I have a few 1080p movies that do not buffer when I try to play. They stutter and play 1 second or so at a time. Other videos that are essentially the same resolution with same audio play fine. This is on a 2019 iMac desktop on a wired gigabit network. Files all play perfectly with an iPad. My server CPU is not high at all, so I don’t think there is transcoding involved. Looking at the log, and it is loaded with the following:
Failed to stream media, client probably disconnected after 393216 bytes: 104 - Connection reset by peer
From the same desktop, I can play the file directly with the Mac desktop player.
Again, this is specific files only, but their “Get Info” is essentially the same as dozens of others in my library, so I can’t see what the issue is.
Interesting, I don’t think this is a transcoding thing. One of the movies that exhibits this no buffer behavior is only SD (640x354 w/AC3 5.1 audio). Pretty sure my new iMac can handle that without any server transcoding.
What are you using to watch? Web Browser? Or are you using an app on a device?
If you are certain this is not a software issue or processing power issue on the computer or server side. Then it is most likely the player that is causing the issues.
I have experienced what you are describing on web browsers some of my blu rays will stutter or fail when they are direct played in a web browser. I am not sure why. My fix for this is to click on the playback settings in the web browser player and change the quality from original to medium or high. That usually fixes the problem for me.
Seems to not work on both my Mac and Windows desktop clients (latest versions). I have not tried the browser client. It is only certain videos, maybe 15-20 out of my 250+.
Videos that don’t play on desktops play fine on iOS (iPad and iPhone), Xbox, and AppleTV. I highly doubt it is a processing power issue. These are simple SD and 1080p videos with AC3 5.1 audio on direct play. The CPU on my server barely cracks 1%. My Mac desktop is a 2019 iMac and the Windows PC is a gaming PC with an i7 and a top tier video card. More than enough power to display a 1080p video. No transcoding is necessary.
Its clearly an issue with the desktop clients interaction that causes the “Connection reset by peer” errors. I can see immediately which videos it will happen because the play bar does not show any buffering.
Have you tried changing the Cat6 cable, switch ports, rebooting the network stack on server, client and network? Reason, when I plugged my new Synology into a new 1Gb switch it refused to connect at 1Gb. Swapping the cable fixed the issue.
To your point, none of this makes sense but I have seen strange disconnects like this on non Plex applications that were fixed when I upgraded and swapped out the network stack.
Network stacks can be fun. Before you go down the rabbit hole of swapping the network stack please validate it as a separate network before taking your production network down.
These videos play fine everywhere except the desktop versions of the player. Doesn’t matter if wired or wireless. The other players are working off the same wires and hardware. The Xbox and Apple TV are wired. Obviously, the iOS apps are wireless. All wires are CAT6 on latest Ubiquity hardware.
As a separate test, I tried the browser player on both the iMac and the Windows machines. The browser player works fine (full buffering, no stutters), and that is the exact same network stack. It seems to only be the desktop player that is getting the errors.
Been in the software/network biz for 30+ years. This is not a network issue. It is a MacOS and Windows Plex client issue.
After some more tests, it looks to me like there is an issue with these few files and the MacOS and Windows desktop clients. I took a couple of the files that didn’t play on the desktops (but played fine in Chrome, iOS, AppleTV, Xbox. etc.) and ran the files through Handbrake (M4V -> M4V) to create a copy of the file. The new file plays perfectly now.
FYI, I used TunesKit to take ~80 movies I purchased on iTunes to Plex. Like I said, the vast majority worked perfectly, but ~15 did not. Something about the format confuses the desktop clients I guess. Several other players can handle the file perfectly, but only the two desktop Plex clients do not work. Interestingly, when I ran the 5-6GB files through Handbrake, they got larger (+1-2GB) using my normal 1080p Handbrake settings. I’m using constant frame rate in my settings, so maybe the original files have a variable frame rate that causes the issue?
I seem to be running into this issue as well. I have certain files that will not play properly on the windows desktop client that play fine in a browser or on devices. Logs shows similar connection reset by peer messages.
