Plex buffering issue on Freenas server

[KGBK]

Hey all, hope everyone is safe and healthy.

 

I have had this issue for more than a year now, and can't seem to understand what is the problem. Funny thing is that you go to Freenas forums and they tell you to ask on Plex forums and vice versa. Maybe someone here could help instead?

So. 2 years ago or so I have bought a HP Z400 off ebay here in the UK. Added some compatible HP ram to it and added a few drives. I decided to go for Freenas as I thought the server was a bit overkill for just file storage and backups, and that has jails for additional plugins. I have since upgraded the CPU as well. Current spec is: xeon six core w3690 3.4ghz, 24gb HP ECC ram, 4x4tb in raidz1, 1x4tb media drive. The 4x4tb drives are used for backups and storage, the 1x4tb is the media drive for movies, series etc. I primarily use Plex on my xbox one.

 

For bigger files, like 15-16gb, i get buffering issues almost all the time. I do have to quit the playback and restart for it to usually come back to life. While watching a movie it happens a few times, the closer to the end the more often. This is while watching original files. I tried transcoding and that does not help at all. While verbose logging was on, Plex was reporting 30-50 transcode speed. Plex say anything above 1.2 is good for realtime view. So transcoding is definitely not an issue. I also updated to the cpu mentioned above from 3620 or so, which was a 4 core 2.4ghz, as I thought that was the issue. It's not, but I did not cost me too much so whatever.

 

Ok it's not CPU. Maybe Ram? Well from looking at stats while plex is running on my Xbox and I am also backing up files, ram never gets close to using all 24gb, even if Freenas is supposed to use all of the ram for ARC. Unless I misunderstood. Ok, maybe it's not ram. Is it the drive? Well the drive is used solely for the purpose of movies, nothing else is stored there apart from them. 

 

Maybe it's the networking? Well, could be. See I can't run a wired connection to my xbox. There is no way, unless I have a cable running from one room to the other. I tried expensive gigabit powerline adaptors, but i got max 7-8 mb/s while testing a transfer from one machine to the other. I get more via the wifi than these adaptors. Obviously I had issues with video buffering with these adaptors hence why changed to wifi. Could it be wifi? I thought it was the issue, I brought the router closer to the wall. Literally behind this wall is the TV with the xbox, there is, maybe 50cm between them (including the wall). BTW youtube, netflix, prime, twitch all stream with no issues. I understand they might have more compressed data, but i tried transcoding to 10 and 8mbps streams, and they seemed to buffer as well. Wifi router got changed last year as well, but because old one died, issues still occur with plex though.

I have bought an emby subscription for a month, going to try that. While I do get that wifi might be the cause here, I feel that maybe plex is. Plex was updated this weekend to the latest version btw, and I watched a movie afterwards with buffering issues. Freenas is on 11.3.

 

If anyone has anything for me to try I am all ears, I think I troubleshooted almost everything at this point. Also maybe someone knows a sustained wifi test of some kind? so i could place my laptop in that room and run it and log for any network issues, to see if wifi is just dropping the connection.

[Escapenz]

Have you tried lower than 8mbps ? If not go even lower and see what happens.

[KGBK]

5 minutes ago, Escapenz said:

Have you tried lower than 8mbps ? If not go even lower and see what happens.

I have set it to 4 believe once, same thing was happening so took it back up to 1080p can try going even lower

[Escapenz]

6 hours ago, KGBK said:

I have set it to 4 believe once, same thing was happening so took it back up to 1080p can try going even lower

I would try that and then if it doesnt work see if all the files you are having issues with are the same format and maybe try converting a few to something else. I had this issue for a little but it kind of just fixed itself.