I have buffering issue on my local network! This is VERY frustrating! This has been going for a while now.
Server Version 1.2.2.2857 OS X
Plex transcoder process starts eats up some CPU, On appleTV Plexconnect and on iOS app I can see the buffering going without a problem. It has no issue transcoding at all (buffer is faster than playback). Then playback reaches almost the end of buffering and nothing happen to the transcoder process, it stalls at 0% CPU and I get computer is not fast enough to bla bla bla… Clearly there is something the app is not telling the server like: “Hey Server I’m reaching end of buffer, please give me more…” sometime it will start buffer, sometimes it won’t. Plex crew please fix this.
I think this could be iOS related because on my Android cell phone I have not got the issue so far. Maybe I was lucky. I could film it to show behaviour if this is not clear enough.
Log files would be very helpful. If it stalls as you describe, it will be visible in the log regardless of whether server or client.
The best type of log files you can give are those where only this one activity (issue recreation) is active.
iOS 10 has been full of issues for me on a bunch of fronts. I’m not blaming iOS in any way just sharing that even things I know which aren’t app related (non PMS) only have iOS 10 in common. For example: iOS 10 is so ‘heavy’ my iPad 4 is almost unusable in certain tablet games. The game is ‘ok’… Don’t even THINK of typing a message to another player. There’s a 5-10 second lag with character drop
I’ll be posting log soon
Ok it did it again. Here is the log attached.
Player is iOS. Again I get to a point where server stops buffering (server too slow message…). iOS then have the spinning orange line, nothing happend. iPad has a spinning “network transfer” in upper left corner next to wifi icon. Server seems to still received / send packet. If you look on screen shot you will notice the server shows activity as still playing (even if i pause on iOS). Only way I can get it to buffer again is close (using X in upper corner) re enter an close again, then when replaying buffering starts again… But stops. Yesterday I listened to another movie. No buffering issue. ???
I have issue with this video:
` Media
Video Resolution SD
Duration 2:59:49
Bitrate 1106 kbps
Width 640
Height 272
Aspect Ratio 2.35
Container AVI
Video Frame Rate 24p
Video Profile advanced simple
Part
Duration 2:59:49
Size 1.39 GB
Container AVI
Video Profile advanced simple
Codec MPEG4
Bitrate 969 kbps
Bit Depth 8
Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
Frame Rate 23.976 fps
Height 272
Level 0.5
Pixel Format yuv420p
Profile advanced simple
Ref Frames 1
Width 640
Codec MP3
Channels Stereo
Bitrate 128 kbps
Audio Channel Layout stereo
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Stream Identifier 1 `
**
Same for this one BUT at some point spinning orange line is gone and buffering starts again and hold on with no issue… Don’t know what did???**
` Media
Video Resolution SD
Duration 1:53:56
Bitrate 1715 kbps
Width 720
Height 304
Aspect Ratio 2.35
Container AVI
Video Frame Rate PAL
Video Profile advanced simple
Part
Duration 1:53:56
File xxxxxxxx
Size 1.36 GB
Container AVI
Video Profile advanced simple
Codec MPEG4
Bitrate 1513 kbps
Bit Depth 8
Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
Frame Rate 25 fps
Height 304
Level 0.5
Pixel Format yuv420p
Profile advanced simple
Ref Frames 1
Width 720
Codec AC3
Channels Stereo
Bitrate 192 kbps
Audio Channel Layout stereo
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Stream Identifier 1
`Another update. I thought it was iOS issue only. With second file on Android I get buffer issue (remember did not had that before). Error message is different, but symptom the same. Buffer with no issue for a while then buffer stops.
Message says: "Connection with server lost. Please…"
In the log I saw: WARN - Transcode runner appears to have died.
In the log you just provided, I see some problems.
-
I am seeing the client simply vanish.
-
I am seeing curl error 52 (got nothing back). This means PMS went to reach out but got nothing (null reply). This is an error.
Oct 14, 2016 21:51:18.203 [0x700000841000] VERBOSE - JobManager: child process with PID 72319 exited
Oct 14, 2016 21:51:18.203 [0x700000841000] ERROR - JobManager: child process killed by signal: 9 (Killed: 9)
Oct 14, 2016 21:51:26.325 [0x7000006b8000] VERBOSE - We didn’t receive any data from 192.168.1.18:59409 in time, dropping connection.
Oct 14, 2016 21:51:26.346 [0x700000635000] VERBOSE - We didn’t receive any data from 192.168.1.18:43523 in time, dropping connection.
Oct 14, 2016 21:51:26.351 [0x7000006b8000] VERBOSE - We didn’t receive any data from 192.168.1.18:46866 in time, dropping connection.
Oct 14, 2016 21:51:26.416 [0x7000006b8000] VERBOSE - We didn’t receive any data from 192.168.1.18:49831 in time, dropping connection.
Oct 14, 2016 21:51:26.416 [0x700000635000] VERBOSE - We didn’t receive any data from 192.168.1.18:46755 in time, dropping connection.
Oct 14, 2016 21:51:26.417 [0x7000006b8000] VERBOSE - We didn’t receive any data from 192.168.1.18:58402 in time, dropping connection.
Oct 14, 2016 21:51:26.421 [0x700000635000] VERBOSE - We didn’t receive any data from 192.168.1.18:43630 in time, dropping connection.
Oct 14, 2016 21:51:26.423 [0x7000006b8000] VERBOSE - We didn’t receive any data from 192.168.1.18:58689 in time, dropping connection.
Oct 14, 2016 21:51:36.915 [0x700001300000] ERROR - Error issuing curl_easy_perform(handle): 52
I see where you are referring to about the transcoder dying, but I’m also seeing the whole job killed (signal 9) due to the lost connection with the client. It’s all here where communications with the client breaks down for whatever reason. Then, at the bottom of the log file, the client is magically ‘back’.
I’m no crazy… Server did not behave this way before… Nothing has changed that I record on this computer. Dedicated to the plex Server. Thanks so much for investigating so far MUCH APPRECIATED.
I tried going with unsecured connection with PMS - No success, well not that could be noticed.
I thought screen saver could be triggering something on PMS - did some trial - No success.
I’m all ears to suggestions…
Thinking through the basics, your devices are all wifi.
When you run a speedtest with them and compare the results to your wired desktop, how are the results?
If you log into your modem/router and look at the performance statistics, are there retransmits / errors?
If you’re using 2.4 Ghz wifi, can you get to 5 Ghz. keyboards and mice are on 2.4 Ghz and yes, a mouse and a cell phone WILL interfere. It happens here all the time if my iPhone falls back to the 2.4 Ghz SSID
Starting to think that my old apple Airport router may be the issue… Maybe something is interferring now with the setup. I will do some network testing and report back.
Looking at the client log when this happens might also reveal something.
There is the Android client log above.
Ah, sorry. Reading too fast. I’ll take a look later.
Ok, I found an error in the App log. It looks like the video player crashed, which then forces the transcode to stop. Why it crashed, i don’t know. But since it is in the middle of the video, I would tend to think it is the file. Could be the transcoder outputted garbage which got sent to the App, or the transcoder was fine, but the video player in the App didn’t like the file and crashed trying to play it. Since this same file played fine on iOS, I think the transcoder is fine.
Can you try switching the player in the app to use the Android Media Player and replay that same file and see if anything changes?
@ MovieFan.Plex: File does not play well on iOS either, also bad on AppleTV PlexConnect. It is not only this file but MANY files. Seee iOS log attached
Ok here is one iOSlog with Debug enabled. I played another movie and same issue.
The movies that shows in the attached log, I have played it on the server computer (and it is located on a network drive connected to the router) using VLC and it plays fine.
Not sure how I can achieve this: “switching the player in the app to use the Android Media Player…”
Thanks. Those are showing the stalling and then the complete loss of connection.
An Android media player on iOS? That makes no sense.
What iPad are you using and which rev iOS are you at?
Had a couple other Ninjas look over your logs and we discussed them.
We see it streaming along well. It stalls momentarily along the way, as if congested, but still continues. This is normal on a wifi network with other users.
Then, at the point of failure:
No eligible connections to standard server iMac-Plex … and it’s gone
The only reasonable conclusion is there is indeed a networking problem.
Sorry, but something or someone is taking all your bandwidth or the wifi is ‘taking 5’ at bad times.
Gentlemens good news everything is working again as it should ( I cross my fingers). Indeed a network issue was causing this. Wiring the server to the router made the symptom disappear. I also tried another router config to keep it wireless and that did the trick as well (going from automatic to a fixed channel number in the config.
To all of those who have took a look at the issue I’d like to thank you very much.
