Apple TV 4 Best Setup Stutter picture playback recordings only H264

General Discussions Plex Features
1

I have Apple TV 4 and it streams MKV all sorts of formats fast.
Recording at the start default settings Melbourne Australia and files were .ts format. I have found Codec H264 recordings play back fine in browser. Playback on Apple TV 4 sound fine but stuttering picture and lose control of remote, no pause skip etc and have to power cycle the Apple TV to get Plex App working again. I have now turned on Transcode on the DVR and I end up with an extra folder and MP4 file which is Larger and the original recording is not deleted so eating disk space fast. If I playback a newer recording on Apple TV I get an option 2 Buttons

1.Play - Video Stutter
2. Play Version

Click on Play Version

  1. Original gives stutter in picture and makes app unuseable
  2. Original Quality playback is fine and it looks like it is playing the transcoded MP4 file but it is bigger I expected smaller.

I want reliability and high quality playback but don’t want to keep two large copies, is there a way to delete the .ts file or is there a way to make the H264 ts file play on Apple TV, the suggested disable Direct Stream from another post but that made no difference.

Ideally I want recordings to be as small as possible, with high quality full resolution and play on anything particularly Apple TV 4 but I can live with playing just the untranscoded ts recording.

Perhaps I’m new to Plex and don’t understand how to set it up most efficiently and reliably

Any suggestions welcome.

2

I am not surprised as .TS recordings (MPEG-2) are problematic (Plenty of examples of this issue on these forums)… Basically the remux function is inserting the Audio and Vido into MKV container, the recording is till in it’s original format so instead I would suggest you consider using handbrake and the POSTPROCESSING SCRIPT function to re-encode to a format that you can stream to Apple TV. Handbrake scripts usually have a preset to cover this so it should be a simple script to write… Look for the ad skipping thread and adapt the script to suit your tastes…

3

Thanks @ozgreg I have just had a browse of recent recordings since the Transcode and see the files are MKV instead of ts so what is the point of the transcode container change for, what benifit does if give.

I have tried Handbrake many times I just don’t understand it.

So Plex is doing something because now maybe something else happened when I selected Transcode or coincidence but new recordings have an extra folder with a MP4 file in it which is Larger.

Here is an example how new recordings look now in Explorer folder structure.

D:\Media\TV Shows\The Blacklist (2013)\Season 4
File Name The Blacklist (2013) - S04E05 - The Lindquist Concern.mkv

Plex is also generating

D:\Media\TV Shows\The Blacklist (2013)\Season 4\Plex Versions\Original Quality\The Blacklist

File Name
S04E05.mp4

When I play the new recordings on Apple TV 4 I get an option 2 Buttons
1.Play - Video Stutter
2. Play Version

Click on Play Version button

  1. Original gives stutter in picture and makes app unuseable
    2. Original Quality playback is Great and it looks like it is playing the transcoded MP4 file but it is bigger I expected smaller.

So where is the MP4 file coming from if it is not the transcode option creating it.

There must be a way without additional software to have the Plex generated MP4 be the default and not keep the ts file.

Ok thinking this through I went and deleted the MKV video and moved the MP4 video to the default folder and deleted the rest of the sub folders then I did a Update Library.

Now I have without any software exactly what I want.

D:\Media\TV Shows\The Blacklist (2013)\Season 4
File Name S04E05.mp4

Does anyone know how to achieve this without all the moving around I did manually. Clearly Plex is creating automatically the MP4 file that plays on anything I have tried.

Screen Shots before and after from Plex Info added

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Note the above does not show the true path in Windows but a shortened version, this is the true path for the MP4 Before I made changes D:\Media\TV Shows\The Blacklist (2013)\Season 4\Plex Versions\Original Quality\The Blacklist

il2w9gf1nw0u.png734×521 38.5 KB

Above is after I moved the MP4 File around and deleted the ts file and did the Update Library

D:\Media\TV Shows\The Blacklist (2013)\Season 4
File Name S04E05.mp4

Hope this makes sense. People using Plex DVR are going to want an easy to use system. Using Handbrake is not an easy to use system and the above should be able to be automated in Plex.

Does anyone know what setting is creating the MP4 file, is it possible in Plex to compress it smaller than the original without outside software?

Thanks

4

This is why I bought a HDHR Extend and let it do the transcoding.

5

Please don’t let Plex do the transcoding, I would suggest you use remux instead which basically adds the raw recorded contents into a MKV container.

By doing this, you then have a great deal of flexibility to do what you want to this file via a transcoding. Because the file is stored as a MKV in Plex, you then have the option to transcode it back as the original MKV and Plex will not keep duplicated copies which is a clean solution (again lots of examples on this forum)…

You can transcode Use ffmpeg or handbrake something like this syntax below may work for you depending on what libraries ffmpeg are installed and most machines have ffmpeg or it is an easy google search to find one…

ffmpeg -i “${dvrFilename}” -f lavfi -i “movie=${drvFilename}[out0+subcc]” -map 1:v -map 0:a -map 1:s -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -c:a copy -c:s srt “${dvrFilename}.mkv”

FYI Unfortunately the Transcoding options of Plex are limited and in some cases do not support some of the vendor hardware encoding capabilities (such as intel) which will mean Plex can be very CPU heavy and slow so I avoid them until the Plex developers decide to offer support for specific vendor chipsets…

It is a beta product so things like this are WIP I hope when it gets to stable we might have options to better manage this rather than relying on scripts to bridge gaps.

6

@ultramookie said:
This is why I bought a HDHR Extend and let it do the transcoding.

They don’t work in Australia we can only purchase the HDHomeRun Connect as it is the only one compatible with DVB-T and Plex.

7

Hey Ian.spencer,
What is your setup with Plex? I just purchased the HDHR Extend and I have a Sysnology DS1515+ and I use a Apple TV 4 to watch the recording. Any suggestions on menu setups?

8

Like ozgreg said if you want to just use plex i’d go with the remux setting instead of transcode. I didn’t see what your using for your server. If your using windows I’d look at MCEBuddy, you can use it to transcode or remux. Just search for the commercial removal thread it has instructions on how to do an automated setup. You can follow that guide and choose to remove, just detect and mark the commercials or do nothing with them.

9

@ian.spencer said:

@ultramookie said:
This is why I bought a HDHR Extend and let it do the transcoding.

They don’t work in Australia

:frowning:

10

Ok thanks everyone I appreciate all the fast assistance and advice. I am on a steep learning curve for me. It looks like Plex DVR Transcoding is not ready for prime time yet you have to do it yourself, its a pity as I was looking for something that just worked but realising it was BETA. I hope the future of Plex DVR is going to solve these problems.

I have windows 10 I am experimenting on with Plex and Windows 8.1 I run for Windows Media Center which I am trying to get away from. Plex DVR is the first thing I have found that looks close to doing that. Both computers have 16GB RAM, SSD, I7 processor, ASRock MB http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Extreme6/ and assorted hard drives managed with https://stablebit.com/DrivePool. I am in Australia we only have one Tuner option Silicon Dust HDHomeRun Connect | 4th Gen with no hardware transcoding.

I have tried using LIcenced full version of MCEBuddy in the past for WTV files but could never get any Metadata to travel so it was pointless for me, I need very good organisation and metadata.

Ok I have set to remux only.

I could find threads on MCEBuddy and Plex but none seemed comprehensive or clear to me. I really need simple with screenshots and step by step.

Recordings are all put in their own folder structure by Plex automatically I have no idea how to pull the TS files out of there and then move them back in automatically after Endcoding them and not sure what I should encode the files as I think from what people say I need to work out how to put new recordings into a folder not seen by the library not sure how to do that.

You then put some magic settings into MCEBuddy and it reencodes them and people put them in a completed folder and delete the old ones automatically, every time I read about handbrake or anything like that everyone seems to have favorite settings. I just something that maintains itself, is top quality picture and will playback over the network with a decent remote reliably hopefully with all devices.

It’s not clear how we get the files back into the Plex Directory structure so it all works with all the Metadata.

I don’t understand why Plex has a file name convention for TV series but ignores it when recording. It uses the Guide Data name not the Show Name S01.E01 format. OK I think I know why a lot of TV recordings are not going to be in a Database so need names.

I think all this could be avoided if Plex Transcoded the video correctly.

Sorry this is getting off topic but I’m getting frustrated and confused and maybe I just need to wait for Plex DVR to progress more as I don’t have ability to work out what most people here find easy.

If someone can fine complete and concise instructions using MCEBuddy great or I will take a break and try when I can think it through more.

I really know everyone is trying to help and the purpose of the forums is to give specific answers and not a tutorial of every step and I appreciate it very much, that is I’m not complaining about the level or speed of support.

11

Through trial and error I have been doing a lot of test recordings I found the problem is Australian Broadcast DVB-T channels in MPEG2VIDEO will play back fine on Apple TV 4 as TS, As Remux only or even transcoded to H264. None of the recordings from the MPEG2VIDEO channels give trouble even if I let Plex Transcode them. So it’s not MPEG2 that is the problem for Apple TV. Its something in the broadcast of High Definition H264 Channels.

p4m1of45qgpn.png731×517 40.4 KB

Channels that broadast as H264 have jerky video playback on Apple TV

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Can anyone see anything in the second info screen that would point to the problem. Doesn’t matter if Remux to MKV or TS get same results.

12

what profile level is the h264 file? ie. can you show all the media info on the right hand column?

13

Hello,

I have the same issue (media info attached), it seems very similar and it’s interesting to note that it’s also with 25fps content (something that you won’t find in the US I think).

14

@tachtevrenidis said:
what profile level is the h264 file? ie. can you show all the media info on the right hand column?

Thanks @tachtevrenidis I don’t know what it means but its Level 4. Below are the two screen shots.

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15

I’ve found the simplest way to get things to play on my ATV4 is to use the optimize function of Plex on my DVR library. Definitely not ideal for several reasons including those which you mentioned (2 files, the optimized files aren’t much smaller either), but I no longer have any playback issues and its:

automatic
much easier and reliable than post processing scripts at this time.

16

@jondhoughton said:
I’ve found the simplest way to get things to play on my ATV4 is to use the optimize function of Plex on my DVR library. Definitely not ideal for several reasons including those which you mentioned (2 files, the optimized files aren’t much smaller either), but I no longer have any playback issues and its:

automatic
much easier and reliable than post processing scripts at this time.

Did you try just disabling Direct Streaming on your Apple TV ? (note that this has to be done for each user if you are using Plex Home)
The result should be the same without the extra file stored locally for each recording :slight_smile:

17

@ian.spencer said:

@tachtevrenidis said:
what profile level is the h264 file? ie. can you show all the media info on the right hand column?

Thanks @tachtevrenidis I don’t know what it means but its Level 4. Below are the two screen shots.

733×519 40.8 KB

735×521 41.4 KB

Apple says the Apple TV 4th Gen supports:

H.264 video up to 1080p, 60 frames per second, High or Main Profile level 4.2 or lower

so you should be good there. H264 is the main codec I use and things seem fine (webos 3.0 client) but I don’t have an apple tv to test with.

Someone suggested you try transcoding the stream just to test. But it seems like lots of people even outside plex have issues like this with video playback.

18

@SebNYD said:

Did you try just disabling Direct Streaming on your Apple TV ? (note that this has to be done for each user if you are using Plex Home)
The result should be the same without the extra file stored locally for each recording :slight_smile:

Thanks for the thought, however given the particulars of my setup and PMS usage patterns, I would rather lose the space and keep direct play/stream.

19

I don’t know if that’s enough, but you can leave Direct Play enabled (I do)

20

@SebNYD said:
I don’t know if that’s enough, but you can leave Direct Play enabled (I do)

I turned Direct Stream off and its working fine on initial tests and Direct Play is enabled. I will test more and get back. Thanks for all the help.