I’m using an Apple TV to stream Plex content from a 2014 iMac 4K. The content was all ripped using Handbrake specifically to be used with Apple devices, including iPads, iPhones, etc. so no transcoding should be required to play this content.
A month or two ago I noticed that our content was taking multiple minutes in many cases to start playing. With the computer getting old, I thought maybe it would have something to do with that. I wiped the system clean and reinstalled everything with no changes. I also assumed it was trying to transcode the content that it shouldn’t need to and tried changing various settings in the Server software. Again, no dice. I played with pre-transcoding the content and that worked. It started almost immediately when I did so. The hard drive space required was not feasible though.
Through a combination of posts here on the forums I discovered that the content was Direct Playing. (Start movie then swipe down then Technical Details.) When I changed that in the Plex Apple TV app to transcode instead, suddenly the media started playing in seconds as I expected.
I’m writing this for two reasons. One, if anyone has the same problem I wanted to post the solution.
Second, this seems backward to me and was hoping someone could supply an answer. Shouldn’t transcoding take longer as it needs to translate the content first while Direct Play just sends whatever it has to the calling device?
Are you sure you are not having some type of network issue? Is your network 100 mb or 1 gb? Are you using a wired or wireless? For 4K you should be using a wired connection, wireless will get slower as your signal gets weaker. Also 2.4 ghz is slow so you will want to use the 5 ghz if you can.
1gb, wired from iMac to router, wireless to Apple TV. I had a slowness issue a couple of years ago and replace and modernized my entire router system in the house. All of the content was from DVDs so, what 720p?
Reality though is that the only difference between multi-minute start and start in a couple of seconds was switching to transcoding from Direct Play.
I am not familiar with Apple TV. Might try putting a speed test app on it and check the speed on your wireless. You might be getting signal loss or interference. The speed result should be greater than the bit rate of the video file your trying to direct stream.
Transcoded video is typically running at a lower bit rate. If your network is running slow the transcoded video may be running at a speed that your connection can support hence why it is working faster. It’s all speculation but it is somewhere to start.
Thanks for the explanation. I appreciate it. Download is about 45mbps. Seems like Apple TV only supports 10/100. FYI- I’m streaming locally (in my house), not via the Internet.
Ok, does not look like it may be a network issue then. But it plays fine with an optimized version of the video file correct? If so what is it optimized for? It may be they way you are ripping the movies.
I ripped the movies optimized for iPad and Apple TV playback when I did it many many years ago. (Probably 8 to 10 years now.) They started without issue with Plex until a couple of months ago when this problem began. (I wish I would have noted which releases but alas…)
Yes, if I transcode the movie first it starts immediately even when set to Direct Play. When I change the setting in Plex on the Apple TV to Transcode it also starts immediately. So the pre-transcoding doesn’t seem to be it; the fact that transcoding is on at all seems to be the “fix.”
I would generally assume that Direct Play would be faster than transcoding to begin play back. Any ideas why it would be slower? Or is my assumption wrong?
Could be a complete coincidence but the time it takes to transcode the movies manually is roughly the same time it takes to start when set to Direct Play. Maybe somewhere along the line the code paths switched when Plex is choosing what to do itself based on the settings? Direct Play is actually Transcode and Transcode is actually Direct Play? Seems implausible but black boxing it isn’t telling me much. Would love to see the code there.
What I would do next is to take one of your movies using the current version of handbreak and reripping it using a standard MKV format. Your IOs devices should support this now. Then see if you still have the issue. At least this will tell you if it is something in your rips or not.
