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Apps Apple TV 4 + Plex = bliss
- Thread starter Chill2
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It should at least work for entering text into the search box in Plex when they open up the API. Not sure if there will be full Siri support for Plex though - does anyone have any insight?
Right now all Siri searching is against the catalogs on Apple's servers. I expect the first iteration of the open universal search API to require developers to maintain their catalogs on Apple's servers too.
It shouldn't be difficult to extend the functionality to searching against a local list, but I don't expect to see it for a while (if ever). I can't see a strong business case for it other than 'our customers want it', which sadly is often not a strong enough motivator for Apple.
I'm using a mini with no problems, so maybe it's a combo of that and something else.
Mac Mini is a red flag. Don't know why it was raised at all other than two people mentioned they had one. Many people having the same issue with no Mac Mini.
Why? I have 11tb of video files in Plex. With all the filters it's a snap to locate a file. If I know the name I sort of know where it is. I don't see how Siri is going to make things any better. Unless one dumps all their video in a Home Videos folder. In which case Plex is the wrong approach.
So far I only see two people here having problems and other thread it's them and some others. I meat to say OSX as possible issue rather than just mini.
ATV 4 may also be more sensitive to network issues and or servers than other clients.
To an extent, OSX may be partially to blame. Bonjour has always been flaky. Apple's implementation of DLNA has always been flaky. WOL was a challenge with Plex. I got it working when I used a mini as a player. But with the ATV I'm back to waking the server before I go into the tv room as WOL doesn't work more than it does work.
But I believe what we're seeing here is a rushed launch by Apple, TVOS that may have some bad/incorrect commands that were handed out to developers and a rushed job by developers. Fixable, yes. But that's a lot different than it will get fixed. Apple's been far more focused on emoji's and iCloud than fixing things for quite some time now.
That's why I may return my ATV. I've sort of lost confidence in Apple addressing issues quickly. And I don't feel like owning a brick.
I'm thinking of it more as an "ease of use" thing. If you have family or friends looking for a particular title on AT4 that I have on Plex I'd rather a Siri search finds the title rather than point them to a rental or purchase on iTunes.
Say I want to watch the movie Trainspotting. Just now I would go to movies, open the top bar, swipe to more, swipe down to by first letter, swipe down to T, then swipe down through the list of movies until I find it.
With Siri I could just open the top bar, swipe to search and then press the Siri button and say Trainspotting. Much quicker if you have a large library.
Trying to nail down
Trying to nail down the reproducability on this stuttering/buffering issue...
You're sure you're not encountering it?
Have you tried watching a movie on the ATV4 streaming locally (via Plex or Home Sharing)? Sometimes the issue only crops up after watching for 40-50min or more.
If so, I wonder...
Was it h264 encoded?
Was it an .mkv, mp4, .m4v?
Was the movie stored locally on your Mac, on an external HD connected to your mac, on an HD connected to an Airport, or on a NAS?
I'm streaming m4v h264 files off a USB hard drive connected to my Airport Extreme (latest model), shared through my Mac. All of that works perfectly before the ATV4, but encounters stuttering/buffering issues on the ATV4.
Trying to nail down the reproducability on this stuttering/buffering issue...
You're sure you're not encountering it?
Have you tried watching a movie on the ATV4 streaming locally (via Plex or Home Sharing)? Sometimes the issue only crops up after watching for 40-50min or more.
If so, I wonder...
Was it h264 encoded?
Was it an .mkv, mp4, .m4v?
Was the movie stored locally on your Mac, on an external HD connected to your mac, on an HD connected to an Airport, or on a NAS?
I'm streaming m4v h264 files off a USB hard drive connected to my Airport Extreme (latest model), shared through my Mac. All of that works perfectly before the ATV4, but encounters stuttering/buffering issues on the ATV4.
I'd start by plugging the drive directly into your a Mac and see if that makes a difference. I've never found plugging drives into an AE particularly reliable.
Those of us who have been streaming off these AirPort connected drives for years find them quite reliable.
We've watched hours of video. I'm streaming from an external drive attached to my Mac Mini. All h264 encoded mp4 and m4v files. I should note that both my computer and my ATV are hardwired into my modem, so wireless is out of the equation. Maybe that's it?
Edit: I've used both Plex and standard Home Sharing.
I have a similar set up to you but I also test the ATV via Ethernet and the issue was still there.
I had WOL problems using my mini before. I turned off dark wake and haven't had a problem since.
I canceled my plex pass subscription , I don't like this holding bug fixes back until you pay
But is a great app
But is a great app
I have a Mac mini and have no problems streaming
I use iflicks to make the mkv to m4v
And this way scrubbing works when you fast forward and rewind you see the image , if the video is MP4/m4v in plex
I use iflicks to make the mkv to m4v
And this way scrubbing works when you fast forward and rewind you see the image , if the video is MP4/m4v in plex
Absolutely no plex issues here. All my media seems to work as it should.
AppleTV and Synology NAS wired to router, Plex server on Macbook connected via wifi.
AppleTV and Synology NAS wired to router, Plex server on Macbook connected via wifi.
That may be my issue. MKV predominates my files. Could be the ATV does not communicate scrubbing/play/pause back to the server. I'll try some native files. If MP4 works and MKV doesn't, the ATV is essentially worthless for me. I have no intention of converting all my video.
It only takes a few seconds to make mkv m4v with iflicks ,
But they mention at the plex forum that scrubbing doesn't work for non native Apple TV format m4v MP4 , they are working on a fix
They can help you over there
https://forums.plex.tv/categories/plex-for-apple-tv
As it turns out, the shows we were having issues last night with were mp4's. Used iFlicks to convert and made absolutely no difference. Other than a change in the file type, the codec data is identical. Failure to scrub is the same. What settings are you using in iFlicks? I'm at default at the moment and I can't see any choices that are going to make a difference.
I'm confused about Plex. Do you mind telling me a little about it? What does it really do and what type of user benefits from the Plex product?