I have a dedicated PMS and a dedicated Home Theater server. All of my media is in MP4 format I have all the options, Direct Play, Direct Stream, Allow Direct Play of AC3 Audio, & Prefer AAC Audio checked/enabled. If I play the movies through my PS3 DLNA (not using Plex) there is no problem with playback. However, anything I play through Plex the video is choppy multiple times per second. The problem does not seem to be network-related. I’m running the latest server version 1.3.3.3148. My dedicated server stats are below:
Home Theater
Win 10
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.33 GHz
4 GB RAM
The status showed that the file was doing a Direct Play. I am not using subtitles in my playback. The current xml won’t show up in a post but can be downloaded below.
that file looks fine and should direct play from what i see. can you enable “Log to Media Server” in the app on PS3. it is in Settings>Privacy
Then play back that same file and grab the server logs which you can get in Settings>Server>Help in the web app;.
I’m a bit confused by your first post what Plex app is your “Home Theater” Win 10 pc running and what does it have to do with anything as far as this issue is concerned if your server is on your Win 7 computer and you are playing back on your PS3. are you saying things are choppy in other clients as well?
Sorry for the confusion. I’m experiencing the choppy playback playing through the Plex Home Theater server hooked up to the TV. If I play the same file(s) outside of Plex using the Sony PS3 DLNA, there is no problem.
Weird. Most of what I’ve read have been reports of the opposite. Apps such as the PS3 is often the culprit and OpenPHT/PMP given as an example of that it works. That it won’t work under OpenPHT or PMP even when Direct Playing is indeed odd. How are the server and the HTPC connected? If WiFi I’d, for testing purpose, try and connect with a cable and see if that helps. I’m not that good with Plex clients, but I have heard of that the wrong settings within OpenPHT/PMP (since the offer much more customization than others) can lead to irratic behaviour. Perhaps it is also a good idea to check all the video and audio settings on the HTPC as well (though it seems far-fetched now that you’ve tried a different version of it).
You are sure though, that you get the same symptoms on both OpenPHT and PMP? Because if that is the case, and the network is not at fault, then I’m not sure a setting in either client might help. And not sure what else to suggest at this moment if such is the case that it happens in both.
There isn’t a problem with the audio, only the video that is stuttering. I have not tried PMP as the HTPC is currently 32-bit OS and it looks like it’s only available for 64-bit. I tried making some refresh rate/sync playback/audio output settings but still experiencing the same issue. I’ve attached some screenshots of relevant settings.
I’m sadly running out of ideas, perhaps try and gather all logs after a failed attempt was made (enable debug logging, restart server, try and play, download logs, attach). If it is Direct Playing it will probably not show much, I’m afraid, but it is worth a try. Hopefully someone else will chime in and help us further.
I am experiencing similar issues. I have been running similar setups for years, but now all of my openPHT clients stutter horribly. After hours of messing with things the only temp solution is to change from direct play to a 1meg stream in the client preferences.
I tried your suggested mods. I couldn’t get playback to work below 3 Mbps. I tried from there up to the highest setting but didn’t see a difference, unfortunately.
I have been searching for alternate solutions to my problem as well. I just moved my DVR’d and ripped data (over 3TB) to another comparable PC in my house and installed PMS and am trying it there and I am running into the same problem again (have to use 1Mbps in the client’s preference settings for the local stream). I thought it might have been my server because it was having some other inconsistencies lately, but sadly that didn’t resolve my issues. I am wondering if there is something in the newest PMS as I am trying to play things primarily through OpenPHT & Plex Home Theater (sorry but I like those better than the new apps) when they aren’t working. The web player seems to be fine as well as android apps. I haven’t had a chance to try anything else yet. I’m hoping that someone else chimes in and has a solution.
I had the same problem with a few very old videos and found something that worked: just re-encode them. I didn’t change resolution or framerate. Using ffmpeg, the original video was:
Stream #0:1(eng): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 720x480 [SAR 32:27 DAR 16:9], 496 kb/s, SAR 853:720 DAR 853:480, 23.98 fps, 29.97 tbr, 1001 tbn, 59.94 tbc (default)
I have a relatively powerful GPU (NVidia GTX 1070) so I used its hardware encoder to save time: 2 hours of 480p30 video transcoded in 5 minutes:
The resulting file is ~20 times bigger, so you may want to use different -preset values, run ffmpeg -h encoder=h264_nvenc to see available ones. In all cases the videos now play completely smoothly
I’m having the same issue with a couple of files. The audio is being transcoded but the video is direct play. when I turn on PGS subtitles which forces it to transcode the playback is buttery smooth with the same audio settings
It’s your streaming player display setting, and/or you Monitor/TV/Display setting - not your Plex setup.
I had the same issue. I use a top notch desktop with an i7, GTX 1080ti, bla bla bla (a waste, I know), and a Mediasonic 4-Bay drive with 4tb and 8tb WD Red drives. All files are encoded H264/AAC mostly - plus I never ever had an issue until I did this…
On my Roku Ultra, I changed the display type to 4k@60hz or 4k@60hz HDR or whatever. Basically, 1080p will play all of these smoothly. 4k@30hz probably too.
End of the day - you’re looking at the wrong variable (I was too). In my case, it was my streaming player display type setting, and I’m guessing it is the same for you.
There are only a few places that can cause this issue, and the Plex server is rarely it. It will usually be the streaming player, or the monitor/TV. (Think of most TV’s these days as monitors - as the resolutions and refresh rates are insane).
