Just chiming in to say I have this issue. I just got an Apple TV 4K this past weekend. Several of my videos don’t play when I have direct play selected, but do work when I select “Convert Automatically”. I have server 1.14.0.5470 running on a Synology NAS and my Apple TV Plex client is version 1.35.1 (10794). I swear I checked this when I first setup the Apple TV a few days ago and the video played. I’m wondering if the Apple TV updated tvOS silently over the past couple days.
Edit: I have tvOS 12.1 (16J602), I wish I would have checked what tvOS was on when I first set it up.
As mentioned on another thread, you can often get the channel to play by doing the following: When you see the spinning wheel, slide down on the remote to show the menu at the top of the screen. Select playback settings, then press “original quality” - this resets the stream and almost always gets the channel playing properly.
Thinking about downgrading the Apple TV4 iOS back to 11 because I love playing media locally (though may be risky and plex app from the AppStore may only be compatible with iOS12 now), vs sticking with Infuse as a temporizing measure until we get a real fix.
I have the exact issues described here on two AppleTV 4K’s. In addition, PS4 is also having a problem, but I care less about that platform. My FireTV’s and all other devices, iOS, pc and macOS no problem. Going to try some of the mentions in this thread as a work around. There is clearly a problem with the AppleTV app and direct play for me.
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@Doktor_Marc - disabling direct play actually forces a direct stream, which works well as a workaround (not much load on the server). The issue seems to be how the ATV perceives the movie file container.
@oryan_dunn - leaving quality settings as “max” or whatever is suitable for your network should be fine. Setting “Allow Direct Play” to Off will allow that content to play, which under the hood makes the ATV direct stream the content.
@SuperMatt - Will try that, but most external users to my network will forget and want a static solution or workaround.
@hallofjames - Try disabling direct play as a workaround and let us know your results. The resulting direct stream should be no issue for your server and is nowhere near as intensive as transcoding.
@pr0j3kt - Please let us know your results, curious if the workaround is successful for you as well. Just this past weekend I had yet another friend with ATV4K running the latest Plex app that had the same symptom originally, but most recently had to uninstall/reinstall the Plex app, then link again to see my library! Once linked, disabling direct play was the only way to reliably watch content. All his other Roku and FireTV devices had no issue with direct play.
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@russrtw I have a manual switcher for my Ethernet input to the AppleTV that either receives from “Internet “ or direct from “Server” (my tech vernacular leaves some to be desired haha)
The direct play disabling helped initiate video playing when streaming over “Internet” (though would end up with buffering issues), but when direct from Server still resulted in SWOD.
Latest 1.36 update to Plex app for Apple TV brings “new enhanced video player” 
It’s the same one in the beta; I don’t think it solves this problem but I haven’t had time to follow-up. A lot will depend on the media type because (for example) HDR isn’t yet support IIRC. The good news is that’s easy to turn on/off the new player, it’s just a setting in the app.
Would explain why Plex staff have been quiet in response to the ATV bugs. No external users on my server have both ATV and Plex Pass to try the new player… but this is certainly promising to see:
Unfortunately, this newly enhanced video player does not solve the problem.
For me at least, with my ATV 4K and QNAP.
Interesting. It definitely resolved it for a friend yesterday that couldn’t direct play with his ATV4K on the old player. I’m using a Synology DS918+ with 1Gb Fiber, though.
Does the workaround (disabling direct play) work? That forces a direct stream (converting container with hardly any load on your server)
@darcilicious - was going to send you direct msg, but let me know your results with direct play on and the new player. Thanks for your help and responses - welcome to stream from my library anytime
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I should be able to test tonight – have to kick hubby off the tv (he’s playing red dead redemption 2 every. waking. hour. 
)
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@AJchang Could you share logs, XML media info and a sample file please? Instructions to do so in the announcement post: Early access for Plex Pass users to new Apple TV & iOS Video Player
Thank you!!
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It’s GLORIOUS! 
Working like a charm!
And, thanks so much for the continued access, I promise to put it to good use a 
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That’s promising - great to hear!
Horray for Plex staff who were all involved with the new player. Thanks @sergiou87 for followup on this thread.
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The new player completely fixed the issues I was having. 
Thanks Plex!!! Glad I hesitated on the whole iOS downgrade notion
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Just tried with Direct Play disabled.
Playback was terminated by the server
Conversation failed. The transcoder exited due to an error.
Same message as when Direct Play is enabled.
Hey! Thanks for reaching out, I should be able to do this tonight. Just studying for final exams right now.
@AJchang any updates on the errors you were seeing? Across the board I’ve had good success with the new player
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