Remote bandwidth below 2Mbps in direct play

[yuhaohe]

Server Version#: 1.32.8.7639
Player Version#: iOS Plex App 8.28
<If providing server logs please do NOT turn on verbose logging, only debug logging should be enabled>

Hey guys:

I build a plex media server on synology dms (which is installed in proxmox), I have configured remote access, and it showed me well, i can access my plex media server out of my local network.

in the remote access configure page, i set the upload bandwidth with a enough value (100Mbps), and no limit for single stream user.

but the problem is when i play movies in remote network, the bandwidth is always below 2Mbps (which is showed in the dashborad), but i didn’t use relay, and it actually showed “direct play” in the dashboard, but the remote bandwidth is still below 2Mbps (I bought plex pass lifetime).

I have searched some infomation, it said that the 2Mbps limit is because of the relay mode, but i already closed relay.

so, is there anyone met this problem? and have some resolutions? thanks.

[JaysPlex]

Are you having a playback problem, or you just think it should be streaming at a higher bitrate?

Looking at the media info, what bitrate do the files actually have?

If it says direct play and you turned the relay off it sounds like it’s working properly

From what you’re describing, it sounds like that might be all the files need to stream. I have quite a bit of content that plays at 2mbps or lower.

[yuhaohe]

thanks for you reply. yes, there is a playback problem, it’s very janky, buffering frequently when play some movie which has bitrate above 2Mbps, whatever the direct play or transcode play.

[sielbear]

you aren’t alone - i’m not seeing 2Mbps, but playback is AWFUL remotely lately. i’ve got 1 Gbps symmetrical and seeing garbage playback on plex. Emby playing fine. Something not right with PMS at the moment. Nothing will direct play - worked fine 2 weeks ago.

[gbooker02]

Typically this is due to the PMS not being directly reachable outside your network. In such cases it ends up relying on relay which has a 2Mbps limit for Plex Pass. See the docs for more information on relay.

Check your network setup, router, etc to see if the problem is actually there.

[ChuckPa]

To add to gbooker,

If you have the Synology firewall enabled, you must open port 32400/tcp

DSM updates often close the ports.

ISPs will update modem/router firmware which also can drop port forwarding configurations

[yuhaohe]

Thanks for you reply, I’m sure of that I didn’t open relay, and the dash board show my remote playback is direct play.

I have already forwarded port 32400 to PMS Server, as you see, the ‘remote access’ looks good.

[yuhaohe]

thank you too, and as i replied above, i have already opened port 32400, and i have closed firewall in dsm.

[JaysPlex]

But it is playing over 2mbps

The number you see in the top at 8mbps is in most cases at least double what the average is if you actually look at the bitrate of the file

A lot of the time during playback you will see it well below that number of 8mbps

My server:

That being said, your direct play is buffering which shouldn’t happen, I’m just not sure the graphs you’re looking at are a great way to diagnose that

You may have to provide logs so Chuck or gbooker02 can take a look

[OttoKerner]

Just take a look at the Plex media info XML of that video, particularly at the values in requiredBandwidths and in comparison those in bitrate.

[Tim836]

I experience the same Problem since around 2 weeks, i thought it was about peering but i was able to proof that it was not a bandwidth issue. Even stranger: fully transcoded Videos with 70% CPU usage played even better than direct play.

Plex in Google TV said my bandwidth was limited to 2,5Mbit, while i was able to buffer around 90Mbit with the same Server but a different streaming Software. Sometimes like now Playback works fine again.

And it was also no relay issue, the servers traffic showed direct Transmission without any Plex Servers in the middle.

I only have 2 theories: ISP throttling (Deutsche Glasfaser) for Port 32400 or some weird Bug inside PMS. But to me it looks like a PMS bug, because i even was able to stream to multiple devices from the same network, always limited to around 2,5Mbit or less.

[yuhaohe]

Thanks, i checked the media info xml as your mention, and the requiredBandwidths is below my ISP up-bandwidth (also my config value in the remote access page), but it still couldn’t play smoothly.

I have observed the playback records for a week, sometimes the remote bandwidth jump above to 3 or 4mbps，sometimes 5mbps，but the average is near 2、3mbps for the most part, just like the friend Tim836 from upstair.

So, i setup the remote stream quality is ‘720P 4mbps’ to ensure playback is barely smooth.

[sielbear]

I’ve continued to battle this, BUT, I have a solution that’s working for me. After lots of testing, I believe the issue is as another user briefly mentioned… it’s a peering issue between residential providers. There simply isn’t enough bandwidth between ISP A and ISP B. I have a solution in place where I’m essentially sending the data out via vpn to a data center with peering points to probably just about everyone on the planet. The server at the data center is effectively acting as a proxy to the Plex server. By routing through a provider with tons of peering bandwidth, I’ve eliminated the constraint between these two specific providers. My sample size is small, but I had not had a successful high bitrate playback in about 2 months. But now, when sending traffic this way, I have had ZERO buffering issues. Perfect playback without a single hiccup.

I suspect for truly reliable playback, transcoding will be necessary, less you want to jump through about 10 hoops and waste the better part of a Saturday setting something like this up.

[yuhaohe]

Thanks for your share, it make sense. Through deeply using in these days, I found that the remote directy playback is unstable, sometimes good, some times bad, it seems that’s difficult to diagnoise. maybe, Plex App can provide a feature that showing the connection status, including streaming bandwidth, and the bandwidth of movie required, etc.

[ChuckPa]

ISPs structure their services from the Big Players (Streaming companies, Web Servers, etc) to stream DOWN to us.

They do not optimize, and often hamper, peer to peer (Remote Access) playback.

The number of hops going from ISP → ISP can be high and definitely constantly changing / unreliable.