Server Version#: 1.18.9.2578
Player Version#: iOS 6.10 + Latest Version on PS4 as of April 4th 2020
Hi everyone,
Having an issue with remote streaming and constant buffering when increasing video quality. A friend of mine is attempting to stream movies remotely with his PS4 and his iPhone and experiences constant buffering. I can provide screenshots for reference however i will just list the basics in dot point.
Please also note that i am differentiating between Mbps (megaBITS) and MBps (megaBYTES) per second.
My internet connection is 100MBps down 40Mbps up. Real world speed test 97Mbps down 35.5Mbps up.
My LAN is connected via ethernet gigabit.
My friend has a 50Mbps connection at his house. Real world speed test using PS4’s inbuilt speed test is 45Mbps down and 2.4Mbps up.
I have tested local playback of 80Mbps 4K Blurays and i have also tested transcoding 1080p 20Mbps streams and everything works fine locally, my server’s CPU is able to keep up (Xeon 8 core).
When i transcode a 20Mbps bluray down to 10Mbps i can see my server’s upload sitting at about 8-9Mbps (expected).
When I play original quality (20Mbps) i can see my server’s upload sitting at 18-20Mbps (expected).
When my friend plays the same video, he caps out at about 8.5Mbps and his stream buffers.
The same happens on his iPhone.
I want to stress that i have run multi and single stream speed tests on my server, and i have also set up an FTP and tested real world transfer speeds and by all rights i can upload at 35Mbps without issue.
However when my friend streams in Plex on PS4 or iOS he is unable to reliably play a 1080p 20Mbps direct stream.
I’m running a WD PR2100 which has 4GB DDR3 and the 1.6 GHz Intel Pentium N3710 Quad-Core.
My Net is 100/40 with real world being around 95/35.
In the last month or so everyone I’m sharing my library with is saying their streams keep buffering and yet on my dashboard, my bandwidth/CPU/GPU usage is barely breaking a sweat. One of my sharers has had buffering from me from day one.
Not sure what else to try here, I’ve tried literally everything including removing Plex from my NAS and re-installing it.
Turns out this is a Telstra issue. Telstra is throttling something. Because when I use 4G it works fine. Same with those sharing my library. But the one thing they all have in common is that they have Telstra as their ISP.
I then asked the one person I know who isn’t on Telstra to test out my library and it worked just fine. They are with Optus.
So yeah, Telstra is doing something on their end that is affecting Plex streaming.
I don’t have a solution, but I’m tagging along because I have the same problem. Good bandwidth, good transcoding, and sometimes there is no buffering, but if multiple users are on, sometimes there is. I can’t find what the problem is.
Hey @Shpeshal-Ed thanks for testing! Yes, i can confirm that i am with Telstra and so is my friend. It’s odd that they’d specifically throttle Plex over other protocols like NZB or torrents.
I might change the default port and see if that makes a difference.
I have comcast in the US and have a similar issue, i have 10mpbs upload but anything above 3 will buffer. If I run a speed test from the same server it states 10-12mbps every time but plex is limited.
This setup worked for years and only started having these issues since February or March.
