Stuttering playback on Apple TV (Windows Server 2019)

@Macnbaish Appreciate the suggestion but the Devs have asked me to submit logs via the web portal in the past for a different playback problem while the issue was occurring on the player/client. If they need logs from the directly from the Apple TV client, I would be happy to provide but will await their request.

There are no errors in the server logs.

Please submit diagnostic logs from the Apple TV after you've seen the issue so we can see if the issue is on the client or server.

Issue occurred within last 5 min. Diagnostics from the Apple TV uploaded.

I was also on server 2019, that will be the issue. The devs will be useless on this again. Try installing on a Mac or Linux box and that will solve the issue.

@eric Is the issue on the client or the server?

Can you please submit Diagnostics from the DVR and then go to http://[dvr-ip]:8089/log and email the results to support@getchannels.com?

There's something odd going on with your DVR that is preventing the diagnostics from being submitted from the DVR that we haven't ever seen before.

Sent.

Adding a data point that I believe this started within the last 6-8 weeks as I've been running the DVR on Windows Server 2016 since April but this seems to be a relatively new issue. Also, it only happens on the Apple TV client (my Shield plays recordings fine) so I strongly suspect it is a client side issue. Did you see any issues in the logs I sent?

It sounds like there is some bad interaction between the networking drivers in Windows Server 2019 and the networking drivers in tvOS 13. I guess neither Apple nor Microsoft probably tests this combination much.

I believe that @Danny0239 was running in a Windows VM. Are you doing the same?

No, I am not running on a VM.

I am saying that everything was running fine until 6-8 weeks ago. I was on Server 2016 at that time and did a clean reinstall of 2019 hoping to resolve the issue.

It sounds like something in the DVR or client changed around that time. Why would the same recording play fine on the Shield but stutter on the Apple TV?

I see so the issue started on Windows 2016. That's interesting.

Indeed. What do the logs show?

Now that we've fixed the issue that was causing your DVR to not send diagnostics properly, can you please send Diagnostics from the Apple TV the next time this happens?

Based on the logs last time, it appeared that the issue was due to the data not getting from the DVR to the client fast enough, which is generally an issue with the network or with the resources on the DVR server (CPU, Disk IO).

Once we have another diagnostic from the Apple TV it may give us more pointers (or it will just make us think it's a resource issue on the DVR).

Diagnostics from Apple TV just uploaded.

As a reminder, the issue only presents on the Apple TV. I have played a recording on the ATV and the Shield simultaneously and the slow motion only happens on the ATV. Also all performance counters on the server indicate very light usage.

@eric I uploaded 2 sets of logs from 2 different Apple TVs. Any more thoughts on identifying the root cause?

Is playback stuttering or stalling completely?

The logs show a similar issue as others had reported, where video data basically runs out because no more is being received from the DVR server.

It plays in slow motion and if I let it go long enough, eventually it will resume normal playback.

Have you run a speed test between the Apple TV and DVR already?

Yes.

Speedtest

Download
987.54 Mbit/s

Latency
3.03 ms

Jitter
0.44 ms

@tmm1 Since we have multiple users reporting the issue, is there any testing in your lab that you can do using Windows Server 2019 and an Apple TV? Microsoft offers Windows Server 2019 available for testing purposes.