Whenever a video using the VC1 codec (within an MKV container) is played on the AppleTV, Plex will Direct Play it by default. At some point, the video will begin to stutter and go out of sync with the audio. If the “Use Old Video Player” setting is turned on, Plex will transcode the file, and it plays without issue.
The problem was being worked on by a Plex employee at one point, but they last posted in Feb 2023.
It seems that Plex needs to tell the server to transcode VC1 codec files for the AppleTV. Any assistance is appreciated.
That may be the case, but Plex isn’t operating as advertised. The annoying part is that it works seamlessly with the “Old Video Player”, but not with the new. The problem exists when it tries to direct play; transcoding isn’t an issue. It is just that Plex is telling the server to direct play the file.
Yea, I can see that. Server probably has different capability and more thermal headroom.
Sounds like overheating due to too weak a cpu in the set top box. I don’t know what codecs apple built into the asic, but there would have been no reason to spent transistor budget on a disc format like VC1.
It’s marketed and advertised as a streaming service box, not a disc playback box.
Just tried playing a video file with the VC1 codec again, and the movie started to stutter after 13 minutes. As soon as I switched the client to “Use Old Video Player”, the problem disappeared.
Will this problem ever be addressed? It was originally reported almost two years ago.
Following up on this again. Hopefully someone will acknowledge that this is an issue. Experienced it again this past week. The VC1 codec will play for a bit (varying between files) and then the video begins to stutter and go out of sync with the audio. Switching the AppleTV to “Use Old Video Player” solves this problem.
The overall issue is that I can’t have my users (aka kid) going into the settings ever time he happens to pick a video with a VC1 codec.
Video Formats
H.264/HEVC SDR video up to 2160p, 60 fps, Main/Main 10 profile
HEVC Dolby Vision (Profile 5)/HDR10 (Main 10 profile)/HLG up to 2160p, 60 fps
H.264 Baseline Profile level 3.0 or lower with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 fps, Simple profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
Media Formats
Your content is much more than just a file extension. Your media has some important properties:
File container (mkv, mp4, avi, etc.)
Video codec (H.264, HEVC, MPEG-2, etc.)
Audio codec (DTS, AC-3, AAC, MP3, etc.)
Subtitle format (SRT, VOBSUB, PGS, etc.)
That’s just it. If it isn’t compatible with the AppleTV, then the server should know to transcode it. When the client is using the “new video player”, it tries to Direct Play the file and this is when it stutters. When it uses the “old video player”, it knows to transcode the video and it plays seamlessly.
There is something in the new video player that is telling the server that the client is capable of playing the codec without issues. However, this isn’t the case.
Watched another movie last night and part way in it started to stutter. It actually looked like it was some sort of “stylistic slo-mo”. The audio was playing just fine. Went and checked the file info, and it has a VC1 codec. Changed the client settings to use the “old video player”, and the file played fine.
It is really frustrating that Plex can’t fix this. The AppleTV is not playing the codec correctly and it appears that it needs to be transcoded. Please change the settings on this client to have VC1 codecs transcode.
Curious as to what it will take for this to even be acknowledged as an issue. Plex will Direct Play the VC1 codec on the Apple TV, but it has playback issues. When the server plays it with “Use Old Video Player”, it transcodes the file and the video plays perfectly.
