Server Version#:latest PC
Player Version#:3.98.0
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I have LG 4K OLED. Plex on WebOS cannot play my 4K file without pausing for a split second every min or so. If I play the same file via same ethernet cable from my Roku Plex - everything is fine. Advise please!
- Have a look at your PMS âStatusâ page when youâre playing 4k content on the LG to see if itâs transcoding
- Is your TV on a wired or wifi connection?
The TVâs Ethernet port is 100 Mbps (on 7 & 8 series, not sure about new 9s). You may have better results with wifi, especially if youâve a strong 802.11AC connection. You can monitor the bandwidth via the Plex Web status dashboard.
Do not choose TrueHD or dts-HD audio. Those will transcode, which may lead to buffering/pausing.
Turn off subtitles if enabled. Enabling PGS or VOBSUB subtitles will result in video transcoding. SRT subtitles are OK unless the audio is transcoding. SRT + audio transcoding results in video transcoding as well.
LG OLED E7N, wired connection, 4K stored locally and served from a Windows 10 Pro x64 PC, gigabit local network.
All enabled at client side to let direct play and so.
Plex Dashboard showing DirectPlay. Only transcoding with âburn-flyâ subtitles.
No issues about buffering at normal conditions.
I would recommend switching to WiFi, and if possible creating a dedicated SSID, locked to the 5GHz bandwidth. I used to have similar issues but now it is rock solid.
What SSID you use makes no difference at all. Whatâs important, if youâre trying to have as much bandwidth as possible for this use, is to ensure youâre on a channel thatâs not being used by other networks. Unfortunately this is very hard with 5GHz wifi, as youâre usually limited to ch36, unless youâre in an area where you can use DFS channels and your equipment supports it.
To be clear, if you create a new SSID alongside your existing one, but theyâre both using the same channel, youâre still sharing the bandwidth available, as wifi is a broadcast medium.
Also, have a read of this (Plex, 4k, transcoding, and you - aka the rules of 4k - a FAQ) it has some very good tricks and tips getting 4k streaming working as smoothly as possible.
Thank you, Ill try! Im puzzled that anything over ethernet would have an issue 
My reason for suggesting a specific SSID, locked to the 5GHz channel is that often your router will push the device on to the 2.4GHz range - which doesnât offer sufficient bandwidth for 4k. Its not necessary but is a safer solution.
100Mb Ethernet does not have the bandwidth to support high bitrate 4k. 5GHz WiFi does.
In all honesty, itâs unlikely to be the networking thatâs at fault from a local server if youâre using a wired connection. Youâll be able to transfer up to about 80mb/s over a 100mb/s network connection, and there arenât a lot of 4k movie remuxes that go over that. Most re-encodes are more like 30-40mb/s and WEB-DLs are typically around 15-20mb/s, these are quite playable over 100mb/s ethernet.
2.4GHz wifi will struggle and mostly fail to cope with that sort of throughput, as will powerline networking (unless youâve got very good mains cabling in your house).
I must admit I donât know a lot about PMS on Windows, but have a look at task manager while youâre streaming a file thatâs pausing. Are you seeing CPU spikes or drop-outs in disk or network throughput? Have a look at the PMS debug log at the same time and see if thereâs anything notable.
FYI, I stream 4k content regularly from a Synology NAS over 100mb/s wired ethernet to an LG OLED55B8 (via a powerline ethernet segment!) and an LG SK8500 with no buffering issues at all. I ensure my content only has audio and subtitle tracks that will not trigger transcoding.
@munchit - name your SSIDs separately for your 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks, assign your devices accordingly, and this wonât be a problem for you 
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That makes sense! Thanks
Not all routers permit you to name different ones⊠my Ubiquiti being one of them.
A number of 4k rips are coming out over and above the 80Mbps threshold, also if you have enabled any sort of remote access to the TV that uses a chunk of overhead, as does their wonderfull built in advertising. Youâd be amazed at how much.
For me 100Mb ethernet wasnât sufficient and stuttered on some films. 5GHz WiFi has been faultless.
Weâre agreeing on the solution though!
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Hehe, ironically, I downloaded a copy of the 4K77 version of Star Wars today and, guess what? Little pause every few seconds during playback 
This is the DNR version, but still averages around 50mb/s. The non-DNR version is more like 80mb/s. Strangely, though, itâs not the highest bitrate file in my library; thatâs apparently 2001: A Space Odyssey, which plays absolutely fine. I think that may be to do with Star War having 5 or 6 audio tracks, though. That certainly increases the overall bitrateâŠ
edit Nope, just connected the TV to my 5ghz AC WiFi: the AP is in the room next door but I still get connected at ~800mb/s (VHT-MCS 9, for those that care) and itâs still pausing every few seconds in high-motion scenes. I think the TVâs hardware simply isnât capable of decoding the file quickly enough 
To be fair, itâs not designed to. Itâs designed to handle streaming video of the kind you get over a home broadband connection (Amazon, Netflix, etc.). The highest bitrate non-Plex streamed media Iâve seen so far has been iPlayerâs 4K HDR trial, and that was only ~30mb/s
edit 2 I turned DLNA on and tried playing with the native LG video player app and itâs slightly better, but still has regular pauses in high motion scenes. Iâm convinced this is a limitation of the TV hardware.
I completely agree! So my original question was about plex on LG 65C8. I think problem is right there. Because, if I unplug that same cable and plug it into Roku - everything plays smoothly on the same TV. I think that Plex or LG
hardware cannot handle buffering fast enough.
Today I got new Motorola wifi router and I see the same thing.
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I play a number of files well over 80Mb/s, connected via WiFi on a B7 TV without issue⊠the TV isnât decoding or converting anything though, itâs simply playing the stream it receives which may be why it works. Are you sure it isnât the unit handling the conversion that is the bottleneck? Mine runs from a Synology DS918+ with 4k Hardware Decoding built in to the unitâŠ
Iâm not doing any conversion, the TV is technically capable of playing the streamâs content formats. I think thereâs something weird about the encoding of the 4k77 file as I have other files with a higher bitrate that play fine on this TV (some bluray remuxes, for example) 
In my opinion the TV is âdecodingâ the stream (my definition may differ from yours, however), as it does with any digital data. Thereâs a transport or packetised stream of data, with multiplexed audio, video and possibly subtitles or other data. The TV has to demux these streams and send them to different hardware to process and present to the playback hardware. Thereâs a finite amount bandwidth and processing power in these subsystems. I think the sustained bitrate of the 4k77 (and other significantly high bitrate files) file is just too much for this TV, as I canât think of any other reason itâd be choking on this one file in my collection.
Also, consider that, yes, actual Bluray discs are likely a higher overall bitrate, but theyâre intended to be played on dedicated hardware with decoders engineered for the specification of the media. The decoder in the bluray player then sends an uncompressed video stream over HDMI to the TV which is then displaying raw data, with no decompression or demuxing involved. If I was engineering a TV to decode web/streaming content and accept Bluray video from an external player, I wouldnât waste money on processing hardware that could cope with native Bluray bitrates. But this is something that some people expect from Plex on smart TVs, even though theyâre not designed for it.
Iâm not convinced on the bitrate size being the issue. Iâve a few that are in the 80âs and work just fine - I have an OLED55B7 FYI.
Your analogy of a Blu-ray is correct but is your Plex media system doing direct play or is it converting? If it is Direct Play then it is doing exactly as your analogy of Blu-ray.
Here is my experience with LG B7 OLED and high bitrate (Remux) movies with 80 Mbps average bitrate. First time I used the Ethernet cable, because I always use Ethernet for everything if it have an Ethernet port. Every movie up to average 50-60 Mbps bitrate was OK, but over that there was a problem: buffering. As you can see, the average is with bold, because there is another parameter what you must see, the peak bitrates. For a few seconds the buffer is enough for the peaks, but if you watching an action movie with 2 minute long action scene, the average of those two minutes can be easily over 100-120 Mbps.
It took me a week to figure out, that the problem is the Ethernet port on my TV. Yes, in 2017 or 2018 the Ethernet port on TV for two thousand or more euros is a cheap 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet. 
So, plan B: I reconfigured little bit my Wi-Fi network and created an âonly 5 GHzâ network for the TV. The âonlyâ part is very important, because APs like my Ubiquiti UAP-AC-Pro normally creates Wi-Fi network with same SSID on both frequencies (2.4 and 5 GHz). This way Iâm sure, that TV will never fall back to the slower 2.4 GHz network.
After I connected the TV to my network over Wi-Fi, the connection speed went from 90-95 Mbps to 140-160 Mbps. Itâs not much, if you see on your AP the connection profile VHT-MCS 9 (867 Mbps), but itâs enough for 4K Remuxes. The weakest link in this case is the TVâs Wi-Fi, because my phone is capable over 400 Mbps over the same AP/network. I also tried more powerful AP with 802.11ac Wave 2 (Ubiquiti Unifi UAP-nanoHD), practically a got same speed results.
BTW, it took me days how to figure out how test the connection speeds. First I used different speed testing applications from LG TV store, but typically they using servers in North America, and they are useless for me in Central Europe. I tried speedtest.net webpage in the built in browser after that, but I figured out, this web page is somehow slow, probably the TVâs CPU isnât enough for this animated sht with loads of ads⊠Then I found the fast.com web page, and this have the best results on the TV. Of course, your internet connection speed must be faster, than these Wi-Fi speeds. 
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Another thing about 5 GHz Wi-Fi: It is capable of better speeds, but the signal canât penetrate over walls like the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi. Because of that, the access point should be in the same room like the TV. In other case, you can easily loose half or 2/3 of your Wi-Fi speed just next room from your AP.
And this is still not enough. Sometimes movies with much lower bitrate, like 1080p with average around 35 Mbps buffers to. I donât know why, but it happens.
First time it pissed me off. My PMS is running on Ryzen 5 with fast disk array, the whole network except the TV is over gigabit Ethernet, the CPU was in idle, network also. No reason to slowdowns and I canât find out what is the problem if the Wi-Fi is stable around 150 Mbps real speed, and the movie need 1/4th of that.
After that I tested the Wi-Fi speeds on the TV again, and here it comes, 30-50 Mbps for no reason. The TV worked long hours before that without a problem, I watched 4K movies before that and a 1080p is buffering? Something is wrong with that TV. I figured out, that turning it off (for a minute) and on again is helping in situations like this. After that the Wi-Fi speed is around 140-160 Mbps again.
Solution C: Buy nVIDIA Shield or similar Plex capable player.
Solution D: Buy a new OLED TV with gigabit Ethernet port, faster CPU and HDMI 2.1.
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Yup, I mentioned about the dedicated 5GHz network (maybe only a Ubiquiti issue not sure - but it works for me)
The other advice I received elsewhere was to do with the serving of adverts and âlistening modeâ. In a nutshell follow these 2 things (the AVForums one is a little outdated but fundamentally works - the menu options are slightly different)
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Never heard of the âListening Modeâ thing before, Iâll give that a try
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