Looking for a Plex Media Center expert
 

I'm having a streaming/buffer issue with Plex. Would like to either fix the issue or bypass it somehow.

Basically what's happening is very large sized files will not stream properly or load a good buffer so that the streaming is not an issue. For example, let's say that I try playing a 5 GB Blu-ray file. Now if I stream the file across my network, it plays fine through browsers or any other form of playing. Even wireless. But the minute I try playing that large file through Plex, even on a hard lined computer, it buffers like crazy and is essentially not watchable.

So I would like to find out why this issue is happening and how to stop it. The solution could be a larger buffer size or maybe the software is trying to render the file and obviously that's just too big for real-time playback. I really have no clue but it seems to me that there should be a way around this.

Any input/advice would be great. Willing to pay as I would like to stream these files throughout my house with ease using Plex.

You can mess with the transcoder settings from the Server Admin area. Go with the Advanced Settings.

There's also a General Settings option to increase the buffer size.

They don't give you much to mess with, but one or both of those might do the trick.

I've streamed 15+ gb files with no problems.

I should also add, Plex is based on XBMC. With XBMC you get more customization options, and can even set it up to use various players (VLC, Media Center Classic) within XBMC.

If the problem persists, that might be a better option for you.

I'm no expert, but just wondering how the CPU / memory is on the plex server when you are trying to stream. Is the server struggling to transcode the video?

I have looked at these settings before and honestly no clue what I should adjust them to. Would you mind taking a screenshot of your settings and I can try those? Most of the files that I want to run are in the 5 GB range, so if you are doing 15 GB with no problems, this should be a breeze.

The hardware that I have the server running on is as follows: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

3 GB of RAM.