Plex buffering A LOT on my new server! :(

[kjparenteau]

Greetings! I'm no stranger to running Plex in a FreeNAS jail, but for whatever reason my new server is buffering A LOT! I setup this new server from scratch as it is drastically different hardware and I migrated from one server to the other and cleanly setup the shares and also Plex.

SERVER
R720xd, 12x 3.5" bays in the front with 2x 2.5" flex bays in the rear
2x CPU E5-2630 v2 @ 2.60GHz
384GB RAM
PERC H710 Mini (IT-Mode)
10x 6TB 7200 RPM SATA - RAIDZ2
4x 2TB Samsung 850 Pro - RAIDZ1

CLIENT
Roku Ultra

NETWORK
Unifi Security Gateway Pro 4
Unifi 24 Port PoE Switch
Everything is hardwired in this setup

This is some serious hardware, so I'm confused as to why Plex can't keep up over the local network. The old system was a desktop Frankenstein system built from an OptiPlex 9020 with an Intel Core i5 3.4GHz (quad core, no hyperthreading), 16GB RAM. This thing never struggled with playing movies at 1080p with DTS audio, etc. Including over the Internet to various endpoints which required transcoding.

SURELY this new server can keep up! Is it perhaps the CPU clock speed difference that is causing the buffering? Any suggestions or insight would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,
Kevin

 

[sretalla]

Where is the temporary transcodecode location for Plex? if it's not on your SSDs, it's possibly part of the problem.

What are your settings for transcode?

 

[kjparenteau]

Where is the temporary transcodecode location for Plex? if it's not on your SSDs, it's possibly part of the problem.

What are your settings for transcode?

Thank you for your reply. I have always run with the default settings because it just seemed to work. Like I said, my old setup worked perfectly and none of those settings were messed with. That being said, the same holds true for this new setup. Default settings, but the Roku devices seem to struggle. My laptop (MacBook Pro quad core i7 has no issues streaming from the new server over WiFi). Play the same movie to the hardwired Roku Ultra and it buffers probably 10 times in a 40 minute span. Here are the settings currently set...

Transcoder quality: Automatic
Transcoder temp dir: NONE
Transcoder default throttle buffer: 60
Background transcoding x264 preset: Very fast
Disable Video stream transcoding: UNCHECKED
Use hardware acceleration when available: UNCHECKED
Use hardware-accelerated video encoding: CHECKED
Maximum simultaneous video transcode: Unlimited

You mentioned leveraging the SSD's for the temp directory. I assume I would create a new ZVOL on the SSD pool and then add it as a mount point to the Plex jail, then specify that folder path in the transcoder settings? How large should this volume be? Maybe like 10 gigs? Or would this need to be at least as large as the largest movie size I have in the library? The idea of using the SSD's for the transcoding process makes complete sense.

Another question I have... Is it possible to disable transcoding for any devices within certain IP ranges?

Thank you!!

 

[ThreeDee]

hmm .. same default settings as me and we have similar spec'd hardware (you have waaaay more RAM though) and I have up to 8 friends/family watching remotely at a time .. maybe a network thing?

 

[kjparenteau]

So I have been messing with it a little, and I see I can't add it by a ZVOL (at least not in an obvious way) the way I was thinking, but I can add it by a SMB share. If there is a way to dedicate a ZVOL and pass it through to the jail I would prefer that, just need to know how. :) So I currently did add the SSD path via SMB Share as follows...

Created SMB share: /mtn/SSD/PlexTEMP

Then I added the mount point in the jail as follows...

SOURCE: /mnt/SSD/PlexTemp
DESTINATION: /mnt/HDD/iocage/jails/PLEX/root/Plex Media Server/TEMP

Inside the transcoder settings, I set it to "//Plex Media Server/TEMP" and when I started a video I saw the temp directories populate. So that works well and I am sure with the temp folders being on SSD it will greatly help the disk write performance.

So with all this tinkering, I just discovered that subtitles are what is making Plex initiate the transcoding process, and because I am hearing impaired, they are required. I guess I never looked into it far enough because there weren't any buffering issues before. When I disable the subtitles, there is no transcoding. So that brings a question... I know there are several formats of subtitles available... Are there some formats that do not require transcoding with Plex? Or perhaps a better question is what are the known methods for having subtitles without requiring transcoding?

Thank you!
Kevin

 

[Yorick]

Are there some formats that do not require transcoding with Plex?

Yes, SRT. You can also enable opensubtitles to find srt files for you. https://forums.plex.tv/t/automatic-subtitle-download-via-opensubtitles-not-working/43882

 

[kjparenteau]

Yes, SRT. You can also enable opensubtitles to find srt files for you. https://forums.plex.tv/t/automatic-subtitle-download-via-opensubtitles-not-working/43882

Thank you for the info! I will check out SRT versions for sure. So while working with subtitles and having to add them manually sometimes, I have noticed that sometimes they aren't in sync so I need to try several different subtitle versions before I get one that is synced to the audio/video. How does OpenSubtitles identify exactly what subtitle it needs to be in complete sync with the version of video I have?

 

[kjparenteau]

Is there an easy way to ditch the PGS version embedded in almost all of the movies I have in favor of the OpenSubtitles.org version? Or will I need to run a batch job on all the videos to strip out the subtitles so Plex can only focus on the SRT versions?

 

[Yorick]

You don't need to strip it out. If the opensub ones are preferred in your order, then re-scanning metadata on your entire library should do the trick.

 

[kjparenteau]

I just tried a SRT version from OpenSubtitles and indeed it worked! No transcoding required! Thank you for that info. Does the subtitle preference for OpenSubtitles apply to all clients?

Also, for sync issues, if I check them on the computer and say a movie is 2 seconds off, and I adjust the offset to my liking, will that same value apply for all other devices such as the Roku and mobile clients, etc?