Your screenshots already show the checkboxes you need to activate. Refer to your device’s spec sheet to know which codecs are understood by it.
Curse lifted. Reboot, disconnect HDMI, reconnect, change settings in windows to as they were before for video, rerun HTPC, now it lest me choose the device kind, then HDMI, and surprise, it works. Sorry for the diversion.
My “device’s spec sheet to know what codecs are understood by it”?
I’ve not seen a spec sheet for a PC that defines the codecs… a software matter, in windows, isn’t it? AUTO for Audio channels isn’t enough? The check boxes offer no clue of how or why or when to use them.
The device on the other end of the HDMI cable.
OK. But it’s an HDMI matrix switch distributing to 5 different receivers and 2 more TV’s. Is there a safe lowest common denominator here?
Only AC3, I’m afraid. All the others you’d need to try out. Different devices can have different sets of supported audio codecs.
You probably want to set the number of channels according to the speaker configurations you have. Incompatible codecs may get decoded on the computer to 5.1 PCM, so you will at least get some kind of surround sound.
OK then. I’ll experiment.
While flailing about back on the AppleTV, I’ve tried different combinations of settings. I saw that “Direct Play” was set to OFF, turned it ON and now I get playback on some content but not all. Is there a point in trying USE OLD VIDEO?
It would be nice if these things were defined better. What is DIRECT PLAY? Forum search doesn’t define.
OLD VIDEO ENGINE made no difference. I get about half the movies to start, and very few TV series. But DIRECT PLAY did bring me back to how it was a couple weeks ago when I was running through iterations and likely turned off direct play not know what it might do. Or not. Again, browsing the same content on my remote mirror site that fails here on the same LAN as the AppleTV, plays fine. And RoKu likes them both. Is there any log setting on the player that may help, or have I burned you out on my woes by now?
Let me again thank you for your insights that have cured the pinning and music library issues, and gave me a better (if still hazy) view of what the choices of playback settings might affect. And while it made no change to the base playback error problem, the database repair/optimizing seems to have sped up content start time. But the mystery and frustration continues as to why the go-to player of choice for PLEX for me and my family - AppleTV - now is hit-and-miss, with content that has recently been viewed on it successfully now failing. On the up side, getting the most current player for the Win10 system has elevated that source to the new top choice for reliability. I hate to give up the the APPLETV, and hope for something to change.Again. Because this was no issue until software updates to the Apple unit were the -only- changes I’m aware of.
EPILOGUE:
I realize it is outre to actually reveal closure on an issue in a support forum, but just maybe I can start a trend.
TLDR: AppleTV Plex Player failing to play SOME of my local media it used to like (and ALL other player platforms were still fine with), with ambiguous symptoms. Otto tried to help, and did, though with peripheral issues that nonetheless were helpful and appreciated. The core issue remained. Weeks flew by. I used Roku.
I suspected the hardware on the server might be where the problem was. so today I mounted a complete clone server and database and content, and replicated the tests on the AppleTV player. Yikes, same fails. Go back to my original server, still get the fail on the same content. However, this time around I leave it at the fail point and minutes later note for the first time an on-screen notice that the “connection cannot support the bit stream speed.”
Whoa. MediaInfo shows the failing content is 2mbps. I go poking through player settings on the AppleTV Plex player and note that I have max stream speed set to 12mbps, and recall moving that up from 8 or so months ago when I upgraded my network and internet speeds. Regardless, the AUTO ADJUST is turned on to throttle data speed when the connection cannot keep up. Huh. So on a lark, I turn the BPS to 8m again and marvel of marvels, the content now streams again (locally, I remind you, of 2mbps content), and the problem is GONE.
Makes no sense to me that lowering the max stream speed from 6x the content to 4x the content would satisfy the AppleTV player. I note that the other players I had upped at the same time remain up and running happily.
So here we are. Thanks for listening.
Perhaps someone coding AppleTV apps will care to review this paradox and no one need go through this again. Or not.
If your ATV has an Ethernet port, try that for once.
Upgrading your WiFi router to a newer / more expensive model doesn’t guarantee more usable bandwidth … particukarly for video streaming which requires rather consistent high bitrates over a long time.
“For once”,. As it has been all along. Yes, I use a gigabit hard connection, always have, it shows as in use in settings.
But upping the max allowed when the actual stream can’t possibly be higher because of it - should not have an effect. Like a credit limit you never ever reach… should never preclude a low use. Raising an already high ceiling should not cause you to newly bump your head.
It is quite curious that 8mbps will work, but 12 mbps won’t. Since today’s Ethernet connections usually provide at least 100mbps, I was assuming that the connection between ATV and Plex Server was somehow throttled by a wireless connection.
Indeed.
Is it possible that by allowing it to use 12 mbps, it switches from transcoding to Direct Stream or Direct Play? Which could lead to some weird side effects, if the file in question is not compatible with streaming.
If you keep the Server Dashbard of the Web app open while trying to playback at 12mbps, it should be able to tell you which playback mode is chosen.
See if there is a difference, depending on which bitrate you have set.
If it indeed switches away from Transcoding, see if the file in question is an mp4.
And if it is, see if you can magically fix it by remuxing it to mkv.
(Doing so is easy: just download MKVtoolnixGUI, drag the mp4 file into it, and press “Start multiplexing”. Then add the resulting mkv file to your Plex library and play it.)
If I see anything odd at this point, I’ll do more checking on playback mode and consider the consequences. For now, I’m just relieved to have it simply working and looking fine again (as it had for years)… and not ready to crack it open yet again out of mere curiosity.
I’ll get the converter and keep it handy, but really, it would be a huge task to convert the many hundreds of files that ARE MP4, and then re-catalog and clean up titles and cover/background art on the server, just to be able to set the stream rate on AppleTV higher than I will ever need. And all JUST for AppleTV’s sake - since Plex for Roku, for PC, for Android all are happy and have been all along.
(Note: I just reviewed the file types of the known failing content - 90% of them are already MKV. So there’s that.)
Again I thank you, Otto, for hanging in on this issue as long as you did. And the side issues you clarified helped me a lot.
John
It was merely meant as an experiment, that you could do with a very few of the affected files. Just to confirm if my hypthesis is correct.
It could inform how you prepare newly to be added files from now on.
Yes, but it implies that the way to resolve AppleTV’s player rejecting files that no other platform has issues with is to modify the media as a rule “from now on”. Seems to me to be shifting the compatibility responsibility in the wrong direction. Instead of adjusting the software, just make all the users adapt. No…
Let’s just confirm my suspicion before we get into a debate on principles.
With all due respect, since the majority of the failing files are already MKV, the hypothesis seems already seriously suspect…
