I have been using the Plex iOS app + AirPlay to Apple TV for a long time and it works perfectly. No bufferring ever.
Today I jumped on the newly-free PS4 and Xbox One apps and so far they are unusable - both will freeze the stream every minute or so (sometime more frequently, sometime less) for bufferring. This is with the exact same content being streamed from the exact same Plex Server as with the iOS app.
Has anybody experienced something similar? Are there any known causes?
What is your server? Is it a NAS? Is it a low-powered NAS? What is your media type, resolution, file format?
What do your Plex Media Server.log’s look like when attempting to play one of these files?
This support article will help you find the log:
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200250417-Plex-Media-Server-Log-Files
My server is a 2013 MacBook Air, so not a very powerful machine, but I don’t think that’s the issue, since I can stream to any iOS device without buffering, it’s just the PS4/Xbox One apps that struggle.
The media I tested is a 720p .mkv file with H264 video and AC3 audio. Again, I don’t think that’s the issue since the exact same file streams without buffering to any of my iOS devices (+AirPlay to Apple TV, so even greater strain on my network, yet no trouble).
I even checked the activity monitor on my server and in all cases I see the “Plex New Transcoder” process with similar levels of CPU usage.
As for the log, I don’t know which parts are relevant, so I’ve attached it here (I hope that’s okay) - my last attempt was from today, starts at 8:57, device is PS4, the buffering issue is still there.
Any help will be greatly appreciated, guys!
Had you had any luck with this issue?
I have the same problem as you. Constant buffering through the XBox One app when trying to play files on my local network, but the exact same episodes played via the XBox Media player app, various android tablets, kodi or Plex Web app work perfectly, even when transcoding (not direct play).
Can’t do anything to test or debug it right now as the XBox One app is now refusing to recognise my server…
@Andrew, I have had luck, although I’m not certain what helped. I read somewhere that changing the max h264 level from 4.0 to 4.1 might help, so I did that, but it seemed to have no immediate effect. However I just tried again today and I was able to watch an entire 2-hour 1080p movie with a bitrate over twice as high as the original file that caused problems. You might try that.
