Video has lots of micro freezes on Apple TV with new player

Plex Players Streaming Devices
,
1

Server Version#: 1.23.2.4656
Server OS: Windows 10
Player Version#: 7.18.1 (1572)
tvOS: 14.6 (18L569)
Apple TV Model: A1842 (32 Gb)

Description: video playback of the video with the specs below is not smooth at all on Apple TV with the new player. It has small micro freezes each second or so. Meanwhile, it is smooth as expected on Plex on Windows and on Plex on Android TV.

Workaround: changing Apple TV video options didn’t help, finally I switched to the legacy player in Plex settings on Apple TV and this helped to workaroud the issue - the playback became smooth. Definitely some bug in the new player.

Video specs:

Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4
File size : 2.12 GiB
Duration : 18 min 29 s
Overall bit rate : 16.4 Mb/s
Encoded date : UTC 2021-05-03 22:14:34
Writing application : mkvmerge v56.1.0 (‘My Friend’) 64-bit
Writing library : libebml v1.4.2 + libmatroska v1.6.4

Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main 10@L5@High
HDR format : SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible
Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration : 18 min 29 s
Bit rate : 16.2 Mb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 24.000 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.081
Stream size : 2.09 GiB (98%)
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics : PQ
Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primaries : BT.2020
Mastering display luminance : min: 0.0001 cd/m2, max: 1000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level : 954 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Level : 32 cd/m2

Audio
ID : 2
Format : E-AC-3
Format/Info : Enhanced AC-3
Commercial name : Dolby Digital Plus
Codec ID : A_EAC3
Duration : 18 min 29 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 256 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel layout : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 33.9 MiB (2%)
Title : English
Language : English
Service kind : Complete Main
Default : Yes
Forced : No

2

I’d be curious if you notice any difference after remuxing with MKVToolNix 58. There are some potentially-relevant changes.

I assume that disabling Direct Play/Stream wasn’t enough to improve anything?

3

No, remuxing with MKVToolNix 58.0.0 gives the same effect - no difference.
Enabling or disabling the Direct Play shows no difference.

4

I’m not surprised - it was a long shot.

The “old” player is basically Apple’s built-in player engine. It doesn’t have as many features but it works … well, great.

5

I get this too. On every video. Not every second but multiple each minute. Hoping it gets fixed soon!

6

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