Running server on Mac Mini (M1 w/Ventura 13.0.1) and App on Apple TV (A1625 - 4th Generation with latest OS 16.3.2). To be honest, none of that matters because this problem continues to exist for multiple iterations, going back 6+ months.
The Plex App will regularly not play mkv files on the Apple TV. It plays on the mini through the server app and even on other players on Roku and Vizio app. I’ve tried reverting to the ‘old player’ option. It works for a week or two, maybe it is a different mkv format that gets selected, who knows. What matters is that for quite some time, since the newer player started (coincidentally?) appearing, the ability of the Plex app to play files on the 4th Generation Apple TV, has suffered. It is pitiful! I am tired of searching for mp4 files. I don’t want to convert mkv files to mp4, I don’t want to ‘hope’ that this one mkv file will work while another version won’t. The whole point of Plex is to simply handle all that conversion and simply WORK.
I regret, REGRET, purchasing the lifetime pass. I feel like other options (competitors) seem to support the Apple TV much, much better. Plex has made things much more difficult in the last few months. Way too difficult to make it worth while.
I am installing the latest server update as I speak. I highly doubt it will make a difference since the problem seems to be in the TV OS Plex app. Blame it on Apple, if you want. But why even have an app for a device if it doesn’t work?
Many folks use it every day without issues. If you want to provide info, apple tv logs or server logs so we can see what is going on when one of your files don’t play lots of folks would be willing to help.
I honestly feel like if you’d use it every day with Apple TV 4K you’d experience the same issues.
New player struggles playing most newly remuxed files, constant stuttering and sometimes slowing down to 5fps is unbearable making it unusable.
Old player itself is amazing but Plex server seems to be remuxing some files wrongly therefore some won’t play and instead show black screen only.
All files play fine on iPhone app though, with old player enabled.
So there must be something with the Apple TV app that’s going on.
I also regret getting plex pass, honestly, putting money towards infuse would’ve been a better investment in the long run, at least for the PLAYBACK of files, which I think should matter the most.
I do use an Apple TV 4k everyday. I just finished watching something about 5 minutes before I typed this and am about to watch another before bed. It’s my primary player
We need information about what types of files (their codecs etc) you are playing so we can try to reproduce and the logs so we can try to see what is going on.
I am normally in to criticize the poor Plex software quality, almost non-existent quality assurance and the complete lack of customer support, except for this forum where 99.99% of the problems get ignored. But what you described is not my experience in the Apple TV. We have three at home and we use them every single day, I myself use Plex on the Apple TV on average two hours per day, every single day. And I do not have the problems you describe. There should be something else that is creating the problems, maybe running the server on an M1, or your settings for subtitles, or your network setup, or unneeded transcoding, or whatever else that only the log files would help to point out.
Ok, I’m here to raise my hand to call out the ATV app. It started happening to me just tonight.
I took a 4K movie and I used Handbreak to bring it down to 1080p so family can stream it more easily over the Net. It played perfectly on PlexWeb and iOS (iPad & iPhone both). So I pull it up on my current gen ATV 4K and I get this obnoxious audio sync issue–not bad, but enough to be noticeable and irritating AF (btw, if anyone’s keeping score, it played perfectly on my ATV’s Infuse app).
So I tried turning off the new player and that made it worse–I get a black screen with a cog for a few seconds and then still black. I pulled down the stats menu and it’s showing that it’s transcoding with a 640 x 480 resolution; the new player at least direct played the file at 1080p. So go figure–looks like we have a Plex ATV issue here.
Does Elan even work there still? He didn’t put up with this type of performance back in the days when Plex “just worked”–if something broke, there was transparency and action to fix it.
I’m this close to pulling the trigger on Infuse for a “lifetime.” I can play whatever I throw at it. I’m already forced to use it to play my 4K files as Plex’s ATV app chokes on every one of them.
While we’re at it, I’ll throw in a major annoyance that probably won’t get fixed either: when I UNPIN something from the menu, I expect it to stay that way. Yet you keep pushing that annoying Watchlist and Discover at me on my ATV–even after disabling (and re-enabling and re-disabling) it in settings. I. Don’t. Want. It.
Just fyi:
The first line coming from a Plex employee should not be “it works for others”.
That is not helpful since it’s clearly not working for OP and OP is already frustrated. taking a defensive stance is counterproductive and even more frustrating.
P.S. as an appletv user I can certainly empathise with OP, while I don’t have this particular problem, I do have many others.
