Streaming 4K over network. Strange behaviour Not using full bandwidth

[rambo123]

Hello all.

Current set up.

J5005 on OMV with latest version of plex

Trying to stream 4K HEVC remotely. 15mbps

It seems to work perfectly on windows but when I try on my Samsung TV (wired or wireless it buffers) or my Samsung phone it will buffer. I have attached graphs below which show the network behaviour

Windows Plex Media Player- works perfectly

Windows-over-wifi

Samsung TV over wifi- regular buffers

Samsung-tv-Over-wifi

Samsung TV over Ethernet- regular buffers

TV-over-ethernet

Samsung phone via 4g- works fine

Samsung-phone-over-wifi

Samsung phone via Wifi- regular buffers

Samsung-Over-4g

I can only conclude there seems to be an issue with the way Plex is pulling the media when used on my Wifi on the apps but I cant understand. The link between my server and home network is the full 19mbps (this is what I get on my laptop when I stream or download.) Similarly when I download on plex app on android it links at 19mpbps

The same video works perfectly on Emby on Samsung TV

There also doesnt seem an option to increase cache on the Tizen app

[Gloppie]

I can confirm this on a Samsung as well.

[rambo123]

Thats disappointing. Fortunately Emby has a free TV app so can use that in parallel for the files failing with plex

[rambo123]

network issues doesnt explain why it works via emby though

[Stanzilla]

I can confirm this with nvidia shield as well

[david_woodrow]

I don’t know if this is related, but both my LG TV app and Chromecast with Google TV seem to be capped at roughly 120 mbps regardless of interface for me. I have tested with a USB ethernet hub attachment including external power source, and on the TV’s built in ethernet, and on wireless (both 5GHZ and 2.4) and nothing could be pushed over 120. Conversely my wireless laptop and ethernet connected PC in addition to my smartphone can easily hit 700 mbps+ in the same room on the same content during the initial data download. For the vast majority of my content it didn’t cause any issues, but one or two 4k files I tried to stream locally on the Chromecast or TV app with bitrates over 100 mbps encountered occasional to frequent buffering. I never figured out a solution or cause, and nobody else was reporting similar issues, so I just ignored it.

[ChuckPa]

For comparison,

Here are two movies, both Wireless

You can see the LG direct stream because the audio needs conversion.

The point I’m making here -

1. Peak bandwidth usage is observed while the buffers fill.
2. Once full and running steady state, the app will ask for smaller blocks at the observed lower rate. This lower rate shows how much is actually being consumed in real time by the player.

The WiFi in use here is Netgear WAX218 WiFi6 wired at 2.5 Gbps.
The CPU in use is a NUC8-i7-HVK (i7-8809G)

[rambo123]

The peak bandwidth isnt reliable though as often it will say 30mpbs for me even though my upload is 19mbps.

The issue seems plex isnt saturating the max upload correctly and there doesnt seem to be a way to increase buffer/ cache

[ChuckPa]

@rambo123

If I may try to separate Local vs Remote? (since it’s divided on the GUI report)

How is it for local ?

NOTE / Point of order here –

I have subscribed for 35 Mbps upload. Speedtest will confirm I’m getting 41-42 Mbps. My ISP over-provisions both upload and download.

Knowing Plex is calculating based on worst case (about 1.3x multiplier)

Take 19 x 1.2 = 22.8 (typical ISP overage allowance not inclusive of spikes)

This measured: 22.8 * 1.3 ( 30% fudge) = 29.64 (displayed by Plex)

This is what I think is happening but have not yet found it in the source code.

Thoughts?

(If there is consensus here, I’ll go digging for it. I know TCP/IP adds 8% overhead worst-case – 1.08)

[rambo123]

No its deffo remote.

Local isnt an issue, the issue seems to be plex now saturating the max link speed on certain devices while on windows it does or emby

[Gloppie]

I can now say, my issue is unrelated. Seems the wired link is only Fast Ethernet, and the 5G is broken on my samsung. It’s a limitation of my Samsung TV…

[ChuckPa]

@rambo123

I wanted to let you know I’ve had time to check this more thoroughly.

Peak and average bandwidth values align.

You are seeing PMS reporting and pfSense reporting
pfSense will be slightly higher because it includes the full overhead of TCP/IP

[rambo123]

Thanks for looking into this for me.

What I still dont understand is why it streams ok with Emby and on my laptop. My conclusion is there is an issue with the samsung tv app.

I also tried with an amazon firestick and that sustains high bandwidth

[Gloppie]

Seems Samsung can’t handle management frames from OpenWRT on 5G WIFI, I was able to stream at 200Mb/s using the recommended test files after that, so I doubt it’s really a Samsung app issue.