@tykisson I think you are in the right direction with this H.264 setting.
Mine was set on the default recommended 5.1 value. I read a bit more about the H.264 value and could see how a high setting might cause the issue we are experiencing. For a test last night I lowered mine to 4.0 and it played for an hour and a half before the stuttering began. It was late so I quit for the evening. This morning I lowered it to 3.0 and it’s running now.
I’ve seen others post their wifi and ethernet connection status. I have the ethernet adapter on one TV and wifi on the other and before messing with this H.264 value the performance issue was the same on both TVs.
The TV I lowered to 4.0 was the ethernet connected unit and I also lowered the wifi connected unit as well. I only tested that TV for 30 minutes but there was no stuttering on it for that half hour.
It’s in the Youtube TV, Plex app, settings not in plex. It’s The H264 Maximum Level setting, closer to the bottom of those setting values. Took me a while to find it also @treycommander
thanks for the tip… I switched mine to 3, and the stream wouldn’t start… set it to 4 and it ran for almost 4 hours and then I turned it off and went to bed…
Edit: I tried the same settings on another google tv client, and it started buffering around 5 min again…
Agree. Its so buggy. My work phone (an iPhone) is much more successful in getting it to stream to Chromecast. The Android phone (not old high spec latest sw) almost never works. But there are many many other bugs. After all this time you would think the only issues would be with Beta versions!
Would Embry or something else be a better option? I’ve been having this issue as well as a TV tuner issue that has yet to be resolved. Why do I even pay for a Plex Pass anymore?
Trust me Plex, unfortunately for us - fortunately for Plex, it is the best all round of the options available. I’ve explored the others and found them to be worse!
I think we have to hang on, but I think Plex should give all of us existing Plex Pass people a free year as an apology for how buggy and unreliable Plex has been for many of us.
Its super frustrating sititng down to watch something and not being able to!
Just installed two Google TV with Chromecasts in my house replacing Roku. Very dissatisfied with the PLEX performance on live TV… I have been a long time PLEX lifetime Pass person… this is really annoying reading that this problem has existed for so long.
When you lower the Max Level Setting that just means that any material encoded with a Level HIGHER than 3.0 (almost everything in the Universe) - can NOT Direct Play and will be transcoded. If transcoding temporarily fixes the issue - just disable Direct Play for that item or enable Automatically Adjust (if Android-TV has that ‘Feature’).
If you set the Max Level to 3.0, not only will Plex transcode anything with a level higher than 3.0, it’ll also transcode everything TO a level no higher than 3.0 ('cause you just told Plex your device can’t handle a higher level) - so you may turn decent material into junk - chasing a work-around.
If the recommended level is 5.1 for your device - that’s what it should be set to.
The Level Setting Adjustment is, in itself, a Work-Around.
The intent of the adjustment is to allow Direct Play of an item - when your Device reports it can’t handle a level higher than 4.0, for instance, when in fact it can. The Setting stops Plex from transcoding material it doesn’t need to.
The old FireTV’s - as an example - reported to Plex they couldn’t play anything with a level higher than 4.0. Almost everything is encoded at 4.1 or better and the old FireTVs would play Level 4.1 without a problem, so the setting was invented to stop transcodes - not start them…lol
Plex on Google TV is a mess !, it crashes the whole device frequently, subtitles sometimes don’t show up until you force close the app and reopen it. Interestingly Plex plugin for Kodi doesn’t have any of these issues !
