Constant pausing

[70sjllo]

Hey...

 

I've been using PlexConnect on an ATV3 since its inception.

 

Here's a breakdown of my setup:

 

- PMS on a late-2012 iMac i7 connected via WiFi

- All media stored on a USB3 external HDD

- PlexConnect on ATV3 via hijacking iMovie Theatre

- ATV3 originally connected via WiFi, now via powerline adapter

- Router/modem (quite old) is only Wireless G

 

I never had a single issue until the last couple of months.

 

I started getting the odd random pauses/buffering, but not all the time. It probably started around the time I moved all my media to an external HDD. It wasn't much of a problem though.

 

With my modem/router only offering Wireless G I decided to set it to just be a modem and set up an Apple Time Capsule as my primary base station. Initially this seemed to solve any buffering issues, until...

 

A month ago I had some building work undertaken and had to move all my equipment out of my home office - including my iMac which hosts my PMS. I moved the iMac into the same room as my ATV3 and for those few days I couldn't watch a single thing on PlexConnect as it would pause/buffer every 15 seconds.

 

I figured it was a WiFi issue, due to moving my iMac into a room further away from the base station. The WiFi signal has never been great in that room for unknown reasons. However, after moving it back into my home office a few days later it still wouldn't work. After doing some fiddling about I found that removing the Time Capsule from the setup and setting my modem/router to be a router again got PlexConnect working again without the pausing/buffering every 15 seconds. Every time I attempted to set the Time Capsule up again the pausing/buffering would return.

 

So things went back to working fine for a couple of weeks, until...

 

The pausing/buffering returned this week. It doesn't happen every 15 seconds like previously, but if I'm watching a 1 hour TV show then it will pause/buffer about 5 times. Now weirdly it actually seems like PlexConnect is losing a connection when it pauses as when I press the menu button to go back to the previous screen it takes about 2 minutes of 'accessing iMovie Theatre' for the previous screen to show. But when I press menu to go backwards when the TV show/movie I'm watching is working fine, the previous screen appears instantly.

 

I thought it was a WiFi issue so I bought powerline adapters, and now the ATV3 is connected via powerline. It made no difference at all. Still pausing at least 5 times during a 1 hour TV show. This happens for everything I watch.

 

I checked what effect transcoding was having on my iMac - very little. So transcoding can't be the issue. This even happens on files native to ATV, such as MP4.

 

I use Plexify on my iMac, and have also tested it with OpenConnect - the same problem still occurs.

 

The external HDD going to sleep I thought might have been the issue, so I installed the 'Keep Drive Spinning' app. It too had no effect, the pausing continued.

 

It's worth noting that nothing else on my ATV has any issues; I stream Netflix and Hulu flawlessly without any pausing.

 

Previously I had no problems with PlexConnect, playing large files with no pausing at all.

 

It's strange that when it pauses iMovie Theatre seems to be unavailable for a few minutes and takes ages to go back to the next screen.

 

Has this happened to anyone else? Does anyone have any ideas as to what the underlying problem might be? Or any suggestions how to prevent the constant pausing?

 

Should I purchase a new (more modern) router?

 

Should I connect the iMac via powerline too?

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance.

[f00b4r]

Please read the “read before posting” sticky and provide all the requested information that is needed to help troubleshoot your issue, the detail you have given us good but the other info we request really helps us understand your setup.

[wahlman.j]

Plexify or OpenConnect would not be a good way to test since your plexconnect host is broke at the moment. Can you install and test with the official install method on another plexconnect host and see if the issue still exists? If not its your current mac. As @f00b4r said you need to provide log to even begin to have everyone attempt to help you. Depending on how much time you want to spend on trouble shooting the issue which could be easy or frustrating you can either troubleshoot and get lucky and fix it or just backup your files reinstall your OS and hopefully resolve the issue. Personally I would reinstall the OS since it seems to be corrupt and I like having a fresh os. I know its a pain to set everything back up but you cant beat that new OS since everything will be fresh and you will know what you installed. In the end its on you just trying to give advise do as you wish, seems like you know quite a bit and have troubleshooter already so I assume you will figure it out either way. Good luck.

https://github.com/iBaa/PlexConnect/wiki/How-to-report-an-issue

[neil74_2]

Did you get a solution to this?  I have the same issue (plex server and connect running on my imac and all connected using netgear av500 powerline)

It seems a funny issue we watched a 20GB+ full HD film the other night with no issues but then it will freeze on a much smaller file.

I am trying to figure out what my bottleneck is?  ATV and lack of gigabit, powerlines adapters (would the newer gigabit devlo's or TP links be a worthwhile upgrade?) or something else?