Insufficient buffer for high latency connection

zswickliffe
Mon, 23 Mar 2026 03:53:58 +0000
Plex Players

Server Version#:
Player Version#: 8.45 (1) - Apple TV / 10.30.8.4222 (58d01a81) - SHIELD TV
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I’m having a very strange issue. My friend has a server in Ohio. I’m in Washington. His internet is >1gbps symmetrical and mine is 1gbps down. I get 400-500 mbps connections to his server reliably when watching with infuse and have no issues with buffering

When watching with Plex I regularly have issues with buffering. I get notified that my internet connection is not sufficient. I am currently watching a movie direct play (30.5mbps bitrate) and about 25min into it I experienced buffering with the “internet connection not sufficient” notification.

I have experienced this on both my nvidia shield and on my apple tv. We’ve run a bunch of tests and the only thing we’ve noticed is it seems like there’s a lot of latency between us and the connection takes a bit of time to stabilize at 400-500mbps. The only thing I can think of is the way plex burst downloads during playback is not always quick enough to fill the buffer before it runs out. As I mentioned before, I’ve never had an issue with the infuse player which tells me it’s probably two issues, something with the network combined with the buffer strategy on the plex player.

What testing can I run and how can I get to the bottom of this?

29 posts - 6 participants