Why does Plex report "not enough bandwidth" over LAN?

Plex Media Server
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I’m using PMS v1.32.8.7639 in a Docker container on a Synology NAS.

I’m playing on Apple TV with the latest version of the Plex app.

If I set Playback Settings to “Play Original Quality”, Plex reports “Not enough bandwidth for direct play of this item. Required bandwidth is 2726kbps and only 2000kbps is available”.

The ATV and server are connected via ethernet. The IP address of my PMS is on the same subnet as the ATV. I have also experimented with Settings > Network > LAN Networks and Settings > Network > Treat WAN IP As LAN Bandwidth.

Looking at the Bandwidth chart on the Server Dashboard, Plex appears to be using local rather than remote (but I am not 100% sure about this).

Why is Plex reporting bandwidth limitations over LAN? My gigabit ethernet connection should be providing more than the 2000kbps reported by Plex.

What is the best way to investigate this? I have tried looking through the many log files, but have not found anything that seems useful and am not sure where I should be looking.

Thanks for any pointers.

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Does Plex Dashboard → Now Playing + Expanded View show the connection as local, remote, or indirect?

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Interesting!

Plex Dashboard shows “indirect”.

How can I find out why a local connection is not used?

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I tried logging out of Plex on the ATV and reconnecting to the server.

After logging in, the Plex app shows my PMS as a remote rather than local source.

I assume something in my local network config is preventing ATV and PMS from talking directly to each other. But how can I find out what this is?

I don’t have any firewalls or anything that would prevent local devices from communicating with each other.

My Plex docker container is set up with ports: - 32400:32400.

Is there anything else I should be looking at?

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I do not use Docker and am not terribly familiar with its network configuration.

What is the IP subnet of the Docker container running Plex?

If it is different than the clients, you’ll need to add the client subnet to Settings > Network > LAN Networks. Note that if you add more than one subnet, there is no space after the comma. Ex: 192.168.1.0/24,192.168.2.0/24 not 192.168.1.0/24, 192.168.2.0/24.

You may also need to allow UDP: 32410, 32412, 32413, 32414. See What network ports do I need to allow through my firewall?.

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You should be able to configure your container to use “host” network, instead of creating its own private subnet.

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Wow, thank you!

I had not realised Plex was using those ports for network communication.

Adding the GDM ports to my docker config solved the problem.

But as @OttoKerner pointed out, the easiest way to do this is to add network_mode: host to avoid needing to deal with the different IP addresses and the LAN Networks setting in Plex.

Thanks! I’m now happily direct playing from my PMS on ATV.

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