Hey, I just bought new Samsung TV QE77S90C and noticed Plex app is buffering 4k movies like every 3-6 seconds… Extremely annoying. TV is attached to the gigabit network. There are no issues whatsoever when streaming via Emby or DLNA. Only Plex is having this problem. I would like to understand if this is solvable on the Plex side or not, sice I have about 10 days to return the TV for the full refund. Thanks!
Media Info of the movie:
Media
Duration 1:58:14
Bitrate 60084 kbps
Width 3840
Height 2160
Aspect Ratio 1.78
Video Resolution 4K
Container MKV
Video Frame Rate 24p
Video Profile main 10
Part
Duration 1:58:14
File The.Lion.King.2019.UHD.2160p.HDR.mkv
Size 49.68 GB
Container MKV
Indexes sd
Video Profile main 10
Codec HEVC
Bitrate 54289 kbps
Bit Depth 10
Chroma Location topleft
Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
Coded Height 2160
Coded Width 3840
Color Primaries bt2020
Color Range tv
Color Space bt2020nc
Color Trc smpte2084
Frame Rate 23.976 fps
Height 2160
Level 5.1
Profile main 10
Ref Frames 1
Width 3840
Display Title 4K HDR10 (HEVC Main 10)
Extended Display Title 4K HDR10 (HEVC Main 10)
Codec TRUEHD
Channels 8
Bitrate 4929 kbps
Language English
Language Tag en
Audio Channel Layout 7.1
Bit Depth 24
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Title TrueHD Atmos 7.1
Display Title English (TRUEHD 7.1)
Extended Display Title TrueHD Atmos 7.1 (English)
Codec AC3
Channels 6
Bitrate 640 kbps
Language English
Language Tag en
Audio Channel Layout 5.1(side)
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Title AC3 5.1
Display Title English (AC3 5.1)
Extended Display Title AC3 5.1 (English)
Codec PGS
Bitrate 35 kbps
Language English
Language Tag en
Title English (SDH)
Display Title English (PGS)
Extended Display Title English (SDH) (PGS)
Codec PGS
Bitrate 31 kbps
Language French
Language Tag fr
Title French (Canadian)
Display Title French (PGS)
Extended Display Title French (Canadian) (French PGS)
Codec PGS
Bitrate 25 kbps
Language French
Language Tag fr
Title French (Parisian)
Display Title French (PGS)
Extended Display Title French (Parisian) (French PGS)
Codec PGS
Bitrate 28 kbps
Language German
Language Tag de
Title German
Display Title German (PGS)
Extended Display Title German (German PGS)
Codec PGS
Bitrate 28 kbps
Language Italian
Language Tag it
Title Italian
Display Title Italian (PGS)
Extended Display Title Italian (Italian PGS)
Codec PGS
Bitrate 25 kbps
Language Norwegian
Language Tag no
Title Norwegian
Display Title Norwegian (PGS)
Extended Display Title Norwegian (Norwegian PGS)
Codec PGS
Bitrate 29 kbps
Language Spanish
Language Tag es
Title Spanish (Latin American)
Display Title Spanish (PGS)
Extended Display Title Spanish (Latin American) (Spanish PGS)
Codec PGS
Bitrate 24 kbps
Language Swedish
Language Tag sv
Title Swedish
Display Title Swedish (PGS)
Extended Display Title Swedish (Swedish PGS)
Hey, thanks for the reply. Dont understand why it should create the problem then? Plex server should handle the audio transcoding… Also the network speed should be sufficient. Thanks
EDIT:
When I decreased the quality it stopped with the constant buffering… so don’t understand if I have enough bandwidth and only audio is transcoded then it keeps buffering. However when both are transcoded no buffering problems…
EDIT2:
The movie happened to have AC3 audio format. When I switched to it, the buffering occurrence decreased but still happening and just now the whole movie got stuck and wont move.
It looks to me like the video should be transcoding. I believe if you have an audio transcode with subtitles enabled (especially image based like PGS) the video stream should automatically start a transcode. That’s to keep video, audio and subs in sync, but that seems to be failing
When you manually decrease the quality does the video start to transcode from what you can see in the dashboard?
@MacGyver27 its Plex’s app fault, im on the same boat as you but with 2021 gen.
Enabling PGS subtitles can cause even more buffers fyi, first you should try without PGS subs or with SRT subs instead.
For those thinking the buffers are from video being transcoded are just wrong, he has obviously shown the video is direct streaming and second pgs subs are currently supported, but like i said they make things even worse.
Seems like the devs barely test the app or use extremely lightweight content to do so.
About a year and a half ago the app was working much better, it had no PGS support but for the most part the app worked, other than transcoding every single audio format.
I turned off the subtitles, still have the buffering problem, but less often.
Plex has problems even playing a 15 year old rip - turning off SRT subtitles and using AC3 audio still buffering issues.
Media
Duration 2:18:14
Bitrate 14035 kbps
Width 1920
Height 800
Aspect Ratio 2.35
Video Resolution 1080p
Container MKV
Video Frame Rate 24p
Audio Profile dts
Video Profile high
Part
Duration 2:18:14
File Harry Potter 5 - And The Order Of The Phoenix #[2007] 1080p BluRay dts.ac3.ac3 x264.mkv
Size 13.56 GB
Audio Profile dts
Container MKV
Indexes sd
Video Profile high
Codec H264
Bitrate 11245 kbps
Language English
Language Tag en
Bit Depth 8
Chroma Location left
Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
Coded Height 800
Coded Width 1920
Frame Rate 23.976 fps
Height 800
Level 5.1
Profile high
Ref Frames 8
Scan Type progressive
Title Harry Potter 5
Width 1920
Display Title 1080p (H.264)
Extended Display Title Harry Potter 5 (1080p H.264)
Forced true
Codec DCA
Channels 6
Bitrate 1510 kbps
Language English
Language Tag en
Audio Channel Layout 5.1(side)
Bit Depth 24
Profile dts
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Title Anglický
Display Title English (DTS 5.1)
Extended Display Title Anglický (English DTS 5.1)
Codec AC3
Channels 6
Bitrate 640 kbps
Language Slovak
Language Tag sk
Audio Channel Layout 5.1(side)
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Title Slovenský
Display Title Slovak (AC3 5.1)
Extended Display Title Slovenský (Slovak AC3 5.1)
Codec AC3
Channels 6
Bitrate 640 kbps
Language Czech
Language Tag cs
Audio Channel Layout 5.1(side)
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Title Český
Display Title Czech (AC3 5.1)
Extended Display Title Český (Czech AC3 5.1)
Codec SRT
Language English
Language Tag en
Title Anglické
Display Title English (SRT)
Extended Display Title Anglické (English SRT)
Codec SRT
Language Slovak
Language Tag sk
Title Slovenské
Display Title Slovak (SRT)
Extended Display Title Slovenské (Slovak SRT)
Codec SRT
Language Czech
Language Tag cs
Title České
Display Title Czech (SRT)
Extended Display Title České (Czech SRT)
You are using the lan port, I guess? I have the same issue with my Sony, they only support 10/100 Mbit (check your manual!). I know this is absurde with a new TV but Netflix and co use heavy compressed streams and they never come near 100 MBit, so I think the tv producer think a Tv does nit need GBit.
So either use 5GHz WiFi or a 1GBit usb Adapter plugged into the tv.
That was the first thing I thought about when I saw 162mbps, but the screen shot of his speed test indicates he’s already on Wi-Fi
Are you having a problem with just this file, or other files with a similar bitrate? For instance, can you play a 4k movie at 60mbps without any problems?
Honestly on Wi-Fi comparing your file to download speed I would expect some playback issues but the video you posted seems like it’s excessive. Either that or I would expect a transcode to kick in so something still seems off to me
I have been seeing some playback problems which appear to be related to the new “Quality suggestions” setting on certain TV’s and especially Samsung. (Under Video)
Just for giggles I would go and toggle that on and off and see if you get any improvement
This could be server or network related so if you don’t get an android guy in here to help I’ll try and ping someone who I know can dissect your logs a lot better than I can
Should have my Samsung TV delivered sometime today so hopefully I can test this out also as I use Spanish subs on all my content for my wife. I see on your first post the Lion King movie is using 4K main 10 (Bit Depth 10), I thought Plex only could handle Bit Depth of 8? Glad to see that is not the case.
So after testing 4K playback on Plex both from my ShieldTV PlexServer and from my Home Assistant PlexServer I find that neither seems to be able to handle the processing with or without subtitles. So I ended up sharing my 4K content on my NAS direct to my Samsung 4K TV and that seems to play fine even with subtitles enabled. If anyone here is able to get PlexServer to serve up 4K content with Subtitles with no issues please let us know.
Well I take most of the above back! I did manage to get a 4K movie to play smoothly with subtitles! I had to move my Samsung 4K TV and my HAos computer to the main router of my Asus mesh network. It did not like trying to stream it over one of the nodes. So I binded both to the main router and set everything up from scratch as I had made a lot of changes in Plex server and on the TV plex app so started from a clean slate and one movie actually played. I also have a 4K show that still is studdering but I may know why and will investigate more but I think it has to due with the Subs already being in the MVK file as it has a long list of subtitle options when I open up the list to select where as thee 4K movie file I had to add the subtitle file from the internet. Will update as I mess around more with it.
I play 4k movies on my Samsung 2021 model without any problems. Also with srt subtitles. I do have the same issue with DTS streams though, they always stutter massively. Which is something I didn’t have with my Samsung TV of 2012 btw. I am using cable, no wireless too and a NAS that should be powerfull enough to transcode 4k on the fly.
Right now, TRUEHD/ DCA is the default audio channel, use MKVtoolnix to change it to EAC3/ AC3. (most critical one). I have changed this on my movie library. They are all playing very well. All direct play.
Set “Local Quality” & “Remote Quality” to “Original” in Plex setting.
Turn off any quality suggestion in Plex setting
That should make Plex to direct play without any buffering.
Well through DLNA it works. Wouldnt say its network problem.
Definitely no… In other room I have 5 year old SonyTV which plays everything flawlessly via Plex, Emby or DLNA… never had issue with 4K or TrueHD Audio… so don’t understand why it is problem for this new Samsung TV QE77S90C… Before on the same spot I had Philips TV and no problems…
Dont understand why should I switch over to AC3 if my 5 year old SonyTV never had problems with any of formats… As I mentioned it plays 4K and TrueHD flawlessly…
To warp up. I bought external player called Zidoo Z9X Pro… it has internal media player which works. But it is a real shame to use another device to play 15 year old movie releases…
Is anybody looking into this? When I posted some problems to Zidoo forum they were able to release fix within a week! Here it seems impossible… Plex keeps adding features but cant handle fundamental functionality of the app…
https://youtube.com/shorts/KwDLUqzIheg
I have the exact same issue with plex app on my 2023 samsung s90c . almost all 4k movies are constantly buffering every 3-6-10 seconds and i dont understand why because it should just play w/o any issues. both with pgs and srt subtitles. i notice that every movie is a direct stream instead of direct play. most of the time is speed:0.0 throttled .i dont know what that means but i think that is causing the buffering issue.Along with ‘‘Stream count exceeds 30 streams’’ . I’m having this problem since i got the tv. i tried plex media server on my normal pc, qnap and now i have a powerfull unraid server but still its buffering and its unusable. any other plex like app works fine . jellyfin does direct play on every movie and it works perfect.no stream count limit and no direct stream,but direct play. i dont like the interface of jellyfin and it was a pain to get jellyfin on tizen and i prefer plex but unfortunatly the plex samsung app is unusable . i hope plex finds the problem and fixes it.
I have noticed that Plex has added new option for “setting to force on direct play” since version 5.78.2. It seems that it solved the constantly buffering issue due to playing Direct Stream. You can try.
