Hey experts, are you ready for this challenge???
Hi you Plex guru's and experts, I have a nice challenge for you! B) For weeks I'm digging through the forums to see if there is a similar issue, but now I decided to post the question, since I think I have tried all the possible solutions.
The issue:
I see a lot of buffering when playing MKV files (X264, 720P, 1080P) but also Video_TS. Strangely enough, AVI-files don't seem to have this issue (EDIT: AVI-files are also buffering, but not as bad as MKV files). The first few minutes are fine, then the buffering and pausing begins and occurs every 10-20 secs. The video and audio freezes up and after 10-15 secs it starts playing again. When watching multiple episodes of series of 25 minutes or so, buffering starts at the end of the first episode and continues the next episodes. These issues do not occur when I watch video in iOS over WiFi.
The question:
Does anyone have any ideas how to fix this, since I am out of options. Or is anyone willing to do another step by step breakdown of possible causes, since I am a bit lost tinkering with this. Tell me what Logs to post or video info to post that could be of any help.
Many thanks in advance!
Marco
The setup:
Mac Mini mid 2010, 2.66Ghz Intel C2D, 4 GB Ram.
OSX: version 10.8.2 (Mountain Lion)
Plex Media Server: 0.9.6.9.240-8fd9c6a
Plex Media Client: 0.9.5.4
Both Plex apps are on this machine
TV: Sony EX1, same as before the issues started, connected with HDMI
Audio: optical (digital) audio output from Mini to TV
The past:
Up until a June/July 2012, this all worked fine, even with larger files. A few years ago I've had this setup on a 2007 Macbook and 1080p ran smoothly, so I don't think it's hardware.
I have the feeling things started when I upgraded to Lion, but I cannot be sure, I cannot remember anymore when exactly I upgraded, but somewhere around then.
I had these issues also in a previous version of Plex (with the previous PMC desktop icon) and previous PMS version.
Since I thought it was something that could be fixed with the upgrade to Plex recent version, I did so, but this didn't fix the issue.
I read that Mountain Lion upgrade fixed a lot of things, I recently upgrades that as well, but still buffering issues remains.
In the settings of PMC there is no Hardware acceleration enabled. I set the screensaver to "Black" and not "Dim", but still no results. I've tried different buffer sizes but no result. I've tried another audio output (HDMI) but no result.