Heavy performance issue playing 4K HDR remuxes with release 8.12

Plex Players Streaming Devices
42

+1 have the same issue

43

Hi everyone!
Also have the same issue here.
I’m coming from a 2015 Shield Pro which still working properly without this issue on same setup and media.
I’m seeing the issue on the 2022 Apple TV 4K. I don’t recall it to work since I have it (early november) but maybe I didn’t notice. So I can’t say for the app release 8.11 vs 8.12.
It doesn’t seem like there is a “frame rate matching” setting (settings are in french but none seem to match). Using “old player” is not an option as my NAS is struggling transcoding.
I’m available to provide logs and test versions.
Cheers!

44

Anyone able to provide an update on this issue?

45

The Plex app on my Apple TV was updated to 8.13 and the issue is even worse than before.
Now, setting Use Old Player to On doesn’t fix the stuttering on playback.

46

We’re continuing to look into this issue, and hope to have a fix for the stuttering soon, but if you’re using the old player, that’s not something we have control over, and any stuttering you see there is potentially to do with the content itself.

2 Likes
47

Just bumping this as I just encountered it on my 3rd gen. Infuse plays them perfectly.

48

I have a little more information that I didn’t see already posted here.

When enabling the “Auto Adjust Quality” setting, it forces the player from the newer MPV to the older AVPlayer, and playback is fine. (AVPlayer doesn’t support some stuff, but it works with my test file). The video is played via “direct stream”.

With “Auto Adjust Quality” disabled and “Allow Direct Play” enabled, then the video stutters as it drops frames. With the debug window up, I can see that with little/nothing on the screen, it’s not dropping frames. The most stuff going on, the faster it drops frames. The video is played via “direct play”.

With both of those settings disabled, the loading icon spins for several seconds, and then the plex app crashes.

I’m happy to provide sample files and/or logs if it would help.

Current setup:
Apple TV 4k 3rd Gen (2022)
Plex App 8.13.4532
tvOS 16.2
PMS 1.29 and 1.30

49

We understand what’s going on here, and the differences with AVPlayer and mpv are known (it’ll be direct streaming because AVPlayer doesn’t support some common containers, like mkv). Thanks for the offer though :plexheart:

50

Quick Q for Atamido
 What’s your setting for “Use Old Video Player” (On or Off?)

51

“Use Old Video Player” is set to Off. I’ve never actually toggled it on, since “Auto Adjust Quality” seems to do that behind the scenes.

Forgot to mention that I know why it’s doing what it’s doing with the “Auto Adjust Quality” setting, because during playback on the “Technical Details” it says “Player: AVPlayer. The Enhanced Video Player cannot be used when Automatically Adjust Quality is enabled. Transcode Reason: App cannot direct play this item. No direct play video profile exists for protocol http, with container mkv, and video codec hevc.”

It was more to point out that the frame drops only occur on the new MPV player, and crash when the Direct Play is disabled. I can provide a sample file to make it crash (which it should never do.)

52

Appreciate the reply and additional info Atamido, thanks.

Dave, when this gets sorted, what file format(s) will be optimal for direct play?

53

Pretty much any container, most video codecs (aside from AV1), and most audio codecs (TrueHD will transcode to FLAC).

54

I just got an LG 4K HDR with Dolby Visio TV and was looking forward to finally seeing some sweet 4K to go along with my Apple TV 4K model A1842. I’ve been 1080p for a while, I wanted to see the goodness.

I play several videos and I’d say 1/2 play without studder and the rest studder. It’s not a judder problem it could be cranked up to full Soap opera mode and it still studders and I even tried BFI, no luck. It’s the Plex player

My test video is a direct play 4K HDR video with the HEVC video and DCA audio (DTS-HD MA 5.1)

I found if I turn on the “use old video player”, and keep direct play enabled it is smooth.

Then it goes to transcode, video is copy (HEVC), audio is transcode (AAC-AAC)

So it looks like it flips off direct play but does work smooth.

Not sure what I would be missing out on but I hope this helps.

55

Same stuttering and dropped frames problem here on the latest Apple TV 4K (2022 model).

Direct play from server with gigabit ethernet hardwired between all devices running latest Plex apps and server.

Heavy stuttering on DV/HDR files. I Have range and frame rate matching enabled.

Quick fix is to back out to menu and restart but the issue crops up again after a few minutes of playback. Any ETA on a fix?

1 Like
56

For me right now the only way is to use the old player in Plex settings. As far as I understand, Dolby Vision content won’t play this way though. I only have HEVC 4K HDR content right now, so this doesn’t bother me too much yet, but a fix needs to come from Plex Inc.

1 Like
57

Are we certain this is a Plex issue and not an ATK bug?

58

Yes. It was introduced with release 8.12 of the Plex player app.

59

Are you able to provide a sample file, please? I’ve been trying to reproduce this on my 2021 Apple TV 4K, but have been unable so far

60

Here is a sample that exhibits the same behavior for me on my 2014 Apple TV 4K: https://we.tl/t-YIoOuP52vt

61

I have the exact same problem, before the update everything played perfectly and now I can’t even play 1080 files with having them autoconverted to 480(!) Clearly something must have gone wrong with the latest update for Apple TV. I don’t have this problem on my phone or computer.