Whenever I play 1 specific video my video playback is like 10 fps and the video has ghosting in-network. If I play it on my host computer, video plays fine. Here is the media-info for the video in question. If I disable hardware acceleration it solves some of the fps issues but it still is dropping frames. Forcing transcoding also kinda solves it? But it shouldn’t be happening in the first place. Happens with literally no other content on my server.
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4 / Version 2
File size : 10.7 GiB
Duration : 2 h 15 min
Overall bit rate : 11.3 Mb/s
Encoded date : UTC 2021-07-30 02:00:41
Writing application : mkvmerge v28.2.0 (‘The Awakening’) 64-bit
Writing library : libebml v1.3.6 + libmatroska v1.4.9
Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main@L6.2@Main
Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration : 2 h 15 min
Bit rate : 11.0 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 59.940 (60000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.089
Stream size : 10.4 GiB (98%)
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : A_AAC
Duration : 2 h 15 min
Bit rate : 253 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 46.875 FPS (1024 spf)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 246 MiB (2%)
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Server Version#: 4.59.2
Player Version#: 1.29.0.1885-67668ec3
Level 6.2 is appropriate for 4K video at 120fps, not 1080p at 60fps (which would be level 4.1).
Plex for Windows most likely cannot handle that level of video and is either struggling to play it or asking Plex Media Server to transcode it, either of which could result in fps drops.
Either acquire a properly encoded version or process the video with Handbrake or similar tools to create an appropriately encoded version.
Thanks for your response though this brings up the question as to why this video has stutters as well. It uses 4.1 as you stated would be ideal.
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4 / Version 2
File size : 8.29 GiB
Duration : 1 h 59 min
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 9 901 kb/s
Encoded date : UTC 2020-03-23 07:24:23
Writing application : mkvmerge v35.0.0 (‘All The Love In The World’) 64-bit
Writing library : libebml v1.3.9 + libmatroska v1.5.2
Audio
ID : 2
Format : FLAC
Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec
Codec ID : A_FLAC
Duration : 1 h 59 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 1 847 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 11.719 FPS (4096 spf)
Bit depth : 24 bits
Stream size : 1.55 GiB (19%)
Writing library : libFLAC 1.3.2 (UTC 2017-01-01)
Language : Japanese
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Text
ID : 3
Format : PGS
Muxing mode : zlib
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Duration : 1 h 52 min
Bit rate : 21.6 kb/s
Count of elements : 2446
Stream size : 17.3 MiB (0%)
Language : Japanese
Default : Yes
Forced : No
If transcoding, then there is something about the video Plex for Windows does not like. 10 bit HEVC is fine. Maybe the 60 fps? I don’t have anything similar to test with on my PC.
If direct playing, check the Plex for Windows settings. Settings → Plex for Windows → Player (Show Advanced).
Try adjusting Video Quality Playback (Low/Normal/High/Max). The higher the quality, the more system resources Plex for Windows will use.
You can check the box by “Use Hardware Decoding” to tell Plex for Windows whether or not to use the graphics processor on your system.
You can use tools such as HWMonitor and Task Manager to check CPU/GPU utilization with various settings.
My desktop: i7-4790K CPU, Nvidia 750 Ti video card, 1080p SDR display.
Plex for Windows: 1.33.0.2444
4K HDR10 movie rips/remuxes direct play smoothly, as does any 1080p H.264 video.
4K Dolby Vision video is transcoded by Plex Media Server. Anything over ~30 Mbps buffers, due to CPU/GPU limitations of my Plex server.
i7 8700k cpu, rtx 2080 gpu, 32gb 3000mhz ddr4 ram
so realistically I have no idea why suddenly my streams are having issues because I thought it was all based on the host machine.
The client machine on the other hand is just a crappy laptop with a i5-6300HQ, and GTX 960M GPU, 8gb of ram.
I did try setting the quality playback to low and it did improve it but again I’m a bit at a loss why its suddenly just now having issues.
I get a better stream though literally remoting into my desktop with parsec and then just playing the video or opening it in plex on the desktop via the remote connection…
I took a look and regardless of settings it uses 100% of my cpu up and 40% on both my gpu’s doens’t make much sense. It seems like the hardware decoding button isn’t doing anything.
