Update: I just tried to copy 2 movies to some old external drive and hook it up to the Shield, set up the Media server on the Shield itself and it plays perfectly, not a single buffer or stutter... And those two movies are completely unwatchable when played from the server (PC), literally more buffering than playback...
Plex Media Server version on the PC?
Make sure you are running the 64-bit version of PMS. It will be installed in Program Files, not Program Files (x86). If running the 32-bit version, download & install the 64-bit version.
Also on the PC, if storage is on standard NTFS drives, make sure they are defragmented. Badly fragmented drives can cause problems for Plex Media Server (waiting on drive seeks).
Are you sure the files are direct play/streaming? Is the audio being transcoded? Do you have 'Home Streaming' selected in your settings? Also, is 'Automatically adjust quality' disabled?
Grab a screenshot of the server's activity dashboard session box a few minutes after the buffering starts.
Yep, the mods should make a rule that every single support/help post in this sub has a screenshot of the dashboard attached.
You can check bandwidth between your PC and the Shield. Install Analiti app on Shield. Launch it and select the iPerf3 server capability (free Analiti account required to run iPerf3 server). Download iperf3 binary from [iperf.fr](https://iperf.fr) Run it on PMS server via CLI. Configure it as client & use reverse direction (to measure from Shield to PMS). Example: Between PC and Analiti app on mobile phone c:\Temp\iperf3.17_64>iperf3 -R -c 192.168.1.78 Connecting to host 192.168.1.78, port 5201 Reverse mode, remote host 192.168.1.78 is sending [ 5] local 192.168.1.55 port 60950 connected to 192.168.1.78 port 5201 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate [ 5] 0.00-1.01 sec 86.1 MBytes 719 Mbits/sec [ 5] 1.01-2.00 sec 92.0 MBytes 773 Mbits/sec [ 5] 2.00-3.00 sec 90.0 MBytes 754 Mbits/sec [ 5] 3.00-4.01 sec 94.0 MBytes 784 Mbits/sec [ 5] 4.01-5.00 sec 92.9 MBytes 787 Mbits/sec [ 5] 5.00-6.00 sec 92.2 MBytes 772 Mbits/sec [ 5] 6.00-7.01 sec 90.0 MBytes 750 Mbits/sec [ 5] 7.01-8.01 sec 89.4 MBytes 749 Mbits/sec [ 5] 8.01-9.01 sec 86.4 MBytes 725 Mbits/sec [ 5] 9.01-10.01 sec 83.2 MBytes 698 Mbits/sec - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr [ 5] 0.00-10.04 sec 899 MBytes 751 Mbits/sec 1 sender [ 5] 0.00-10.01 sec 896 MBytes 751 Mbits/sec receiver iperf Done.
I like this idea and also checking read speeds from the original storage device from the PMS. What OS is the PMS running on?
Update: I just tried to copy 2 movies to some old external drive and hook it up to the Shield, set up the Media server on the Shield itself and it plays perfectly, not a single buffer or stutter... And those two movies are completely unwatchable when played from the server (PC), literally more buffering than playback...
Plex Media Server version on the PC? Make sure you are running the 64-bit version of PMS. It will be installed in Program Files, not Program Files (x86). If running the 32-bit version, download & install the 64-bit version. Also on the PC, if storage is on standard NTFS drives, make sure they are defragmented. Badly fragmented drives can cause problems for Plex Media Server (waiting on drive seeks).
Are you sure the files are direct play/streaming? Is the audio being transcoded? Do you have 'Home Streaming' selected in your settings? Also, is 'Automatically adjust quality' disabled?