MrMC

I am struggling here. Coincidental with the TVOS upgrade of my Apple TV 4K from 14.4 to 14.5, my MrMC is suddenly delivering very pixelated content and it sometimes freezes to the point that sometimes MrMC will just quit completely. Before the recent TVOS 14.4 to 14.5 upgrade, it *never* had the slightest hiccup on *any* content, no matter what.

FWIW... the Apple TV Plex app will play the same content with very little pixelation and it never freezes, much less quits.

I assume that there's no real problem with MrMC, else there would be reports in the forum. I've been running MrMC for years now and it's been absolutely bulletproof forever. But I'm absolutely pulling my hair out trying to figure out what's causing the problem.

Any suggestions? Do a hard reset on the Apple TV 4K?

Sounds more like a transcoding or network issue. Do you have the chance to test another player/end-device instead of the ATV? Is the ATV hard-wired or WIFI-connected?

However, I am not a PLex user. I suppose your issue emanating from Plex/transcoding or the network as others including me appear not to be having problems after the TVOS update.

I think that I'll try another media player, at least temporarily, just to see if the problem is with the ATV.

Meanwhile, the ATV has a wired Ethernet connection. Media storage is on a Samba share on a TrueNAS Server, which is also wired by ethernet. All of my content is 720p and 1080p (max). No transcoding is required. But one example of a video that horribly pixelated, then froze, then completely crashed MrMC last night is below. The ATV should have handled that file like a hot knife through warm butter, but it choked.


Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4

Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : [email protected]
Format settings : CABAC / 5 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 5 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 21 min 30 s
Bit rate : 2 110 kb/s
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.096
Stream size : 325 MiB (77%)
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709

ID : 2
Format : E-AC-3
Format/Info : Enhanced AC-3-
Commercial name : Dolby Digital Plus
Codec ID : A_EAC3
Duration : 21 min 30 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 640 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel layout : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 98.4 MiB (23%)
Language : English
Service kind : Complete Main
Default : Yes
Forced : No

It just gets weirder and weirder...

I did a Factory Reset on the Apple TV 4K. This, of course, required reinstallation of MrMC, I reinstalled MrMC, but when I went to configure its sources, it acts like it can't see the network. First I tried Media Sources \ Video \ Add Videos \ Browse \ Windows network (SMB), but it doesn't see anything. Next I manually created sources, but after creation, they *immediately* say "Error: Operation Timed Out" and "Remote Share: Couldn't connect to network server."

On the other hand, I added YouTubeTV to my ATV and it works perfectly. So it's not like the ATV has a network problem, but somehow the MrMC app is behaving like it has a network problem.

On MrMC if I go to Settings \ System Information \ Network it displays the IP address of the ATV and shows "internet: connected."

Before the reset, I was having problems described in my first post. Now, after the ATV has been factory reset, I can't get MrMC to browse the network at all. I'm sure that this is some form of user error but I have no idea what it is.

What happens if you try to connect to your SMB NAS from a Windows PC or MacBook? I have a feeling your issues arise more from your network/NAS than the ATV/MrMC app.

>>What happens if you try to connect to your SMB NAS from a Windows PC or MacBook? I have a feeling your issues arise more from your network/NAS than the ATV/MrMC app.

Every Windows PC in the house can connect to that Samba share without difficulty. Every PC can read/write/execute any file in that SMB share. The MrMC and all the Windows PCs use the same username+pw credentials to access that SMB share. I'm pretty sure that the SMB share isn't the problem. The TrueNAS server (11.3-U5) has a gigabit ethernet connection to a gigabit switch. The ATV is connect to the same switch. The ATV can stream YouTube TV, Netflix, Hulu, etc., perfectly. But MrMC isn't even browsing the network. There are other SMB servers and Windows Shares on this LAN. MrMC doesn't see *any* of them.

OK, fair points. Oh wait. Wasn't there a setting within MrMC which SMB version to use? What SMB version is your NAS providing and what is the version set in MrMC?

To be honest, I have no idea if this might cause the problem. I am using NFS on my NAS/ATV setup. Last idea: Did you verify that there are no IP conflicts in your network?

RESOLVED:

I performed extensive network tests, replaced network and hdmi cables and more. But in the end, the problem was in the files themselves. I downloaded the files to local storage on my Win10 computer, and then played them from local storage using VLC. They stuttered, pixelated and froze in the same places. The files themselves were crap (something that I never imagined).