Any Apple TV HD users (first ATV with swipe pad)? Stuttering

Channels Apple TV
#1

I'm trying to troubleshoot stuttering playback that only happens on my oldest Apple TV, which is the Apple TV HD (the first one with the remote with the swipe pad, from 2015). I'll call that the "treadmill ATV" for ease of reference (that's where it's located). When I play back a movie recorded from an HDMI Encoder at 1080p, the treadmill ATV stutters.

Some data points:

  • another slightly newer Apple TV (the first 4K) has zero stuttering issues for me, and my iPhone is fine, too
  • the treadmill ATV plays live TV fine from all sources, including from the HDMI Encoder (and from the same channel that originated stuttering recordings)
  • the treadmill ATV plays sources recorded at 720p fine
  • I've tried lowering the bitrate in the Channels settings on the the treadmill ATV, with no luck, and also tried switching from "Direct" to "Stream" (I think those were the terms), with no luck

Is that Apple TV HD just too underpowered to handle a 1080p recorded video, even though it plays back live TV fine? Or do I have another issue going on? Thanks for any help.

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Purpose of "videos" under library for home photos and videos?
#2

Has it always done this, or just started recently?

Is this ethernet WIRED or on your Wifi? IF on Wifi, it would suggest a signal bandwidth issue. Try it wired and see what happens.

IF presently ethernet wired and doing this, disconnect the ethernet cable, and try it via Wifi and see what happens.

You could also go into Channels 'Settings' on that device, and change the 'Playback Quality' to a lower choice, and see what happens.

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#3

Thank you. So now of course when I have time to try some of your suggestions, the treadmill ATV seems to be playing all content just fine (even the content that had trouble yesterday). It is a wired Ethernet connection, so it wasn’t WiFi interference. Very puzzling.

#4

Maybe it just needed a reboot, and did that itself.

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#5

These things are very difficult to diagnose because of all the different variables (especially with the HDMI Encoder method, as it involves the encoder, the streaming stick, the server, and the client), but now I'm wondering if this had to do with the H.264 settings on the encoder. I did notice more stuttering on the treadmill Apple TV HD after my last post, so I dug into my encoder settings. I had set the H.264 profile to "High," which, according to info I could find online, doesn't always play well with older devices. I set it to "Main" and so far, at least, my streams have been flawless.

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