Hello. I am having a issue with all video files stuttering every 2 seconds during playback, exclusively when viewing on my new iMac (via Safari) upon which my Plex server is installed. It is not buffering, rather a slight pause every 2-3 seconds of every video file with momentary “blocky” pixelation.
Media files in my library are exclusively mkv BluRay backups. They are stored on a 16TB WD My Book external drive connected to the iMac via USB 3.0. For comparative reference, I do NOT experience these stuttering issues when viewing on my two other clients connected to the same server: A Oppo blu ray player connected via DNLA (Wired Lan) or a Roku TV connected wirelessly. In both of these cases video playback is flawless.
My first thought was the hard drive failing, but if that was the case I would experience the issue across all clients, no? I’ve ran drive diagnostics on the external drive which did not report any errors or bad sectors. So I’m not sure if there is a bug or configuration setting I have wrong in my Mac or my Plex settings (although I haven’t changed anything and have been previously using it on the same iMac for at least 2 weeks, and another year before that using an older 2014 Mac mini).
Here are the details of my setup:
Hardware: 2017 iMac 5K / 3.4Ghz Intel i5 / 8GB ram / Radeon Pro 570 4GB
OS: High Sierra 10.13.3
Connection: Ethernet Wired Lan
Speed Test: Ping 11ms / Download 298 Mbps / Upload 11.9 Mbps
Plex Server: 1.12.1.4885-1046ba85f
Media: mkv (BD backups) Direct Play
Media storage: WD My Book Duo 16TB (configured as RAID 1)
I’ve uninstalled/reinstalled the server, and played back a few videos to repro the issue and generated the log files here for reference. I also confirmed that the same videos were playing back without issue when using the Oppo BD player DLNA and the Roku Plex client connected to the same server.
Any help is greatly appreciated. I’m not overtly technical with knowledge of servers, but am willing to learn and add info to this post wherever I can if it aids in debugging. This iMac is my primary viewing source in my home office, so I would like to solve this asap.
Log files attached for reference.
Thanks in advance
