Okay, I've searched, I've read I've done all sorts of tweaks and fixes and I'm stumped.
I've been using plex for nearly 5 years on an old dual core Mac Mini. It finally gave up and I upgraded to a windows 10 laptop. When playing directly from the server using the TV as a monitor I have no issues. When being remotely accessed either through the web player on another PC, a mobile Android device, or even bringing up the Plex app on the TV to which the server is connected, during playback of a movie or TV show, the stream will pause for up to several minutes. If I close the player, and resume it starts immediately where I left off. It happens seemingly randomly, not on every video and the videos that do buffer don't do it every time.
What I'm running:
- PMS 1.13.2.5154
- Dell Inspiron 5570 i7-8550U @ 1.80GHz w/8GB RAM
- Win 10 Home 1709 build 16299.214
- WD MyBook 1110 (2GB) housing all the TV shows
- WD Passport 25E2 (4GB) housing all the movies
- External drives connected to USB 3.0 Port to a TP-Link UH720 7-Port hub
- Most of the video files are encoded as mp4 at 1080p ~2700 kbps w/6 ch audio at 48kHz
What I've tried.
- Updated the Bios, video, audio drivers with the latest from Dell
- Updated Ethernet card with the latest from Realtek
- Turned off Windows' ability to turn off the Ethernet card to save power
- Turned off the Quick Removal Policy on the USB drives
- Turned off Windows' ability to sleep the USB ports
- I've also turned off most of the automated maintenance (even though it was set to run at midnight) just to double-check.
I'm attaching logs that I stripped immediately following the latest buffering incident. That instance occurred while using the web interface on a Chrome browser while in the same LAN. The client computer was also hard-wired to the network (not a WiFi issue) and the computer was receiving the file as a direct play so no transcoding was going on. No one else was streaming from the server. I've also attached the XML file for the video that was playing at the time.
I'm not sure what else to do. Keep in mind that the same buffering issue happens using the Plex App on an Android device (Galaxy S7) both on my home WiFi network and over a 4G connection. Oh yeah, and it buffers on my Chromcast too, but the problem is not specific to any one client.
Please help. I'm at my wit's end.
Edit... I've posted this in the wrong place and don't know how to move it. Moderator please move since this has nothing to do with Synology or NAS