Movie stops and buffer circle appears and sometimes "error occurred while playing this file"

Platforms Apple TV
1

Hello Everyone,

I’m using the Apple TV 4th Gen with Infuse 5 installed on it and using Plex with it.
I already submitted a diagnostics report, the code is: 8R6T9.

I watched the movie in question 2 days ago without any interruptions. Today I wanted to watch it with my friend. We first watched the first movie, Sicario 1 without any problems and then after that started to watch Sicario 2. We got into 40mins where it suddenly stopped, the screen went black and the buffering circle appeared then it worked again for a bit only to start buffer again 10 minutes later.

  • tried waiting
  • tried restarting the Infuse app
  • tried restarting the Apple TV
  • checked my internet connection
  • cleared the metadata of the Infuse app

I also tried playing the movie on my laptop directly via Plex (wireless). It didn’t work at first. But then suddenly it started working, so we switched back to Apple TV / Infuse, and it didn’t work again. Sometimes it would also show the error “error occurred while playing this file”. So I actually don’t know if this is either a temporary problem with Infuse itself or GDrive or maybe even Plex? My internet didn’t seem to have any problem since I was able to check youtube and play videos there without any problems etc. Is my Apple TV maybe not powerful enough? Why did the movie work 2 days ago without problems then?
After a while, and clearing the metadata, I started scanning the Plex again in Infuse and we continued watching the movie directly on my Laptop via Plex with worked without problems. The laptop is connected via W-Lan so I can’t imagine it being the network that’s causing the problem.

Also funny; yesterday we watched the whole Series ‘Bodyguard’ (~6 hours) in one sitting without ANY problems or interruptions.
What I also noticed is that when I start a movie or an episode it takes between a few seconds up to 1 minute or more to start the episode/movie. And when I use seek it also takes pretty long, screen gets black buffer icon appears and it takes either a few seconds but mostly 1 or more minute until it contintues.
Before using the Apple TV I always used an Odroid C2 with Rasplex to watch my content.

My setup:
Synology DS216play (connected via LAN to the router)
GDrive mounted to the Synology NAS via rclone
Apple TV 4th Gen connected via LAN to the router

I’d appreciate any tips/help. And/or maybe a technician of yours can tell me what’s inside the diagnostics report (8R6T9) that’ll maybe point to the problem.
I’m currently using my free week trial for Infuse Pro - I quite like the app. But if these errors keep happening I’ll probably just stick to Plex itself. But I’d love to use my Apple TV with Infuse for watching movies.

Thanks a lot and kind regards!

2

Welcome to the forum, and sorry for the trouble.

If the issue was occurring in Plex at times as well, that would usually indicate an issue with the network or Google Drive, but it could be something else as well.

Infuse 6 has a number of streaming related improvements, and could help avoid issues like this in the future. We’re working to finalize Infuse 6, and plan to have this available on the App Store before the end of the month.

PS - Since you’re on a subscription/trial, Infuse 6 will be a free upgrade for you - so keep an eye out for updates.

3

Thanks for the welcome!
Yeah, I thought the same. But there were/are too many factors that won’t let me narrow it down really.
First I thought I found the culprit when I saw that GDrive is still “processing files”. But other files that were still processing worked without problems so it wasn’t that. Then I thought it’s my internet connection but because Youtube worked and some ping -t’s seemed to work without interruptions it looked like it works too.
But tbh. it still could’ve been some connection hiccups. I connected my ATV wirelessly atm. since it can be faster in connection than the rather slow LAN connection. Let’s see how it goes.

I also stumbled over that one strange Movie(Documentation) File.
It’s x264, 2GB in size, 1920x1080. Nothing special (IMHO)
I can start it (Infuse-Plex) but every time it stops at exactly 0:13s and buffers forever
It works on the Laptop (Plex.exe), locally in .vlc and via GDrive without any buffering or ‘streaming’ problems, hm.
I don’t want to post the video file right away because of “piracy” concerns". And I don’t know if you could help me but I’m curious to know if maybe someone could take a look at the file and tell me what causes the buffering since it only happens on the Apple TV. (Maybe I even have to open a new thread for that?)

I’m also currently checking my rclone mount options to see if I can maybe somehow improve the streaming ‘quality’ etc.
Thanks for the help though!

4

Did I understand correct, that every involved device (NAS, Storage, aTV etc) except the Laptop running Plex Media Server is connected via LAN?

Laptop running PMS is connected via Wifi?

Is LAN connection Gigabit LAN in all cases. Had there been any other processes using Wifi during the buffer event? e.g. download of Windows/OSX updates, Backups (Time Machine / whatever backup Windows provides) that could have eaten up Wifi Bandwith?

5

Hello elchupete!

    "that every involved device (NAS, Storage, aTV etc) except the Laptop running Plex Media Server is connected via LAN?"
NAS: Connected to the router via LAN - Google Drive mounted to the NAS, PMS runs on the NAS ATV: Connected to the router via LAN - since I learned the Port on the ATV is only capable of 100mbps I connected it wirelessly to my 5Ghz Router Laptop: With Plex.exe I mean the locally installed Plex player not the PMS. And yes, the Laptop is connected wirelessly
    Is LAN connection Gigabit LAN in all cases. Had there been any other processes using Wifi during the buffer event? e.g. download of Windows/OSX updates, Backups (Time Machine / whatever backup Windows provides) that could have eaten up Wifi Bandwith?
Yes. (NAS) DS216play has a Gigabit LAN Port Nighthawk X6 R8000 has 5 Gigabit LAN Ports (1 for Internet, 4 for LAN)

No. The only devices running at that moment were: TV, ATV, NAS, Router - and later the Laptop for further testing and watching the movie in the end.
Updates: Not to my knowledge. It could be though, that maybe my MacBook did some OS update/download in the background while being closed. Never checked it during the problem. And no backups or similar.

6

You shouldn’t have any issues. The file isn’t 4K or x265 so the Apple TV 4 should be able to handle it. Bandwidth should be enough for the file size of the movie

7

Hello JarvisMeier! Thanks for your reply.
Were you able to test the file yourself?
At looking at all the info that’s available for the file I was under the same impression. But since it doesn’t work it has to be something with the Apple TV or Infuse.
I also already tried to remove the file from my “movies” folder, scan library again, and then move it back into the “movies” folder - just to be sure everything went as it should when moving the file. But still doesn’t fix the 0:13s buffer error.

Regards

Little Update:
I did a little digging in the Plex Logs. I downloaded all of them and mainly checked “Plex Media Server.log”

I always stumble over the following errors/messages, for example when the movie closes after trying to seek with the error “error occurred while playing this file”:
Unable to find client profile for device; platform=Apple TVOS, platformVersion=, device=Apple TV, model=
Failed to stream media, client probably disconnected after 204604192 bytes: 104 - Connection reset by peer
Failed to stream media, client probably disconnected after 17376 bytes: 32 - Broken pipe

2nd Update:

A Plex Moderator looked at the above-mentioned video file that would stop at exactly 00:13s. He told me the guy that encoded it did something wrong. I just had to encode (re-encode?) it again and now it works. So strange how sometimes a file can work on your Laptop + locally in .vlc but suddenly not on ATV, lol

8

VLC is extremely slutty when it comes to video… it’ll take anything no matter how bad it is. I’ve had a few bad files and when they were played in vlc i’d See a bit of pixelation whenever it hit the error and it’d keep on going. Other players would dump out/crash.

9

Now that you mention it I experienced that a lot too. VLC is pretty good in not crashing as fast as other players lol.
At least I got the file working now :slight_smile:

I’m now trying to fix the other 3 errors. A mod in the Plex Forums already pointed out a way how to fix the “unable to find profile” problem. Maybe I can fix it or maybe I have to reinstall PMS… we’ll see. And I also opened a thread for the other errors with the broken pipe etc.

10

Okay, I did some “in-depth” testing, if you can call it that, during the day.

I just accidentally deleted my WHOLE report -_- I saved the beginning of it but forgot about saving the text after a while and now it’s gone because I pressed the thumb-button on accident on the mouse after taking a sip of coffee and the whole thing is gone. Dammit. Well, let’s start again and try to recall as much as possible…

This is how I tested it:
I watched multiple movies/episodes on the Odroid C2 via Rasplex
I watched multiple movies/episodes on the ATV on the Plex “Standalone App”
I watched multiple movies/episodes on the ATV on the Infuse App linked to Plex

After losing almost all of my report due to my mistake I just tested 3 movies and 1 episode.

Odroid C2 Results:

  • Sicario 2 - 1080p, H.264, DTS-HD MA 7.1 [Direct Play]
      • time until playback: 11s, seeking: 35s, 2nd seeking attempt: 10s
  • The Office - 720p, H.264, AC3 5.1 [Direct Play]
      • time until playback: 17s, seeking: 8s
  • Equalizer - 1080p, HEVC 10-bit, AC3 5.1, 35s [Direct Play]
      • time until playback: 22s, seeking: 4.6s, 2nd seeking attempt: 6s
  • Enders Game - 1080p, H.264 10-bit, DTS-HD MA 7.1
      • time until playback: 3s, seeking: 4s, - playback problems, audio is async and picture is unclear, cause: s905 can't handle H.264 10bit well

    ATV - Plex “Standalone App” Results:

  • Sicario 2 - 1080p, H.264, DTS-HD MA 7.1 [Transcode]
      • time until playback: -, buffers all the time movie doesn't start, cause: Plex App uses ATV player which forces whole movie to be transcoded
  • The Office - 720p, H.264, AC3 5.1 [Direct Stream]
      • time until playback: 6.5s, seeking: 51.79s, 2nd seeking attempt: 13s
  • Equalizer - 1080p, HEVC 10-bit, AC3 5.1 [1080p HEVC 10bit -> 1080p H.264] [Audio: Direct Stream]
      • time until playback: PMS process autom. stopped through server
  • Enders Game - 1080p, H.264 10-bit, DTS-HD MA 7.1,Video [1080p H.264 10bit -> 1080p H.264] [Audio: DTS-HD MA 7.1 -> AC3]
      • time until playback: PMS process autom. stopped through server,

    ATV - Infuse App linked to Plex

  • Sicario 2 - 1080p, H.264, DTS-HD MA 7.1 [Direct Play]
      • time until playback: 27.8s, seeking: 20s
  • The Office - 720p, H.264, AC3 5.1 [Direct Play]
      • time until playback: 21s, seeking: - Connection reset by peer error. Playback closed after 01:18min "An error occured. An error occurred loading this content", 2nd seeking attempt: 25s
  • Equalizer - 1080p, HEVC 10-bit, AC3 5.1 [Direct Play]
      • time until playback: 17.04s - 25.77s, seeking: 17.88s,
  • (smooth playback, minor stutters but watchable) Enders Game - 1080p, H.264 10-bit, DTS-HD MA 7.1, [Direct Play]
      • time until playback: 25.58s, seeking: 31.32s,

    I didn’t list any “broken pipe” or “Connection reset by peer” errors because they appeared a lot during testing.
    Broken pipe, for example, appeared a lot right after I started/clicked a movie. Sometimes 5 times and sometimes more or less. Also during seeking or at random - there wasn’t really a pattern to it. Same with the “Connection reset by peer” - though for that error it obviously came up a lot when closing the stream or when you “interfered” manually with the stream. But the error also appeared at random without a real pattern a lot. Sometimes even appearing like 30 times one after another, even though the movie worked…

    Comparing only the amount of time it takes until the file starts then the Odroid is probably the best atm, for me. But I noticed that Rasplex can crash sometimes and can’t establish a connection to my server anymore which forces me to stop/start the PMS again on my NAS.
    Infuse Pro itself takes longer to start the file, though it is way more stable in terms of crashing and general support of files. I only had like 3 or 4 crashes in my ‘tests’. The Odroid, on the other hand, crashed or froze more often.

    I’m not entirely sure if the “slow” loading times on my ATV are because it’s only a 4th Gen or because of my NAS. Some Team Member from the Plex Forums said: “Your ATV experience will be gated by your Plex server. If it’s slow, your experience will be slow.” hinting that it is my NAS that is “bottlenecking” the speed. Which may be very possible! But if that would be the case then my Odroid C2 should be slow too or at least take more or less the same time to start the playback. If I had access to an ATV 4K I could just test it on there and then pretty much see if it’s the ATV or not. But since I don’t know anyone with an ATV 4K I’ll just stick to my Odroid for the time being. Even though I really like the interface of the Infuse Pro Plex. Though a lot still needs to be added. Just copy the Standalone Plex App of the ATV. lol. For example, being able to choose the settings for the movie before starting it etc. would be very nice. and to be able to switch to the season from the episode screen. etc. But I’m sure you guys are already aware of it and probably already implemented a lot of it into the upcoming Infuse 6.

    But I guess until then I’ll just cancel my trial and check out Infuse at a later date again. The thing is when I just wait for the release of Infuse 6 the trial time will be up and I’ll be subscribed. And I only want to subscribe when I’m sure and convinced that it is for me and worth of paying monthly so that I can have a smooth experience.

    11

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