Plex 4K HDR Stuttering on AppleTV is Thermal Throttling

Plex Players Streaming Devices
67

Well that may be well out of Apple’s recommended operating Temperature range. LOL

2 Likes
68

Your freezer is probably around -15C, which is outside operating temperatures of some components. It’s entirely possible the AppleTV throttles at low temperatures to avoid some specific hardware risk.

Also water will condense on the device as it warms when it’s that cold, so this is a terrible idea.

69

by doing that you introduce almost instant condensation of water on its components, so no wonder it is not operating accordingly, and I am surprised it survived that.

70

same for me, ATV 4k22 and movies with 103mbps bitrate, starting slide show in ~15 minutes and device is super hot

Movie info

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  • Bitrate 50125 kbps

  • Мова Англійська

  • Language Tag en

  • Bit Depth 10

  • Chroma Location topleft

  • Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0

  • Coded Height 2160

  • Coded Width 3840

  • Color Primaries bt2020

  • Color Range tv

  • Color Space bt2020nc

  • Color Trc smpte2084

  • Frame Rate 23.976 fps

  • Height 2160

  • Рівень 5.1

  • Профіль main 10

  • Ref Frames 1

  • Заголовок Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) UHD BDRemux 4K 2160p H.265 HEVC HDR 10 [Hurtom]

  • Width 3840

  • Display Title 4K HDR10 (HEVC Main 10)

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  • Sampling Rate 48000 Hz

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  • Display Title Українська (AC3 Stereo)

  • Extended Display Title DUB [LeDoyen] NLO.tv | AC3 2.0 Ch | 192 Kbps - Українська (професійне дубльоване)

  • Примусово true

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  • Канали 6

  • Bitrate 448 kbps

  • Мова Українська

  • Language Tag uk

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  • Sampling Rate 48000 Hz

  • Заголовок ICTV | AC3 5.1 Ch | 448 Kbps - Українська (багатоголосе закадрове)

  • Display Title Українська (AC3 5.1)

  • Extended Display Title ICTV | AC3 5.1 Ch | 448 Kbps - Українська (багатоголосе закадрове)

  • Codec TRUEHD

  • Канали 8

  • Bitrate 4393 kbps

  • Мова Англійська

  • Language Tag en

  • Audio Channel Layout 7.1

  • Bit Depth 24

  • Sampling Rate 48000 Hz

  • Заголовок Original | TrueHD MA 7.1 Ch | 4363 Kbps | Blu-Ray EUR

  • Display Title Англійська (TRUEHD 7.1)

  • Extended Display Title Original | TrueHD MA 7.1 Ch | 4363 Kbps | Blu-Ray EUR (Англійська)

  • Codec DCA

  • Канали 8

  • Bitrate 1536 kbps

  • Мова Англійська

  • Language Tag en

  • Audio Channel Layout 7.1

  • Bit Depth 24

  • Профіль ma

  • Sampling Rate 48000 Hz

  • Заголовок Original | DTS-HD MA 7.1 Ch | 3348 Kbps | Blu-Ray EUR

  • Display Title Англійська (DTS-HD MA 7.1)

  • Extended Display Title Original | DTS-HD MA 7.1 Ch | 3348 Kbps | Blu-Ray EUR (Англійська)

  • Codec DCA

  • Канали 7

  • Bitrate 1536 kbps

  • Мова Англійська

  • Language Tag en

  • Audio Channel Layout 6.1

  • Bit Depth 24

  • Профіль es

  • Sampling Rate 48000 Hz

  • Заголовок Original | DTS-ES 6.1 Ch | 1509 Kbps | Blu-Ray EUR

  • Display Title Англійська (DTS-ES 6.1)

  • Extended Display Title Original | DTS-ES 6.1 Ch | 1509 Kbps | Blu-Ray EUR (Англійська)

  • Codec AC3

  • Канали 6

  • Bitrate 640 kbps

  • Мова Англійська

  • Language Tag en

  • Audio Channel Layout 5.1(side)

  • Sampling Rate 48000 Hz

  • Заголовок Original | E-AC3 5.1 Ch | 640 Kbps | Blu-Ray EUR

  • Display Title Англійська (AC3 5.1)

  • Extended Display Title Original | E-AC3 5.1 Ch | 640 Kbps | Blu-Ray EUR (Англійська)

  • Codec AC3

  • Канали 2

  • Bitrate 320 kbps

  • Мова Англійська

  • Language Tag en

  • Audio Channel Layout stereo

  • Sampling Rate 48000 Hz

  • Заголовок Original | AC3 2.0 Ch | 320 Kbps | Blu-Ray EUR | Audio description

  • Display Title Англійська (AC3 Stereo)

  • Extended Display Title Original | AC3 2.0 Ch | 320 Kbps | Blu-Ray EUR | Audio description (Англійська)

  • Codec AC3

  • Канали 2

  • Bitrate 224 kbps

  • Мова Англійська

  • Language Tag en

  • Audio Channel Layout stereo

  • Sampling Rate 48000 Hz

  • Заголовок Original | AC3 2.0 Ch | 224 Kbps | Commentary with George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Rob Coleman, John Knoll and Roger Guyett|

  • Display Title Англійська (AC3 Stereo)

  • Extended Display Title Original | AC3 2.0 Ch | 224 Kbps | Commentary with George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Rob Coleman, John Knoll and Roger Guyett| (Англійська)

  • Codec AC3

  • Канали 2

  • Bitrate 224 kbps

  • Мова Англійська

  • Language Tag en

  • Audio Channel Layout stereo

  • Sampling Rate 48000 Hz

  • Заголовок Original | AC3 2.0 Ch | 224 Kbps | Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew|

  • Display Title Англійська (AC3 Stereo)

  • Extended Display Title Original | AC3 2.0 Ch | 224 Kbps | Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew| (Англійська)

  • Codec SRT

  • Мова Українська

  • Language Tag uk

  • Заголовок Ukrainian | Forced

  • Display Title Українська (SRT)

  • Extended Display Title Ukrainian | Forced (Українська SRT)

  • Codec SRT

  • Мова Англійська

  • Language Tag en

  • Заголовок English | Commentary with George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Rob Coleman, John Knoll and Roger Guyett|

  • Display Title Англійська (SRT)

  • Extended Display Title English | Commentary with George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Rob Coleman, John Knoll and Roger Guyett| (SRT)

  • Codec SRT

  • Мова Англійська

  • Language Tag en

  • Заголовок English | Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew|

  • Display Title Англійська (SRT)

  • Extended Display Title English | Commentary from Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew| (SRT)

  • Codec SRT

  • Мова Англійська

  • Language Tag en

  • Заголовок English-SRT

  • Display Title Англійська (SRT)

  • Extended Display Title English-SRT

  • Codec SRT

  • Мова Англійська

  • Language Tag en

  • Заголовок English-SDH-SRT

  • Display Title Англійська (SRT)

  • Extended Display Title English-SDH-SRT

  • Codec PGS

  • Bitrate 29 kbps

  • Мова Англійська

  • Language Tag en

  • Header Compression true

  • Заголовок English-PGS

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  • Extended Display Title English-PGS

  • Codec PGS

  • Bitrate 26 kbps

  • Мова Французька

  • Language Tag fr

  • Header Compression true

  • Заголовок French-PGS

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  • Extended Display Title French-PGS (Французька)

  • Codec PGS

  • Bitrate 25 kbps

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  • Header Compression true

  • Заголовок Spanish-PGS

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  • Codec PGS

  • Bitrate 21 kbps

  • Мова Японська

  • Language Tag ja

  • Header Compression true

  • Заголовок Japanese-PGS

  • Display Title Японська (PGS)

  • Extended Display Title Japanese-PGS (Японська)

71

Does thermal throttling also occur if you use avplayer instead? I remuxed my videos to mp4 and everything now plays fine with the old video player.

72

I threw it in a couple of ziplock bags.
Also waited another half hour or so and the file still wouldn’t play.

Thermal throttling is not the cause of this issue.

73

Any updates from Plex on this? The stuttering is still present, bad, and not a problem with INFUSE

1 Like
74

I created a sample from a file that has severe stuttering at any temperature.

75

That video stutters for me on multiple non-AppleTV4k devices too (iPhone and Windows PC running Plex app). So it may be a separate issue causing that particular instance of stutter. This does not disprove that there’s a thermal stutter.

76

you will have a different issue on those devices.
the ATV issue is related to overheating, stuttering on your windows PC will be a different issue.

77

This issue, along with the longstanding lip sync issue, is related to Plex not using Metal. The non Metal approach is causing the throttling. Plex has recently said that they do not have a switch to Metal on their roadmap.

78

Interesting find on this thread and great work on identifying an issue. The weird part for me is that I didn’t have issues until i switched to a new server. Also it doesn’t only do it on 4k for me, it happened to a copy of Ray Donovan in 720p. Its reallly disappointing to see that both emby and plex are nowhere close to Android versions after all these years. Ive been holding off on paying for infuse but might consider it now.

79

Hi folks!

I wanted to come here and say that we are indeed actively exploring solutions for both stuttering issues right now, and truly appreciate the level of effort this community has gone to help us. You are awesome and we appreciate you! :heart:

For sake of transparency and expectations, I also want to make clear that while we’re actively working on this, there is yet no ETA on when we’ll have a fix ready. Rest assured that we will not only reach out here for initial user testing when we have one, but will also come back to celebrate with you when it’s officially out!

That is all for now and, once again, thank you!

16 Likes
Video stuttering since version 8.18 of the Apple TV app
AirPlay issues with the new audio engine on Apple TV
80

This is what convinced me to pay for Infuse. I like Plex a lot, been liftime Plex subscriber for years but not being able to play 4K content on my 77" OLED Pana was driving me nuts.

5 Likes
82

I’m sure this will make me sound like an *** but I don’t understand how something like this isn’t treated as a top priority for an app that’s supposed to play… videos.

I get that Plex as a business need to attract more customers through new features such as Discover, Live Channels, etc. I’m not going the hardcore route here.

It just baffles me how an indie company like Infuse can provide such a smooth playback experience, using modern video technology yet Plex, at this scale can’t.

It’s getting to a point of no return for me, because it doesn’t matter you have the best in class media organization app if the main thing it must do (play things smoothly) is always compromised due to lack of new technologies adoption and prioritization.

6 Likes
83

Full disclosure, arm-chair dev checking in. But why doesn’t Plex just switch to the Metal API which is used by Infuse? It is clearly superior to the OpenGL API. Seems like that would be the best (and possibly quickest/easiest) way to fix the myriad of issues with playback on ATV.

Also, adding to this I was getting stuttering from my ATV last night watching a 1080p HDR file. And I don’t have issues with 4K non-HDR files. So it seems HDR is the culprit more than resolution, at least from my anecdotal experience.

While playback on Infuse is perfect, the UI leaves a lot to be desired and when used in conjuction with Plex, browsing is not a pleasurable experience at all. Using Plex + Infuse is just a bandaid and Infuse is not in a place to fully switch over (also it’s not even the goal of Infuse to be a Plex replacement, especially if you share your server with family members or friends who live elsewhere).

I don’t know about all of you, but I’m quite tired of needing to start a video in Plex, then switch over to Infuse, wait several minutes for it to refresh the continue watching options, and start my video again there. It is quite annoying.

5 Likes
84

@TheCaptainNow

With regards to switching to Metal API
The restraints could be anything I guess.
Time, cost or judging by this…
https://www.plex.tv/careers/open-jobs/senior-playback-engineer-apple/?gh_jid=4235088101
…a lack currently of anyone with the knowledge, inclination or even the skill set.

4 Likes
85

That would require the team at Plex do care about their customers and users, not their apparentl bottom line.

All Plex does with Apple users is make overt statements like “we hear you” and “we are working on it” and then don’t follow up for LITERAL years.

This stuttering problem is a symptom of what you literally described but if you call out Plex for it all they do is ban or silence you. Paying lifetime users.

That one dev saying we are going to celebrate fixing a minor issue for aTV when the giant/main issue is four years old, is insulting and demeaning to those putting in years of effort to get a proper answer from Plex.

2 Likes
86

I don’t see the truth in this. You look through the various threads on this issue (going back “for LITERAL years”), and you see quite a lot of time spent by Plex devs and quite a few attempted fixes.

So the evidence is that they’ve been trying to fix it, but unsuccessfully, because those fixes were too narrow in scope and not addressing the underlying issue. Because this new info wasn’t known. Now that it is… And they’re saying they’re working on it…

Why would you expect that this time they’ve said they’re working on it will be different from the previous times where they did actually implement an attempted fix?

1 Like
87

what new info? lol

everyone at plex has known the root cause for YEARS lol their engine is running on an old outdated API for the last four years and there is still NO TIMELINE to fix/update that API.

thats been my point, its been lipservice, no real fix. @Trust_The_Process job posting link only further cements the fact they have never ever taken the issue seriously and even laid off those employees who apparently were trying to help

1 Like