What is my bottleneck?

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Just a little background to my setup

My Server is an older gaming pc i7 7700k, 32gb ram, gtx 1070, running OS and plex media server on an nvme ssd; which is hooked up to a switch.

My Storage solution is a synology NAS also hooked up to a seperate switch.

My Clients I use is Roku, chromecast, samsung tv, apple tv 4k, browser, xbox, playstation. Apple Tv has been the best for streaming for me so far. Havent pulled the trigger on the nvidia shield yet.

My Internet is 1000 down & 35-40ish up.

Don’t get me wrong, Plex has been running great for me since ive switched it to my old PC but,

The multiple problems I (which could be related or not) have now consist of:

-Slow loads of my library

-Movie Slow to start up after pressing play

-Clicking to a movie, metadata super slow to load in

-Some family who is remote playing, tells me that the movies will play for a little and stop to load. Maybe only 1-2 people are ever on it at once. Its just plex cuz they can run hulu and netflix just fine from their houses.

-Trying to play a single 4k movie from home but constantly buffering, but nothing is being maxed out on server; shows barely to no usage to cpu or gpu

Im thinking its a network issue but idk… any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Also, is the Nvidia shield as good as everyone says?
I mainly got the apple tv because i actually liked the simplistic look of the gui. But if the nvidia is going to give me better performance, ill get it.

Thanks guys !

Server Version#: Most current version
Player Version#:

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These are things I’m sure you probably checked but it doesnt hurt to verify:

  1. What is the switch, NAS and PC network interface speed?
  2. When was the last time you checked the hard drives, Not just the NAS but also your PC hard drive for errors to see if one might be failing.
  3. Have you tried rebooting your network devices?

These are just to start.

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Based on your setup summary I’d start with your clients and ask yourself a few questions …

  1. How many of these clients are wired vrs wireless. Typically I try and wire everything I can and leave only phones/tables wireless.
  2. How many of these clients access the internet at the same time. Example, children in other rooms viewing 4k youtube.

The slow loads of library and metadata really sounds like network congestion between client and server.

Now, the Movie Slow to start up after pressing play – this could be network also but my first thought was the NAS drives waking up from sleep which can take between 2-10 seconds depending on your NAS setup and what RAID you might be using. I’d check that also.

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I just setup link aggregation to the NAS, so hopefully that helps it be less congested. And Im using SHR synology for the raid

I do have the apple tv connected to ethernet. So i know thats why it does the best.

Ive tested watching a 4k movie at home with no one on and still buffers and unwatchable.

I know i have a rather larger library of media. So what would be a better way to help load the metadata that sits on the PC server. Its on a Samsung 960 pro 512gb which is only half filled with i believe 250gb of the plex metadata

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  1. Everything is connected to just 1gb plug n play switches, which ive test on PC and NAS. Im getting my full speeds.

  2. I just checked on drives from NAS and server side. Everything shows healthy and not full

  3. Have not rebooted network yet.

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I would say you have the optimum setup with the plex metadata on your server and fast disk. However, I wonder if the cache has become stale. There is a bug in the Cache/PhotoTranscoder which can grow unbounded. Take a look at this thread below as it might help with that issue…

Regarding …

… what is reported in your plex dashboard when you attempt to play a 4k movie ?

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Thank you, that has to be it.

As regards to the 4k playback. Its working all of the sudden on my apple tv. But when i try to play from my new pc in the browser it wont load. Ill probably have to mess with the settings again

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