Very strange buffer problem that don’t make sense.
Have a ATV 3 with latest PlexConnect installed on a Mac Mini (middle 2011) 2GHz i5 with 8GB RAM
I start a movie and i plays nicely but suddenly it start buffering but when i look at network activity on my Mac Mini it looks like this.
It loads but the movie never start playing again and i have to stop and resume.
Does someone experienced same behaviour?
More info
The file is 9GB big and when i transfer it från my NAS to my Mac Mini it takes about 4-5min så it cant be the network.
Is this a MP4/M4V file ? If yes, this is a known problem, probably caused by PMS and not by PlexConnect. More info in this thread https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/145463/atv-enters-perpetual-buffering-during-video
No it´s mkv-file
This is my network layout in my appartment.
My fiber connection is in a closet thats why i need to have a switch and a second router to extend my wifi.
The strange part is i can transfer a big filer from one of my NAS to the Mac Mini in just minutes.
But when i play a movie the transfer stops and after some seconds it resumes but then my ATV starts to buffer and never resumes the movie.
convert the files to MP4 from MKV via handbrake and test to see if the issue occurs then? A friend of mine couldn’t watch prison break in MKV over the net. IT wasn’t the bandwidth, it was the transcoding required for MKV files by my PMS. Converted to apple MP4/M4V and worked fine…
Hmm…i got Plex so i didn’t have to convert and ■■■■.
Can you tell me a little more about the file details. it is obviously HD due to the size but is it 1080P or 720P? I have not added anything in a while but I remember that I did have to convert 1080P mkv movies to MP4 as the ATV would not be able to deal with the 1080P movies … does this help or did you already play other movies fine…
It´s mkv-files thats about 8 to 15GB big and the strange part it worked before.
I have given up and started to use PHT instead.
I found out the problem 
It´s files with DTS-HD MA that my Mac Mini dont have the power to transcode.
But files thats under 16GB with DTS-HD MA works.
The first file i mention in my first post was defekt.
ok great… enjoy
I did say that it was the transcoding that was killing it on the fly MKV to MP4 takes cpu power…
@gpchampion said:
I did say that it was the transcoding that was killing it on the fly MKV to MP4 takes cpu power…
Yes it was transcode problem but not because the file was big.
Some files was corrupted that make transcoding impossible.
One good thing came out of this and that´s now i know the maximum file size and bitrate my Mac Mini is capable to transcode.
@Lappen71 said:
One good thing came out of this and that´s now i know the maximum file size and bitrate my Mac Mini is capable to transcode.
File size is irrelevant, what is important is the bitrate. You can use these samples to test http://jell.yfish.us/
@moody_blue said:
Not irrelevant because is the file to big my network is the bottleneck
Every file, small or big, is sliced by PMS into parts during transmission, therefore file size is irrelevant during transmission. What may happen, if the file is not “web optimized”, is to have a slight delay at the beggining of the video, and in that case the size may matter, not so much because the transmission itself, but mainly because several video parts may have to be “inspected” before playing can start.
This is different from VLC (and others) that require a full transfer from the server to the client before playing can start.
