Can you guys fix choppy playback please? Ever since I upgraded my phone to iPhone 16 Pro Max I get choppy playback on all videos. Latest infuse 8 and iOS 18.1. When I switch to Emby player, playback seems fine. This happens only on Infuse. Tried several earlier Infuse builds as well as the latest official 7 version and results are the same.
Can you send in a sample file you are seeing issues with?
James, thatās on every file I tried, every single one, the choppiness in specially visible on panning scenesā¦ if you want though I can find something. Uploaded, please look closely at 9m50s to 9m52s where the camera is panning, look at the background sea. Every file I have has the same issue now. And as I said, other apps donāt have this effect, even though Iām pretty sure they donāt match the refresh rate to content fps too.
Isnāt it possible to use variable refresh rate when playing back video? Match the refresh to the video content fps?
Playback was never good, on any appā¦ seems like the variable refresh rate on the iPhone is not utilized at all by video apps, the only fluid content I see is the one recorded in 60fps, 24fps is choppy, 25fps as well. Would be really good if this could be fixed.
The file is Wayward Pines, Season 1, episode 1
Exactly she same issue here, also in the TestFlight beta. iPhone 16 on iOS 18.1. On any file ā¦
Finally someone with the same problem as me 
@james any news about the issue?
8.0.3 RC still has same issue. Any timeframe for resolving it?
@james any info would really be appreciatedā¦
I just tried this on my old iPhone 11, and playback is fine.
I wonder if this is an issue on the 16 because it is the first Apple device to include a hardware decoder for newer video codecs, so maybe those devices use a slightly different API for decoding video?
Might be true, not negating that, but @james might be able to pass this info to Apple, and as a dev maybe figure something outā¦
Still nothing @james? Thatās disappointing really. Sent the file more than a month ago and not even one response from you guys.
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Can you provide a bit more info on the issue you are seeing? Does the playback issue happen from the start? Does it appear infrequently at random points throughout the video? Does it always happen at the same point?
I tested your sample here on an iPhone 16 Pro and it seems to play well without any obvious issues.
You might try adjusting the āStreaming Cacheā option from Auto to Memory Only. There have been a few rare cases where unique devices have internal storage that performs below typical benchmarks, and this could have an impact on playback. Using Memory Only would prevent Infuse from using disk space for the playback cache.
Hi @james, thanks for your followup.
The problem is present always, itās like the iPhone or Infuse has problems with synchronizing the refresh rate with the content FPS. When I play, for example a 60fps material, the playback is smooth as butter, when I play 23-25fps itās choppy, if you want to observe the issue, play the file I uploaded at the time points I also gave you in one of my previous posts.
The problem is, I presume always, but more apparent on panning scenes, donāt know if I put it correctly, when most of the scene shifts from one side to another, the effect is like a Vsync issue, parts of the screen donāt keep up with the rest, thus I called it choppy playback.
It also happens at the same point always, itās less apparent in static scenes where you have only faces talking, mostly panning scenes, not very slow panning, not very fast panning. You have to look precisely at the panning background of the scenes 
I really donāt know how to better explain this.
It might as well be an iOS problem, had this exact same issue on the iPhone XS, then it magically went away after some time. I can tell you that I can see even more problems with playback, but this is the most apparent. I have a very specific eyesight, and I guess I can see this effect a instantly, some people donāt see this at all, some need to look for it or just ignore.
This is why, I previously asked you if itās possible to sync the refresh rate with the fps of the played content. None of these issues would be ever visible if that would be the case.
meaning that if the fps is 24 frames per second, the refresh rate of the display should be the multiplier of 24, so 24Hz, 48Hz, 72Hz, if the fps is 25, then 25Hz, 50Hz, 75Hz and so on. The idea is that every displayed frame lands on one screen refresh or multiple, so one frame is displayed exactly once, twice, thrice and so on. If this is not true, and apparently it isnāt the frames are torn, and the content only looks good when the display is static, when there is a lot of panning scenes the playback is choppy.
Basically when the refresh rate of the screen isnāt a multiplier of the FPS value then the content isnāt shown correctly.
I tried all the Streaming Cache options and the problem is exactly the same.
I would try to contact Apple, as Iām a beta user but I donāt know where to start even. Iām just a normal beta user, so maybe there is a way that you guys could contact Apple. I see similar problems with playback on the Emby player, or VLC, so it might not be a strict Infuse problem, or there are newer APIās which sync the refresh rate to the played content.
BTW, any way to show a refresh rate counter during playback? I have no means of testing this theory, but if Iām right then itās an iOS issue. To be honest, I tried the same on the Mac, and while the Mac screen also has Variable Refresh Rate I was never able to get the same refresh (or a multiply of) of the played content, which should be obviously working to have the content displayed correctly. Like for example most modern TVās and AppleTV which allows to match the TVās refresh to the playing content FPS, and there are no display issues when this is activated.
What you are describing is known as Judder. It was very pronounced during panning scenes when playing 24 fps movies on older 60 Hz televisions.
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Updated the thread title.
In the past on some devices there were users who saw a similar issue when the auto-brightness feature was enabled on their device, and it would completely disappear with this option disabled. I donāt know if that is the case here, but it may be worth a try to see if it makes any difference.
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That was me too, on the iPhone Xs, but itās not the case right now 
Hi, experiencing the same issue here on an iphone 16. Tried disabling auto-brightness but that didnāt help. For me it is only with x265 videoās. Could it be that itās not properly HW decoding on the iphone 16 ? I also notice it in other apps (like Plex or Emby), and when I have the streaming server convert to x264 the playback is smooth ā¦
This Issue still persists (tried it on 3 different pro Iphones with Pro-Motion) and also happens in Plex, where you can fix it by choosing the ālegacy playerā.
This definitly has something to do with the refresh rate not aligning with the content the way it should, which is why it is most obvious in panning shots. I suspect the problem lies on apples end tbh, but who knows. I guess nobody has a fix yet?
This is just a bummer. For me, watching videos on iOS is mostly unbearable because of this 
Weāre not seeing widespread reports here,and I havenāt been able to replicate this on my own iPhone 16 Pro.
If you are still seeing issues here with Infuse 8.1.1 and iOS 18.3.1 sending in a sample file would allow us to try and replicate the issue here with that specific file.
Iām repeating this like mantra @james, not everyone notices this unfortunately. This isnāt something my wife nor my daughter notice, but itās there, some people see this without any issues 
I already sent files multiple times, even given the time from where to start watching. Thatās why I asked, how does the app handle fps and variable refresh rate, thatās the whole problem, these arenāt matched thus the problem.