Server Version#: 1.21.1.3876-3c3adfcb4
Player Version#: ALL Latest (iOS / Apple TV / Web / Windows)
Hi y’all,
I recently noticed some (but not all) recent additions to my library stutters when play, this is regardless of the resolution (4k or 1080p) or bitrate (as low as 10Mbps, as high as 40~50Mbps), or the client used (tried iOS, AppleTV, as well as Windows client and web player on Windows).
After a bit trial and error I found out that the particular media having this issue are all encoded with HEVC (video) and EAC3 (audio). Other combinations such as H264/EAC3 or HEVC/TrueHD works just fine, again regardless of resolution (as high as 5k 60fps) or bitrate (as high as 50Mbps).
The server runs on Xeon w/ 32GB RAM and when the issue occurs top didn’t show anything, also DirectPlay were in use when the issue occurs. I’m running wired connection and iperf shows solid 900+ Mbps.
Wondering if anyone seeing similar issues and how to debug further.
We need to see the log files (DEBUG logging on / VERBOSE logging off) which capture this.
Specifically,
Start playback
Play 20-30 seconds or until stutter
Stop playback
wait 20 for logs to flush
settings - server - troubleshooting - download logs
attach the ZIP
Without jumping to conclusions, based on your description , I suspect you might not have enough CPU power for the task. HEVC is a heavy codec and older Xeons (contrary to popular belief) are not up to the task because they lack the single-thread speed. (they have lots of threads but no one thread is all that fast)
Thank you @ChuckPa . I’ll gather the logs when it happens again (I replaced the offending media with versions that worked ).
Your explanation sounds very plausible, it is an old Xeon and single core is pretty slow. However, since DirectPlay is in use (confirmed both on client, as well as on server that the Transcoder process is not running), my understanding is that all the CPU has to do is demux the streams and sending the bytes? Why would the actual codec make a difference?
