Before adding player and server versions, is there a way to increase the buffer? I tried playing a 4K HDR movie tonight, and it froze to buffer three (?) times in an hour.
Not in the LG Plex app. Many devices such as Smart TVs and streaming sticks have limited storage. The device manufacturers limit the space available to apps for use as buffers, on-device storage, etc.
Some things to check:
How are your server & TV connected to the network?
- The server should be on a wired, Gigabit Ethernet connection.
- The TV will work better with a strong 5 GHz 802.11 AC signal than with a wired connection. The Ethernet port on the TV is 100 Mbps. Some 4K HDR movies can burst above 100 Mbps. This may cause buffering for Ethernet attached TVs. The TV’s WiFi supports connections faster than 100 Mbps, so a strong 5 GHz signal can provide better results than a wired connection. Note that 2.4 GHz WiFi has limited bandwidth and most likely cannot support 4K HDR streams.
Is the audio or video transcoding?
- Monitor playback via Plex Dashboard → Now Playing.
- If possible, choose audio & video formats that do not transcode.
Be aware of how the LG Plex app behaves with audio formats and subtitles. It is easy to inadvertently cause a video transcode:
- Enabling image based subtitles, such as PGS & VOBSUB, results in a video transcode.
- If the audio is transcoding, enabling any subtitle results in a video transcode.
- Text subtitles, SRT & VTT, direct play.
- For SSA/ASS subtitles:
- If Burn Subtitles = Automatic, enabling SSA./ASS subtitles results in a video transcode.
- If Burn Subtitles = Image Formats Only, SSA/ASS subtitles direct play, but formatting information (color, position, etc) is ignored.
Your TV does not support TrueHD or dts audio. Both will be transcoded by Plex Media Server when using the Plex LG app. Keep this in mind when choosing whether or not to enable subtitles.
Thanks for awesome help 
How can I make sure the video doesn’t transcode?
The network connection was the first thing I checked, and I ended up switching from 5GHz to wired gigabit. I think my wifi is flakey as I live in a building with 60 other apartments and there’s a lot of networks crowding the same channels.
Basically, no image based subtitles ever, and if the audio is transcoding, no subtitles of any type. Specifics as mentioned in earlier post.
Yeah, you may not have a choice if the band is crowded with others.
Just be aware that the TV Ethernet port is 100 Mbps, not 1 Gbps, so you may still experience buffering on high bit rate files (4K HDR disc rips & remuxes).
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One more question
Will setting a higher compression (and x265) help? I guess that will require more of the processor, but less of bandwidth.
Yes you can encode with x264 or x265 to stream it over fast ethernet. Instead of using higher compression, they have specific modes to enforce bandwidth caps. For 100mbps ethernet, maxrate (x264) or vbv-maxrate (x265) must be set to 100000 which ensures the bandwidth requirement doesn’t go over 100mbps (it doesn’t hard cap the bitrate but it doesn’t need to). You also need to define bufsize (x264) or vbv-bufsize (x265) but the buffer size of TVs aren’t usually published. I would go with 160000 and not think about it too much.
Just add them on to whatever other settings you were going to use.
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What do you mean by “setting a higher compression”?
When streaming a 4K HDR movie in Plex, you want it to direct play, which means Plex streams the video as is, it does not modify it in any way.
As mentioned earlier, monitor playback via Plex Dashboard. If the movie is transcoding, then determine why that is happening and eliminate the cause.
If you still experience buffering when direct playing, there may be other causes, but that cannot be determined without additional details.
You’ve been asking general questions and receiving general answers. Solving specific problems requires more detailed information.
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Thanks. I tried to be as specific as I could, but this is very far away from my expertise - but I did get a lot of very useful info and I’m very happy with that. If the problems persist this should be plenty to help me troubleshoot and learn more.
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