Kodi Community Forum

I use Kodi with the Plex add-on. After switching to a fully wired LAN, I was still experiencing some buffering issues, which seemed strange because even 4K files only cause bandwidth spiking of 200-300 mbps, and i confirmed with iPerf3 i was getting 980 mbps between the server and Shield.

I looked into it, and changed cache settings according to https://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Modify_the_video_cache and it is working much better now. I notice, however, that the 'cachelevel' (viewed in Player Process Info with the Rapier skin) will start off at 100% and usually about 10-20 min into a 4K UHD remux it will drop down to 10-20%, with about 75%-80% system ram usage.

I have the 2017 Shield with 16GB of storage and 3GB of ram. 

My current cache settings include 1GB buffer, caching both local and remote streams, with a maxed out read factor. While this is working, just wondering if anyone else has worked out better settings: 

Quote:<advancedsettings>
  <cache>
    <buffermode>1</buffermode>
    <memorysize>1000000000</memorysize>
    <readfactor>9999999999</readfactor>
  </cache>
</advancedsettings>

Am I to assume your content is on a network share?
Are you using PLEX to present and play this content? (I assume video)?

My question is, why would you use Plex addon inside of Kodi, to play video content that Kodi can handle natively? The reason for my question is because Plex will transcode video material which will introduce lag etc, if your plex server is under powered.

I also have the same Shield as you, and I have an extensive library on a NAS, including some 4k content. I stream it all in Kodi flawlessly with no issue. Your network doesn't appear to be the bottleneck. I mean it's possible your switch isn't keeping up on sustained traffic, but I'd look at plex first.

Why don't you try playing some content with Kodi and not Plex and see if that's better. You could even play some content in Kodi directly from USB as a test. If I'm off on my assumptions, then let me suggest you provide more information.
Good Luck.

(2019-02-13, 17:23)mobile_4357 Wrote: [ -> ]Am I to assume your content is on a network share?
Are you using PLEX to present and play this content? (I assume video)?

My question is, why would you use Plex addon inside of Kodi, to play video content that Kodi can handle natively? The reason for my question is because Plex will transcode video material which will introduce lag etc, if your plex server is under powered.

I also have the same Shield as you, and I have an extensive library on a NAS, including some 4k content. I stream it all in Kodi flawlessly with no issue. Your network doesn't appear to be the bottleneck. I mean it's possible your switch isn't keeping up on sustained traffic, but I'd look at plex first.

Why don't you try playing some content with Kodi and not Plex and see if that's better. You could even play some content in Kodi directly from USB as a test. If I'm off on my assumptions, then let me suggest you provide more information.
Good Luck.

 I much prefer Plex's UI to any skin of Kodi's I've tried. Plus i use Plex remotely as well, so it makes more sense to leave everything in the same place. I tried PlexKodiConnect but found the UI to be clunkier and generally slower than just using the Plex add-on. Using Kodi natively removes any remote streaming functionality, but I am still thinking of leaving my 4K library on Kodi and just using my Plex server for everything else. We'll see.

My server isn't underpowered (4GHz Core i7-6700K with 32 gb of ram), but it's not transcoding anyway. All of my 4K content is direct played.

I'm going to uninstall PlexKodiConnect and add some 4K UHD remuxes to Kodi directly from a network share and see how the performance is. I'll report back.