Mac player not working at all

Plex Players Desktop Players
1

Server Version#: 1.11.0.1215-1d8c460c
Player Version#: 1.19.3.2852
macOS Catalina 10.15.5
iMac 2019, 3.6GHz i9, 40GB RAM, Radeon Pro 580X 8GB

I’m running (if that’s the word) the latest version of the player and server on a 2019 iMac with plenty of memory and processor. The Plex server seems to be running ok - at least I’ve had no problem with it accepting files and cataloging them. But the Plex player is virtually useless. It sees the movies and extras I’ve loaded and occasionally even plays them for a few minutes but if I do ANYTHING, the player freezes and refuses to play ever again unless I uninstall and reinstall. By anything, I mean pause the video, change the audio output destination, change subtitle settings etc. Clearly there’s something wrong because when I try to quit the player app I get a beachball for about 30 seconds before it quits (or sometimes it doesn’t and I have to force quit). If I quit and restart, I can still see my movies and the server claims my movie is playing but the player app is super sluggish and won’t play - it just presents a black screen if I click on a movie (after a delay of a minute or two).

My files are basic .mkv files with normal content that play fine with VLC or Elmedia. There shouldn’t be any transcoding going on, as I’ve set to play at maximum resolution of the file and an iMac should be able to play a normal 1080p file. Just to prove I’m not playing anything oddball, here’s an example of a movie that won’t play (but this behavior holds for any video file):

  • Duration 2:01:01

  • Bitrate 30314 kbps

  • Width 1920

  • Height 1080

  • Aspect Ratio 1.78

  • Video Resolution 1080p

  • Container MKV

  • Video Frame Rate 24p

  • Audio Profile ma

  • Video Profile high

  • Duration 2:01:01

  • File abcdefg.mkv

  • Size 25.63 GB

  • Audio Profile ma

  • Container MKV

  • Video Profile high

  • Codec H264

  • Bitrate 27242 kbps

  • Language English

  • Bit Depth 8

  • Chroma Location left

  • Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0

  • Coded Height 1088

  • Coded Width 1920

  • Color Primaries bt709

  • Color Range tv

  • Color Space bt709

  • Color Trc bt709

  • Frame Rate 23.976 fps

  • Height 1080

  • Level 4.1

  • Profile high

  • Ref Frames 4

  • Scan Type progressive

  • Width 1920

  • Display Title 1080p (H.264)

  • Codec DCA

  • Channels 2

  • Bitrate 1536 kbps

  • Language English

  • Audio Channel Layout stereo

  • Bit Depth 24

  • Profile ma

  • Sampling Rate 48000 Hz

  • Title Stereo

  • Display Title English (DTS-HD MA Stereo)

  • Codec DCA

  • Channels 2

  • Bitrate 1536 kbps

  • Language English

  • Audio Channel Layout stereo

  • Bit Depth 24

  • Profile dts

  • Sampling Rate 48000 Hz

  • Title Stereo

  • Display Title English (DTS Stereo)

The only error I see in the logs is the following in Plex Media Server.log
Unable to find client profile for device; platform=osx, platformVersion=10.15, device=, model=standalone

There are no errors in com.plexapp.system.log

I haven’t noticed a similar problem with the AppleTV player. I also can confirm I can play the videos using other brands of player ike VLC or Elmedia. But I must say I’m super frustrated with Plex. It seems so promising, but if it can’t play anything then what’s the point?

2

Just a quick correction - I reversed the server and player version numbers

3

For the benefit of anyone else struggling with a similar issue - I found the problem. The Plex player misbehavior only occurs when I send the output to external speakers connected through a USB port. When I use the internal iMac speakers, the Plex player works fine. Not sure why this should cause a problem but at least there’s a workaround.

4

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