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MacBH928

macrumors G3
Original poster
May 17, 2008
8,360
3,739
I am getting buffering video stream on my AndroidTV box. Its Xiaomi made and says supports 4K. Stream specs says I need about 8-10Mbps connection, and my internet is easy 100Mbps. Any tips?

On other devices I have no issues with Plex even in the same room.
 

waw74

macrumors 601
May 27, 2008
4,697
966
are you connecting to a plex server at your house? then the speed from your provider doesn't matter, as that only applies to traffic that originates or ends outside your home.

Is the video direct playing or transcoding?
If you're playing from a remote server, then their connection speed also comes into play, and a lot of times, upload is much slower than download. 20Mb/s is not unheard of for upload, and if they're streaming to more than one person, that's easily filled up.
If it's transcoding, then it could be that server isn't powerful enough to process that stream.

Get speed test, not sure about your android box, but there should be an app, or from a web browser if available. That will let you know if you're having network speed issues.

It could be a wifi issue, you may be connected to the wrong band on your androidTV. 2.4 is slower than 5, but has more range. 5 can be faster, but doesn't handle obstacles like walls and furniture as well. So if your router is on the other end of your house, then it's possible that the 2.4 will be faster than 5 in that location.

If the streaming box is buried in a cabinet, or very close to the TV or other electronics, that can also affect the wifi. Try moving the box away from other electronics. If it's behind the TV, sometimes moving a few inches either way can improve performance, depending on what's located inside that particular location on the TV.

If it's an option, try hard wired ethernet.
 

MacBH928

macrumors G3
Original poster
May 17, 2008
8,360
3,739
are you connecting to a plex server at your house? then the speed from your provider doesn't matter, as that only applies to traffic that originates or ends outside your home.

Is the video direct playing or transcoding?
If you're playing from a remote server, then their connection speed also comes into play, and a lot of times, upload is much slower than download. 20Mb/s is not unheard of for upload, and if they're streaming to more than one person, that's easily filled up.
If it's transcoding, then it could be that server isn't powerful enough to process that stream.

Get speed test, not sure about your android box, but there should be an app, or from a web browser if available. That will let you know if you're having network speed issues.

It could be a wifi issue, you may be connected to the wrong band on your androidTV. 2.4 is slower than 5, but has more range. 5 can be faster, but doesn't handle obstacles like walls and furniture as well. So if your router is on the other end of your house, then it's possible that the 2.4 will be faster than 5 in that location.

If the streaming box is buried in a cabinet, or very close to the TV or other electronics, that can also affect the wifi. Try moving the box away from other electronics. If it's behind the TV, sometimes moving a few inches either way can improve performance, depending on what's located inside that particular location on the TV.

If it's an option, try hard wired ethernet.

thanks for the help. Its definitely not the server (stream over the internet) as it runs fine on my ipad in the same room. I tested the speed on the device it gets 70Mbps
 

waw74

macrumors 601
May 27, 2008
4,697
966
My guess is that your box can't handle the stream then. Try playing around with re-encode options,

Is it everything, or just some of the media? I've definitely had some files that were encoded weird, and some players didn't like it. Trying a re-encode should fix that.

or maybe disable direct play on that device.
 

MacBH928

macrumors G3
Original poster
May 17, 2008
8,360
3,739
My guess is that your box can't handle the stream then. Try playing around with re-encode options,

Is it everything, or just some of the media? I've definitely had some files that were encoded weird, and some players didn't like it. Trying a re-encode should fix that.

or maybe disable direct play on that device.

thanks for the advice. i will continue to fiddle with it to see where the problem lies.

Are the files H265? I have found that when Plex struggles with a certain file or files, Infuse works smoothly. I am now using Infuse with my Plex server and it is working well.

Maybe. I will see how infuse works with Plex. Infuse is paid though


thanks for the links!
 
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