Guidance on how to get movies to stop freezing.

Posted by currentlylive

Both times I’ve watched a movie it seems to start having a fit at some point and freeze. I’m watching on a Nvidia shield using the Wholphin client, the movies are 4k and being direct played. When I try the Jellyfin client it does the same or just fails and doesn’t play at all.

4 replies

Chris wrote:

That's not something you broke — 4K direct play is heavy, and a freeze partway through usually means the connection between the Shield and the server can't keep up with the bitrate for a few seconds. Quick check: is the Shield on WiFi or wired? WiFi is the most common culprit here. Also, right after it freezes next time, run docker logs sb-jellyfin-media --tail 50 over SSH and paste what's at the bottom — that'll show whether Jellyfin is throwing an error or just waiting on data.

Chris wrote:

Quick follow-up: are you able to test whether the Shield is on WiFi or wired, and grab those Jellyfin logs when it freezes next? That'll let me figure out if it's just bandwidth or something deeper. Reply here once you have those and we'll get the freezing sorted.

currentlylive wrote:

I can note that the shield is a wired connection. I will grab the logs the next chance I get!

Chris wrote:

Good to know it's wired -- that rules out the most common cause, which is WiFi struggling to keep up with the heavy 4K bitrate, so this is worth pinning down properly. One thing that'll help while you grab those logs: does it freeze on every 4K movie, or only certain ones, and roughly the same spot each time? If it's just some files, that usually points at those specific downloads rather than anything on your end. Grab the logs next time it freezes and we'll get it sorted.