Slow Internet causes buffering on local streaming?

[muzicman0 59]

13 minutes ago, Agesse82 said:

On my IPad I’m actually farther away, but I also tried on the same room. iPad runs smooth as baby... that rules out Network!! There is really no issues with network, including netflix 4K, YouTube and so on...

That most assuredly does NOT rule out your network.  For sure doesn't rule out Wireless as the problem.  TV's are horrendous at interference with wireless, and if you are running at 2.4 Ghz, it's even worse.  I run a Shield, with no issues behind my TV, but I did have to use 5 Ghz (and I am NOT saying you should use a Shield).  The iPad may also behave better with spotty coverage (bigger buffer perhaps?).  I do networking for a living, and I have seen (and actually have in my house) places were a couple feet can make a big difference in Wifi signal.

At a minimum, you should at least test with a cable attached to the TV to see if it is better or not.  It may also be something on the Server side.  I am not sure if you are using Emby on the iPad, or are playing video from something else.  BUT, if it is the server having issues, then all the changes in the world won't make a difference on the TV side.

[Carlo 4330]

I was going to say the same thing.  I'll also add to what you said.

It depends on what else is happening on the wifi network.  wifi is asymmetrical while Ethernet is symmetrical.  Each port on a gig router gets a full 1 gps up and down while wifi is shared with all devices and only one device can be using the network at a time which causes collisions.

So if near the hotspot and device count is low the quality could be as good or better but usually is not as good as Ethernet and has higher latency of course.  The more devices on the network the worse things will be especially if parts of this go back out an Ethernet cable as everything runs through a single cable at that point.

But as pointed out we don't know if it's a network issue or not but the one way to find out is with a cable.

[Agesse82 0]

33 minutes ago, muzicman0 said:

That most assuredly does NOT rule out your network.  For sure doesn't rule out Wireless as the problem.  TV's are horrendous at interference with wireless, and if you are running at 2.4 Ghz, it's even worse.  I run a Shield, with no issues behind my TV, but I did have to use 5 Ghz (and I am NOT saying you should use a Shield).  The iPad may also behave better with spotty coverage (bigger buffer perhaps?).  I do networking for a living, and I have seen (and actually have in my house) places were a couple feet can make a big difference in Wifi signal.

At a minimum, you should at least test with a cable attached to the TV to see if it is better or not.  It may also be something on the Server side.  I am not sure if you are using Emby on the iPad, or are playing video from something else.  BUT, if it is the server having issues, then all the changes in the world won't make a difference on the TV side.

I have splitted the WiFi between 2.4 and 5ghz and only the server and TV and Roku as of now are on the 5ghz all else on 2.4

on IPad I tried Plex média player to test it. 

28 minutes ago, cayars said:

I was going to say the same thing.  I'll also add to what you said.

It depends on what else is happening on the wifi network.  wifi is asymmetrical while Ethernet is symmetrical.  Each port on a gig router gets a full 1 gps up and down while wifi is shared with all devices and only one device can be using the network at a time which causes collisions.

So if near the hotspot and device count is low the quality could be as good or better but usually is not as good as Ethernet and has higher latency of course.  The more devices on the network the worse things will be especially if parts of this go back out an Ethernet cable as everything runs through a single cable at that point.

But as pointed out we don't know if it's a network issue or not but the one way to find out is with a cable.

Yes. I think the only way to know for sure is with a cable. However like I mentioned it would be a pain in the ass to get the cable going since it has to go behind the wall. I’m a really wireless guy, I hate cables lol. 

To be honest I don’t even have an Ethernet cable at this point to test it. 
 

 

Edited July 7, 2020 by Agesse82

[muzicman0 59]

What are the specs of your server (RAM, CPU, GPU)?  Have you looked to see if it is transcoding during playback, or direct play?  Is plex running on the same server, or different (when you test with the iPad)?

EDIT: Also, is your server also on wireless, or wired?

Edited July 7, 2020 by muzicman0

[Agesse82 0]

10 minutes ago, muzicman0 said:

What are the specs of your server (RAM, CPU, GPU)?  Have you looked to see if it is transcoding during playback, or direct play?  Is plex running on the same server, or different (when you test with the iPad)?

EDIT: Also, is your server also on wireless, or wired?

Everything is wireless. When testing Emby i turn off Plex and vice versa. 
Everything is direct playing.

iMac 2015 i7 4GHZ
16GB Ram
512 SSD
Media is on external HD USB 3.0

[Carlo 4330]

Find some different bitrte file sizes of the resolution you want to play and find out the highest bitrate that plays without issue and where the bitrate is just to high and starts causing problems.

[muzicman0 59]

Agreed.  If you are using hardware acceleration, you may want to try without as well. 

I would start by trying 1080p 8 Mbps.  My 6th gen i3 (Windows) can handle that, so I would assume the 6th gen  i7 can as well.  Move up or down from there.

EDIT: for fairness, I would also not try streaming a UHD video either.  See how it handles with FHD first.

 

EDIT 2:Sorry - missed that everything is direct playing.  What bitrate is it playing at?  What are the files encoded as?  mpeg-2?  h.264, etc?

Edited July 7, 2020 by muzicman0

[pwhodges 1529]

6 hours ago, Agesse82 said:

I want to avoid cables at all costs. My setup is really difficult to pass cables... 

Powerline devices exist for a reason - and they can work well if you can make a connection that doesn't go through an earth-leakage breaker (these contain coils which block high frequencies).  The wifi in my TV room is fed via the mains cabling, and works just fine.

Paul

[pwhodges 1529]

...

Edited July 7, 2020 by pwhodges
duplicate

[Agesse82 0]

8 hours ago, cayars said:

Find some different bitrte file sizes of the resolution you want to play and find out the highest bitrate that plays without issue and where the bitrate is just to high and starts causing problems.

I have noticed even some 1080P having issues, but I think I reseted everything and it was good after that. Also, some 4K non-HDR plays nicely as well.

8 hours ago, muzicman0 said:

Agreed.  If you are using hardware acceleration, you may want to try without as well. 

I would start by trying 1080p 8 Mbps.  My 6th gen i3 (Windows) can handle that, so I would assume the 6th gen  i7 can as well.  Move up or down from there.

EDIT: for fairness, I would also not try streaming a UHD video either.  See how it handles with FHD first.

 

EDIT 2:Sorry - missed that everything is direct playing.  What bitrate is it playing at?  What are the files encoded as?  mpeg-2?  h.264, etc?

So, some of my troublesome are:

Dunkirk HDR - 11.68GB file size - Birate 15.7 - Reserved 66 mpps - quiet a lot of issues
Star War Episode VI HDR  - File size 23GB  Bitrate 25.1MBps - Reserved 51 mbps - The most issues I had

Star Wars Episode HDR 2 - File size 17.5GB - Bitrate 17.6, reserved 36mbps - This has played well

MadMax Fury Road HDR - 16.8GB - Bitrate 10Mps, reserved 42 bmps - has played well

Blader Runner 2014 HDR - 8.27GB File size, Bitrate 7.3Mbps, reserved 14mbps - no issues at all...

However this morning when playing all these guys to get the numbers, everything played smooth..... so this is killing me really!!!!

 

[Carlo 4330]

That has the markings of wifi issues written all over it.  Last night you had more wifi activity or interference and this morning you didn't. <- One explanation.

[Agesse82 0]

32 minutes ago, cayars said:

That has the markings of wifi issues written all over it.  Last night you had more wifi activity or interference and this morning you didn't. <- One explanation.

So, the best thing to do is hardwire everything? 

That is going to be a nightmare. There must be a way around this....

[Carlo 4330]

There is, use less bitrate heavy media.

You can move 100 tons of dirt with a dump truck or your pickup truck but one is going to be a lot more successful then the other.  You choose your equipment and infrastructure based on  requirements and needs not wants.  If you want to move very high bitrate movies you need to have the proper infrastructure as well to pull it off 100% of the time.

The problem I think you have compared to most that use WIFI is that it appears you are using it for everything (correct me if wrong).   By this I mean your Emby Server is using WIFI and so is the client.  That means at a minimum 2 devices are sharing the bandwidth.  BTW, it doesn't matter if you are using 2.4 or 5GHz on the same router (for the most part), they are devices sharing your bandwidth.  By this I mean if you have 8 devices on 2.4 and 4 devices on 5GHz, that's 12 WIFI devices sharing that bandwidth.

At a minimum, make sure the Emby Server is not connected via WIFI and has a cable to the router even if this means you move the router or the Emby Server.  If after this you can do tests like turn off every WIFI device except the TV/Device you want to watch high bitrate files on and see with only that ONE DEVICE connected if it plays.  If it does play back well then you know it's possible and if you intend to stay WIFI wiill need to add more hotspots that are hard wired together running on different channels to spread the load.  These hotspots can not use WIFI to connect as that defeats the purpose so some hard line wiring will be needed or just put the routers near each other.

Bits are bits so if you have a bitrate problem there is only two ways to solve it.  Use less bits for the content or increase the bits available to use to stream the video.

This really is a case of WANT vs NEED being different.

[Luke 37063]

On 7/7/2020 at 9:04 AM, Agesse82 said:

So, the best thing to do is hardwire everything? 

That is going to be a nightmare. There must be a way around this....

You can also lower the in-app quality setting to a value that will be able to play smoothly.