I recently stumbled upon Infuse and so far I am really liking it. I just purchased a license because I noticed a lot of my movies are in higher quality HD audio and won’t play without the Pro license. I noticed a movie in particular will pause playing and a spinning cog will appear for a few seconds and then the movie resumes and only to pause again. I just tried playing this same movie on my Macbook Pro and experienced the same issue playing it using Elmedia player. Is it safe to say what I am seeing is a result of the movie? I should also mention I have a custom built dedicated NAS running FreeNas (0.7) serving the video. I don’t think it’s the NAS. I just don’t know where to begin.
Welcome to the forum!
First, how are you connected to the local network ? WiFi or Ethernet? Also, what protocol? SMB, DLNA, FTP, etc.
The NAS is connected via Ethernet to a wireless bridge that is connected to my router via WiFi. My Apple TV is also connected via WiFi and via SMB.
I’m starting to suspect it’s the video. My daughter was watching Frozen on another Apple TV without any issues.
If by chance it’s a 4K and or x265 video on an Apple TV non 4K version it very well could have issues. The WiFi could be another but if it’s just one then maybe how it’s encoded is causing grief.
Let us know if you run across any other issues.
Is there a way I can view the information on the video to see how it was encoded and such? I don’t think it’s a 4K since it’s from 2011. My Apple TV is the non-4K version too, but the latest generation.
Is there something I can monitor or signs to look for when playing my movies so when I do see the pausing I can investigate?
Also, what’s the typical/recommended file encoding for movies that give the best all round experience in terms of video quality, sound, and ease of playback?
Sure, while you’re browsing your files most of the info is on the bottom of the screen when you’ve highlighted a file. Look on the bottom of the pic I’m posting and see where it says MPEG-4 and it will tell you the resolution such as 720p and the audio encoding such as AAC 5.1
If you see HEVC or x265 at the beginning then it’s using a higher compression codec and occasionally may be an issue for the ATV 4 to play for some of them but usually not. If it says “4K” resolution then it will definitely be tough for the non 4K ATV to play.
All of this is very dependent on your network also. If you run into buffering often then hardwired Ethernet is the way to go as much as possible.
You can post the info provided on your screen at the bottom to see if there’s something that may be causing your problem.
Thanks. It looks like that information only shows in list view. My video says H.264/MPEG-4 part 10 1080p DTS 5.1. Which I have Find Nemo with the same file information and I didn’t notice any issues with that movie.
Well then I’d go with the assumption that it’s something with that particular file.
You could also run it through MediaInfo and post the results to see if there’s a gotcha somewhere in there.
Yea I am going to chalk it up to the video until I see issues with other movies. I will check out the link you sent; that’s just the tool I was looking for. I’m sure there’s some reason why this is happening and maybe that software will provide more insight.
FYI - Here’s the meta info on the video causing me problems.
ID : 1 Format : AVC Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec Format profile : High@L4.1 Format settings : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames Format settings, CABAC : Yes Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC Duration : 1 h 35 min Bit rate : 16.4 Mb/s Nominal bit rate : 18.9 Mb/s Width : 1 920 pixels Height : 800 pixels Display aspect ratio : 2.40:1 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 Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.445 Stream size : 11.0 GiB (86%) Writing library : x264 core 106 r1732 b20059a Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=9 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=18939 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00 Language : English Default : Yes Forced : No
Can you post the mediainfo for one that plays back propertly as well?
ID : 1 Format : AVC Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec Format profile : High@L4.1 Format settings : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames Format settings, CABAC : Yes Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC Duration : 1 h 40 min Bit rate : 11.6 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 Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.233 Stream size : 7.97 GiB (79%) Writing library : x264 core 132 r2309 3b1f1f7 Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:-1:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=11 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.10 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=24 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=10 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=0 / bitrate=11591 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=40000 / vbv_bufsize=40000 / nal_hrd=none / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=1:0.50 / zones=136868,143747,b=0.65,deblock=1:2 Default : Yes Forced : No
Audio #1 ID : 2 Format : DTS Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems Codec ID : A_DTS Duration : 1 h 40 min Bit rate mode : Constant Bit rate : 1 510 kb/s Channel(s) : 6 channels Channel layout : C L R Ls Rs LFE Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz Frame rate : 93.750 FPS (512 SPF) Bit depth : 24 bits Compression mode : Lossy Stream size : 1.06 GiB (10%) Language : English Default : Yes Forced : No
Audio #2 ID : 3 Format : AC-3 Format/Info : Audio Coding 3 Commercial name : Dolby Digital Codec ID : A_AC3 Duration : 1 h 40 min Bit rate mode : Constant Bit rate : 640 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) Bit depth : 16 bits Compression mode : Lossy Stream size : 462 MiB (4%) Language : Dutch Service kind : Complete Main Default : No Forced : No
Audio #3 ID : 4 Format : AC-3 Format/Info : Audio Coding 3 Commercial name : Dolby Digital Codec ID : A_AC3 Duration : 1 h 40 min Bit rate mode : Constant Bit rate : 640 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) Bit depth : 16 bits Compression mode : Lossy Stream size : 462 MiB (4%) Title : Flemish Language : dum Service kind : Complete Main Default : No Forced : No
I think I found the problem/bottleneck in my setup. I have my NAS hardwired to a D-Link dap-1522, which only supports Wireless-N and not wireless-ac, so I am beginning to think that might be my problem.
You could test that by replacing that wireless connection with an Ethernet cable just temporarily to see if that solves the issue.
All wireless connections share the same available bandwidth. It’s best to hardwire any infrastructure equipment (servers, NAS, etc) and only have client devices connect wirelessly.
Turns out I have been connecting all of my devices to the wireless N 2.4ghz network and not using AC. I changed my Apple TVs to connect using AC and so far the movie that gave me problems now plays without buffering! Plus, my laptop no longer interferes with the baby monitor.
I’m still going to upgrade my bridge to one that supports AC. Yes, Ethernet is the obvious choice, but it’s not a choice for me given my current setup. I’m holding hope for WiFi 6/AX.
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