# Streaming bandwidth **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussions\ **Created:** [February 20, 2020, 11:51pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336 "2020-02-20T23:51:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 7:02pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336/21 "2020-02-21T19:02:25Z")
What I mean that in this case, that the network is not necessarily the limiting factor. But rather the playback device. If the stick had a larger buffer (just a part of its RAM, where it can store received data packets), the stuttering might not occur. ---
**Author:** ![JuiceWSA](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/juicewsa/32/12253_2.png) [@JuiceWSA](https://forums.plex.tv/u/JuiceWSA)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 7:02pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336/22 "2020-02-21T19:02:38Z")
> [@What settings should a newbie use for transcoding ripped bluray mkv files with handbreak?](https://forums.plex.tv/t/what-settings-should-a-newbie-use-for-transcoding-ripped-bluray-mkv-files-with-handbreak/514196/2): > > Start with the Basic HD profile - you can delete everything else - all crap. Then do this, exactly, make a 240 second ‘Preview’ and see what you think. File Sizes will be consistent at about 1.4G per hour. My eyeballs stop seeing improvement above about 3250kbps, so I give it 3750 and call it a day. Your eyeballs may require something different. Make a 4 minute preview and decide for yourself. [HB-Help1] [HB-Help2] [HB-Help3] Of course, you should create an audio track that will Direct Play.… That will get you started and here’s a hot tip: Use 2 pass encoding if you’re ‘bit rate starving’. ‘Starved’ means different things to different people. Basically you can start with my settings and then adjust until your eyeballs are happy. If you use 3750kbps HB will really try to keep the average in that window, but figure the hole it fits in more like 4500kbps for a good margin of error. ---
**Author:** ![faycee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3e96dc/32.png) [@faycee](https://forums.plex.tv/u/faycee)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 8:11pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336/23 "2020-02-21T20:11:47Z")
oh wow, thanks man thats another solid post, will try it out tomorrow! would be really good to know how Netflix/Hulu encode their movies/shows but im guessing theyre more reliant on their high performance/bandwidth servers? i wouldnt say i was bitrate starved (if im correct in what that means lol) because plex as a home media server doesnt give me any issues really but my upload speed is limited to 20mbps so i need to pay more attention to if i were remote streaming. ---
**Author:** ![JasonNalley](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jasonnalley/32/24210_2.png) [@JasonNalley](https://forums.plex.tv/u/JasonNalley)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 8:22pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336/24 "2020-02-21T20:22:37Z")
This is Netflix streaming bitrates as of January 2018: ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/1/a/1a3ca3941df5a90e459d613faec229cda5e5883a.png) ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/a/2/a263ab14897a9e863c5933d0eb9db784469f800e.png) ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 8:25pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336/25 "2020-02-21T20:25:21Z")
Of course, Netflix and other streaming services have the advantage of several _pre-transcoded_ versions with different bitrates, among which the clients can switch seamlessly. If you invest more computing power/time into the encode, then you can produce very efficient files with a great quality/byte ratio. ---
**Author:** ![JasonNalley](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jasonnalley/32/24210_2.png) [@JasonNalley](https://forums.plex.tv/u/JasonNalley)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 8:26pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336/26 "2020-02-21T20:26:32Z")
Which is something I really wish Plex would integrate… I have no problems keeping a 480, 720, 1080, and 4K copy in the same folder, as long as Plex would intelligently switch between them ---
**Author:** ![SE56](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/se56/32/222425_2.png) [@SE56](https://forums.plex.tv/u/SE56)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 8:30pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336/27 "2020-02-21T20:30:23Z")
For me a 720P and 1080P would be cool, in the future 4K maybe. ---
**Author:** ![JasonNalley](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jasonnalley/32/24210_2.png) [@JasonNalley](https://forums.plex.tv/u/JasonNalley)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 8:33pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336/28 "2020-02-21T20:33:38Z")
well, the thing that really baffles me is that almost no one is using one of the best features of the matroska container, the ability to have multiple video streams in a single container, which means you only need a single audio track and single subtitle track (provided they’re all the same cut of the movie) to play the same movie in as many different resolutions as you can throw in there… it’s really convenient, and something plex could utilize, but at the moment, they don’t do matroska with multiple video streams ☹ ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 8:35pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336/29 "2020-02-21T20:35:13Z")
This would pretty much mean no Direct Play anymore, because you cannot send the file as-is to the clients. You’ll always have to extract the desired video stream beforehand. ---
**Author:** ![JasonNalley](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jasonnalley/32/24210_2.png) [@JasonNalley](https://forums.plex.tv/u/JasonNalley)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 8:39pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336/30 "2020-02-21T20:39:55Z")
Sure, but a demux and remux is still considered DirectStream, right? ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 8:43pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336/31 "2020-02-21T20:43:49Z")
Of course. But the best of all cases won’t occur anymore. (which, for instance allows clients to play audio or subtitle streams which even Plex cannot decode, like some of the High-res surround formats). ---
**Author:** ![JasonNalley](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jasonnalley/32/24210_2.png) [@JasonNalley](https://forums.plex.tv/u/JasonNalley)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 8:50pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336/32 "2020-02-21T20:50:23Z")
I get it, there’s likely a way around it somewhere, but regardless, having it switch between multiple individual files rather than streams inside a matroska file would still be better than where we’re at now 😉 ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336/33 "2020-02-21T20:57:14Z")
Sorry for jumping in. I couldn’t tell from the posts but are you referring to a files bitrate offer the bandwidth of the stream at it travels through your network? If the former, that’s been discussed above. If the latter, plex does not control this unless you specify the upload limit in PMS. Otherwise, the bandwidth will be whatever your network allows. ---
**Author:** ![JasonNalley](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jasonnalley/32/24210_2.png) [@JasonNalley](https://forums.plex.tv/u/JasonNalley)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 9:02pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336/34 "2020-02-21T21:02:24Z")
It doesn’t show who you were replying to with that question… Was it me? ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 9:03pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336/35 "2020-02-21T21:03:41Z")
Sorry, i was asking the op. ---
**Author:** ![faycee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3e96dc/32.png) [@faycee](https://forums.plex.tv/u/faycee)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 9:22pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336/36 "2020-02-21T21:22:19Z")
I understand what my network limitations are and i have already set those in accordance to my upload/download speeds if thats what you’re asking? i was referring to the bit rate(s). ---
**Author:** ![JuiceWSA](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/juicewsa/32/12253_2.png) [@JuiceWSA](https://forums.plex.tv/u/JuiceWSA)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 9:23pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336/37 "2020-02-21T21:23:11Z")
> [@faycee](#): > > i have already set those in accordance to my upload/download speeds How’d you do that? ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 9:24pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336/38 "2020-02-21T21:24:58Z")
> [@faycee](#): > > Today i noticed a ‘2674 kbps’ (overall bitrate) movie streaming at 35mbps. How are you determining that it is streaming at 35 Mbps? ---
**Author:** ![faycee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3e96dc/32.png) [@faycee](https://forums.plex.tv/u/faycee)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 9:27pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336/39 "2020-02-21T21:27:01Z")
Well i thought i was encoding my media in accordance to my network capabilities which was to observe the ‘overall bitrate’ but as we’ve progressed we’ve established that i was wrong… ---
**Author:** ![faycee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3e96dc/32.png) [@faycee](https://forums.plex.tv/u/faycee)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 9:30pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336/40 "2020-02-21T21:30:22Z")
Thats what i thought was happening but now i understand that they were spiking… The first image i posted with the bandwidth monitor helped me understand that i was wrong in thinking plex was streaming at a constant 35mbps… [Previous page](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336.md?page=1) [Next page](https://forums.plex.tv/t/streaming-bandwidth/545336.md?page=3)