So I’ve searched and found someone else who has the exact same issue I am having (5 years ago), but it doesn’t seem to be resolved yet (without a work around): https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/26723/mp4-stuttering-problems
Basically, a user complained that this movie kept buffering every minute or so. After investigation I found that it played back locally via VLC, with my Mede8er via local network, and with the Synology Video app via the local network just fine. However, when using plex to my iPhone, web browser, AppleTV, or Chromecast it would start buffering again (this is over WAN and LAN, trying both transcoding and not transcoding). This is the only movie I’ve come across that has had this issue (library over at ~700 movies).
I figured something must have been wrong with my Blu-Ray rip, so I re-ripped it. The issue still persisted. I then downloaded a replacement full Blu-Ray rip just in case my disc was bad, the issue still persisted.
Out of all my full Blu-ray rips, The Bourne Ultimatum just won’t function properly on the plex (even though the file is just fine and works using anything but PMS).
@masterkaj said:
So I’ve searched and found someone else who has the exact same issue I am having (5 years ago), but it doesn’t seem to be resolved yet (without a work around): https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/26723/mp4-stuttering-problems
Basically, a user complained that this movie kept buffering every minute or so. After investigation I found that it played back locally via VLC, with my Mede8er via local network, and with the Synology Video app via the local network just fine. However, when using plex to my iPhone, web browser, AppleTV, or Chromecast it would start buffering again (this is over WAN and LAN, trying both transcoding and not transcoding). This is the only movie I’ve come across that has had this issue (library over at ~700 movies).
I figured something must have been wrong with my Blu-Ray rip, so I re-ripped it. The issue still persisted. I then downloaded a replacement full Blu-Ray rip just in case my disc was bad, the issue still persisted.
Out of all my full Blu-ray rips, The Bourne Ultimatum just won’t function properly on the plex (even though the file is just fine and works using anything but PMS).
We’re going to need logs if you want to get to the bottom of this. Mind pasting the tree output of the file in Mediainfo? I would hazard a guess none of those clients can handle a uncompressed bluray without transcoding but that’s just a theory as Apple TV / iPhone / Plex Web / Chromecast all have weak codec support. What is the main platform you use?
We mainly use plex on our AppleTV’s in our bedrooms and the Mede8er for my home theater. We transcode at 20mbps to force transcodes on all my blu-ray rips because of another unrelated bug caused by AppleTV OS. The issue is I have a lot of blu-ray rips (almost 100%) and this is the only one that has given me trouble so far.
I can post logs later tonight when I get off work, but here’s the media info from the file:
General
Unique ID : 325495792049274219515943718596184093703 (0xF4E0359295FF9069AC8FDD1A1887B407)
Complete name : Z:\Movies\Movies 2D\The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)\The.Bourne.Ultimatum_2007.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 24.6 GiB
Duration : 1 h 55 min
Overall bit rate : 30.6 Mb/s
Movie name : Bourne Ultimatum
Encoded date : UTC 2016-08-01 01:58:12
Writing application : MakeMKV v1.9.10 win(x64-release)
Writing library : libmakemkv v1.9.10 (1.3.3/1.4.4) win(x64-release)
Original source medium : Blu-ray
Video
ID : 1
ID in the original source medium : 4113 (0x1011)
Format : VC-1
Format profile : Advanced@L3
Codec ID : V_MS/VFW/FOURCC / WVC1
Codec ID/Hint : Microsoft
Duration : 1 h 55 min
Bit rate : 26.3 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.529
Stream size : 21.2 GiB (86%)
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
Audio
ID : 2
ID in the original source medium : 4352 (0x1100)
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Format profile : MA / Core
Mode : 16
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 1 h 55 min
Bit rate mode : Variable / Constant
Bit rate : 4 210 kb/s / 1 509 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 93.750 FPS (512 spf)
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossless / Lossy
Stream size : 3.39 GiB (14%)
Title : Surround 5.1
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Text #1
ID : 3
ID in the original source medium : 4608 (0x1200)
Format : PGS
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Duration : 1 h 45 min
Bit rate : 29.8 kb/s
Count of elements : 2038
Stream size : 22.5 MiB (0%)
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
Text #2
ID : 5
ID in the original source medium : 4622 (0x120E)
Format : PGS
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Duration : 1 h 15 min
Bit rate : 953 b/s
Count of elements : 57
Stream size : 524 KiB (0%)
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
Menu
00:00:00.000 : en:Chapter 01
00:04:02.200 : en:Chapter 02
00:09:46.043 : en:Chapter 03
00:13:57.211 : en:Chapter 04
00:21:01.843 : en:Chapter 05
00:27:51.670 : en:Chapter 06
00:31:46.863 : en:Chapter 07
00:38:44.280 : en:Chapter 08
00:43:51.503 : en:Chapter 09
00:50:02.749 : en:Chapter 10
00:58:12.614 : en:Chapter 11
01:05:35.765 : en:Chapter 12
01:10:35.898 : en:Chapter 13
01:15:49.586 : en:Chapter 14
01:20:36.957 : en:Chapter 15
01:25:08.269 : en:Chapter 16
01:31:34.739 : en:Chapter 17
01:35:58.252 : en:Chapter 18
01:42:11.708 : en:Chapter 19
01:46:07.319 : en:Chapter 20
The issue with that file is the ‘Format : VC-1’.
None of the clients you listed can direct play that file so your server has to transcode it.
VC-1 transcoding is very CPU intensive as it is limited to a single core of your CPU
@hthighway said:
The issue with that file is the ‘Format : VC-1’.
None of the clients you listed can direct play that file so your server has to transcode it.
VC-1 transcoding is very CPU intensive as it is limited to a single core of your CPU
I understand, but my dedicated 4c (8t) Haswell Xeon processor can handle it. It plays all other VC-1 files (even with higher bitrates) just fine.
Just a quick example I randomly pulled, here is The Bourne Identity media info:
General
Unique ID : 148151499119198115596098232951221448947 (0x6F74F0DB47C3A325BDADEC59177AF0F3)
Complete name : Z:\Movies\Movies 2D\The Bourne Identity (2002)\The.Bourne.Identity_2002.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 28.2 GiB
Duration : 1 h 58 min
Overall bit rate : 34.1 Mb/s
Movie name : The Bourne Identity
Encoded date : UTC 2014-01-08 23:45:15
Writing application : MakeMKV v1.8.5 win(x64-release)
Writing library : libmakemkv v1.8.5 (1.2.0/1.1.0) win(x64-release)
Video
ID : 1
Format : VC-1
Format profile : Advanced@L3
Codec ID : V_MS/VFW/FOURCC / WVC1
Codec ID/Hint : Microsoft
Duration : 1 h 58 min
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
Audio
ID : 2
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Format profile : MA / Core
Mode : 16
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 1 h 58 min
Bit rate mode : Variable / Constant
Bit rate : Unknown / 1 509 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 93.750 FPS (512 spf)
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossless / Lossy
Title : Lossless
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Text
ID : 3
Format : PGS
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
Menu
00:00:00.000 : en:Chapter 01
00:06:27.804 : en:Chapter 02
00:08:34.805 : en:Chapter 03
00:11:38.489 : en:Chapter 04
00:13:37.942 : en:Chapter 05
00:19:43.265 : en:Chapter 06
00:25:40.997 : en:Chapter 07
00:29:15.420 : en:Chapter 08
00:36:36.277 : en:Chapter 09
00:43:56.508 : en:Chapter 10
00:48:27.696 : en:Chapter 11
00:51:52.150 : en:Chapter 12
01:02:01.342 : en:Chapter 13
01:10:01.280 : en:Chapter 14
01:18:44.886 : en:Chapter 15
01:23:59.617 : en:Chapter 16
01:31:40.119 : en:Chapter 17
01:38:39.246 : en:Chapter 18
01:45:12.973 : en:Chapter 19
01:51:33.645 : en:Chapter 20
Then the server logs would help in seeing what the Transcoder is doing while trying to play the file.
I’m fairly certain this is the result of a VC-1 blu-ray rip. It is a pain in the rear, requires a lot more horsepower to transcode than H.264, and not many clients currently support it for Direct Play or Direct Stream. However, PMP does support it. One option you have to lighten the transcoding load on your PMS (and I did the very same for mine) is to convert all your VC-1 blu-ray rips to H.264 using Handbrake (transcode video track, pass-through all audio tracks). Try that out with one title and see if it improves things.
@hthighway said:
Then the server logs would help in seeing what the Transcoder is doing while trying to play the file.
I’ll post logs when I get access again when I’m home later tonight.
@kinoCharlino said:
I’m fairly certain this is the result of a VC-1 blu-ray rip. It is a pain in the rear, requires a lot more horsepower to transcode than H.264, and not many clients currently support it for Direct Play or Direct Stream. However, PMP does support it. One option you have to lighten the transcoding load on your PMS (and I did the very same for mine) is to convert all your VC-1 blu-ray rips to H.264 using Handbrake (transcode video track, pass-through all audio tracks). Try that out with one title and see if it improves things.
It’s possible… but this is the ONLY VC-1 rip that I’ve had issues with. I don’t mind transcoding at all when playing on my devices. I like to have my loss-less blu-ray rips for my Mede8er in my home theater, so it doesn’t make sense for me to re-encode all my rips.
Note: I just tried playing two VC-1 movie files on my iPhone and Chrome Browser at the same time and it worked just fine, no buffering (quality set at 2mbps).
@masterkajmasterkaj,
You may be right, it could be just specific titles and how they were encoded. For me, Casino (VC-1 rip) transcodes easily, but The Dark Knight (also VC-1 rip) takes a lot more horsepower.
@kinoCharlino said:
@masterkajmasterkaj,
You may be right, it could be just specific titles and how they were encoded. For me, Casino (VC-1 rip) transcodes easily, but The Dark Knight (also VC-1 rip) takes a lot more horsepower.
Do you have an idea why running the file through iDentify/Subler and optimizing fixes the issue? Here’s the link to someone who had the same issue as me: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/26723/mp4-stuttering-problems
A quote from a quick google search, " Optimize Files After Tagging – if you’re running into issues where the video chokes/stutters during playback after you’ve added the metadata, this can keep that from happening. I’ve read a couple cases of it alleviating video stutter for people using Plex."
Hello masterkaj,
I had the exact same problems with that movie. I handbraked the file from VC-1 to H.264 at the same bitrate and the file played just fine. So VC-1 does pose a bit of a problem.
I’ve had some VC-1’s that play fine, some that have problems. You have to remember that encoding on blurays is an authoring process not a real time encode. So while authoring bitrates and parameters can be varied scene by scene according to the content.
Another VC-1 I had trouble with was Back to the Future. The opening scene, whilst looking pretty benign is a bit of a compression stressor. All compression relies on the previous frame being the same as the next one. When you have every single pixel changing in a frame, then the bitrate needs to go up to adequately show the picture.
My server is a dual CPU machine, but like others, as soon as VC-1 comes along it drops back to single CPU, which runs out of puff on higher bitrate scenes.
I’m hesitant to transcode, as any sort of decoding-re-encoding means more information is being lost from the picture, however for the moment until I can add some beef to my system, it is a simple fix for the problem files.
@Stephen3001 said:
I’m hesitant to transcode, as any sort of decoding-re-encoding means more information is being lost from the picture, however for the moment until I can add some beef to my system, it is a simple fix for the problem files.
I hear you! Its taken me several months to make the move, but I kept my original MKVs in case I change my mind. Also keeping them in case I’m not satisfied with the quality once I finally get to buying a projector. Admitted OCD pixel peeper here. VC-1 is a party-pooper 
@kinoCharlino said:
I hear you! Its taken me several months to make the move, but I kept my original MKVs in case I change my mind. Also keeping them in case I’m not satisfied with the quality once I finally get to buying a projector. Admitted OCD pixel peeper here. VC-1 is a party-pooper
Yes, I work with compression equipment every day so I know the vagaries of compression and what it can do. I’m a pixel peeper as well, thinking that content should be encoded once and not messed with much more, although I have been impressed with what Handbrake can achieve.
