Windows app, but that is probably just another hoopā€¦

5

You do realise @Blkbyrd is a user too? Maybe show some gratitude that people are taking their time to assist you.

6

@Blkbyrd Apologies for the attitude. It wasnā€™t intended to be directed at you (yes, I know youā€™re just a user), but at any Plex folks who might actually read this thread. And itā€™s coming from the fact that I am not the first person to bring this up. Iā€™ve spent weeks combing through the forums and seeing thread after thread of people bringing this up, only to be ignored or to be told itā€™s probably an issue with their setup and couldnā€™t possibly be an issue with the app. Itā€™s beyond frustrating to know and experience an issue only to have the devs consistently ignore its existence.

And I wasnā€™t being abrasive/standoffish about ā€œjumping through hoopsā€ - Iā€™m 100% happy to do anything anyone wants. I literally ordered a long enough Cat6 cable via next day shipping from Amazon just to test via hardwiring per your suggestion - even though I knew that was not a solution.

Literally the first thing I did when experiencing this was to do a clean install. It did not resolve the issue.

Plex Media Player does a much better job, but still doesnā€™t play quite as smoothly as it should. Itā€™s also being phased out, and its interface is less than ideal for my setup. I much prefer using Plex for Windows, itā€™s simply not usable for high quality playback right now.

I do appreciate you offering suggestions, and I invite you to continue in case there is anything I overlooked. But this is not my first rodeo, and I am very experienced with software, hardware, and network troubleshooting. Iā€™ve spent a good amount of time researching this topic and trying everything that was suggested in any thread - both here and on reddit. Please understand, the only reason I made this thread is because there is no current solution for this issue.

I apologize for any perceived hostility, Iā€™m simply sick of this issue being overlooked by Plex staff, and I am at the end of my rope.

7

Its okay, Iā€™ve got fairly thick skin. I was just trying to keep things on the level. I have to run out and take care of some stuff, but I should be back in an hour or two. In the meantime, could you possibly do two things for me? Recreate the issue you are having and capture the server logs for me to try to comb through and see if I can see something that is causing the issue. Also, could you grab the XML data for the file from within Plex? I only need the first 20 lines.

XML Data
XML Data746Ɨ530 78.9 KB

8

Sure. PMing you all of that in just a moment.

edit: PMā€™d!

9

Posting additional info while Blkbyrd looks through the logs:

This is still happening with all 4K and most super high quality 1080p content. That said, playing the same content through Plex Media Player has just about no issues. I tried watching a 4K movie last night. Plex for Windows was super choppy even just at the production logos at the start of the movie. I switched over to PMP and that file played buttery smooth the whole time. This is not a solution, however, as this app is getting phased out and its UI isnā€™t nearly as desirable for my setup. This is clearly an issue with Plex for Windows, and it would be great if someone from Plex would actually finally take a look at whatā€™s causing it.

10

@jonnyatlas, youā€™re not alone. Same problem

11

@panchanclo I appreciate you chiming in! I know this is an issue many have come across. It seems a lot of us are either using an older player like PMP or jumping to Kodi or similar for 4K playback. Iā€™m personally really not a fan of the interface on either, and I have a significant amount of time invested in my Plex library, so Iā€™d really prefer Plex figure out whatā€™s going on with HEVC and other high end playback on Plex for Windowsā€¦

12

Bumping this because @Blkbyrd was unable to find anything out of the ordinary in my logs. If anyone from the Plex team could jump in and take a look that would be much appreciated! This seems to be an issue many are having that for some reason keeps going unnoticed, and it seems to be something going on with the Plex for Windows player. Iā€™ve been using PMP with zero playback issues while waiting for this issue to be resolved, but this is not a permanent solution. Considering Plex for Windows is supposed to be the ā€œnewā€ player replacing PMP, it would be good for this issue to be identified and resolved.

13

Bumping as itā€™s been a month and no one from Plex has addressed this yetā€¦

1 Like
14

Bumping again, as no one from Plex has seemingly even glanced at this topic.

PMP is not an ideal temp solution, due to its other instabilities, but itā€™s the only way Iā€™m able to stream live TV or play high bitrate files without framerate stuttering/dropping. The Plex for Windows player is terrible when it comes to playing high bitrate videos and streaming from HDHomerun. Iā€™m not the first to make a thread about this, and I would love for anyone from Plex to actually take the time to genuinely look into this issue. Iā€™ve provided copious amounts of information, and have done my due diligence and then some when it comes to troubleshooting to ensure that it is indeed an issue with the app itself.

Hey Plex staff! Where you at??

15

For what itā€™s worth, Iā€™ve been getting stuttered playback too. It gets worse or better depending on how Iā€™ve configured everything (displays,video driver,plex etc) but ultimately it wonā€™t be completely eliminated, in Plex for Windows app or Plex HTPC app.

Here is my thread regarding occasional but consistent FPS/stuttering issues: Routine drops in playback performance - visible FPS dropping - Plex Players - Plex Forum

After trying Plex HTPC as an alternative I have worse stuttering in some situations, as exampled in this post here: Plex HTPC feedback - #1155 by fidgetymo

According to a staff in the Plex HTPC app thread, it MIGHT be helped by an upcoming update to the MPV integration allowing for a different ā€˜gpu-contextā€™ being forced to d3d11 (rather than OpenGL) in the mpv.conf - however, until Plex windows apps gets updated to that, I canā€™t test. Iā€™ve read elsewhere that OpenGL might have issues with display syncing and so maybe thereā€™s a correlation.

I completely understand your frustration here!

1 Like
16

Bumping, and adding that this problem seems to be getting worse, rather than better. Last night I used Plex for Windows to play a fairly ā€œlowā€ bitrate 1080p file (9898 kbps 1080p H264 video @ 24fps, EAC3 5.1 audio at 640 kbps). I was seeing much of the same behavior. Any time there was a camera pan it was glaringly obvious that there was frame stuttering/dropping. Almost to the point of causing motion sickness.

Thereā€™s no reason the player should be having trouble playing something like that smoothly. The movie played just fine in PMP and VLC. So again, itā€™s clearly an issue with Plex for Windows.

PMP randomly stops playback due to its instability (and is being phased out), but otherwise plays video files smoothly (and its interface isnā€™t nearly as user friendly). Plex for Windows canā€™t play back anything 1080p or higher without frame stuttering/dropping. And the web player automatically transcodes anything with a high bitrate. There is currently no player for Plex that actually functions properly on Windows.

Any attention on this from the Plex team would be greatly appreciated. Plex is starting to become unusable for playing video, and Iā€™m far from the only person experiencing this issue.

17

I am not very knowledgeable about Live TV/DVR stuff since I canā€™t use it in my location were i get horrible reception but I will make a report if one does not already exist. If anyone here would not mind adding your server and player logs after the issue happens here it would appreciated so I can add to report.

(you can click on my username/avatar to message them to me if you donā€™t want to post in them this topic publicly)

18

Thank you for checking this out! Iā€™ll replicate the issue and send logs this evening. Iā€™ll even take some video of the same files playing in the different players for you.

Just noting that this happens with 1080p and 4K playback of library content as well as live TV/DVR. Seems to be any high quality playback is plagued by the stuttering/low frame rate.

1 Like
19

i can reproduce with Live TV/DVR causing plex for windows to come to a crawl. UI doesnt display after play starts, things get choppy. I have to click on the video (which pauses after some delay), to even get the ui to pop up again.

Ill send over logs via PM post work today, thanks

1 Like
20

Just updating to say that this still isnā€™t solved. I bought a Shield because I was sick of not being able to play video smoothly. So now I have to switch inputs just to use Plex on a different device.