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Mac mini M4 video playback freezes

H

hooch88

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 5, 2025
12
2
On my Mac mini M4 video playback over HDMI freezes periodically up to 10 sec and then resumes by itself (most of the times). This is happening on VLC and Kodi. CPU load is around 20% during playback, plenty of memory, only Safary in the background. All available OS updates applied.
Is this a known issue, any solutions?
 
hooch88 said:
On my Mac mini M4 video playback over HDMI freezes periodically up to 10 sec and then resumes by itself (most of the times). This is happening on VLC and Kodi. CPU load is around 20% during playback, plenty of memory, only Safary in the background. All available OS updates applied.
Is this a known issue, any solutions?
Click to expand...
Is this streaming over your WiFi network?

I never have this problem with Infuse, on wired Ethernet.
 
EugW said:
Nonetheless it may be worth trying to play one of the files from the built-in SSD.
Click to expand...
I can try that, but that would defeat the purpose of Mac Mini for me. If there's a problem with USB ports on Mac Mini M4 getting over-saturated or whatever then I don't want to own it.
 
hooch88 said:
I can try that, but that would defeat the purpose of Mac Mini for me. If there's a problem with USB ports on Mac Mini M4 getting over-saturated or whatever then I don't want to own it.
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Oversaturation is not the problem. I get over 3000 MB/s with USB 4 and over 900 MB/s with USB 3. It could be something like an incompatibility with that drive.

BTW, with external SSDs (and hard drives) I stick to APFS whenever possible. ExFAT can sometimes be buggy on macOS, and FAT32 is limited to 4 GB files.
 
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EugW said:
Oversaturation is not the problem. I get over 3000 MB/s with USB 4 and over 900 MB/s with USB 3. It could be something like an incompatibility with that drive.

BTW, with external SSDs (and hard drives) I stick to APFS whenever possible. ExFAT can sometimes be buggy on macOS, and FAT32 is limited to 4 GB files.
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I have another Mac Mini M2 Pro, and Macbook Air M4 - no issues of such kind with any file system. I suspect the cheapest versions of M4 which I have might have problematic hardware.
 
hooch88 said:
I have another Mac Mini M2 Pro, and Macbook Air M4 - no issues of such kind with any file system. I suspect the cheapest versions of M4 which I have might have problematic hardware.
Click to expand...
It doesn't on mine. Like I said, I have the M4 (non-Pro) Mac mini as well, with no such problem. In fact, off-hand I haven't heard of anyone else in this forum with your specific problem.
 
EugW said:
It doesn't on mine. Like I said, I have the M4 (non-Pro) Mac mini as well, with no such problem. In fact, off-hand I haven't heard of anyone else in this forum with your specific problem.
Click to expand...
Yours is 2024 Mac Mini M4 24 GB, different cost, different hardware. Mine is 16Gb. It's a well known problem actually, plenty of similar issues reported on forums for other models, but not on M4, probably because M4 is relatively new.

If it's just a driver issue, then I hope Apple is going to fix it, but I'm not keeping this one, unless I can find a fix now.
 
hooch88 said:
Yours is 2024 Mac Mini M4 24 GB, different cost, different hardware. Mine is 16Gb. It's a well known problem actually, plenty of similar issues reported on forums for other models, but not on M4, probably because M4 is relatively new.

If it's just a driver issue, then I hope Apple is going to fix it, but I'm not keeping this one, unless I can find a fix now.
Click to expand...
Link? I’ve never seen this specific issue reported for the various Apple Silicon Mac minis. BTW, a friend has the 16 GB M4 and he doesn’t have this issue either. However, like me he uses Infuse.
 
OP: I'd play process of elimination to figure out exactly what is the problem. Too many variables to know from what is described so far.

Can you see this happen with a single video? Will it consistently stutter in the same spot if you play it over and over? If so, try playing it with other players such as the native QuickTime app. If it consistently stutters, you'll rule out a possible Kodi & VLC apps issue. The "works with Linux laptop" concept is changing the variables of the apps too.

Can you temporarily connect your Mini to your router with an ethernet cable just to test wifi vs. ethernet. Again, play a video you know will stutter and see if it stutters on ethernet too. If it doesn't, you dig in deeper on wifi catalysts.

Yes, try a different cable to rule out/in a faulty cable.

Yes, try a different drive to rule out/in the drive.

If there a hub between drive and Mac? If so, try a direct connection to rule out/in hub.

Could hard drive be going to sleep and needing time to wake for the next block of video to be streamed? The test by copying one problematic video to the internal SSD would help explore this idea. If it turns out to be this, the solution is not letting the drive sleep.

Is it consistent with many files or only 1 or a few? Anything odd about those files? Is the format Apple friendly?

If the stutter is always in the same spot, perhaps it's just a bad encode.

Consider identifying a few files doing this by name in Kodi or VLC and others with the same setup could potentially try playing the very same files to either confirm the problem beyond your hardware or refute it (so you know it is in your setup alone).

The path to a solution only really becomes possible when you pin down the problem as narrowly as possible. As is, it could be ports, macOS, Mac mini M4, file, drive, cable, enclosure, format, wifi, etc. Find yourself one file that regularly does what you see and start working through process of elimination. For example, if that file plays fine from the internal drive through Quicktime, change ONE variable to see if it will stutter. Then change another variable.
 
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HobeSoundDarryl said:
OP: I'd play process of elimination to figure out exactly what is the problem. Too many variables to know from what is described so far.

Can you see this happen with a single video? Will it consistently stutter in the same spot if you play it over and over? If so, try playing it with other players such as the native QuickTime app. If it consistently stutters, you'll rule out a possible Kodi & VLC apps issue. The "works with Linux laptop" concept is changing the variables of the apps too.

Can you temporarily connect your Mini to your router with an ethernet cable just to test wifi vs. ethernet. Again, play a video you know will stutter and see if it stutters on ethernet too. If it doesn't, you dig in deeper on wifi catalysts.

Yes, try a different cable to rule out/in a faulty cable.

Yes, try a different drive to rule out/in the drive.
Click to expand...
You probably want to read my posts again: my other Macs or even Linux based PC does not have any issues with playing anything from my USB drive. So it's all ruled out already, the issue is in my specific Mac Mini M4.
 
The suggestion to copy the file to your local SSD is to determine whether the issue is with file playback (e.g., VLC) or with the drive where it's stored. I'd still try that.

Also, please report whether it happens with any video, or only specific videos. It could be that the video file is corrupted.

Also try the suggestion above, the front ports are different from the back ones.
 
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hooch88 said:
Great to know, but don't see how's this relevant to help I asked for.
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The point is other people don't have the same problem you do. So, several of us have given you reasonable and simple troubleshooting recommendations, but for some reason, you won't actually try any of those simple suggestions.

Just because a drive works on one machine doesn't mean it will work on all machines. Different combinations of hardware may sometimes have hardware incompatibilities. So, saying it works on your MacBook Air doesn't prove the Mac mini's USB is broken.
 
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OP:

If you're unwilling to try any of the suggestions that have been presented above, how do you expect to get any help in this forum...?

I can't argue with your conclusion, in that case.
Return it for a refund.

Perhaps you ought to wait until the Mac Studio is released (probably mid-year or before), and try that one instead...
 
I have a base Mac mini 4 attached to a 8TB HDD enclosure and another 8 TB NVME dual thunderbolt enclosure. I don’t have any problems. Like others have suggested, try the native drive and isolate if it is issue with the drive that is shared with your Linux laptops. If you can’t try an isolate the issue, it’s hard to help.
 
hooch88 said:
I have another Mac Mini M2 Pro, and Macbook Air M4 - no issues of such kind with any file system. I suspect the cheapest versions of M4 which I have might have problematic hardware.
Click to expand...
MBA M4 is not released yet, Do you mean MBA M3 or MacBook Pro M4?
 
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