Transcoding issues on Raspberry Pi4 and FireStick

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
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Server Version#: 1.20.4.3517
Player Version#: iOS, Firestick and SaumsungTV

Hi All,

I have CentOS8 installed on a Raspberry Pi4. My PMS runs in docker.
Until recently all has been running smoothly and I thought I was a fairly confident person with Plex as I have been using it for many years but now I am stumped!

I mainly use my FireStick connected via Ethernet as the client and after the most recent update, I can hardly watch anything because of buffering! This also happens on the Samsung client and iOS.
Watching my server shows the CPU is hardly used and bandwidth isn’t restricted.

I have changed and tweaked so many settings both client and server side now, I don’t know if I have done more harm than good. The other odd thing is that I use a Windows client or Kodi client, I have absolutely no issues streaming from my server locally or remotely.

Can anyone suggest what my optimal settings should be on both server and FireStick client for the best performance?

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For whatever reasons, most of your Plex clients now request video transcoding, i.e. conversion of the video to a lower quality, bitrate or codec. Your Pi does not have the processing power to do that. Most likely, until recently, you were able to use Direct Play or Direct Stream with most clients. We have to figure out why they now request transcoding. It’s often caused by subtitles or by too low quality settings in the client.

Please take a look at the server dashboard during playback. Under “NOW PLAYING” are the details of your current session. Please click on the “show details” button in the top right.

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