Stuttering video on tvOS 17

Channels Apple TV
#1

Channels has been working very well for a long time for me. I've recently been seeing video where it stutters and then sometimes moves "quickly" to catch up. Audio seems to be fine throughout. I suspected that hosting channels DVR on my aging synology NAS might be the issue, but I've just moved it to a dedicated machine (Ubuntu, i3 2 cores, 16GB RAM) and while the guide is faster to load, the video is still affected. The stuttering seems to happen on both "live" viewing (via HDHomeRun) and recordings.

The clients are 4th Gen Apple TV (not 4k) and have recently been upgraded to tvOS 17 - is it possible this is the cause? The Apple TVs are connected via GB ethernet to the server, the storage and the HDHomeRun. The stats are showing 100% signal for HDHomeRun so I don't think it's a signal issue.

Are there any steps I can take to work out the cause?

Thanks

Andrew

#2

I am noticing this on my non-4K AppleTV as well. Thought it was just because it's older but it might be iOS 17 related now that you mention it. Things just aren't as snappy as they used to be with older iOS versions.

#3

Actually, that could very well be the issue. Chances are that the signal is too strong; try adding a splitter/attenuator between the antenna and the HDHR. A signal between 80 and 95 is usually far better than 100.

HDHR tuners do not do well when the signal is too strong/overpowered. The stats will simply say "100", even though it is actually higher.

#4

That's interesting. Nothing has changed on the aerial side for a while which is partly why I'd discounted that. I'll try an attenuator and see if that makes a difference. I did recently retune the HDHomeRun but that was because I'd already been having trouble with the video.

#5

It’s possible it’s just tvOS 17. Every year we deal with performance issues on Apple TVs.

Apple tends to deliver tvOS major releases really sloppy. Things usually clean up by .1 or .2 later in the year.

Don’t forget that OTA broadcasts are Mpeg-2 and have to be decoded in CPU, unlike any other streaming app you can download, which uses the GPU to decode video. So, any performance deficiencies from sloppiness in the major update definitely impacts things.

And it goes without saying that the 8 year old Apple TV HD feels these effects the most.

#6

I'm not having a stuttering video problem with iOS 17, but I'm also on 4K versions (1st and 2nd releases), so there is a difference there. I wouldn't be surprised if iOS 17 is taking more resources so the non-4K ATV may not be able to handle it.

1 Like
#7

Yeah my 2021 4k ATV is fine with tvos 17.

#8

3rd gen 4k, just factory reset because i was having issues with surround being sent as stereo PCM.

i see this and also saw it before the reset. seems to only be OTA channels. HDhomerun app works fine, plex live tv works, just channels. i often have to press rewind once to go a few seconds back and it gives the buffer enough breathing room for a while. comes back though.

EDIT: i just realized as i'm sitting in another room listening to the TV, this OTA channel just froze for like an hour and then randomly resumed. never seen stuff like this til tvos17 but i've only been using channels a little over 2 months.

EDIT 2: now it's a still image with audio playing :face_with_monocle:

1 Like
#9

still an issue for myself, latest tvOS and channels running. HDHR app works fine on my LG and PC, but channels gets stuck in state where it keeps trying to catch up to the buffer, causing skipping multiple times a second. if you rewind a second or two and give it some breathing room, it's fine. it's not a reception issue as the skipping doesn't happen for the same content when watching a recording or scrubbing back.

i use plex live tv on two other tvs that i didn't want to get ATVs for. they never exhibit this behavior. looks to be channels specific. i also tested plex live tv on ATV previously and never saw this. i'd say it happens 5-10 times a day if i keep the TV on OTA channels.

i'll try and get a video.

EDIT: didn't take long channels-buffer

seems to also be only the audio. i'm using the experimental audio driver to fix the siri weirdness but i don't even use it.

1 Like
#10

so i've done about all the testing i can for this. i tried many different config settings on apple tv the past two weeks but nothing has fixed this. i checked signal strength when the issue occurs and it's fine and not too high.

final test was using plex live tv on this ATV for a few days and it didn't occur once, vs multiple daily occurrences on channels. and again, it doesn't happen on OTA recordings or scrubbing back to replay the same thing again. only viewing live OTA in channels. so it may be an ATV issue, but it's not an issue in plex. it's an ATV channels issue.

but alas, i am done getting so into these issues as the devs are very unresponsive. i'm doing a ton testing, posting videos of issues, checking every possible posted 'solution' i can and providing information they should be paying QA for. i'm done beta testing this stuff. yesterday it was some issue with metadata for a show where it didn't like the fact i deleted it and wouldn't add it back until i deleted and re-added the whole show. plex isn't my favorite but it just works, channels has tons of jank. i can taste the dev hubris when i read their posts.

i'm labeling this a channels DVR issue :wink:

#11

So i can definitely tell you it isnt a channels dvr issue. I have 4 ATV's and all 4 play live HDHR flawlessly

So it is likely environmental. How is your network architected. Is your HDHR, ATV's, and channels server hard wired? I know that plex works fine. For this troubleshooting lets not worry about that. Channels uses a different video player than plex and its not apples to apples.

#12

I have had a very similar issue for the past few weeks. Latest AppleTV 4K with a Mac Studio running server. Don’t know when the issue began, but seems to happen frequently now when playing back OTA recordings. All devices are wired ethernet. Everything has been rebooted, but issues persist.

#13

If you see stuttering, please force quit the app, start it again, and immediately play the same content again, and see if it still stutters.

Please report back your findings.

#14

I’ve done this numerous times and it makes no difference for me.

1 Like
#15

Not sure if this will help anyone, but if I have my Apple TV set to 4K Dolby Vision under video settings I would get stuttering/frame drops.

Changed to 4K SDR and it fixed it for me.

#16

A post was split to a new topic: Issues with Sofabaton Remote on tvOS 17

#17

Looks like there are a number of topics related to similar problems of buffering with iOS and playback in other posts. My issues with buffering seem resolved, but a couple of changes have now been made on my setup, so it's unclear which might be responsible for resolution. Playback on latest AppleTV 4K model is near instantaneous with no buffering issues.

  1. Drive utilized to store recordings (4TB usb connected to machine running channels server) was quite full - > 90% utilization. Switched primary recording to a fresh drive and setup the old one as a 'storage path' under General settings to playback older recordings.
  2. TVOS now updated to 17.2.

Other notes: I didn't make any changes to network equipment or settings in the time period before the issue emerged. I expect that the usb drive is the likely culprit, but look forward to hearing about whether this is a possible cause for others.

#18

I am seeing stuttering on all my Channels recordings - A1625 32 GB AppleTV running 17.2

This AppleTV is at a remote location. Same global settings for all remote clients (2 mbps encode).

Incidentally, connecting via a phone on wifi & airplaying to the AppleTV plays with no issue.

It is definitely some AppleTV issue, as a second "identical" AppleTV @ the same location plays the same files with no issues.

Interestingly, live TV does not exhibit the same behavior - no stutter, no issue. It is only on recordings.

#19

Just to check a couple of things. Make sure that you are running your tv in 4K SDR and not HDR. match frame rate and content turned on. Make sure you are NOT running in 4:4:4 as well.

On your tv turn off all "assist" features like smoothing, enhancement, etc. If it assits you then you dont want it.

I almost returned appletv when i first purchased it. Changed these settings and everything was great.

#20

Nah, it is not a 4k AppleTV.

Live TV working but recorded not is the interesting part (not sure whether live respects the same client settings or not)