Legacy player can't play files at original quality anymore since v8.13

Plex Players Streaming Devices
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Apple TV : Apple TV 4k (A1842), TvOS 16.2, frame rate matching enabled
Server Version#: 4.87.2
Player Version#: 8.13 (4532)

Hi everyone,

I’m new here and ran a quick search through this forum, not finding the exact same topic. I could have been a bit fast so don’t hit me too hard if I missed something. I’d be equally as happy to follow another thread if it already exists.

I’ve been having issues for a few weeks with the Plex Player on Apple TV4k massively stuttering on some 4k HDR native files, just like many others here.

My server is on the same Lan and isn’t capable of transcoding, it doesn’t and shouldn’t have to: all my players can decode all the files I use natively and I have way enough bandwidth both in the LAN and towards the WAN to cover all my use cases.

  • Prior to 8.11, the exact same files were playing flawlessly with whatever default player was defined in Plex Player at native format/resolution/quality without transcoding.

  • Since 8.12 the stuttering happened. An acceptable workaround I found was to force the Apple TV Plex player to use the “old player” at native format/resolution/quality without transcoding.

  • Since 8.13, It’s not possible anymore. Whenever I choose to use the old player on the Plex Player settings and launch the file, it automatically tries to have the server transcode it in 4k at the best quality no matter how many times I try, which for reasons mentioned above isn’t possible and shouldn’t happen anyways. I do not encounter this issue when I do not set it to use the old player though. The new player accepts to play the file natively but stutters in a way that makes the experience unbearable for those files.

  • It’s very irritating as any other free player like VLC on the exact same Apple TV plays the file smoothly.

This is leaving me with no possibility to see those files without issues on Plex Player. If this keeps happening I’ll have to stop paying for this service as the most basic feature (Playing a file that VLC plays without fuss) that used to work just fine became unusable and that even the workaround has been f*cked.

Does anyone experienced the same issue and have a solution to this or the stuttering one I mentioned above?

Thanks in advance for your support!

1 Like
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I am experiencing the same issue with 8.13

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I have 8 ATVS (I know I have issues). All of them won’t play a 4k Remux using the old player. It just errors out. The new player will play the file with micro stutters and laggy audio. Sometimes the audio will cut out totally for long periods of time. On iOS the old player seems to work just fine but the New Player can’t handle HDR. Plex on Apple products is such a mess right now. It used to be the best and that’s why I invested so much.

Currently using Infuse as a work around with PLEX as the back end which works great everywhere.

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