I too have this problem. I’ve grabbed a small 18 sec crop of the beginning of a full episode and posted it here.
It works fine on iOS app, and the native MAC os player. All are direct play, with no transcoding.
However, on my Nvidia Shield Pro 2019 - the first 9 seconds I stare at Picard and listen to the audio.
If it’s not doing it for you, let me know and I’ll get the logs.
It does this on both the cropped (attached) and full video. I’ve edited nothing out.
Test File.mkv.zip (26.8 MB)
Well, I cut a 5min sample of one that consistently had the issue and the 5min sample doesn’t freeze, so…
I also remuxed the full movie and tested, but it has the same frame frozen. No idea what’s going on here
Note: I know we’re focusing on the Shield in this thread, but I have the same issues with all my Android devices (with direct play), but not on my Windows App.
Yep, I need the logs. DEBUG ON, VERBOSE OFF. (save if changed)
Also grab the Shield logs please.
I like this one 
Go find something with 4 reference frames – Not the 5 ref frames in this one and try it,
with respect, your media is irrelevant.
that’s almost like “well it works for me so there must be no issue”
here is 1 example of an episode of a TV show that exhibits the problem.
start playback, video is frozen for 3-4 seconds whilst the audio plays,
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BkckmwME9IThl3nXOwZ_tuHTckZfTSju/view?usp=sharing
this is reproduceable 100% of the time, and this file isn’t the only 1 that does it.
this issue wasn’t present previously and was only introduced in a recent update.
note that it plays fine in iOS plex client. issue is present on androidtv plex client.
Never mind it’s not the drive just went to my friend’s house uploaded the same file movie I mean a lot of movies do it but I just got one that did it and same thing. And he has really good drives too and they’re barely ever used cuz you see streams for mine but yep same thing you’ll hear audio the picture will be frozen and then all of a sudden it’ll catch up or the first couple minutes of the video won’t even be there and then all of a sudden it’ll just work it’s weird but yes this needs to be fixed keep the fixes and everybody searching let’s get this solved and even happens on the phone Android phone.
When I get home tomorrow I will create many sample files and many we will get this solved everyone let’s do it
Here’s the weird thing is that on one of my NASA’s if I lower the quality of the movie down to 720p it plays fine but on my other nest which is a 720p video file it doesn’t play fine and if I lower that even down it still doesn’t play fine so it’s just weird I think this new player is bugging on the Android TVs and the Android devices fix the player go back to the old or something but yes I will still send my info video sample
Before you start dissing my media, I’m not the one with this problem.
Where did you download that from? 3 Mbps ?
[chuck@lizum Downloads.1995]$ ffmpeg -i Seinfeld\ -\ S08E07.mkv
ffmpeg version 4.2.4-1ubuntu0.1 Copyright (c) 2000-2020 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 9 (Ubuntu 9.3.0-10ubuntu2)
configuration: --prefix=/usr --extra-version=1ubuntu0.1 --toolchain=hardened --libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --incdir=/usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu --arch=amd64 --enable-gpl --disable-stripping --enable-avresample --disable-filter=resample --enable-avisynth --enable-gnutls --enable-ladspa --enable-libaom --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libcdio --enable-libcodec2 --enable-libflite --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libjack --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libmysofa --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopenmpt --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-librsvg --enable-librubberband --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libssh --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx265 --enable-libxml2 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzmq --enable-libzvbi --enable-lv2 --enable-omx --enable-openal --enable-opencl --enable-opengl --enable-sdl2 --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libdrm --enable-libiec61883 --enable-nvenc --enable-chromaprint --enable-frei0r --enable-libx264 --enable-shared
libavutil 56. 31.100 / 56. 31.100
libavcodec 58. 54.100 / 58. 54.100
libavformat 58. 29.100 / 58. 29.100
libavdevice 58. 8.100 / 58. 8.100
libavfilter 7. 57.100 / 7. 57.100
libavresample 4. 0. 0 / 4. 0. 0
libswscale 5. 5.100 / 5. 5.100
libswresample 3. 5.100 / 3. 5.100
libpostproc 55. 5.100 / 55. 5.100
Input #0, matroska,webm, from 'Seinfeld - S08E07.mkv':
Metadata:
encoder : libebml v1.3.1 + libmatroska v1.4.2
creation_time : 2015-06-25T17:48:12.000000Z
Duration: 00:22:51.52, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 3174 kb/s
Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (High), yuv420p(progressive), 1280x720 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 1k tbn, 47.95 tbc (default)
Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: aac (HE-AAC), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp (default)
Stream #0:2(eng): Subtitle: subrip (default)
Stream #0:3(eng): Subtitle: subrip
At least one output file must be specified
[chuck@lizum Downloads.1996]$
Completely indifferent to that – I am seeing what looks like a pattern.
If this is true, then MAYBE we have identified the real problem.
Try these.
https://jell.yfish.us/media/jellyfish-3-mbps-hd-h264.mkv
https://jell.yfish.us/media/jellyfish-20-mbps-hd-h264.mkv
https://jell.yfish.us/media/jellyfish-40-mbps-hd-h264.mkv
To be perfectly clear – There is a method to what I’m doing here. – When the media is controlled and a known entity, unknowns can be eliminated or symptoms refined. Random media, of unknown origin, introduces untold unknowns.
but we are the ones with the problem, so our media surely is the important thing here. and as noted it’s media that worked fine previously but became an issue due to a plex update
that’s not really relevant is it?
you asked for an example file and i supplied one.
there’s really no need to try those, as i mentioned previously i have other files that work just fine.
however i already have jellyfish sample files in my library which i use to test playback and bandwidth on devices, so i already know those have no issues.
plex is based entirely of media from “unknown origin”.
it’s not as if there is a legitimate source where we all get our media from. it’s all either ripped from disc or sourced from newsgroups or torrents sites.
what’s more annoying is that this issue was brought up and reported during the beta testing of the client, but was ignored and the client was released anyway.
But the problem is everything works fine for years until those updates so that’s what we don’t understand so we have to change our media every time we have an update or we should be prepared that shouldn’t be that I mean everything works fine before and everything not just certain ones everything.
Just found out something new everyone should know apparently if it doesn’t start playing correctly and you fast forward then rewind all the way to the beginning and then play it it plays fine but if you play it from a cold start it does the stop thing freeze music going and then catches up weird
@ChuckPa - I have no problem playing any of those jellyfish files.
Here are my server and shield logs for those plays. I tried each one approximately 5 times, did not experience issues playing any of those times.
Plex Media Server Logs_2021-09-24_06-31-14.zip (10.5 MB)
shield_logs_9_24_21.txt (4.9 MB)
I also have uploaded the iperf results you requested. I do have my Shield sitting on a WiFi network, in the AV cabinet, but iperf is showing more than enough bandwidth available. Again, I did not have issues playing any of your remuxes (pretty sure I saw 70Mbps bitrate on Gemini Man) so I don’t think it is my network in this instance, but I understand working up the layers one by one.
iperf.txt (13.3 KB)
iperf_reverse.txt (10.0 KB)
Can you shed some light on the pattern you are seeing with these files, etc.? I’m happy to do any more testing you would like.
just to clarify, this issue only happens on Android TV.
the issue is not present when playing the same media via iOS of via Plexweb.
Agreed here - my media doesn’t stutter on any of my other clients - Roku(wireless, same AV cabinet as shield), Plex web(wired), Plex for Windows(wired.)
I would encourage you to try the jellyfish videos and provide logs. We are working with a lot of unknowns, and slowly controlling one variable at a time is the best way to resolve these types of issues.
no need to.
i’ve had jellyfish files on my plex server for quite some time (long before this issue), as i use them to test playback on any new device i add to my network.
i also played a day or so ago a full bluray 4k HDR remux of Black Widow, played perfectly.
Ok. Well, as we’ve all been screaming into the void for months on this issue, and now we actually have someone here to help us, I am going to take advantage.
I have worked with @ChuckPa in the past to resolve a bug with VPT generation and he truly goes above and beyond. But we’ve gotta help him help us.
it shouldn’t have go to this point though.
this issue was reported during the beta process, but was ignored.
surprised we haven’t had any input from the those that deal with the android client app though.
it’s not a server issue but we’ve had to get a server person involved before anyone at plex contributed.
I don’t disagree with any of your points.
