Was able to test this this morning since no one was using my server. No spike when viewing XML on that file. CPU still running at around the same ~40% while playing it., though. None of the other movies with the same codec and comparable bitrate do the same. Even tried a movie that I know taxes the system (it has trouble playing smoothly on some playback devices) - The Fifth Element. Both my 4K BluRay transfer and my 35mm Preservation copy produce normal, expected CPU load (up to 10-15% when initially loading, then back down to nearly 0% when playing). So not totally sure if this movie’s behavior is related to the thread topic, but I can 100% confirm my issue with Star Wars was exactly the same as what you described, until the file was fixed by either refreshing metadata or running analysis.
Something else that may or may not be related, I just viewed XML for, then played, the v1.0 version of Return of the Jedi’s 4K83 fan edit. It played fine, CPU never above 10% during load. But after stopping playback, it took nearly 2 minutes for the Plex app to become responsive again. Returning to the Movies library gave me blank posters with no text for ~90 seconds, and it took another 30 seconds or so for things to load in and behavior to return to normal. No CPU spikes during this event, but still seems like it might be somehow related as this only happened after RotJ and I’ve been testing movies for the last 20 minutes without issue. Either way, very curious.
Across the board, the related movies section takes ages to load, also, and it completely fails to load about 30% of the time.
Edit: Viewing XML on Empire Strikes Back v2.1 of the D+80 fan edit (4K HEVC Main 10, 60.9Mbps) spiked and maintained my CPU to nearly 20% for the full 90 seconds it took to load. Just viewing the XML. It took nearly a minute to start playback. It never spiked above ~10%, and it took ~a minute to drop down near 0%, which is about twice as long as normal. After stopping playback I went to look at the XML again. It still the same amount of time to load, but never went above 10% this time (same load as starting the movie). So it seems viewing XML may have “fixed” whatever caused the significant CPU spike?
