I have two ATV2. Both of them are configured to run PlexConnect and it works great (at least, it was working great).
I don't think it's a plexconnect problem but I suppose people here will have better understanding of ATV.
The problem is, for certain new mkv movies (at leat I think it's only new movies), my two ATV crash during the movie. What happens is that the the ATV interface crash (black screen,no audio then spinning wheel and then get back to the interface). I can reproduce this with one movie always at the same place.
Tests I did :
With Plexconnect and wired : crash
With Plexconnect and wireless : crash
Playing the file on my ipad : OK
Playing the file on my iphone 4 : OK
From the web interface : OK
From ipad then airplay to ATV2 (no plexconnect) : crash
Then I brought my ipad and one of my ATV to work. Started the playblack from my ipad then airplay to my ATV : OK (I don't understand this one, it's not crashing when I'm not at home).
Then I tried an ATV3 from one of my friends at home...OK, No crash !
Any idea ?
I don't know if it's related, but what happens when you play a h.264 level 4.1 on a device like ATV2 which support only 3.0 ? Does PMS detect the device and transcode it to 3.0 automatically ? If not, could it be it ? Probably not because it's working when I'm not at home...
But remember it crash when I airplay my ipad to the Appletv (so without plexconnect). I suppose when you you do this the ipad already send the working stream to the apple tv ?
So is this low RAM or low space disk ? Because when I do "df -h", there is a lot of space.
Maybe that's why ATV3 doesn't crash on these files, it has 512mb instead of 256 ? That's weird because they are standard 720p files...
EDIT : Some other tests...it doesn't crash when I set streaming quality at 4Mbps. Above that, boom ! But If I play the SAME file from a friend with myplex and set the quality to maximum, no crash ! The is driving me crazy. This morning, I used my ipad/apple tv at job to play the movie from remote, again 1080p @ 20mbps....no crash !
The only place it crash is when I play the file locally and to solve it is to set the quality to 4mbps. What the hell is happening ?!
But after spending the evening on this problem i finally FOUND a pattern !
The problem occurs ONLY when I'm wired. No problem at all when it's wireless ! But I NEED to restart the ATV after unplugging the ethernet (that's why it didn't worked in my previous tests). If I just disconnect the wire and configure the wireless, it crashes. If I disconnect the cable, restart the ATV, configure the wireless. No crash !
I tried it with both ATV2 I have, same pattern on both TVs. It's not the cable, I changed it. It was connected to the same switch as PMS.
Now I have the ATV3 of my friend....seems to work no matter how I configure it...same ethernet cable, same switch, same port. Never crash except ONE time I had a "trailers is not available..." at the spot where ATV2 crashes but all other tests worked flawlessly wired or wireless.
Now you say this does it on only some movies. What does other movies you have do? Have you tried taking the mkv movies files and making them mp4 and see if it fixes the crash?
also what kind of machine are you using for the server. mac,window, Linux????
foob4r : standard MTU on all devices and switch (1500). No broadband tuner.
1975jamie : no crash when converting these movies to mp4 (at least, the only movie I tried to convert)
my PMS is running on a imac 2008
I am wondering if it is the file and not the ATV. Now I have seen some files play fine on somethings and not on others. Example I have TV shows and movies that are ripped at 5.1 sound and 480 that play no problem on the atv but skip and sound cut out on my Roku. Then I have movies ripped the same way that play fine on both.