Movies stuttering due to buffering on Direct Play

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
14

I posted the following on a Constant Buffering when using Plex on home network thread, since my experience/issues were similar. I’m sharing it here since I too think there is also an issue with macOS-, tvOS-, and possibly iPadOS-based apps (maybe an Apple issue?).

I’m having (or had) the same issues with

  1. macOS (10.15.3) app on MacBook Pro (2016)
  2. tvOS (13.4) app on AppleTV 4K
  3. iPadOS (13.4) on iPad Pro (2020)
  4. macOS (10.15.4) app on MacBook Pro (2016)

Not having (or did not have) the issue with

  1. iOS (13.3.1) app on iPhone XS
  2. iOS (13.4.1) app on iPhone XS
  3. iOS (13.3) app on iPad mini 4
  4. iPadOS (13.4.1) app on iPad mini 4
  5. iPadOS (13.4.1) app on iPad Pro (2020)

Server is Plex Media Server v1.19.3.2764-ef515a800 on Synology DS918+ x86_64 DSM 6.2.2.24922-4, Processor Intel® Celeron® CPU J3455 @ 1.50GHz

I checked my logs against @DaddyMD’s and there were (many) similar errors:

DEBUG - Auth: authenticated user 1 as ****@****.com
DEBUG - Request: [192.168.1.84:53341 (Subnet)] GET /library/parts/9177/1589683316/file.mp4 (7 live) TLS Signed-in Token (****@****.com) (range: bytes=5546602-) 
DEBUG - Content-Length of /volume1/Media/Movies/****.mp4 is 5022951951 (of total: 5028498553).
DEBUG - Failed to stream media, client probably disconnected after 360448 bytes: 104 - Connection reset by peer
DEBUG - Completed after connection close: [192.168.1.84:53340] 206 GET /library/parts/9177/1589683316/file.mp4 (7 live) TLS 188ms 360448 bytes (range: bytes=102985-)

I should probably add that the issue only exists for certain movies and my Mac and my AppleTV 4K are hardwired to the Synology NAS. I was able to fix the problem on my Mac (haven’t checked ATV4K yet) by turning off Direct Play. Would seem the issue is with the Direct Play part of the client.