Playback stopping/resuming on last 2-3 minutes AppleTV 4

General Discussions
1

Hi,

Plex server version: 1.8.0.4109

AppleTV 4 - DirectStream / DirectPlay: on

Local network

I’ve been running into after updating to this version of the server, that often in the last 3-4 minutes of episodes, playback stutters, pauses, and resumes, and then sometimes just stops completely.

If I turn on, for example, transcode to 20 mbps or 8 mbps, the playback finishes without hiccups.

2

Actually, this seems to be similar to the problem I had here:

3

Hi again,

Media XML details and logs enclosed.

    <MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="2" librarySectionTitle="Þættir" librarySectionUUID="7d7c7b50-ba11-4902-a6c3-426e1548bf30" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1502174424">
    <Video ratingKey="85509" key="/library/metadata/85509" parentRatingKey="77604" grandparentRatingKey="68563" guid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://275274/3/5?lang=en" librarySectionID="2" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/2" type="episode" title="The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy" titleSort="Whirly Dirly Conspiracy" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/68563" parentKey="/library/metadata/77604" grandparentTitle="Rick and Morty" parentTitle="Season 3" contentRating="TV-MA" summary="Beth fails as a mother; Summer has body issues." index="5" parentIndex="3" viewCount="3" lastViewedAt="1503362794" year="2017" thumb="/library/metadata/85509/thumb/1503309730" art="/library/metadata/68563/art/1503309730" parentThumb="/library/metadata/77604/thumb/1503309730" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/68563/thumb/1503309730" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/68563/art/1503309730" grandparentTheme="/library/metadata/68563/theme/1503309730" duration="1346387" originallyAvailableAt="2017-08-20" addedAt="1503309664" updatedAt="1503309730">
    <Media videoResolution="1080" id="328528" duration="1346387" bitrate="3582" width="1920" height="1080" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="6" audioCodec="eac3" videoCodec="h264" container="mkv" videoFrameRate="24p" videoProfile="high">
    <Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="331811" key="/library/parts/331811/1503282748/file.mkv" duration="1346387" file="D:	vshows\Rick and Morty\Season 03\Rick.and.Morty.S03E05.WEBDL-1080p.h264.EAC3.postbot.mkv" size="602799872" container="mkv" videoProfile="high">
    <Stream id="695460" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="2942" bitDepth="8" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" colorRange="tv" colorSpace="bt709" frameRate="23.976" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="1080" level="40" profile="high" refFrames="4" scanType="progressive" width="1920"/>
    <Stream id="695461" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="eac3" index="1" channels="6" bitrate="640" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)" samplingRate="48000"/>
    <Stream id="695462" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="2" bitrate="0" language="English" languageCode="eng"/>
    <Stream id="697424" key="/library/streams/697424" streamType="3" selected="1" codec="srt" language="English" languageCode="eng" format="srt"/>
    <Stream id="695471" key="/library/streams/695471" streamType="3" codec="srt" language="English" languageCode="eng"/>
    </Part>
    </Media>
    <Writer id="5101" filter="writer=5101" tag="Ryan Ridley"/>
    <Extras size="0"></Extras>
    </Video>
    </MediaContainer>


<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="2" librarySectionTitle="Þættir" librarySectionUUID="7d7c7b50-ba11-4902-a6c3-426e1548bf30" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1502174424">
<Video ratingKey="84058" key="/library/metadata/84058" parentRatingKey="84057" grandparentRatingKey="84056" guid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://326866/1/2?lang=en" librarySectionID="2" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/2" type="episode" title="Part II" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/84056" parentKey="/library/metadata/84057" grandparentTitle="The Sinner" parentTitle="Season 1" summary="Cora tries to block Ambrose's continuing investigation, while Mason struggles to come to terms with secrets from Cora's past." index="2" parentIndex="1" rating="8.0" viewCount="1" lastViewedAt="1503359688" year="2017" thumb="/library/metadata/84058/thumb/1502940345" art="/library/metadata/84056/art/1502940346" parentThumb="/library/metadata/84057/thumb/1502940346" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/84056/thumb/1502940346" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/84056/art/1502940346" duration="2538995" originallyAvailableAt="2017-08-09" addedAt="1502706431" updatedAt="1502940345">
<Media videoResolution="1080" id="301082" duration="2538995" bitrate="4089" width="1920" height="1080" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="aac" videoCodec="h264" container="mkv" videoFrameRate="24p" audioProfile="lc" videoProfile="main">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="304365" key="/library/parts/304365/1502353353/file.mkv" duration="2538995" file="D:	vshows\The Sinner\Season 01\The.Sinner.S01E02.WEBDL-1080p.x264.AAC.tbs.mkv" size="1297622905" audioProfile="lc" container="mkv" videoProfile="main">
<Stream id="639839" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="4089" bitDepth="8" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" frameRate="23.810" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="1080" level="40" profile="main" refFrames="1" scanType="progressive" width="1920"/>
<Stream id="639840" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="aac" index="1" channels="2" bitrate="96" audioChannelLayout="stereo" profile="lc" samplingRate="44100"/>
<Stream id="644484" key="/library/streams/644484" streamType="3" selected="1" codec="srt" language="English" languageCode="eng" format="srt"/>
<Stream id="639842" key="/library/streams/639842" streamType="3" codec="srt" language="English" languageCode="eng"/>
<Stream id="639841" key="/library/streams/639841" streamType="3" codec="srt" language="English" languageCode="eng"/>
</Part>
</Media>
<Extras size="0"></Extras>
</Video>
</MediaContainer>
4

DirectPlay and DirectStream are enabled, problem seems to be defused if I change the playback of the file to transcoded

5

Noone? This is still happening

6

Automatic quality setting that is in beta was the culprit, once I disabled that in the apple tv plex app, problem ceased to happen.

7

@olafurns said:
Automatic quality setting that is in beta was the culprit, once I disabled that in the apple tv plex app, problem ceased to happen.

Have to say that even after installing the special beta that Elan posted which stopped the premature ending of shows 2 or so minutes before the end, I am still experiencing buffering issues like you are. Turning off “automatic quality” immediately solves the problem.

I think Plex should have that setting off by default. In fact I think that thing causes more problems than it solves so maybe scrap it all together.