Live TV & DVR loops through buffer mid-stream and can't recover on it's own

[kegbeach]

Server Version#: 1.21.3.4021
Player Version#: 8.12.4.22902

pmp.log (1.2 MB) - Problem starts at about 5:11:45 in the log and goes on until I pause the stream at 5:12:51 and gather the log.

Live TV & DVR will play a stream normally for a random amount of time and then it will skip backwards on it’s own and repeat what it had already played 10-30 seconds before. It will then skip back again 10-30 seconds and do it over and over again. The only way to recover is to stop the stream or change the channel. I am using the Firestick 4k and the Firestick 2nd Gen. Happens on both devices. Server is run on CentOS 8. I’m not sure if this is happening on the Android phone player at this time.

I’ve read a few posts from a while back with a very similar issue and they were using a HD Homerun. I am using xTeVe and passing the stream directly to plex. I am not buffering it with xTeVe/FFmpeg/VLC as plex server handles this on it’s own. I am also using the Hauppauge WinTV-quadHD. Issue is present regardless of which tuner I am using.

One thing I have noticed is when this happens the bandwidth spikes higher than normal on the graph but by no means is it high enough to lag nor anywhere near the saturation of my LAN.

I’ve tried turning off automatic quality to no avail. The media is not transcoding. Direct Stream on maximum quality. No lag issues at all. If you need me to provide any logs I can do so. Please let me know so we can move forward!!!

[confirm_rmilimited.com]

Looking around the forums this appears to be happening with Android clients in general. There are reports now on Android phones and Nvidia shield.

It’s happening to me now on a shield TV. It started with the automatic update to 8.12.4.22902. Zero problems before that.

[kwisatzca]

Adding report for…

FireTV stick 4K client 8.13.0.22986, and
Server 1.21.4.4054 on Unbuntu Server LTS 20.04…
HD Homerun Quad firmware 20210210

…same behavior feed starts runs fine for random time, then begins jumping back repeating and constantly buffering…

Update (adding additional context) - Using the HDHomeRun native app on FireTV 4K Stick, decodes the MPEG 2 TS stream just fine, with no hiccups, clearly this is a “man-in-the-middle” problem with Plex’s FireTV App…

[mmsq]

I just started to have the same issue on FireTV stick 4K client 8.13.1.23036.

This gets really frustrating, since the beginning I’m having issues with the FireTV app, when I finally figure out how to fix some of these issues a new update comes out with another one! I really wish we could stick to one version and not automatically update and get these new bugs.

[kwisatzca]

…So I’ve been nerding out with my network, and server, and fireTV, and wireshark, and, and, and…I’ve stumbled on a config where the FireTV Sticks are doing Direct Stream, and not transcoding any longer with my specific setup…I’m sure all these settings are not involved, I think it has to do with setting home to maximum, and not transcoding interlaced content

[kegbeach]

Bump for added log file in original post.

[jg121212]

@kegbeach
I just took a quick look at your log file. Are you sure it is a random amount of time? Your logs shows “Seeking outside buffer” starting at 5402 seconds, which is 90 minutes. It looks like the same 90 minute bug others are seeing. I can’t get passed the 300 second mark, so I have no idea if I have the 90 minute bug or not.

02-22 05:11:45.803  i: [ExoPlayer][EventLogger] audioEnabled [eventTime=7187.75, mediaPos=5402.12, window=0, period=0]
02-22 05:11:45.804  i: [FF] Seeking outside buffer
02-22 05:11:45.810  i: [FF] Loading canceled (released: false)

[kegbeach]

You are correct. When the problem first started it seemed random but then other people started posting about similar things and now we are stuck with two bugs with similar symptoms. I do get the 300 second bug on my Hauppauge WinTV-quadHD but that’s different content and then on xTeVe I get the other.

[confirm_rmilimited.com]

So what are we doing here admins? Are there any updates on this? Has a root cause been identified?

[Makani]

This is happening to me on my Android TV. I took a screenshot showing how when the TV begins randomly skipping backwards and buffering, the bandwidth will spike from 4Mbps to around 50Mbps and remain there, but the CPU remains calm.

I use a Sony Bravia X900CH TV, watching Live TV from the HDHomeRun and hosting PLEX through the official Docker container.

[kegbeach]

Upgrade to the latest release for server and player.

[alienbiker99]

This is an issue with the plex app for all android devices.
Any work arounds suggested, are just work arounds that don’t solve the actual issue.

I have also been encountering issues with Live TV & DVR for android for 6+ months.

Heres the thread that these changes are actively being worked on:

Fire Stick stops playing live tv every few minutes, exits to guide. ([FFmpeg] [ERROR] [tls @ 0x81b7e740] Error in the pull function.)

Also playing media from a library it will eventually say unable to play media and then a black box at the bottom of the screen says item not found. Force killing the app brings it back to working. The app is broken.

[kegbeach]

The 8.15 public works a lot better but not perfect.

[alienbiker99]

My experiences as well. I can watch things, but still encountering issue with the playback itself.

Hoping @sixones can continue to help us resolve these issues soon

[richakarichard]

The Android implementations all seem to have serious issues, and plex have their head buried in the sand.