4k 2nd generation Apple TV and slow seek times

Platforms Apple TV
1

First time poster here and new to Infuse (the new Plex support brought me over). I have two Apple TV 4k, the 2021 and the 2022 (1st and 2nd gen). They are both running the most recent version of TVOS and the new version of Infuse 7.7.

The issue I’m seeing is on the 2nd gen Apple TV, slow seek times on 4k content. When I press skip forward 10 seconds, it takes approx 3-4 seconds for playback to resume. Whereas on the 1st gen Apple TV, the seek time is essentially instant. The seek time delay is longer on larger skips of time. I’ve tested this with both units connected in the same environment to the same TV. This is with devices on wifi - getting 500mbps. The native Plex App doesn’t show this long seek time on either device.

Plex is hosted on a local Mac Studio M1.

Trouble shooting I’ve tried with no luck:

  • Connect via ethernet to rule out wifi
  • Tested the three different cache options (legacy, memory and auto)
  • Uninstall/reinstall Infuse
  • Factory reset the 2nd gen Apple TV
  • Connect Infuse via the old Library Plex method
  • Connect Infuse via SMB share

Am I missing something obvious? Is anyone else seeing similar behaviour? It’s such an odd bug to have older hardware performing better! Any pointers gratefully received!

2

[update]

The delay in resuming after skipping forward or back seems to be related ATMOS. If I disable ATMOS from the main Apple TV settings, seek times really improve on Infuse. Is it the expected behaviour to have 3-4 seconds after skipping forward or back when there is an ATMOS track?

3

I had the same kind of lag and general sluggishness during playback on a 2nd gen Apple TV too.

To fix the issue:

  • Go to Settings
  • Under the Playback subsection find the Streaming Cache setting
  • Change it from Auto to Memory Only

For me it immediately solved the problem.

I don’t know exactly why, but I can reproduce this issue ONLY on my 2nd gen Apple TV unit, never on a 3rd or even a 1st gen one.

1 Like
4

Cheers and good to know I’m not going mad :slight_smile: So just to be specific, when you playback 4k HDR with ATMOS enabled and with Streaming Cache set to Memory Only you no longer see delay in resuming after skipping forward/back say 10 seconds?

So weird that it’s only on the 2nd gen. I wonder what the underlying cause is.

5

I have the same issue. Tried Memory Only and Legacy. Experiencing this even with Dolby 5.1. Apple TV is connected over Ethernet.

Plex seems instant in comparison.

Also Infuse on the mac is much faster, even over wifi.

6

@vstoiletpaper is that on a gen 2 4k Apple Tv too?

7

I also see a 4-5 sec delay in seek and random framedrops during normal playback for some of my media. Plex app on my AppleTV plays this content perfectly.

Info of media that is having the playback issue:

  Stream #0:0: Video: hevc (Main 10), yuv420p10le(tv, bt2020nc/bt2020/smpte2084), 3840x2160 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 1k tbn (default)
    Metadata:
      BPS             : 10904347
      DURATION        : 01:00:35.132000000
      NUMBER_OF_FRAMES: 87156
      NUMBER_OF_BYTES : 4954843010
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_APP: mkvmerge v79.0 ('Funeral Pyres') 64-bit
      _STATISTICS_TAGS: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES
    Side data:
      DOVI configuration record: version: 1.0, profile: 8, level: 6, rpu flag: 1, el flag: 0, bl flag: 1, compatibility id: 1
  Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: eac3 (Dolby Digital Plus + Dolby Atmos), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 768 kb/s (default) (original)
    Metadata:
      title           : English [Dolby Digital Plus with Dolby Atmos 5.1]
      BPS             : 768000
      DURATION        : 01:00:35.168000000
      NUMBER_OF_FRAMES: 113599
      NUMBER_OF_BYTES : 348976128
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_APP: mkvmerge v79.0 ('Funeral Pyres') 64-bit
      _STATISTICS_TAGS: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES
  Stream #0:2(chi): Audio: eac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 640 kb/s (dub)
    Metadata:
      BPS             : 640000
      DURATION        : 01:00:35.360000000
      NUMBER_OF_FRAMES: 113605
      NUMBER_OF_BYTES : 290828800
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_APP: mkvmerge v79.0 ('Funeral Pyres') 64-bit
      _STATISTICS_TAGS: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES

My setup:

  • Infuse Pro 7.7.3 (4799)
  • AppleTV 4k (A2348 - 128 GB)
  • Wired connection to my unraid server
  • Tried playing through Jellyfin and SMB. Both have the issue.
8

Same problem here and it’s very prevalent lately as more and more HDR / ATMOS content is becoming available. Takes 5+ seconds for a file to start playing, same with seeking back / forward. Skipping back / forward for more than 10 seconds takes even longer.

I am running Infuse Pro 7.8 on latest AppleTV 4K with tvOS 17.5.1, streaming locally off a hardwired NFS share. Sustained, stable read speed on Infuse’s own speed test is 450 Mbps (same consistent speeds whether file is 10 GB or 100+ GB). I tried different Streaming Cache settings as suggested and it made zero difference.

9

Same here.

It’s so annoying that I had to switch to Plex to watch my content (4k DV/HDR with Atmos).

Is there a way to make the team prioritise this issue?

Thanks

10

Thanks. This solved my problem.