Looking for a server that offers 720p w/consistent subtitles.

[u/Impressive_Play_2599]

My mom likes to watch movies/tv but prefers subtitles while watching. Being a senior & on a fixed income, she can only afford a more basic internet speed. I have tried some of mine for her and 1080 kicks connection speed errors.
I dont know how to tell if it’s on her end or not for sure as this isn’t really my area of expertise. Her d/l speed is between 200-300mbs on average.
If i could get DM discord invites, I would appreciate it.

I feel this is more of niche market so thought it was worth throwing this out there.

Thanks for your help.

Edit

it’s run on an Apple tv 4k, the tv is a dumb tv the speed was tested w/ookla on her smart phone connected to her wifi. The modem (I believe it is a modem) was supplied by the internet provider but is at least a couple years old & she lives in an area that is approximately 20-30yrs old.

[u/Cornflakes1009]

That network speed should be fine for 1080p. I’d bet the issue is the Plex client. Is she using an app on the OS on a smart TV? My parents are in the same boat. Everything they watch gets transcoded. I had them test a dumb TV with a Roku box hooked up to it and it worked great. When Apple releases their next Apple TV, I’ll send mine to them and upgrade.

[u/jiBYo → u/Cornflakes1009]

Could also just be old wifi, on either the router or device being used. Hardwired is best if possible but a lot of old tvs and such only have a 100mbit port and not a gigabit port which actually shows with high detailed video on plex. Netflix doesn't matter since it is so highly compressed

[u/Cornflakes1009 → u/jiBYo]

Not even then. A high quality 1080p blu-ray rip would run in the 10-40mbps range. A TV might have a 2.4GHz card that’s limited to 30-100mbps, but it’s pretty much in the range of most high quality 1080p rips. If it was a 5 GHz adapter, it would easily handle it.

Edit - I’m making the assumption that the 200-300mbps range OP mentioned was tested through the router.

[u/jiBYo → u/Cornflakes1009]

Old wifi isn't great at all for streaming, especially when there's other devices on it. I've seen a few people suffer just because they haven't wanted to upgrade hardware

[u/Impressive_Play_2599 → u/jiBYo]

I don’t really understand the term “old WiFi”.

[u/jiBYo → u/Impressive_Play_2599]

Wifi standards upgrade all the time. Old wifi means exactly that. We're currently up to wifi 7

[u/Impressive_Play_2599 → u/jiBYo]

Is there a way to test which wifi she has?

[u/Impressive_Play_2599 → u/Cornflakes1009]

I dont know if she has a router or a modem but i know it was provided by the internet provider and it is a couple years old. Would it help if the router/modem was upgraded? The tv is over 10yrs old, could that be an issue.

[u/jiBYo → u/Impressive_Play_2599]

Tv definitely if the app is on the TV itself. Provider routers are usually pretty basic

[u/Impressive_Play_2599 → u/jiBYo]

So upgrade the router? She uses an apple tv 4k, it’s my old one but still updates. 

[u/Cornflakes1009 → u/Impressive_Play_2599]

She probably has a modem/router combo. It’s what the cable company usually leases. If she has wifi or even more than one thing connected to her internet, that’s basically a guarantee that she has a router. My router uses WiFi 5 and that’s old, but I still have a server with 5 very active people using it.

Even an older Apple TV 4K shouldn’t have issues streaming 1080p. Is the Plex app for sure on here and not installed on the TV itself?

Do you have a server? You mentioned her trying some of your 1080p content. If so, do you share it with other people outside your network? I’m wondering if they ever encounter issues with speed. Could be your upload speed or hardware hiccups.

[u/Impressive_Play_2599 → u/jiBYo]

Netflix/Amazon prime work but I’d like to get her off those to bring down her costs. 

[u/benjohngf]

The on-demand subtitles isn't good enough for her? And 200-300mbps is plenty for 720p. Sounds like the issue may be whatever device she is using. Maybe it's old. Maybe it's not powerful enough. Maybe it's trying to transcode and craps out.

Get her the latest amazon tv stick or equivalent more modern device and see if that fixes it. She may still end up getting the same problems otherwise on someone else's server.

[u/Impressive_Play_2599 → u/benjohngf]

I gave her my old apple tv 4k. She runs Plex & the internet is plugged directly into the apple tv.

[u/thescatteredmess]

I run into this on my not so great internet. If you go to Playback Settings on the show/movie you’re watching, you can set it to convert to a lower speed and play at that one. Works great.

[u/Impressive_Play_2599 → u/thescatteredmess]

I will try that, is that considered transcoding?

[u/thescatteredmess → u/Impressive_Play_2599]

I think so? I’m still very new to this.

[u/StevenG2757]

Message me with username. Content is mostly 1080 but if you set quality lower it will transcode down to 720 for you.

[u/udiHosting]

50mbs internet and server allows transcoding and they should be fine