stuttering Stream - looks like there is no/bad buffering on ATV3?

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1

hi all,

 

my first post after a long day of trying to fix my PMS / Plexconnect / Apple TV 3 experience. 

 

my hardware setup:

-unraid 5.0-rc16c

-pms 0.9.7.28

-plexconnect zip download from 10.08.2013

-atv3 latest firmware (connected with never more than 65mbps to 54 GHz eth2 <- that sucks, can't fix it)

-linksys e4200 v1 with Tomato Firmware 1.28.0000 MIPSR2-112 K26 USB AIO from shibby

-2.4 GHz / eth1 and 5 GHz / eth2, both with WPA2 AES

-wdtv gen1 with wlan N-usb stick (connected to eth1 with 107mbps, same location as the ATV3)

 

i tried a lot of movie files and tv shows with the plexconnect-ion but on some movie files its starts to stutter and i can't do anything about it. its not fixable at that moment. the latest testmovie that started to stutter, so i had to switch to my WDTV setup was: TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away from Keyboard, 6.84 GB, 1080p, H264 1920x1080, Bitrate 11924 kbps

 

i can't understand why its working on the wdtv with a noname wifi N usb thumb and not on the ATV3 with better wifi hardware like A.

i also tried the both 2,4 and 5 GHz with the atv3. i switched from 20Mhz to 40mhz, from upper to lower (router settings) but nothing helps. i can monitor the bandwith while streaming with the router firmware, and the atv3 is very jumpy from 200KB/s to 3000KB/s. 

The WDTV is more stable.

 

could someone help me? its also irritating me, that the atv3 only connects with 65mbps. anandtech said this is normal (http://www.anandtech.com/show/5687/apple-tv-3-2012-mini-review/3) while someone else got in fact a connection with 150mbps (http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=16587559&postcount=12). 

 

any help would be nice, cause i finally want to use one setup and i want to use PMS with all the great features. the wdtv is just a playback thingy.

 

thanks in advance

2

What type of file? I assume you are transcoding?  If so, did you try change from the default 1080p 40mb to something lower?  I have 1 to 1 blu ray rips (mkv container) that play fine (though I have a ethernet connection).   However with any AVC encoded files I would only get sound, no picture.  changing to 1080p 20mb solved the issue.

3

its a The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard (1080p).mkv

the problem is, that i allow to encode the sound, as the ATV3 cant play DTS for example. but i think its not an option to encode the whole movie! i only have a HP N40L Server with AMD Turion(tm) II Neo N40L Dual-Core - 1.5 GHz CPU. 

and like i said: the even older WDTV Gen1 can play the files without any issues! so i think i shouldnt torture my server by encode everything. (i still hope not to)

4

The maschine is not powerful enough to transcode 1080p

5

Take a look at the task manger on the the machine doing the transcoding and see what the cpu activity is like when transcoding.  You are probably maxing it out.

An alternative is to download handbrake, select the apple tv 3 profile and remux to m4v.  m4v is atv native format so will not need to transcode and should play fine.  remuxing will probably take multiple hours though...

6

remuxing is quick - only changing the container, keeping the codecs.

transcoding is the long one - decoding every frame and re-encoding it.

It all depends on the codecs used... for video as well as audio.

7

thanks for the Input. i thought only the Audio Part is decoded and not the whole file with video. or am i wrong? the unraid Server is bored transcoding from DTS to ac3 and Sometimes stressed out from ac3 to ac3.


i really dont want to reencode my Library or something


so this is it? :confused: pretty disapointing when there is no direct Play for the Video Part

8

It really depends on the codecs used. Your example in post #1: h264 is supported by aTV and should be directly played. Check the PMS logs for more details.

But as far as I know, MKV can contain different codecs as well. Those might not be supported and in need for a full transcode.

9

this is the information for the testfile: The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard (1080p).mkv

both h264 and aac audio should be playable without any transcode or? where can i see the transcode log? 

MEDIEN
Dauer 1:22:07
Bitrate 11924 kbps
Width 1920
Height 1080
Seitenverhältnis 1.78
Video Auflösung 1080p
Container MKV
Video Bildfrequenz PAL
DATEI
Accessible Yes
Exists Yes
Dauer 1:22:07
Datei /mnt/user/Movies/TPB AFK (2013)/The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard (1080p).mkv
Size 6.84 GB
Container MKV
UNTERTITEL
Codec SRT
Format SRT
UNTERTITEL
Codec IDX
Sub Index 0
Sprache English
Format VOBSUB
VIDEO
Codec H264
Sprache English
Has Scaling Matrix 0
Height 1080
Width 1920
AUDIO
Codec AAC
Kanäle Stereo
Sprache English
UNTERTITEL
Sprache English
10

right.  Brain fart. I did confirm that if an mkv contains h264 codec, atv will play it natively with no transcoding.  Since you are transcoding, codec is not h264. if the plex trasncoder is firing up, you will have to transcode your mkv file (if you don't want it to transcode while playing).  handbrake is a great way to do it.

Edit: didn't see you post above showing it is h264.  where are you getting that info from? 

11

You can see if it is transcoding by looking at task manager on the media server machine and seeing the the plex trasnoder is running - it will be the one eating up your cpu.

12

i get the info from the (i) in PMS. so when the transcoder is doing about 10% cpu than its just the audio that is transcoded right? when its going up to 170% than its the whole file with audio and video. 

but even when its only the audio its stuttering in the middle. i will have to test the same file with wired ethernet. so i clearly can say its not the bad wifi

13

the transcoder will mostly max out any cpu, because it always tries to use what it can get, that is not an indication of anything tbh

14

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