Plex Server v1.25.6.5577 on a QNAP TS-251+ with a Plex Pass. Apple TV app v7.29.1 (2058).
I noticed that the default setting of “Auto Adjust Quality” is preventing the content from playing at all. When I disable the option, the video plays normally. When the setting is enabled, there is audio but I only see a spinner and a black screen. This can be reproduced consistently every time.
I tested the same content via a web browser and it seems to work, so I am guessing the issue is specific to the Apple TV client. I also confirmed that “Direct Play” is appearing in the dashboard (which is what I’d expect).
Lastly, I captured logs and can see it working when autoAdjustQuality=0, yet failing to play when autoAdjustQuality=1.
Not sure if I should include logs directly here (newbie forum user!), but hoping someone can help. Thanks!
As soon as you activate the auto quality option, your server is (attempting to) transcoding all the time (even if it is not needed). Your machine is probably not able to do that with hevc content, as it is very computing-intensive.
I do know that my NAS doesn’t support x265 hardware transcoding, but it does support (most) x264, so that makes sense and would explain the difference in behaviour.
That said, this still feels like a bug given that as far as I can tell, that setting is enabled by default. It should ideally do the right thing (only transcode when needed), or at least show some kind of message rather than stay stuck on a spinner.
Not really following why this doesn’t seem to strike you as an issue either way.
The feature is called « Auto Adjust Quality », so it seems it should do just that, no? If I have to manually turn it off for my content to play, then it’s not « automatic ».
