4K movies buffering

[paolo]

Got new Panasonic 4K tv and thought I would test streaming some 4K movies from Placenta and Skynet addons on Librelec side of box.
Whilst one or two movies streamed fine ( eg, Forest Gump, Deadpool) most are constantly buffering from the beginning and totally unwatchable.
I have real debrid account, vpn installed and also 100mbs virgin broadband so issue not my end.
Is this just a server overload issue? and if not any suggestions on how to improve playback.

 

[Nigelar]

I would be pretty certain that server overload is the cause if some movies play ok.
You may want to run a speedtest on the box itself though (e.g. Ookla speed test from Google play store).
Also if you are causing a WiFi connection, see if you can use ethernet.
4k consumes a lot of bandwidth.

 

[paolo]

Hi Nigelgear,
Box is hardwired so as you quite rightly say server must be overloaded. Shame really as quality of picture is awesome when stream is stable.

 

[ChrisM]

@paolo If it is an issue at the server end of things, (and the add-on you use supports it (Placenta does I believe)) have you considered downloading the file first (hold down the OK button, press C on a QWERTY keyboard or press the menu button, all at the very last stage)? You would first need to configure the add-on to tell it where to store the files (downloading to internal storage first is normally easier).

 

[paolo]

Hi ChrisM, I did think about downloading, but 4K movies are huge files so didn't really want to that.
I have tried most addons that offer 4K movies, i.e Sanctuary, Skynet etc.. and most are pretty much unwatchable.
Having said that, one of the positives of having a 4K box and television is upscaling quality of 1080 movies, especially on newer ones.
I watched " 3 billboards outside ebbing missouri" the other night and although it wasn't quite 4K, it was a big step up from 1080 resolution., so I now tend to download 1080 files if it's something I am likely to watch again.

 

[EricB]

@paolo If it is an issue at the server end of things, (and the add-on you use supports it (Placenta does I believe)) have you considered downloading the file first (hold down the OK button, press C on a QWERTY keyboard or press the menu button, all at the very last stage)? You would first need to configure the add-on to tell it where to store the files (downloading to internal storage first is normally easier).

Do I understand correctly ? So when I stream a 4K movie and it is unwatchable (buffering, stuttering) and when I then download (with RD) the samefile first (instead of streaming), the movie will play then correctly ? Do you have fine results by doing so ?

 

[paolo]

Hi Eric B, that is correct. Bear in mind that 4K files can be huge so don't expect to download movie quickly.

 

[EricB]

Tnx. I will certainly give it a try.

 

[AntonioSilva]

My buffer is very poor I am afraid I cannot see 4K

 

[Nigelar]

Could be a number of reasons.
Do things like youtube, netflix etc play ok?
Have you run a speed test (e.g. using ookla from google play store)?
What results?
Are you connected to the internet by wifi or ethernet? (Ethernet is better)
If you can answer some of this, may be able to diagnose the problem.
At the end of the day if the hosting servers are busy then there is little that can be done (although if you don't mind paying you could try premium hosting services line real debrid etc).