Choppy play with Plex+Chromecast?

[Daisuke]

Running TrueNAS-12.0-U2.1 with Plex media server and Chromecast Ultra connected to a wired 1Gbit Cat6 connection. There is no transcoding and I'm streaming a low 10Mbps (1MB/s), yet the video played on my TV is jittery, is like every few seconds there are few frames missing. The audio plays properly in sync. Playing the file directly from NAS on my Mac is perfect, no jittering,

Any idea how to fix this? It is extremely annoying and quite unwatchable.

 

[winnielinnie]

Did you try disabling "Direct Stream" from the Web > Debug options of the Plex Server?

 

[Daisuke]

I tried that, it does not fix the issue. I recorded a small video to see how jumpy is the vertical movement. Look at the water dripping bowl how it shortly freezes, several times.

 

[gt2416]

Did you try using wifi, sounds like a chromecast network issue.

 

[ornias]

I just saw a video on youtube comparing plex playback on a few devices.
Safe to say the conclusion was: Chromecast sucks ;-)

 

[Daisuke]

Did you try using wifi, sounds like a chromecast network issue.

Same thing with Wifi, I don't think this is related to network but rather Plex implementation for Chromecast? I can play YouTube and Amazon Prime videos flawless, through Chromecast Ultra. No jittering.

Edit: I also tested directly Google Chrome and VLC from my Mac, everything is okay also. Pool files are mounted into Mac with an SMB share, only when I stream from the Plex app, I get issues.

 

[Daisuke]

I just saw a video on youtube comparing plex playback on a few devices.

Can you share that video please? If I stream the video from my Mac's Google Chrome or through VLC to my TV, there are no issues. IMO, it is definitely a Plex problem. Since Plex is a supported plugin, I thought I might start asking for help here.

 

[ThreeDee]

I had playback issues on some devices with .H265 encoding .. .H264 would always play fine though.

 

[Daisuke]

All my encodings are H264.

 

[winnielinnie]

What about trying the alternative stream method under Debug?


Maybe the following combination will help, and make sure to restart the Plex Server / jail after applying the options.

(It goes without saying, try also disabling Direct Play if the above method doesn't help.)

I don't have a Chromecast to test this with. I use my Plex Server (jail) with FireTV and Roku.

 

[gt2416]

I just saw a video on youtube comparing plex playback on a few devices.
Safe to say the conclusion was: Chromecast sucks ;-)

Thats not a good answer, the chromecast can play other videos fine, something is definitely wrong with plex considering he is doing a direct playback.
Can you try an other player like vlc to test ?

 

[winnielinnie]

Can you try an other player like vlc to test ?

He tried with Google Chrome and VLC (both from his Mac) and they played fine.

@TECK, after you try the above combinations (from the Debug options), is it possible to test this from your Mac running an update version of Plex Media Server? If the same file streamed from PMS (installed on Mac) plays smoothly, but has rhythmic stuttering when streamed from PMS (on TrueNAS), then at least we can more confidently assume it's something related to the PMS port/version for TrueNAS (FreeBSD).

UPDATE: While we're at it, can you stream this same exact video (from PMS on TrueNAS) to a non-Chromecast device to test whether or not this might be a combination of Truenas PMS + Chromecast? Does this same rythmic stuttering occur if you stream the video from the Plex web client (on your computer, not casting)?

 

[Daisuke]

Some update, for a moment I thought this is related to automatic quality adjustment, but is not. I attached the video filmed from my Mac (played with IINA from SMB share) and my TV (Plex) as comparison. I no jittering also when I play the movie directly on app.plex.tv site, in my Safari browser. The funny part is that occurs only in the beginning of stream, on TV or maybe my eyes are getting used to? But is always at the exact same sequence, as you can see. I encode all my videos with Handbrake, so all settings are identical for all movies.

Now that I payed close attention, the important part is the jittering does not occur always, some videos have it, some don't? Streaming from Google Chrome browser on my TV with Cast functionality has one small jitter. While playing from my Mac has no jitters at all.

@winnielinnie I understand what you are proposing but even if I choose to install the Mac Plex release and test it, I will never use it, that is why I built my NAS. I know your logic makes a lot of sense but I prefer not to go this route, spend an hour configure everything just to uninstall it after, regardless the result. This important part is that I get jittering on my TV, with current setup. :)

 

[winnielinnie]

What's the difference in setup between TV.MOV and CHROME.MOV?

CHROME.MOV is when you use "Cast to Device" (TV) from the Plexcast feature?

Then what is TV.MOV?

 

[Daisuke]

CHROME - Video casted from a Google Chrome tab on my TV, with Chromecast
MAC - Video played from a mounted Samba share on my Mac, with IINA
TV - Video played from NAS on my TV, through official Plex plugin with Chromecast

One thing is sure, I have ZERO issues with Chromecast while using it with anything else, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, files casted from my Mac.

 

[winnielinnie]

CHROME - Video casted from a Google Chrome tab on my TV, with Chromecast

This one looks fine, save for the isolated stutter at the very beginning.

TV - Video played from NAS on my TV, through official Plex plugin with Chromecast

This one has the "rhythmic stuttering".

Now I'm thinking it's specific to Plexcast.

Are you saying for the CHROME.MOV sample, you opened up your Plex Server management GUI, navigated to a video, and then used the Google Chrome menu to cast it, rather than Plex's built-in "Plexcast"?

 

[winnielinnie]

I tried my best to re-create the rhythmic stuttering, but I'm unable to.

I even installed a third-party app on my FireTV that accepts Chromecast (and AirPlay). I went to my Plex server GUI from a Google Chrome window, clicked the Plexcast icon (per their official guide), and selected my FireTV. It immediately started to cast the video to the FireTV, and it was buttery smooth, at 1080p. (And this is with a third-party app!)

The only thing I could not test is doing this with an actual Chromecast device.

 

[Jdtaylor311]

Maybe try this out. Note that the fix involves subscribing to Plex Pass to see the checkbox option.

Always Transcoding HDR on Chromecast Ultra

All of this worked so something broke somewhere and I’ve spent at least 3 weeks trying to fix it without luck so I think it’s time to present my problem here. The issue is that Plex is trying to transcode all 4K HDR x265 video no matter what I try. If it’s standard 4K without HDR then it direct...

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