Problems with Plex & Snow Leopard? This could help

I was having a recent issue with my video TS folders (DVD rips) freezing or locking on my after about 5 seconds of playing. I had tried removing the source folder and reinstalling it, but that didn't work. Increasing the cache size didn't work either.

A user on the plex forum did post a solution which, for me, and many others, does work.

If you're having Plex issues, I would definitely try this. Click here to read the whole post (which is now a sticky on the site) or just read here for the simple, but effective, solution. I have no idea how he figured this out, but hey, works for me!

BY DannyV45

Posted 01 September 2009 - 04:25 PM

I was having audio output problems (No audio) with 5.1 AC-3 audio HD media as well as video freezing soon after starting the movie with snow leopard. I believe this to be a buffering problem because I have buffering set for 3 seconds and thats about the time it takes to freeze.

I found a work around that works perfectly. I've now sampled about 40 HD movies and have not had another audio or video lockup problem.

From OSX's application menu go into "utilities/audio midi setup" and in the left pane set the default output to "aggregate device" (If Aggregate device does not exist click the "+" sign to create it) open the drop down menu under aggregate device and highlight "built in output" then set the "Built in output" source located to the right to "digital output" and set "Format" to 48,000 2ch-24bit then exit audio midi setup.

Note: I know your thinking why set it to "48000 2ch-24bit" and not "encoded digital audio". This is because setting it to "encoded digital audio" crashes plex. This setting will still pass the 5.1 digital audio and will also pass films that are 2 channel stereo.

then

Go into plex and in system/audio setup set output device to "aggregate device" then set "Digital output support" To "force digital" then Shut off "normilize film volume". Thats it your done.


Now what happens is the movie will start and there will be no sound for about 3 seconds (could be longer if you are buffering at a higher rate). after the movie buffers then the audio will start to play in 5.1 digital (or 2 channel stereo if encoded that way).

Here are some of my own observations that helped me resolved the problem:

I have a yamaha 7.1 receiver that has status lights for audio mode that show either stereo (2 speaker lamps that light up) or 5.1 (5 speaker lamps that light up). When you have this problem theres no audio and no speaker lamps light up when the movie starts to play and the video plays slowly and studders (Because its buffering) then about 3-5 seconds later the movie will freeze.

When you apply the work around you will then notice when playing a 5.1 audio movie that the receiver status lights will first light up stereo (2 speaker lights lit) then after 3 -5 seconds (of buffering) it will light 5.1 (5 speaker lights lit) and you will here the audio.

I'm pretty sure this problem has something to do with a buffering issue within plex.

Hope this helps.

From the boys over at Plex - Snow Leopard & the Remote

Snow Leopard thaws to the Apple Remote, thanks to Remote Buddy Author

from Plex by elan

One of our biggest disappointments with Snow Leopard was the fact that third party support for the Apple Remote was changed (or broken), and applications like Plex, EyeTV and VLC were on the receiving end. Apart from one person who posted “Plex works perfectly on Snow Leopard for me!” (who either used the keyboard exclusively, or suffered from extreme overoptimism) our forums and twittersphere filled with complaints about the new behavior, which rendered the Apple Remote practically unusable for Plex.

Our friend Evan Schoenberg looked into the issue, and ended up filing a bug with Apple, who replied “this is a known issue, which is currently being investigated by engineering“. We had high hopes for 10.6.1, but unfortunately it didn’t help. There are rumors that 10.6.2 may contain a fix, but also rumors that the change in behavior was intentional.

Over the months, we’ve also gotten to know Felix Schwarz, the author of Remote Buddy, the popular and powerful remote control solution for the Mac. He has been extremely helpful to us, reviewing our remote code, suggesting improvements, and sending us sample code. He is, without a doubt, the foremost expert on the Apple Remote outside of Apple.

After investigating the problem, he decided a few weeks ago to provide a solution himself, in the form of a free alternative driver for the IR receiver which would provide reliable exclusive access to the Apple Remote across Leopard and Snow Leopard. In addition, he’s made available an Objective-C class which makes adding Apple Remote support to an application trivially simple.

The driver itself comes in the form of a preference pane, easy to install from the web site. Once installed, you’ll be able to use Plex perfectly in Snow Leopard with the Apple Remote, with no annoying loss of exclusive access that you may have observed under Leopard.

I can’t emphasis how great this development is, and how grateful we should all be to Felix. Please consider purchasing Remote Buddy, at around $30 it’s a great deal and an extremely powerful solution for those who like to customize the way the Apple Remote works with their Mac.

We are currently testing the integration of Felix’s code into Plex (many thanks to Evan for working on this!), and this is one of the reasons why 0.8.3 is taking a bit longer than expected.

Apple releases new great products - and the mac mini server?

With today's announcements of the new iMac lineup (official Apple site here), the really, really cool looking magic mouse and other smaller items, they also announced new mac minis, including the new "mightier" mac mini server which comes bundled with OS X Server software for $999.

I think probably the regular mini is just fine for the HTPC, but, since this blog does focus on the mini, I figured it is good to put up the news related to it.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog has put up a good article as to why you might be interested in this new mini server which you can read here.

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The Plex Survey

The Plex team has put a survey to get to know the users. It is pretty quick and painless and will definitely help make Plex an even better system. If you have a minute, click here to take the survey.

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A new display port to HDMI

Several sources reported this new connector, and this is a repost from TUAW -

Kanex brings digital audio into a Display Port to HDMI adapter

by Michael Rose (RSS feed) on Oct 3rd 2009 at 12:30PM

When we published our "Ultimate Mac mini Home Theater" guide in August, I drooled along with everyone else at the idea of supercharging my HDTV with a mini for movie and music playback. Something nagged at me, though, as I looked over the options for going from the mini's video-out ports (the current model sports both DVI and Display Port) to the HDMI standard connector that most TVs expect nowadays... how to get that digital audio signal onto the HDMI link, and avoid a second set of cables to handle sound? It seemed less than graceful.

If you want to skip over a clunky external converter box like this one, current minis and other Macs featuring the Mini Display Port connector now have a new option for HDMI; Kanex's two audio-included connectors can put the sound onto the HDMI link where it belongs.

Kanex is selling two models of the connector (both are on extremely limited availability right now, the company says). The $60 Digital Audio version includes a TOSLINK optical connector for premium quality sound, and the USB Audio version delivers analog audio for $50. Both let you put all your eggs in the HDMI basket and clear your cable clutter, while simplifying your TV remote input dance as you try to get the audio and video sorted.

We're hoping to get our hands on one of these units soon and we'll let you know how it performs.