HEVC MP4 videos jitter/stutter (not buffering) on Xbox One when Direct Playing

Plex Players Gaming Consoles
1

Server Version#: 3.104.2
Player Version#: 2.51.1

Using the Plex app on Xbox One that is updated, I’m having stuttering and slowdowns when remotely playing (Direct Play) a 1080p MP4 HEVC file. It’s not buffering, but more like trouble decoding and maintaining a smooth framerate when the camera pans in the video. Both the server and client have plenty of bandwidth and regular x264 MP4 files direct play with no problems. Am I missing something, is there a way to make the playback smooth and normal?

Here’s a paste of the Mediainfo of one of the video files that has stuttering/slowdowns (tested multiple files with the same encoding, all jitter/stutter.)

1. Format                         : MPEG-4
2. Format profile                 : Base Media
3. Codec ID                       : isom (isom/iso2/mp41)
4. File size                      : 1.85 GiB
5. Duration                       : 1 h 58 min
6. Overall bit rate               : 2 231 kb/s
7. Movie name                     : videofile
8. Encoded date                   : UTC 2020-03-26 15:34:16
9. Tagged date                    : UTC 2020-03-26 15:34:16
10. Writing application            : Lavf58.20.100
11. Comment                        : videofile

 * Video

12. ID                             : 1
13. Format                         : HEVC
14. Format/Info                    : High Efficiency Video Coding
15. Format profile                 : Main 10@L4@Main
16. Codec ID                       : hev1
17. Codec ID/Info                  : High Efficiency Video Coding
18. Duration                       : 1 h 58 min
19. Bit rate                       : 2 000 kb/s
20. Width                          : 1 920 pixels
21. Height                         : 788 pixels
22. Display aspect ratio           : 2.40:1
23. Frame rate mode                : Constant
24. Frame rate                     : 24.000 FPS
25. Color space                    : YUV
26. Chroma subsampling             : 4:2:0
27. Bit depth                      : 10 bits
28. Bits/(Pixel*Frame)             : 0.055
29. Stream size                    : 1.66 GiB (90%)
30. Writing library                : x265 3.3+4-30eb4de83092:[Linux][GCC 8.3.1][64 bit] 10bit
31. Encoding settings              : cpuid=1111039 / frame-threads=4 / wpp / no-pmode / no-pme / no-psnr / no-ssim / log-level=2 / input-csp=1 / input-res=1920x788 / interlace=0 / total-frames=0 / level-idc=0 / high-tier=1 / uhd-bd=0 / ref=4 / no-allow-non-conformance / no-repeat-headers / annexb / no-aud / no-hrd / info / hash=0 / no-temporal-layers / open-gop / min-keyint=24 / keyint=250 / gop-lookahead=0 / bframes=4 / b-adapt=2 / b-pyramid / bframe-bias=0 / rc-lookahead=25 / lookahead-slices=4 / scenecut=40 / hist-scenecut=0 / radl=0 / no-splice / no-intra-refresh / ctu=64 / min-cu-size=8 / rect / no-amp / max-tu-size=32 / tu-inter-depth=1 / tu-intra-depth=1 / limit-tu=0 / rdoq-level=2 / dynamic-rd=0.00 / no-ssim-rd / signhide / no-tskip / nr-intra=0 / nr-inter=0 / no-constrained-intra / strong-intra-smoothing / max-merge=3 / limit-refs=3 / limit-modes / me=3 / subme=3 / merange=57 / temporal-mvp / no-frame-dup / no-hme / weightp / no-weightb / no-analyze-src-pics / deblock=0:0 / no-sao / no-sao-non-deblock / rd=4 / selective-sao=0 / no-early-skip / rskip / no-fast-intra / no-tskip-fast / no-cu-lossless / no-b-intra / no-splitrd-skip / rdpenalty=0 / psy-rd=2.00 / psy-rdoq=1.00 / no-rd-refine / no-lossless / cbqpoffs=0 / crqpoffs=0 / rc=abr / bitrate=2000 / qcomp=0.60 / qpstep=4 / stats-write=0 / stats-read=2 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ipratio=1.40 / pbratio=1.30 / aq-mode=3 / aq-strength=1.00 / cutree / zone-count=0 / no-strict-cbr / qg-size=32 / no-rc-grain / qpmax=69 / qpmin=0 / no-const-vbv / sar=1 / overscan=0 / videoformat=5 / range=0 / colorprim=2 / transfer=2 / colormatrix=2 / chromaloc=0 / display-window=0 / cll=0,0 / min-luma=0 / max-luma=1023 / log2-max-poc-lsb=8 / vui-timing-info / vui-hrd-info / slices=1 / no-opt-qp-pps / no-opt-ref-list-length-pps / no-multi-pass-opt-rps / scenecut-bias=0.05 / hist-threshold=0.01 / no-opt-cu-delta-qp / no-aq-motion / no-hdr10 / no-hdr10-opt / no-dhdr10-opt / no-idr-recovery-sei / analysis-reuse-level=0 / analysis-save-reuse-level=0 / analysis-load-reuse-level=0 / scale-factor=0 / refine-intra=0 / refine-inter=0 / refine-mv=1 / refine-ctu-distortion=0 / no-limit-sao / ctu-info=0 / no-lowpass-dct / refine-analysis-type=0 / copy-pic=1 / max-ausize-factor=1.0 / no-dynamic-refine / no-single-sei / no-hevc-aq / no-svt / no-field / qp-adaptation-range=1.00 / no-scenecut-aware-qpconformance-window-offsets / right=0 / bottom=0
32. Encoded date                   : UTC 2020-03-26 15:34:16
33. Tagged date                    : UTC 2020-03-26 15:34:16
34. Codec configuration box        : hvcC

 * Audio

35. ID                             : 2
36. Format                         : AAC LC
37. Format/Info                    : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
38. Codec ID                       : mp4a-40-2
39. Duration                       : 1 h 58 min
40. Bit rate mode                  : Constant
41. Bit rate                       : 224 kb/s
42. Channel(s)                     : 6 channels
43. Channel layout                 : C L R Ls Rs LFE
44. Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz
45. Frame rate                     : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
46. Compression mode               : Lossy
47. Stream size                    : 190 MiB (10%)
48. Language                       : English
49. Default                        : Yes
50. Alternate group                : 1
51. Encoded date                   : UTC 2020-03-26 15:34:16
52. Tagged date                    : UTC 2020-03-26 15:34:16
3 Likes
2

I have the same issue with HEVC files on my Xbox One X. They play fine on the Shield. Before I go buy another Shield, I’m thinking about trying Kodi.

1 Like
3

Which is odd, as you would think the Xbox One X hardware wouldn’t have any issues direct playing HEVC files, especially if it’s only 1080p.

4

Okay I just tried Kodi with with the Plex add-on and the hevc files seem to play fine from my quick testing. HEVC playback is off by default in the Kodi Plex add-on, so turn that on in the settings. Hopefully they fix the player in Plex but until then, we may have a workaround.

5

I’m having the exact same issue on my XBOX One. It’s a 1080p HEVC 265 video and while direct playing the frame rate is not smooth. Almost like it’s playing half the frames. It’s not pausing or effecting audio, just the frame rate is stuttering.

6

This issue seems to be over a slue of devices, Roku, iPad, XBOX

What seems to be common is HEVC Main 10 1080P

7

Did you try and turn off “Allow Display Mode Switching” setting in the XBOX Plex Client ?. XBOX has issues for me matching the framerate.

1 Like
8

I disabled Allow Display Mode Switching and unfortunately it had no effect, still experienced jittering/stuttering playback.

9

Same issue here on Xbox One S. Just started using this format. Plays fine on iPad but also stutters when casting from iPad to ULTRA chrome cast.

10

Trying to troubleshoot this myself today. I found this old post All 4K HEVC content is being transcoded. Why? which closed apparently without a resolution. Is this the issue?

Plex - it’d be really useful if there was a known issue page so people wouldn’t have to go hunting for information about bugs you are aware of.

11

I’ve double-checked and both Plex dashboard and Tautulli confirmed that the movie was Direct Play, so it wasn’t being transcoded or Direct Stream either. That thread you linked sounds like a different issue altogether.

12

Ok. Well I played a 60Mbps+ 1080p file and that was fine, so it’s not my network. 4K HEVC files stuttering even if small e.g. 10-15Mbps.

13

I’ve noticed the same thing. I was able to remotely direct play a 4K HEVC MKV video file with no issues. For some reason, a 1080p HEVC MP4 file with a lower bitrate and smaller filesize has issues, though.

14

I see jitter on xbox one s all the time, on all content (most h.264) but usually only when resuming or jumping to a spot in the video. Audio is often transcoded but video is direct play. We have to use transport controls to skip back (I believe it is 10 second skip) and it goes away.

15

I’m also experiencing the same issue on my Xbox One S, and even on the original Xbox One. I’ve had a large number of Plex Server software upgrades, it also doesn’t matter whether it’s running natively on Windows or in a Docker on unRAID (Linux).

It happens to me for H264 and H265 content, 720 and 1080, and that isn’t with any hardware transcodes running, and when hardware transcodes run, it also happens (using an Nvidia 1060 Ti) or Intel QSV on a 6700K Skylake CPU.

I’ve had Plex Server running on an AMD 6-core CPU with 16 GB RAM and the Nvidia 1060 Ti (Windows) and in a Docker on unRAID with an Intel Core i7 6700K with 16 GB RAM and the onboard HD 530 iGPU.

I don’t get stuttering issues if I use my Samsung Galaxy S9+ or S20 Ultra, no jittery playback on my desktop or any other device… it seems specific to the Xbox One. The hardware should be MORE than capable of smooth playback so what is going on?

16

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