Why do you say this? Firefox themselves consider that version to be obsolete and no longer supported.
That seems like a different issue from @pl4151’s difficulties with playback on an Apple TV - perhaps it would be better raised in another thread?
DaveBinM,
You just proved my point:
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“… someone doing something in an incredibly complicated way”
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“enabling log downloads in the Apple TV app (which is most definitely present”
Even if you were correct and even if I was completely wrong, why publicly post such arrogant comments?
I don’t doubt that there was in other versions, or is other host environments, such a setting. Notice that I’m presuming to find truth in what you’ve posted. The reverse is not the case.
Here is the one and only Plex for Apple TV app 8.6 (1) setting (singular) displayed on my Apple TV 4K (64GB) running tvOS 15.6:
I’d seen the ambiguous (WRT to whom crash reports would be sent) setting before regarding sending crash reports. When blackzwe posted (blackzwe, thank you very much; sorry to not respond earlier) a link to the same support page your referenced, I read the page carefully. It was clear that the page had been written at a time and host environment when Apple TV’s had USB ports and the app had a different setting.
This is what the Plex web page says:
You’ll need to grab your app logs right after reproducing the issue. To do so:
- Reproduce the issue you’re experiencing
- In the app, go to Settings > Enable Log Download and turn ON the setting
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Notice your avoidance of actually responding to me, the individual poster.
So what?
I did not criticize you personally, nor Plex the organization for the obsolete web page. I appreciate that it was created, and do definitely understand that there may well be users for whom it is still valuable as-is.
I’m skeptical, but notice that I asked for direction (which Plex did not supply and still has not supplied):
Given that only blackzwe responded with what was, for my hardware and software, at least, the Plex obsolete support page, I took my very precious time to research helping Plex fix its bug(s). It is definitely unfortunate that my time was wasted supplying “logs [I] posted from the Apple TV [that] are not really useful at all to [Plex]”.
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Actually, there is a reason I have respectfully given you feedback, without which, organizations can’t change. You are valuable, not just to me as a child of God, but clearly also to your organization. Organizations are, fundamentally, a group of individuals. Your personal message was not respectful to me, the customer (definitely injured by the organization’s behavior). I am the only one that can make an assessment of feeling disrepected. It does not matter if no other customer would have felt disrespected. (Having been in a lot of customer support situations, I do not think my reaction was unusual, but that’s irrelevant.)
Then, your personal dismissal of both my reaction and of my veracity should give you reason to rethink your general word usage, but more importantly, your attitude. (Whether you learn and change is none of my business, though. My job is to fix the plank in my eye.)
Plex deployed an app version in an environment in which users can’t revert (to the best of my knowledge)—we are effectively helpless. For nearly a week, Plex did not appear to notice that Apple TV app version 8.6 deployment effectively rendered Plex useless. At least for the Apple TV app, because its users have no remedy, Plex should have been paying more attention, and Plex should have had a quick remedy at the ready.
Plex did neither.
Speaking for my family, the Apple TV app is the only player used except for occasional testing by me (the nerd). (I understand the benefit of setup using a conventional computer OS (eg, macOS, Windows) browser interface. It is a pain in the rear what Apple tries to do without using the Mac.) I also think it’s great that Plex has many players, supports many host platforms, and is trying to diversify its revenue model promoting third-party streaming services. I very much want Plex to flourish long-term.
Fundamentally, though, my family only finds value in PMS for Mac and Plex for Apple TV, which Plex abruptly changed to zero for a week now.
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So, again for Plex, the organization, specifically what bug logging is needed and, with detailed direction, how do I obtain such from my specific hardware running my specific software?
Settings in the app itself.
After launching the Plex app (and choosing a user, if necessary), ‘
Settings’ is located at the bottom-left corner of the screen. It’s below any pinned media Libraries.
There is nothing arrogant in what I said at all. I’m trying to be helpful. We try to make collecting logs and sharing them as simple as possible, but you were going about it in a much more complicated way than is necessary, so I was trying to point you towards a more convenient method.
What you’ve done is gone into the Settings app on the Apple TV, not the Settings section within the Plex app. So you’ve gone Settings → Apps → Plex. When you should go Plex → Settings → Enable Log Downloads.
There is nothing ambiguous about the settings, and current Apple TVs, still manufactured and sold, have USB-C ports. Nothing in that article is obsolete or outdated. These products still exist, and people can still need to get logs from them via that method.
I was responding to you, I just prefer to use gender-neutral pronouns, and not assume someone’s gender online.
I don’t know why you’re sceptical. If there was useful information there, I’d have commented on it, as I commented on not seeing any tunes in your PMS logs, or that debug logging isn’t enabled. Those logs aren’t what we need. We need the Apple TV logs, as we describe in the article.
Whether you feel disrespected or not, that was not at all my intent, and I’m trying to help you here, as was @anon18523487. We tested this extensively prior to release (and I have personally checked that all my local TV stations are tuneable via Plex on tvOS and iOS), but broadcast TV can vary greatly from region to region, and we can only test what we have access to. I’ve asked for up-to-date logs, and a sample so we can look into this for you, and try to find a solution. We can’t work faster when we don’t have the information we need.
As I have mentioned previously, we require PMS logs (with debugging enabled), Apple TV logs, and a sample file, after reproducing the issue. Those articles cover your software and hardware.
DaveBinM,
I’m happy to so do, but before I do, please reconfirm understanding that playback of recorded videos appears problematic only with Plex for Apple TV 8.6. I am currently watching the same recorded video (as in my 31 July 2:50:03pm failed test) on three (3) different devices simultaneously, started at different times, all from the beginning (ie, not sync’ed), all with different screen sizes and resolutions:
- Plex for iOS on my iPhone 7 Plus (iOS 14.8.1);
- Plex for Mac on my Mac Studio (2022) (macOS 12.4) on a 4K display; and
- Plex for ipadOS on my iPad mini (gen 4) (ipadOS 14.8).
Both the video and the audio seem fine, and synchronized properly. Remember, in repeated testing with several different recorded videos, Plex of Apple TV 8.6 begins successfully playing recorded videos, both the video and audio being fine. At ~40 seconds, the video freezes and the audio continues.
Yes, I understand the issue. Please follow the steps here when recreating your issue, and downloading the logs. Do not do anything else while recreating the issue, otherwise, it creates additional noise in the logs and makes tracking down the issue more difficult. As mentioned before, we’ll also need a sample file, as we’re unable to reproduce this with recordings and live TV that we have access to.
At ~2:37:20am PDT [UTC -0700] began four attempts to watch OTA Live TV real-time live TV by clicking upon shows in Plex for Apple TV app 8.6 > Live TV > Guide.
Then attempted playing show recorded 26 July. Played for 40 seconds, then video froze. Have played same show on three devices simultaneously. (See previous post.) I’ll try uploading a sample of the show separately as is 52MB.
Another obsolete support page:
“the output filesize in megabytes (50 is a good starting value)”
The maximum upload is apparently 30MB, so sample documentation wrongly creates a file that is too large.
WNN.ts.zip (24.3 MB)
I had the same issue with the Apple TV Plex app not playing live TV. I found a simple solution. Delete the Plex App on the AppleTV and then re-install it. This fixed the issues on all of my AppleTV’s that I use. Hope this helps.
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Most people end up uploading the file to Google Drive or dropbox or similar, and sharing a link to it. This is mentioned in the article.
Once you have a small sample file, the best way to share it is to upload the file to an online storage site such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or similar. Then share the link to the file in the forum thread.
There is nothing wrong with the documentation. Have you verified that the sample recreates the issue?
“The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
— George Bernard Shaw
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Communication, especially written, is very difficult. Brains are not wired the same. People understand words differently.
Organizing multi-family activities for youth groups (soccer teams, Y groups, Sunday School, etc.), I found it necessary to write driving directions three ways: turn-by-turn with street names and compass directions (turn left [eastbound] onto 1st street); noteworthy visual landmarks (turn at red barn with white doors); and, when maps still existed (ie, before iPhone), coordinate grids (map page 19, grid G6) + address. Otherwise, someone always got lost.
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Salvation is in the details when addressed; otherwise (indeed), the devil is in the details.
The process of comprehensively documenting for varied learning styles by organized, systematic inclusion of detailed examples, screenshots, indices, etc., dramatically improves products. The big software company laid off its technical writers ~29 years ago and stopped including what had been excellent user manuals. Since then, its (then excellent) products haven’t significantly improved; perhaps even the opposite occurred.
In contrast, for example, the developers of BBEdit and GraphicConverter ignored that industry “expense-cutting” trend, continued to enlighten their engineers by tech writer questioning, and their product steadily improved and increased in value to users. Tiny BareBones and Lemke Software, against very long odds, still exist and appear to thrive.
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Library Science, facilitating different brains finding and utilizing heterogeneous information, is the most challenging, but also the most important science.
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Invest in manuals—increase profits.
I want to help you, but I’m not sure what you’re hoping to accomplish with that last post. I’m still waiting on you to confirm that the sample replicates the issue you were encountering. Can we try to stay on topic, and progress things in a constructive manner, please?
Really?
Yes, the Plex for Apple TV app version 8.6 is still FUBAR, rendering PMS and Plex useless for watching TV, both real-time and recorded, on a 4K TV connected to our Apple TV 4K (64GB) via HDMI, the only function of value to my family.
Yes, all five (5) total tests that I repeated again this morning, regarding which I submitted logs, reproduced the exact same Plex for Apple TV app 8.6 bugs, just as they have for more that a week now:
- Can’t watch OTA Live TV real-time TV broadcasts—100% of all attempts fail back to the Guide display or get stuck displaying a white spinning pinwheel on a completely black background (1 test with each of four different OTA strong-signal channel, ie 4 total tests);
- Can’t play successfully recorded shows—play starts with both video and audio appearing OK and in sync, then in 100% of version 8.6 attempts, the video freezes in 40 seconds (always in 40 seconds), but the audio continues (1 test).
No attempts evoke any discernible error message being displayed.
(I did not attempt playing shows that are being recorded, as the 20-minute log capture would end before any such shows were scheduled to record.)
Yes, the uploaded 24.3MB file WNN.ts.zip is a piece (created by dd a second time, as the obsolete Plex support documented dd arguments produce a 50MB file size, which exceeds the Plex forum 30MB file size maximum) of such a show successfully recorded 26 July 2022, about which I posted yesterday (1 Aug 2022) being able to successfully completely play from three (3) different devices (Mac, iPhone & iPad) simultaneously, beginning at different times (ie, play was not synchronized).
@pl4151 can you share a larger section of that clip, or the whole file? Using some other service like Dropbox or OneDrive or iCloud, etc?
You mentioned that the problem happens at 40 seconds, but the sample is only 19 seconds long because of the Forum attachment size limitation.
In case it matters, which Apple TV 4K model do you have - the latest one, or the original?
Did you see @blankford101’s suggestion to delete and reinstall the Plex app on the Apple TV? While that should never be necessary, at least it would be an easy thing to do.
Did you verify that the attached sample file itself displays the issue you were seeing?
As I mentioned previously, the support article is not obsolete, and suggests uploading to Dropbox or Google Drive, and then sharing a link to the file. Failure to read or recognise this is really just being stubborn and combative at this point, and is not contributing to any constructive resolution here.
DaveBinM,
No—it’s only 19s long.
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I do not have a Dropbox, nor a Google Drive account. I uploaded roughly the largest file segment to the forum that the forum software would allow, the forum having a 30MB limit. That’s the best I can do.
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I did uncover a significant clue, however, testing playback of many shows and movies, all recorded from OTA broadcasts.
Plex for Apple TV app 8.6 can play recorded 480i shows, but not 720p, nor 1080i shows.
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Hmm.
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The file issue is partially a red-herring in any event. Plex for Apple TV app 8.5 and before did not exhibit these bugs. (My wife did recall intermittent problems playing OTA TV shows being recorded, however.)
Neither my family, nor apparently at least several other Plex users have a functioning Apple TV app since the release of version 8.6. We can’t play live OTA live TV. We can’t play recorded OTA HD shows, nor movies, only 480i content.
A sample file that doesn’t display the issue isn’t really helpful to us, and if you can’t supply a sample file to us that replicates the issue, it can be nigh on impossible to diagnose exactly what’s wrong, and work out how to fix it. Logs can only give us so much about a media file.
The resolution shouldn’t really hold any significance here. The containers and codecs used are far more important than the resolution. As far as I can see in the commits, the only playback-related change was about better support for Dolby Vision Profile 5, which should not have any effect on this at all.
I wonder if this comment is related, and if these suggestions might be a useful workaround at the moment:
2 Likes
PMS for Mac 1.28.1.6018
Plex for Apple TV 8.7 Still FUBAR—Can’t Play OTA TV & Can’t Reliably Watch Recorded Shows
Playing OTA live TV still broken.
Playing Recorded HD Shows Sometimes Works, Sometimes Silent, Sometimes Fails Completely.
I did not have much time for testing. Initially it appeared that we were able to play HD recordings. I apologize—my posting was premature. Even worse, I told my wife she could watched recorded shows.
The first show she tried to watch finished recording 2+ hours ago, 60 Minutes season 54 episode 51 (recorded by PMS 1.28.1.6018). Plex for Apple TV 8.7 displays a white spinning pinwheel, then a message like “Something Went Wrong,” and present a [Try Again] or such button. Trying again does not work. The recording can be played by other Plex apps.
Trying to watch the preceding 60 Minutes episode (season 54 episode 50) recording, the video appeared OK, but there was no audio. I tried two other episodes. Video and audio both worked. Tried the silent episode—still silent.
My wife gave up on 60 Minutes. She was able to play the 2 Aug recording of America’s Got Talent.
Later, I tried 60 Minutes again. Episode 51 would not play. With, episode 50, however, I discovered that if I fast forwarded a few minutes, that audio played. If I rewinded to the beginning, sometimes audio failed. If I only rewinded almost, but completely, to the beginning, audio played.
I did test enabling Use Old Video Play (never enabled before)—that did not help, so re-disabled (as, other than this test, always).
When I have time and access, I’ll try disabling Auto Adjust Quality. (Volts, thank you for the tip.)
blankfor101,
Thank you for your suggestion.
Yes, I did trying deleting both the app and its data. That did not appear to have any impact upon playing of OTA live TV.
When Plex for Apple TV 8.7 was released, I manually deleted both the app and all its data, but still can’t play any OTA live TV from our HDHomeRun tuner, and playing recorded HD shows is still problematic. (The Apple TV HDHomeRun app has never had any such difficulty, nor did Plex for Apple TV app versions prior to version 8.6. My wife did recall a few occasions of problems playing a OTA live TV show that was being recorded.)
