Plex lagging when playing locally or streaming

[Christian]

So i recently purchased an ultrabook (HP Folio 13) with a broken screen for $250 to use as a HTPC. Windows 8 runs great on its SSD. And i have a USB 3.0 port for an external 4TB HDD that houses all the media. I've got the Plex server running, my TV shows were all detected by it very nicely and everything is great... until i actually play something. Videos play at like 0.5 FPS, which is not a terribly great experience. I have tried it being streamed over Ethernet, and played locally from the USB HDD, but vids still play like this. Anyone able to help?

 

Cheers,

Christian

[dalekphalm]

So i recently purchased an ultrabook (HP Folio 13) with a broken screen for $250 to use as a HTPC. Windows 8 runs great on its SSD. And i have a USB 3.0 port for an external 4TB HDD that houses all the media. I've got the Plex server running, my TV shows were all detected by it very nicely and everything is great... until i actually play something. Videos play at like 0.5 FPS, which is not a terribly great experience. I have tried it being streamed over Ethernet, and played locally from the USB HDD, but vids still play like this. Anyone able to help?

 

Cheers,

Christian

Have you checked to make sure that Hardware acceleration is enabled on the Plex Media Center Client?

 

Have you tested the same files using VLC Media Player?

[Christian]

Have you checked to make sure that Hardware acceleration is enabled on the Plex Media Center Client?

 

Have you tested the same files using VLC Media Player?

Yes everything plays just fine using VLC. I'll have a look into hardware acceleration

[Christian]

Well  I've set local media to play at 20Mbps and have tried with hardware acceleration being both on and off but no luck. I'm still stuck with the unwatchable video. So disappointed

[Christian]

Anyone got a solution?

[Priller]

Anyone got a solution?

 

Yup. Chances are the 4TB could be very slow in read speeds. 

 

Or I bet the USB/setup interface isn't fast enough to do streaming from it.

 

I would try that drive out of its enclosure using a sata port on a mobo to see if that resolves your issues.

[coder-guy22296]

I have this issue too, an update would be nice if you figured it out

[Jonie4]

Bump. I'm having this same issue.. My network speed is fine (20Mb/s+) and the server is not having to transcode the video. I have already tried disabling DLNA.

[Guest]

Plex under windows 8 I have found can be very slow, try using ubuntu or another linux distribution I have found that to be better.

[Murdoch]

Check the audio settings within the Plex Client... I'm presuming you're using the Plex client and playing via HDMI to a TV? I've had issues before with XBMC via HDMI when it sticks on video because the wrong audio is selected.

 

Plus check the CPU activity to double check it's not maxing out while transcoding our while decoding the video.

 

Also If you're just using the laptop as a HTPC (as in you don't need it to act as a sever / transcoder) I'd encourage you to use XBMC instead, it's just an all round better client, with far superior skin support and probably the best remote available on Android (Yatse).

[Goose Legs]

Check to see if the server or client have any updates and give both a reboot. I ran into this issue a little while ago with an 8-Core server and a Quad-Core client on a Gig-E network. There was no reason to see the lag but sometimes (though lately it's far less common) it just misbehaves. 

[Denis Shvets]

I had the same problem on acer nettop. Second symptom was no sound when playing video.

Solved – I changed audio output settings to WASAPI HDMI

Go to - Preference>Change Preference for system>Audio output

Audio output device WASAPI HDMI

Passthrough output device WASAPI HDMI