16 replies to this topic

[b0redom]

Hi All,
Bit of an add one, so I hope someone can help. I have Plex connected to my TV through an A/V amp which also handles 5.1 sound via optical for me. When I try and watch a movie through Plex since putting the amp in place, I get the occasional stutter. It almost seems like it's not caching enough. In under a second it starts playing again from where it left off.

I have 1000MBit network from a Linux fileserver to my MacMini.
I have also played back the MKV with no problems from my iMac which is connected to the same switch.
I have a T7600 chip in the MacMini, so I know it's more than capable of playing this stuff back.
Looking at the logs when the problem occurs I see lots and lots of:

"18:31:53 T:3028705280 M: 13107200 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(audio)::Get - retrieved last data packet of queue"

Any idea of what I should do to troubleshoot further? Again, this ONLY seems to happen now I'm connected via optical + 5.1. I don't recall it happening when the MacMini was connected direct to the TV via stereo.

Cheers....

[Atrus]

Hi All,
Bit of an add one, so I hope someone can help. I have Plex connected to my TV through an A/V amp which also handles 5.1 sound via optical for me. When I try and watch a movie through Plex since putting the amp in place, I get the occasional stutter. It almost seems like it's not caching enough. In under a second it starts playing again from where it left off.

I have 1000MBit network from a Linux fileserver to my MacMini.
I have also played back the MKV with no problems from my iMac which is connected to the same switch.
I have a T7600 chip in the MacMini, so I know it's more than capable of playing this stuff back.
Looking at the logs when the problem occurs I see lots and lots of:

"18:31:53 T:3028705280 M: 13107200 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(audio)::Get - retrieved last data packet of queue"

Any idea of what I should do to troubleshoot further? Again, this ONLY seems to happen now I'm connected via optical + 5.1. I don't recall it happening when the MacMini was connected direct to the TV via stereo.

Cheers....

I now there are some 5.1-improvements in 0.8.3 which will be released shortly (have no date, but very soon). If I were you I would wait until it is released before looking into it further.

[b0redom]

I now there are some 5.1-improvements in 0.8.3 which will be released shortly (have no date, but very soon). If I were you I would wait until it is released before looking into it further.

Cool thanks for that. Awaiting 0.8.3 with baited breath!

[b0redom]

Hi All,
Sadly the microstuttering has not been fixed by 0.8.3. Both 1080p rips and 720p rips exhibit the problem. Movies can play fine for minutes at a time then there'll be a microstutter, then everything will be fine again.

There is nothing in the logs.
I've upgraded my MacMini with a 2.4gGz chip
It's connected to a fast Linux powered RAID-5 array via gigabit ethernet over NFS.
I've set a 20 second cache in Plex

Any suggestions on how I should go about troubleshooting?

Cheers...

b0redom

[jayman978]

Try adjusting the H.264 Speed Boost settings in Preferences -> Videos -> Player.

[b0redom]

Try adjusting the H.264 Speed Boost settings in Preferences -> Videos -> Player.

Thanks for the quick feedback. I've tried that at the max setting, but still no joy. Any other ideas?

Is there some logging I can enable in Plex to show whether it's network / CPU / IO bound etc? I have a new 13" unibody Macbook Pro I can connect up. That should be more than powerful enough to play BluRay rips right?

Cheers....

[poofyhairguy]

Thanks for the quick feedback. I've tried that at the max setting, but still no joy. Any other ideas?

Is there some logging I can enable in Plex to show whether it's network / CPU / IO bound etc? I have a new 13" unibody Macbook Pro I can connect up. That should be more than powerful enough to play BluRay rips right?

Cheers....

Local copy plays fine? You totally ruled out the mini?

[b0redom]

Local copy plays fine? You totally ruled out the mini?

Not totally ruled out. I'll give that a go too.

Very occasionally I get these in the logs:

00:00:03 T:3289378816 M:1567219712 WARNING: Decode - avcodec_decode_video didn't consume the full packet. size: 50876, consumed: 0
00:00:03 T:3289378816 M:1567219712 WARNING: Decode - avcodec_decode_video didn't consume the full packet. size: 55203, consumed: 0
00:00:03 T:3289378816 M:1567219712 WARNING: Decode - avcodec_decode_video didn't consume the full packet. size: 39487, consumed: 0
00:00:03 T:3289378816 M:1567260672 WARNING: Decode - avcodec_decode_video didn't consume the full packet. size: 51114, consumed: 0
00:00:04 T:3289378816 M:1567375360 WARNING: Decode - avcodec_decode_video didn't consume the full packet. size: 79609, consumed: 0
00:00:04 T:3289378816 M:1567612928 WARNING: Decode - avcodec_decode_video didn't consume the full packet. size: 55973, consumed: 0

but they're not always as the same time as the jitters. Any idea what these relate to?

[b0redom]

Local copy seems just as bad.

Maybe the Macbook Pro will be better.....

[b0redom]

Attempting to play back an mt2s file from my MacBook Pro (unfortunately a new one with Snow Leopard) and it bombs out almost immediately. Playback through VLC on the Macmini seems to skip frames too though, so I suspect an upgrade will be required, unless anyone can give me any idea how to turn on verbose debugging so I can see why it's skipping?

[Atrus]

Set h264 speed boost to off when making these tests. Just dont use that feature =)

[b0redom]

Set h264 speed boost to off when making these tests. Just dont use that feature =)

Tried that too, but no joy. Guess an upgrade is the way forward....

[b0redom]

Ok more updates. I was considering a new MacMini, or even a Hackintosh, but I saw that you can hit 'i' for information about dropped frames. I am not getting any dropped frames at all when the stuttering occurs. I noticed that if I passed the video signal directly to the TV via D-SUB and the sound via the amp as usual the picture stutters, but the sound doesn't. As opposed to both when the amp does both (via DVI->HDMI + Optical).

I tried forcing the refresh to 50Hz (it was set to 60Hz) and that doesn't seem to have made a difference.

Can anyone suggest anything else?

[WindDoc]

Take the AV receiver out of the loop for the video switching (HDMI). Does the problem go away? I wonder if the receiver's HDMI switching circuitry is causing the blip. Maybe all that's needed is a cheap HDMI switcher.

[slover1011]

Ok more updates. I was considering a new MacMini, or even a Hackintosh, but I saw that you can hit 'i' for information about dropped frames. I am not getting any dropped frames at all when the stuttering occurs. I noticed that if I passed the video signal directly to the TV via D-SUB and the sound via the amp as usual the picture stutters, but the sound doesn't. As opposed to both when the amp does both (via DVI->HDMI + Optical).

I tried forcing the refresh to 50Hz (it was set to 60Hz) and that doesn't seem to have made a difference.

Can anyone suggest anything else?

One other thing that could help is to set your Mac output to 24p (this works for me). I was having lots of AV sync issues and some stuttering when watching my movies (which are 23.976 fps) but my output was 60 Hz 1080p. I went into my mini-display settings and switched this to 24p and my sync and stutter issues go away. I'm running thru a DVDO scaler and have a Sharp LCD (both which handle 24p) this would not be a solution if your TV can't handle 24p input.

[b0redom]

One other thing that could help is to set your Mac output to 24p (this works for me). I was having lots of AV sync issues and some stuttering when watching my movies (which are 23.976 fps) but my output was 60 Hz 1080p. I went into my mini-display settings and switched this to 24p and my sync and stutter issues go away. I'm running thru a DVDO scaler and have a Sharp LCD (both which handle 24p) this would not be a solution if your TV can't handle 24p input.

Yeah, my TV doesn't handle 24p. I'm considering an upgrade to an LED backlit one, but that's another story.....

[b0redom]

Take the AV receiver out of the loop for the video switching (HDMI).

I tried connecting the Macmini via D-sub, but no joy. Interestingly the sound works fine through the amp then, but the picture suffers from the occasional stutter.