ATV2 crash

Hello,

 

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...

 

Thanks !

 

 

 

I don't know if there are any logs that I can take a look at...any help would be great

Try going into the PlexConnect setting in the GUI, is the transcoding level set to 40mbps?

If so try setting it at 20 instead and report back.

ok I'll try this as soon as I'm 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 ?

ok did the test ! still crashing :(

I did another test, I converted the file with handbrake with ATV2 preset (m4v)

it doesn't crash anymore at the same place. I was expecting that. Now it's direct play instead of transcoding. 

But the problem still persist...I can't convert all my library, it would take months...

I would like to find what exactly make it crash ...

edit : did some more tests, some files crashes, some don't. I try to look at the encoding info to see a pattern but I'm unable to find something

OK I'm gonna jailbreak one of my ATV to see the logs when springboard is crashing

do any of you know where to look at ??

I'm not sure where to look. I found this in /private/var/logs/CrashReporter

Everytime it crashed, a new file is created : 

LowMemory-2013-07-30-170141.plist

That is what we found in it :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>



	AutoSubmitted
	
	SysInfoCrashReporterKey
	d7d6a44342c901fd9fd5bac837d224471e677747
	bug_type
	198
	description
	Incident Identifier: 70B963DB-77D1-4631-BD1B-FF81FDED0FDB
CrashReporter Key:   d7d6a44342c901fd9fd5bac837d224471e677747
Hardware Model:      AppleTV2,1
OS Version:          iPhone OS 6.1.4 (10B809)
Kernel Version:      Darwin Kernel Version 13.0.0: Wed Feb 13 21:36:52 PST 2013; root:xnu-2107.7.55.2.2~1/RELEASE_ARM_S5L8930X
Date:                2013-07-30 17:01:41 -0700
Time since snapshot: 4259 ms

Free pages:        521
Active pages:      2713
Inactive pages:    1363
Throttled pages:   36609
Purgeable pages:   0
Wired pages:       21760
Largest process:   mediaserverd

Processes
     Name                    <UUID>                       rpages       recent_max       [reason]          (state)

CommCenterClassi <19c784a3f93a35208de01bd47343facc>          586              586         [vm]         (daemon) (idle)
         AppleTV <3397816c93e033608807b10c8f416694>         2892             2892         [vm]         (daemon)
    mediaserverd <af72564bf8713fb8b16ee64c5ee85568>        33295            33295         [vm]         (daemon)
         syslogd <da215e2d3de133bf8f52590727b9bdfe>          161              161                      (daemon)
           wifid <72eda25ccdd737a79d6cd172e9bf99a5>          381              381                      (daemon)
    itunesstored <9205e42eb09e34cf8987767c6d76db6c>          885              974                      (daemon)
       locationd <137100f254373daeb894f665c413f8b0>          581              581                      (daemon)
      backboardd <e1dc74434e0e3938b17ff0f7ad85d138>         6454             6454                      (daemon)
        BTServer <af0150d5085e326598edff072a23d146>          376              376                      (daemon)
  UserEventAgent <7ee3410c25e4372d84e93318fe42696b>          397              397                      (daemon)
       securityd <eeb8bd36f685306db25c302d7f3e18b4>          133              148                      (daemon)
            bash <00000000000000000000000000000000>           97               97                      (daemon)
            sshd <00000000000000000000000000000000>          119              119                      (daemon)
       airtunesd <ddc3ba7057813d24b7470c30446a9b67>          458              458                      (daemon)
            apsd <5be27dc5ea5234319bc4b47380e42174>          322              322                      (daemon)
        networkd <49064febbe553338bd98051399022da4>          186              186                      (daemon)
      aggregated <c5a375854c3c31d59548ab53ea86d194>           91               91                      (daemon)
          powerd <63673a83ac9c3cf98fdc75df8ba70fd0>          149              149                      (daemon)
        sandboxd <e065b18eb76d3be6837fa7b9f4a4a183>          274              275                      (daemon)
         configd <b6a4d70640b63e8f82e0e9f3d6ee2bb9>          310              310                      (daemon)
   fairplayd.K66 <e5b35f39f98b3ff1ae89a56c98569dd2>          160              160                      (daemon)
       fseventsd <3ea853cb95de3aa48972aa42637af69a>          198              198                      (daemon)
   mDNSResponder <1e651badfb7033a68a73a667ec480a08>          262              262                      (daemon)
    mediaremoted <ecae0f5d9a023c45ab885f2e02db6138>          259              259                      (daemon)
       lockdownd <a123aa04ddf83a5fae8e5bc08f0b5771>          243              243                      (daemon)
         notifyd <67a17b0c297e3785a9e09b8e72f3636a>          135              135                      (daemon)
     ReportCrash <68e323272a9d37c58ba4cdf1279764c4>          292              343                      (daemon)

**End**

	displayName
	mediaserverd
	name
	mediaserverd
	os_version
	iPhone OS 6.1.4 (10B809)
	system_ID
	
	version
	104



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 ?!

Issue with the PMS transcoder? Any chance to update PMS?

I'm already at the latest version (without plexpass)

no body has an idea ? :frowning:

The file that you can reproduce it with, at what point in the movie does it crash (min:sec)?

If you take a 30 second clip of that time can you still crash it, if so can you post a sample?

Are you getting a low memory warning?

foob4r, I'll do it tomorrow.

1975jamie : nop ! just crash !

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.

What do you think ? I'm confuse...

Do you have some non standard frame sizes set on your network or PMS server, either deliberately or by using a “broadband tuner”?

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

About that sample file… :slight_smile:

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. 

yeah it's possible and maybe the ATV3 react better with files with problem

I can make a sample or if you like, I can send you the whole file via private link to both of you

what do you prefer ?