My tv’ (TCL 55EP660) ethernet support only supports 100 mbps or wifi at 2.4 GHz and I need more. My current setup has a synology ds218+ NAS configured as server. The NAS is connected to the TV via an ethernet cable. According to Tautulli when I direct play a 4K UHD video this uses 99.2 mbps when it’s not buffering so I’m fairly certain this is the bottleneck.
Based on my research the best solution is the Nvidia Shield Pro, but that is out of my budet. So I had the following ideas to increase the bandwith to gigabit. But I’m not sure which option is correct.
Another option would be getting the basic Nvidia Shield but from reading around on Plex this also has issues with buffering.
A tvbox cheaper than Nvidia shield is the Beeling KT King. It also has android and gigabit ethernet but I suspect this will run into the same issues as the nvidia shield.
I could get a NUC like the GIGABYTE BRIX (GB-BACE-3000). I would connect the NAS to this device and then connect it with the TV via an HDMI cable.
I’m not sure if any of these devices work how I want and I’m hoping the plex community can advise me.
Have you already checked the throughput you can get if you’re using the tv’s WLAN? It’ll be far from ideal but given there’s little impact on your WLAN this might give you a better result.
Beyond that… the reason people recommend the Shield is not only its network connection but general playback capabilities. Other boxes might cause trouble in other areas, e.g. when it comes to forwarding/playing certain (combinations of) formats.
Thank you for your fast answer! I have tried using WLAN and casting Plex from my phone via chromecast, both result in a worse experience than wired.
The playblack capabilities is a good point and I did not consider that. Can you please explain this in more detail? As I understand the entire point of Plex is to play all of your media on all of your devices so you have to worry less about playback.
Well then a 480Mbps adapter USB2 adapter, I have been told they also work. Considering most of the traffic is one way 480mbps is faster than a 100mbps Ethernet port. What I have read a USB3 adapter would be backwards compatible but would be restricted to 480Mbps one way.
The goal is to avoid transcoding as much as possible while watching on your local network as this will reduce video/audio quality. Both Shield devices will handle anything you can throw at them, however not all streaming boxes are created equal so make sure if you purchase a device that it will support the formats your movies are in.
I think I have a related Problem.
My TV is a similar model (TCL 50EP644) so it has WiFi 2,4GHz, 100Mbit’s Ethernet and only USB 2.0
The problem is when I stream 4k HDR content (average bitrate of 80Mbits) from my Plex-Server which is connected with Gbit Ethernet, it only uses about 40Mbits average and a maximum of about 50Mbits.
Both when I’m connected with Wifi or Cable.
So I bought a USB Gigabit adapter and the TV had no issues recognizing it.
The new Problem is when I stream a movie I still get only about 50Mbits.
The strange thing is when I play my movie through Kodi straight from my NAS the average speed is much higher, about 80Mbits and the maximum is about 95Mbits.
95 is still not 1Gibts or the 300Mbits what you should expect from a USB 2.0 Port.
I also tested with a other Plex-Server installed on my main PC running windows and there’s the same behavior.
In conclusion the ethernet Adapter improved the network speed a little bit but Plex is somehow limiting the bandwith and I dont know how to fix it.
For all the values I measured the network speed directly on my server.
Can someone explain this behavior
Thanks in advance
Yeah already did that.
But that’s not what I want because after transcoding the movie looks washed out due its HDR and Plex cant really handle that.
Aswell after transcoding it’s only 1080p and no 4k
I want to direct play the content because my tv is capable of that and plex is somehow limiting the bandwith for my android tv.
When I play 4k HDR movies on other devices like my phone(WiFi 5GHz) and my desktop PC (1Gbit Ethernet) everything is fine
If you go for direct playback and your network is capable of streaming at that bitrate, Plex will not apply additional local restrictions.
The only other thing coming to mind is if the TV and your server are in different subnets. Plex will consider that an external network and apply “internet / remote streaming” video quality instead of “home streaming”.
My Server runs in a docker container but I tested it on another Server running on my desktop PC so its definitely in my local network.
I also set it to maximum stream quality
But shouldn’t it display as transcoding in the dashboard when its playing at a lower quality?
I did some more testing with different USB-Ethernet Adapters and some of them could deliver up to 200mbps.
I tried to enable RNDIS(USB-Ethernet) in the developer options but after checking the box it resets to MTP.
Plex still used only 60mbps whereas kodi uses up to 120mbps and played back the UHD remux just fine.
So there’s something with the Plex app limiting the bandwidth of my connection.
