I can confirm as well on Apple TV. Direct Play results in spinning wheel of death. Appears to only occur for me playing large files but I couldn’t test my whole library. Disabling Direct Play works as a workaround. Just started happening after the latest server/app update.
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Been having the same issue on my Apple TV - tvOS 12.1
Disabling direct play solved this issue for me. Thanks!
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I just wanted to add some info. This started happening several months ago for me. However, I’ve found I can use the Plex app on my iPhone/iPad to Airplay it to the same AppleTV and I never get the issue. That seems like a more complex path and yet has less issues. I’m not advocating this usage, but I assumed the iOS and TVOS use the same base code, so why the difference, especially when doing something more complex?
Also, can we make the error message less obnoxious in size and not right in the center of the screen? It pops up a lot before it actually has a problem and it’s covering up the screen (and is embarrassing when friends are over).
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@monotone - those are the same results most of us are experiencing. There are licensing and hardware capability differences between iOS and tvOS devices, but yes some of the base code is the same. Give it a try with new PMS 1.14 and the latest tvOS app to see if you experience any difference.
And on the “error message” - are you referring to the black screen with spinning wheel after clicking play?
@darcilicious - just got back to the states and updated to PMS 1.14.0.5465, and noticed a couple new updates to the tvOS Plex app. Let me know if you get the same results from my library. I’m having a few external users test their ATV’s today.
Below is your previous reply from other thread for readers reference:
First, thanks, for the access, love your collection 
So, I’ve been able to play a few movies and most I have not. Every movie I was not able to play had audio identified as Unknown (AAC Stereo). I was able to play a few movies that had audio as English (AAC) but not all. One movie required audio transcoding (I think) and that worked.
And then after awhile, none of them would play regardless.
I then restarted the Plex app on my ATV4K and was able to play a movie with audio Unkown (AAC 5.1) right off the bat.
Right after that, I was able to play a movie with English (ACC Stereo).
So, as a wild assed guess, I’d say there is an issue with the AT4K, though I have no idea what, and the work around might be to restart the Plex app whenever playback of movies stop working.
I’m going to see if I have the same issue with another remote server I have access to and tomorrow I’ll be able to try a third…
darcilicious
Hopefully this weekend, I’m out of town just now.
By error message, I mean the “Your connection to the server is not fast enough…” message. It’s large and covers up a large part of the screen, but often it happens and the video keeps playing fine (but is apparently not performing up to its standards). I just wish it was smaller and maybe at the top or bottom so you could still see what’s going on.
The latest Plex for TVOS seems better, but I’m still seeing into the issue (just less often). In particular, I see it when streaming stuff from plugins (which work fine in iOS).
So if anything, it seems worse though I didn’t play with it much. I am using the latest Plex app beta on the latest regular tvOS release. I restarted the app just to make sure I had a clean slate and I could not the first movie I tried to play. I’ll try some other ones later today.
I’m also having issues with at least one local 4K/HDR/HEVC movie that I’m going to try and post about this weekend if I have time.
@monotone - sounds like you’re referring to the problem on the other thread… which yes happens from time to time for a few of us. This thread I created refers to the spinning wheel when direct playing media on Apple TV’s.
@darcilicious - Bummer - and consistent with other Apple TV 4K’s I’m still helping to troubleshoot.
The workaround of disabling Direct Play still works… you seeing same results? Other non-4K ATV’s external to my network are still able to Direct Play just fine, consistent with all other non-ATV Plex app clients.
Heh. I was just coming back to say that disabling Direct Play works for remote content. So I guess that’s okay.
Now I just need to figure out why local 4K/HEVC/10bit playback stopped working. Or, I could just use Infuse and check back in a month or so 
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Thanks for the update.
Just noticed the 4K/HEVC playback issue too on the ATV4K we were testing this morning. But they’re happy the workaround allowed them to play all other content. Being that I only have a few 4K/HEVC movies… I moved them out of the library for now.
The workaround of disabling Direct Play on the ATV4K client wasn’t as bad as I thought - results in a Direct Stream and not full transcode
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I’m also having issues with the Plex app on my Apple TV 4K.
Basics:
Plex Server - Latest Update
ATV4k Plex App - Latest Update
ATV4k OS - Latest Update - Connected via Ethernet
HD Homerun 2-Channel Tuner
TV - Sony XBR49X900E - Connected Wireless
Android TV Plex App - Latest Update
Symptoms started a few weeks back as best as I can tell. The first thing I noticed is that I could no longer tune to either of our local OTA CBS channels. I always get the Spinning Wheel of Death whenever I try to do so. Other channels can be hit or miss, but not Every… Single… Time… like CBS currently. This one seems really, really weird and specific, I know. I can tune in CBS just fine on the Plex server computer. It records all CBS-specific DVR shows without fail. I can tune in and watch CBS just fine via the Sony’s Plex app. Zero issues.
The second major issue I’m experiencing is watching movies (specifically Lord of the Rings - Fellowship ripped from Blu-Ray - haven’t experimented with others yet). The movie starts and begins playing just fine on the Apple TV 4K, but will display random stutter and micro-pauses that essentially ruin the viewing experience. When I play the same movie via the Sony’s Plex app, it’s a wonderful, flawless experience. Played the source file in VLC with 0 issue as well.
Things I’ve tried:
- Deleting and Reinstalling the ATV4k Plex app
- Restarting ATV4k
- Disconnecting Ethernet and connecting ATV4k Wireless
- Verifying identical Plex App settings (as near as possible) between the ATV4k and the Sony (Android) versions
None of this has made any difference with the above two issues. Stating again for clarity, neither issue exists in any fashion in the Plex App for Android TV via my Wirelessly connected Sony TV. I love my Apple TV 4K, and it is my default player for just about everything, but this has been an extremely frustrating and unpleasant experience for the last few weeks.
Have you disabled Direct Play in the Plex App settings?
I’ll try that now and report back in a few.
I thought I was going to be able to report partial success, but…
My very first attempt after disabling Direct Play, I was able to tune in CBS for the first time in weeks. Watched a few minutes of an adorable Andy Griffith Show, then backed out and tried to watch my LotR: Fellowship stream. No difference; still multiple artifacts and micro-stuttering.
However, every subsequent attempt to tune CBS in again resulted in the Spinning Wheel of Death even after force-closing the app and trying various sequencing. So - I’m going to go with disabling Direct Play made no difference, but now I can’t say it will NEVER tune CBS…
I should also note that every time I return to Plex from a tuned channel (or an attempt to tune a channel), I get a pop-up error of “Recording Failed: Live TV - Session” which seems to have no bearing on subsequent operations.
I am thinking that you really should start your own thread as your issues as described don’t really match the topic of this thread, and in either case, Live TV is separate issue and should have it’s own post with the correct tags (e.g. “livetv-dvr”, etc.)
Sorry - I don’t post here much, and thought this thread was “close enough” to get the attention needed to the various Apple TV 4K issues. I take your point and have started two new threads.
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Had the same problem. Error I was getting was " Playback was terminated by the server. Conversion failed. The transcoder coder exited due to an error". After adjusting video quality to auto and more importantly switching direct play to “off” i finally got videos to play off my gen4 apple tv
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I’m still having this issue but just for remote connections. Disabling direct play fixes this problem.
But this can’t be a real solution @Plex Team???
I’m a lifetime member and honestly… this problem really sucks!
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Yes and I think it’s still actually doing Direct Play. @russrtw might know for sure…
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