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Massive Plex buffering with AppleTV 4K and iMac


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Massive Plex buffering with AppleTV 4K and iMac
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kieran
@kk@pennytucker.social
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2020-11-14, 18:57

I've been using Plex on my iMac for a few years now.

Recently, I've started to run into a lot of buffering when trying to watch shows and movies. The show will play for a few seconds, and then buffer for a few minutes, before playing any more. Recently, it's also started buffering in the middle of shows as well.

I've got the Plex server on a 2019 3.6Ghz iMac with 16 GB of RAM, so should have plenty of horsepower. The media lives on an external SSD adn is streamed over WiFi to the Apple TV 4K. (Been thinking of trying to hardwire the Apple TV, but that would require plugging into the iMac and sharing the WiFi connection from the iMac via ethernet)

I've read all of the forum pots on Reddit, Plex forums, etc... and I can't seem to figure this out.

Anyone have any suggestions on how I can hopefully fix this?

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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2020-11-15, 10:35

I had that happen to mine recently too and I forced the AppleTV to reboot to resolve it. I think it is something with the most recent Plex.app update on the AppleTV. I'm pulling my media via NAS so I'm getting even slower read speeds than you should be.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
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kieran
@kk@pennytucker.social
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2020-11-15, 19:25

I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've tried that. It's really frustrating. Sometimes it keeps us from watching almost anything, but then today, we had one 30 second buffer and then watched 4 episodes of a show in a row with no issue.

Really just seems like a bug somewhere or some network issue, but it persists amongst different players on AppleTV. We're using Infuxe, Plex, & Catch and they all do the same thing.

No more Twitter. It's Mastodon now.
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2020-11-17, 10:41

That sounds like a server side bug then. I've encountered it a few times but it seems relatively minor in my uses. I know the Plex app crashes every time we load it on an older pre-HD AppleTV. Shame really, it is in our media room. I'm just holding out until Apple releases an upgrade.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
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kieran
@kk@pennytucker.social
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2020-11-17, 22:14

Not sure if this is was a solution or whether it just didn't happen today when watching a TV show, but here's what I've done.

I've run an ethernet cable from the AppleTV 4K to the Thunderbolt Display connected to my iMac which is sharing it's wifi connection over ethernet with the AppleTV.

No idea if that Willa cutely make any difference, but it seemed to work now.

No more Twitter. It's Mastodon now.
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kieran
@kk@pennytucker.social
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2020-11-29, 22:40

So I plugged in the ethernet cable form the Apple TV to the iMac and I haven't gotten any buffering issues since.

However, I normally run a VPN on the iMac for torrenting reasons, but when I have the VPN on the iMac, I can't get a connection on the Apple TV.

IS there a setting that would make this work? Something that I may have missed?

No more Twitter. It's Mastodon now.
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2020-11-30, 15:25

There is a method to do split-VPN that might work for what you are trying to accomplish. I don't personally trust it if there is going to be any torrent passing through that *might* not want to be noticed.
What about a switch that goes from the router to the AppleTV and another port to the iMac instead? I'm not sure of the exact setup you have but the iMac and AppleTV could be on the same wired network (with Plex working) and the iMac maintain it's VPN.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
  quote
kieran
@kk@pennytucker.social
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2020-11-30, 17:45

Hmm. Not sure how involved I want to get. Right now, I only have my torrents set to download from 12am to 6am, so if it's just me turning off my VPN on and off during those times, I can do that.

That being said, is there anyway that I can automate having an application launch and quit at the same time every day?

No more Twitter. It's Mastodon now.
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2020-12-01, 10:12

There are programs you can get that will allow scheduled application loading and quitting. They say you can use Automator but I've never gotten it to work right. Apple Scripting is an option too, but not worth my time to learn just for something this simple. You can also do bash scripts that run via cron/launch daemons. All of these other than the program you would buy are way more technical than I get the feeling you want to entertain.

The challenge with just turning off the VPN when not using it is when midnight comes around and you're still watching a show and the torrents start up you are left with them not passing through the VPN.

If you'd like I'd be happy to walk you through getting a solid setup that would allow you to accomplish the VPN on the iMac and wired AppleTV.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
  quote
kieran
@kk@pennytucker.social
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2020-12-27, 17:23

Forgot to come back to this after your post.

Definitely been working better with the ethernet.

What do I need to set up in order to get the VPN on the AppleTV working?

No more Twitter. It's Mastodon now.
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chinesebear
Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Harbin, China
 
2020-12-27, 19:47

This is an odd thing. We run a VPN all the time on our machine that we have set to stream to our Apple TV, and it works fine. Are they both on the same local network? (your Apple TV and your iMac?) I always just assumed that it was streaming entirely via the local network. You may want to reach out to your VPN provider and ask them - it may just be a VPN setting.
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2020-12-30, 21:24

There really isn't a way to make the AppleTV use a VPN unless you put your whole network or a branch of your network it is on run through the VPN. Normally you would be able to have the iMac and AppleTV on the same local network but the iMac connected via VPN and running external traffic through it. It does depend heavily on the VPN client and it's configuration though.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
  quote
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