First, I read your STICKY post about what to include when asking a question so I hope I got everything
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The XML media information for the library item you tried to play - See 'XML Info.Log’
Playing locally? Yes, I tried Original, 20 Mbps, 10 Mbps, 8Mbps, 4 Mbps
Which audio stream were you listening too? - AAC
Does the bad behavior happen on all videos some of the time? - It only happens on Movies all the time, not TV shows or Music (that might not be enough info to go on so let me know)
Are the problematic videos mostly MP4/M4V? - This occurs with MP4, M4V and MKV from my testing.
My device is a PS3 running 2.4.36 PLEX hardwired
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This issue started when my PS3 was upgraded to 2.4.34 and has now persisted to 2.4.36. I also have an Amazon Fire TV Box where these issues do not happen. The issues also do not occur when using the Web app. I believe this is isolated to my PS3. When I try to watch a movie, within about 2 to 6 seconds I start to get a shutter and delay which then reoccurs constantly thus making the movie unwatchable. I’ve also attached the log file from when I experienced this issue occurring between 10:03-10:06 PM EST (See Plex Media Server.Log). I’m not expert but I did notice one interesting thing in the logs, the Average Bitrate, in the log file I attached it says 2.33, but in another log file I have with the same movie playing it shows 4.89 and then another that shows 4.94 and another that shows 5.06. My PS3 is hardwired to my ASUS RT-AC68U router about 10 ft away. Hopefully this is enough info for you to help me.
Your problem is your server cannot keep up with the transcoding that is occurring. In the log you provided the h264 levle is 4.1 which is above the 4.0 for the App which is causing the video to transcode. After that you can see your speed values start at 1.5 for a couple of seconds and then drop below 1. Once those transcoding speeds drop below 1 it means your server is unable to transcode the video in real time (IE it takes longer than 1 second to transcode 1 second of video)
The video you’re watching also doesn’t have an aac audio stream only a DTS stream so that is also being transcoded along with the video.
Interesting, Thanks for the response jmckee. In the effort to dig into this further I feel I should say again that this did not happen prior to the 2.4.34 build. My NAS, where PLEX resides, is the Synology DS214Play with 1.6GHz Dual-Core processor, 1 GB - DDR3 RAM, 6TB WD Red drives. Can you tell my why I can watch it on my Amazon Fire TV Box with no issues and not my PS3? I ran 2 more tests again with the same movie and I see the h264 level is 41 < 40 but the trans-coding bit rate is 2.5 to 2.6 in both logs. (if I’m reading it right). What do you recommend?
In the effort to dig into this further I feel I should say again that this did not happen prior to the 2.4.34 build.
I can’t comment on what was happening as I don’t actually use the Playstation App specifically. But what your logs are saying for this version is that the file is transcoding audio and video. Video because of the h264 limit and audio because of the codec. I could guess that the h264 limit wasn’t implemented yet (or working properly) but the Plex for Playstation FAQ specifically says that the direct play codec his h264 @ level 4.0 or lower.
Can you tell my why I can watch it on my Amazon Fire TV Box with no issues and not my PS3?
The android app does have the same 4.0 limit, but it is also able to be overridden which would allow the video file to copy instead of transcoding. This will greatly decrease the amount of CPU power needed. But that is also just a guess.
I ran 2 more tests again with the same movie and I see the h264 level is 41 < 40 but the trans-coding bit rate is 2.5 to 2.6 in both logs. (if I’m reading it right). What do you recommend?
The transcoding bit rate that you see is an average for each segment of the movie being transcoded and sent to the device (~5-10 seconds in a chunk).
What server version are you using currently? There was a note saying that 9.14.2-3 was breaking transcoding to the Playstation apps. But 9.14.4 should be okay now.
I am using 0.9.12.19.1537. I saw that post about 9.14 and thought the same thing. Maybe I should try rolling back and see if the problem is still there
If you are able (and willing) to roll back a log from the previous version with the same movie will definitely shed a lot of light on what is causing the differences between the two. (At a minimum we would have exactly what is different in the transcoder call/request)
So I dug a little further and it turns out the my DS214Play is not capable of transcoding 1080p. Bummer. Looks like I will have to stick to the 720p vids. Thanks jmckee
Bummer on that end. Although, you can try out the new media optimizer to pre-transcode the video to a format that will direct play. It will take a bit longer because the entire video has to transcode, but then you’ll be able to direct play the 1080p video without any problems/transcoding (hopefully)
