I’m sorry for posting a Topic, but as a noob I can't find a solution for my problem. I read many topics, many of those discussing similar things, but I can’t find the answer (Or more likely I don’t understand it).
I’m running my PLEX server from my Win10 64b notebook (which I have at home) and I have my media files of my PLEX library on my Gsuite account (almost 1 Tb) mounted in unit X via RCLONE. I’m trying to stream 4K files (from 40 to 60 GB) from my server (notebook) to my smart TV (LG B7 with WebOS) with the PLEX Client app. Both devices are on my same LAN.
The playback keeps interrupting with Buffering message. I can see RCLONE max download speeds on the Windows resource monitor of 6.000.000 B/s and an average of 3.000.000 B/s.
The PLEX Media server upload speed replicates the RCLONE download Speed.
I have a Linksys wrt3200acm router linking both devices, and my Speedtest measure indicates download speed of 100 Mbps and upload speed of 9 Mbps.
Why is the playback not working? Is it my RCLONE setup? Is the RCLONE Download Speed? Is the upload speed via LAN? Is it plex?
This sounds a lot like a known issue that can happen when some players stream via rclone.
While most will work just fine (I stream high-bitrate 4K without any hitches at all), some players have a nasty habit of opening files to read just a little bit, then closing them, and then re-opening them ect.
On local storage this wouldn't matter much as opening and closing files is fast - but cloud storage this is very slow, so it is a terrible strategy. Even though you may have plenty of bandwidth you end up spending the vast majority of time just asking the file to open and close.
(i this is the case then a --log-level DEBUG will show this by displaying all the open/close actions in rclone).
The bad news is that you can't really "fix" this problem in rclone, because the problem is how the player is asking for the data - and rclone will just do what is told to do.
The good news is that is certainly a fixable problem - but you probably have to experiment with some different players (and also a few different file-formats as some players only react negatively in this manner to certain types). I would also check what happens if you play the files directly on your OS from the mount rather than via Plex just to understand if Plex is part of the problem at all. Plex certainly can run fine on an rclone mount - but when you troubleshoot it is always best to test from the most basic setup and work your way up. Don't just assume the problem is not because of X or Y.
I am not super familiar with Plex, but I understand it has a built-in web-player. Does this work better? (test a few media files and formats).
Finally - please do note that this is just my best guess of what the problem is based on what you describe (it is not the first time someone has asked this). We will not know for sure if we are barking up the wrong tree until you save a bebug-log using -vv or --log-level-debug. You can use --log-file C:\somefolder\rclonelog.txt to dump it directly to a file if that is more convenient, because debug logs are loooong...
Hope this help you get on the right track to solving this frustrating issue
First test done.
When direct play from my OS (Win10) with VLC player download speed doubles and streaming went on perfect.
But when using the native Plex Client app for my LG B7 (WebOS) and when using the Plex web client problems arise.
To test if the problem is in this opening and closing file situation I need to generate the rClone log.
This may sound stupid, but as a noob opening the comand promp is like looking at the matrix for me. Any chance there is a foolproof tutorial somewhere? It doesn't have to be a video, I can read.
