Plex media streaming advice

[scphyle]

Hello, I use Plex software for streaming of all my media from my home in Michigan to my home in Flordia, I used my old gaming desktop to house all my media and the plex transcoding software. The streamed media, for the most part, works alright I do not have the ability to stream at 1080 smoothly It buffers about every 5 minutes, at 720 it may go for an hour or so, and finally at 480 I tend to be able to watch an entire movie. As many of you can imagine this is quite frustrating, on the whole, I tend not to use more than 20% of the CPU. I have 65 up on the server end and 30 down on the client end. I was simply wondering if anyone had any tips or tricks they might know in order to possibly boost the performance of the streaming quality.  

[samiscool51]

it's recermended to have a lot of cores for plex transcodeing and a fast upload speed for streaming outside of the network

plex can't use GPU acceleration because many of the software that is used is closed source and can't be used

the best thing you can do it upgrade the CPU and Network port to a faster one or pay for a faster internet

what i do is just load all of my movies and tv shows onto a harddrive and take it with me on trips and watch it on a laptop

lets me turn off the server for the time i'm away, saves money on the electrical bill

[johnny5c]

What client are you using?  I stream from my home to my cabin and had the same buffering issues using a Roku 3, recently built a dedicated HTPC and no longer have any problems with 1080p.

[scphyle]

I have a few different clients that are running in the same place but the one that we use the most is a SONY smart T.V and it has lots of issues running almost any title. How did you go about setting up a dedicated HTPC if you could point me towards some websites or something so I could do some recherche it would be appreciated @johnny5c. 

[scphyle]

Thanks for the advice the only reason I don't think that my CPU is a bottleneck is because at max Plex is using about 20 to 30 % of the CPU and I am very sure that the internet is not a problem Because I have it on a 100 up and down connection and that should be plenty of speed both ways. @samiscool51

[johnny5c]

10 hours ago, scphyle said:

How did you go about setting up a dedicated HTPC if you could point me towards some websites or something so I could do some recherche it would be appreciated @johnny5c. 

It's basically just regular desktop components in a Silverstone media center case running Windows and Plex Home Theater, also use it for gaming/emulators and local playback of USB/optical media.  I use a Android app or a mini bt keyboard with touchpad to control it and have a wireless Xbox 360 controller so it's easy to use and keeps the kids entertained on rainy days.

 

This is the case I have,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163174

 

[scphyle]

@johnny5c thanks for the help im going to go ahead and set one up and see if that helps things out also do you have any recommended hardware?

[johnny5c]

8 hours ago, scphyle said:

@johnny5c thanks for the help im going to go ahead and set one up and see if that helps things out also do you have any recommended hardware?

I built mine with leftover parts after upgrading so I'm using a i5 2500k and a GTX 770, for the HTPC in my RV I bought a $80 AMD APU/motherboard combo from Micro Center and it's great for 1080p video and some light gaming.  You could also go with a Intel NUC or another micro barebones system if you want more of a turnkey solution.

[scphyle]

sweet thank you, I'm gonna do some shopping around and try to build a fairly barebones computer, and see how that works. I do have one question tho and I know it's a noob question what exactly does the HTPC do? @johnny5c

[johnny5c]

21 minutes ago, scphyle said:

sweet thank you, I'm gonna do some shopping around and try to build a fairly barebones computer, and see how that works. I do have one question tho and I know it's a noob question what exactly does the HTPC do? @johnny5c

H.T.P.C.= Home Theater PC, just a term for a PC that's dedicated to viewing media on a TV or projector.  Years before Roku, Chromecast, and Apple TV it was the only option for playing digital media and after trying all the current devices I still think it's the best, not only because there's no limit as far as content providers but for the fact you can customize it to your needs.  I've had everything from a Popcorn Hour, Roku, Fire TV, and a few smart TVs and a HTPC is still faster and easiest to use plus big screen gaming is always a plus.

[scphyle]

@johnny5c thank you for all your help I will look into setting one up out of curiosity do you think a raspberry pi could achieve the same result? 

[johnny5c]

52 minutes ago, scphyle said:

@johnny5c thank you for all your help I will look into setting one up out of curiosity do you think a raspberry pi could achieve the same result? 

I tried Rasplex on a RPi3 and it wasn't bad but I did have some random crashes and menu navigation isn't that smooth, also never tried streaming outside my home network so don't know if you'll have your original buffering problem.  I just ordered a Odroid-C2 to play around with, it's faster than a RPi3 with double the memory plus supports 4k/60hz.

 

https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/223080/openpht-for-odroid-c2-information-and-tips/p1

https://www.amazon.com/ODROID-C2-Project-Board-Quad-Gigabit/dp/B01CQBRXOQ

 

I really think the remote streaming buffering issue is due to lack of memory, when I use a Roku, tablet, or PS3 it buffers every 5-10 minutes but our laptops and HTPC play 1080p video continuously without even a stutter.

[scphyle]

@johnny5c Very true and I doubt that they put very much memory on a Sony Smart T.V. thank you for the help I will let you know how it all works out.