So I have a remote dedicated server with Hetzner running Ubuntu and PMS. Although I am located in Canada, and those servers seem to be in Germany, for the most part videos play pretty darn good. The issue is, they seem to randomly not work.
Even with the distance there should be enough bandwidth to send it in a nice stream. The CPU is rated over 9000, so that isn’t the issue for the 2 or 3 that I am doing, and frankly these issues arise with only one. At times I can stream a 20Mbps file with almost no issues, I even had 2 of them going. Yet at other times, a 4Mbps file can’t play at all almost.
It may be something that happens over time, if it just started, it seems to do well, then later on…starts to have issues, not sure about that though yet.
I don’t know if there is something I can do with Plex to resolve this, or maybe it’s my ISP causing issues (though I haven’t heard of complaints about it, for people doing this with Netflix), or maybe it really is just the distance, and it can only sometimes send enough data.
I would like some suggestions on what to try, what I can do to test to see what really is going on…I dunno…HELP!
If your internet connection isn’t metered, I would suggest doing a simple, raw, download of a file from the server and measure its rate when you’re having streaming trouble. If it doesn’t deliver the required throughput, you have the definitive proof you need to contact them…
What would you recommend to use to download a file from the server? I’m pretty new to non_GUI Ubuntu servers, and well I know if I were to download something through my browser, it does not show the speed.
That is a good idea to see if it’s the ISP. Frankly, hoping it isn’t, and someone has suggestions for Plex related lol
Actually, I don’t understand how grabbing a file is different than Plex working or not. Your saying if I’m having streaming issues, I go grab a file…I get full speed…the issue is plex…if not full speed…the issue is my ISP?
Anyone have other suggestions as well. Just want to try everything. Any settings in Plex i should be changing.
When your CPU has a rating of 9000+, it’s not going to have any issues performing any level of transcoding unless you’ve got a bunch transcoding at the same time then that’s different because you’re probably running out of CPU power.
If, when you are having streaming trouble, you can download from the exact same machine at full internet speed, then we need to find out why Plex can’t send you that stream. If it falters with a simple download at the same time you can’t stream then the issue is not Plex and it is the provider.
Another test you can run, is a verification of your own local ISP. To get accurate results, stop what you’re doing on your computer / local connection to the best of your ability. Open your browser and go to http://www.speedtest.net. Run it a few times to a few different locations and see if those results match what you should be getting. Speedtest.net has the reputation of keeping ISPs honest.
I know I have to enter the IP address of it…but how does one put the exact location of the file. The File is in Folder/Folder/Folder. Anything specific I need to enter for the wget https…etc – Actually also, my current main desktop with ethernet is Windows, how does one run wget from there. I have a laptop with Linux, but only WiFi.
And Speedtest always gets my rated speed. I will test again, but I have never had it show me otherwise.
So I entered it in the terminal, first it said Connection Refused, so then I put a port number after the IP which is how I connect through SSH normally to just access the server, and I get
"OpenSSL: error:140770FC:SSL routines:SSL23_GET_SERVER_HELLO:unknown protocol Unable to establish SSL connection.
Download speed is one thing. Latency and packet loss another, especially across continents. I’d suggest installing something like PingPlotter to get a graph going and try to establish the issue from there. Remember also that transcoded and direct played items are sent differently (afaik) so one might want to check if either behaves differently.
@Peter_W said:
Remember also that transcoded and direct played items are sent differently (afaik) so one might want to check if either behaves differently.
Precisely. As soon as a file is Transcoded or Direct Streamed (instead of Direct Played) it gets chopped to very many small chunks, which all get transferred separately. So ping time plays a very big role then.
There is a reason why video services duplicate their content across the globe and direct their users to the geographically nearest mirror/datacenter…
I haven’t had a chance to do this yet…will today sometime.
So are you saying a Direct Streamed would likely play better than a transcoded one? I have it set currently to always transcode, as I figured since my CPU is powerful enough, it would work better over the connection. This is what I have been asking, what are the best settings to have for a remote server. Show me your settings
Will update when I have speed tests done from the server. Thanks.
On a 1GB file from the server, it was getting between 3MB/s and 4MB/s. My connection here which Speedtest confirms, is 100Mbps which I believe is around 11MB/s. The speedtest was run as well while the download was going, that would cause it to go down to the KB/s. Which I guess makes sense, and if I was getting my real speed wouldn’t be as much of an issue.
This was technically during the day at around 1PM…and I played something on Plex and it was working, though I didn’t play it for very long. So I am not getting the speeds I should be getting from the server. Despite if Plex is playing them correctly or not.
Though, this does not seem to be my ISP then? That seems to be the distance of the server? Yet then how does Plex come close to playing them alright, is that due to it sending it in peices or something?
Doing the raw math, 100 Mbps translates to 12.83 MBytes/sec without protocol overhead. Most ISPs take most of that into account and deliver 100 Mbps to your modem (they clock your line at ~120 Mbps). My DSL service is rated at 24 Mbps. The line clock speed is 28.798 Mbps to give me 24 at the modem
I would expect you to get 6 MB/sec or better sustained If Speedtest shows you have 100 Mbps sustained, it’s not the ISP. If can’t sustain 80+ Mbits/sec from the server where you store the files… It’s time to do some serious checking with them. You’re not getting your money’s worth
Well then that means it’s simply the distance from the server to my computer.
As I am able to pull between 80 and 100MB/s when downloading directly onto the server. Yet I still don’t understand why my Plex is choppy. If it does not have enough bandwidth, shouldn’t it not play the files at all. It seems like 90% works, then fails the rest.
Which again brings me to, is there any settings on Plex that could help with that. Does the timeout setting make any difference, anything at all? If I am able to have files play almost good, seems so close to what I want. I don’t want to give up on this remote server just yet. There must be something.
As for contacting them. Well, as I said, directly on the server I seem to be getting the speeds. And well, your not really supposed to be running things like Plex from them, so I doubt they would help.
As for the SpeedTest, no I didn’t do that. I will try that.
