Apple TV 4K (3rd Gen), Plex & Heat

20 September, 2025 Scurvy Dawg Leave a comment

I have been streaming content on Apple TV 4Ks for quite some time. This post is about an issue I discovered specifically with the 3rd Gen Apple TV 4K. When streaming high bitrate 4K HDR content on Plex, it overheats and starts stuttering. If you keep playing, it eventually halts, as shown below.

Now, I was playing similar content on the Apple TV 4K (1st Gen), but never saw these issues. The difference is, Apple removed active cooling on the 3rd Gen model and slimmed down the unit. As per Apple, the SoC is efficient enough to not require cooling. And while that may be true for normal content streamed from one of the many streaming platforms, the passive cooling simply isn’t enough when streaming high-bitrate content like Blu Ray rips on Plex. Even though using the Air Conditioner partially alleviates the problem, it doesn’t solve it completely.

I briefly considered selling it and buying a 1st or 2nd Gen used. But then, I realised that wasn’t a sustainable solution long-term, so decided to take matters into my own hands & improve the cooling using a heatsink. I also decided to do proper tests with different modes, for science.

Test Methodology

Baseline : Baseline is the temperature of any passive component near the Apple TV 4K. In this case, I chose the TV stand. The aim is to abort the test till the baseline temperatures are within a 2C window.

Standby: Temperature of the Apple TV 4K in standby mode doing background tasks only (As a HomeKit hub, it needs to track all the HomeKit devices in the house and process and upload surveillance videos from 2 cameras).

Video: Measure the temperature of the Apple TV while playing various kinds of video with different configurations at different intervals.

All measurements done with an infrared thermometer from a distance of 15 cm. The spot measured is the middle of the Apple logo on the top of the unit. After each test, I waited for the Apple TV to return to its standby temperature and stay there for at least an hour (For the internal components to cool down, too). This meant, most days, I could only do 1 or 2 tests and it took days to finish everything.

Test Results

The test results were not surprising.

Netflix : As expected, the unit worked well with no stuttering or freezes for both 1080p and 2160p content. The temperature rose to 9C above standby in both cases but stayed stable afterwards. This is not surprising because streaming content has comparatively low bitrate and if there was an issue here, it would be detected & reported by many more people.

Infuse : I tested only high-bitrate content on Infuse. The temperature went up 6C higher than Netflix (considering the bitrate is 10 times more) but surprisingly stayed more or less stable over 45 mins. This proves that the Apple TV 4K itself does not struggle with playing high bitrate content, as long as the app is correctly coded.

Plex : This part shows how bad Plex is at decoding video. Even the 1080p video showed the temperature rising continuously till the end of the test, not stabilising at all. In fact, the temperature with 1080p rose to 54C, even above high bitrate 2160p on Infuse.

High-Bitrate 2160p video on Plex yielded pathetic results. The temperature crossed well past 64C and stuttering started around the 42 min mark. It didn’t shut down in 1 hour, but I am sure if I had the time to continue the test longer, it would have at some point.

Apple TV 4K temperature graph over 1 hour

Adding a Heatsink (small one I had lying around) actually caused the standby temperature to be slightly higher than normal, probably because at this stage it is also blocking some heat dissipation. Eventually, it seems to delay the heat and hence the stuttering, by around 15 mins. I am not sure if it would completely prevent the Apple TV from shutting down.

Apple TV 4K (3rd Gen) with a small Heatsink

I could buy bigger heatsinks and connect them to both the upper and lower surfaces of the Apple TV and place it horizontally for maximum effect. But why should I mutilate my gadget further because Plex doesn’t work well?

If Plex doesn’t fix the issue by the time it runs out of warranty, I may consider opening up the Apple TV and connecting the heatsinks directly to the internal components for the best heat disipation.

Conclusion

Plex is very inefficient at decoding video. Apparently, Plex uses a CPU decoder instead of Apple’s Metal API. For high-bitrate content, there’s runaway heating causing stutters and eventually causes the Apple TV to crash. This post says Plex has been working to correct this, but that was almost 1.5 years ago, so no idea when this will actually happen.
Apps coded properly like Infuse have no issues handling high–bitrate content. The temperature rises initially , but stabilises after some time.
The Apple TV 4K (3rd Gen) struggles with heat dissipation with the CPU operating above a certain threshold, especially compared to the previous generations equipped with a fan. Adding a Heatsink to the Apple TV helps with the heat dissipation somewhat.

Travel

I like Bhutan Airlines

13 September, 2025 Scurvy Dawg 2 Comments

I travel to Kolkata frequently and it is such a backward city, none of the bigger airlines service it, only low cost airlines like Indigo, Thai Air Asia, Thai Lion and Spicejet. What’s worse, all these flights are red-eye flights which I hate. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that Bhutan Airlines runs regular flights between Bangkok & Kolkata, and they are daytime flights! Bhutan Airlines is a small airline company and Bhutan’s first private airline. In fact it is so small, they just operate 2 aircraft on 2 routes.

What I like

So what’s to like about them? As I said, the main factor is, they run the only direct daytime flights between Bangkok and Kolkata.

They are also the only airline on this route which doesn’t charge you extra for every little thing. In fact, proper hot meals are included in the fare. They also serve alcohol, but I have never had it.

Lunch aboard Bhutan Airlines flight from Kolkata to Bangkok

Tomato Juice aboard Bhutan Airlines flight from Kolkata to Bangkok — Lunch aboard Bhutan Airlines flight from Kolkata to Bangkok

Anyone who has travelled from India to Bangkok would know what kind of people travel on this route. 90% are sexually-frustrated men who have lied at their homes and are heading to Thailand for some Snu-Snu. But since this flight uses Kolkata just as a middle stop between Paro and Bangkok, the amount of such people on-board is comparatively few.

They don’t have seat-back entertainment, but they have a system called Tashi Skynet where you can use your own device to connect to the on-board Wi-Fi and play access their entertainment content and their flight map.

They also have an in–flight magazine Kuzu Zangpo La, reading which surprised me with the fact that their chairman is a doppelgänger of Jason Alexander.

Kuzuzangpo La In-Flight Magazine — Kuzu Zangpo La In-Flight Magazine

Wangchuk Dorji or Jason Alexander? — Kuzu Zangpo La In-Flight Magazine

The flights are always early, if not on-time.

The aircraft’s, although not brand new, seem to be well-maintained and clean.

They have great customer care. During a recent trip, I accidentally cancelled my flight by mistake, but I was able to contact their customer care and reverse the cancellation without any penalties.

What I don’t like

Their pricing fluctuates a lot. Within days, their prices can become half or go double. My observation is that their pricing is lowest 2 weeks be for a trip. However, I am too anxious to wait till there’s only 2 weeks left to book a ticket.
Probably because of their agreement at Suvarnabhumi airport, they don’t have jet bridge access and rely on buses to take passengers to and from the terminal, which adds time, especially when returning to Bangkok.

That’s it, not too many negatives. Overall, I am thankful to have this fight

Rant

How India is a low-trust society

6 September, 2025 Scurvy Dawg Leave a comment

As I near 5 years since I moved abroad, each trip back here makes me realise how India is a low-trust society.

A man being frisked at South City Mall, Kolkata

What makes me think so

OTPs for everything
- Package deliveries for values as low as ₹400 require providing an OTP to the delivery person. This makes un-attended deliveries almost impossible.
- OTP is required to start Uber/Ola rides.
Extensive authentication required to go into a residential building, which requires approval from the resident and in some cases proper interrogations from the security guard(s).
Credit Card transactions at PoS machines require a PIN.
Credit Card transactions at online merchants are not seamless, making recurring un-attended transactions impossible in most cases (Eg you cannot associate a credit card with your Apple account and buy things with 1 tap).
Cannot enter Airport without showing a valid ticket.
X-Ray machines, metal detectors at shopping malls. They even check below your car to see if you have a bomb strapped to it.
Some merchants allow very limited quantities of some items. Eg, I wanted to replace the bulbs in my room and Blinkit won’t let me order 2 of any one type of bulb. Eventually I had to select 2 different makes.
Hospitals make you pay before you even see a doctor.
People are paranoid about security, even in gated societies, even with the above authentication. See example below

Why has it come to this?

Now, I am not arguing that the above steps are not required (they most certainly are), but why are they specifically required for us?

Barring security issues which are courtesy terrorism, most of the above comes down to how un-trustworthy we Indians are. Surely, we have been stealing others’ Uber rides, package deliveries, credit cards long enough that they had to come up with all this.

Sad.

Health & Fitness

12th August Half Marathon 2025

23 August, 2025 Scurvy Dawg Leave a comment

Recently, I participated in a 10k running event called 12th August Half Marathon 2025, also called “Run for mom“. It is organised on the Thai mother’s day every year on the birth day of Queen Sirikit, the Queen Mother of Thailand. The event is held at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center also bearing her name.

12 August Half Marathon 2025 10k route map

This run holds a special place for me, as all profits go to Queen Sirikit Centre for Breast Cancer. When I ran this last year, my mother was suffering from breast cancer and this year, she’s no longer there.

The Run

I was quite pumped on the morning of the run.

The run was quite fun because we had to go over 2 flyovers and the last one had a view of the river, although it was a bit too dark to see it.

Here’s a comparison with the same run last year.

12 August Half Marathon 2024 10k statistics — 12th August Half Marathon 10k 2024 vs 2025

12 August Half Marathon 2025 10k stats — 12th August Half Marathon 10k 2024 vs 2025

I was able to shave 9 mins off the overall time, same date, same route a year apart.

12 August Half Marathon 2025 HR Zones — 12 August Half Marathon 2025 10k HR Zones

12 August Half Marathon 2025 10k splits — 12 August Half Marathon 2025 10k HR Zones

As you can see the splits, I had a slow start because I was stuck behind slow runners, but was able to pick up the pace in the 2nd and 3rd km. After that, I healed a steady pace, but slowed down for kms 7-9. I was able to push through on km 10 and finish the race.

My heart rate was in Zone 5 most of the time.

12 August Half Marathon 2025 10k finisher medal

This was my first 10k with my Hoka Mach 6s.

Rant

How to be an Insufferable Farang

16 August, 2025 Scurvy Dawg 3 Comments

Depiction of *farang* as a stone guard at Wat Pho in Bangkok; circa 1824–1851

As per Wikipedia, the word Farang loosely translates to someone of caucasian descent. In practical use in Southeast Asia, it is more widely used to refer to white men; less frequently women.

In this article, I cover a specific class of Farang living in Southeast Asia – The ones who consider themselves authentic (travellers, not tourists kind) and come to Asia to (re) discover themselves. Most of them are jobless, mooching off social security in their developed countries or have remote jobs and stay here on tourist Visas. In my experience, they constitute less than 10% of total white people living here.

For most of them, the bubble bursts real soon and they end up leaving, but some of them survive for years.

Now, my problem is not with how they themselves are, but with how judgemental they are about others and how they think that anyone who is not like them is a fool. Not to forget, their colonial mentality.

Using my guide below, you too can become one such insufferable Farang.

Exclusive Guide to be an Insufferable Farang

Eat tasteless, flavourless bland food and judge others for eating different. Lecture them on how asians don’t have evolved taste buds that can appreciate finer tastes only they can.

Hainanese Chicken & Rice, the staple dish of Insufferable Farangs

Ride around on extremely busy roads on e-scooters or monowheels and if a crack on the road or a gentle sideswipe sends you sprawling on the streets with broken teeth, go cry on Reddit.

A group of Farangs with e-Scooters in Bangkok

Show great enthusiasm for learning the local language and/or Muay Thai and judge others (who have actual jobs to do) if they can’t. The hypocrisy is that after the initial phase, most of them maintain the same 20 word vocabulary for years. Occasionally, pretend to enjoy Thai-dub movies.
Eat in street side stalls & judge others who prefer going to nice places. Then, when you eventually get diarrhoea, go beg on Reddit for free local medication recommendations because you can’t/won’t afford to go to a doctor. Also, drink shitty bottled beer in windowless joints.
Judge people for going to shopping malls, because shopping malls are huge symbols of corporate greed and hanging out on the side-streets is what authentic people do.
Get beaten up by prostitutes frequently. Bonus points if the prostitute is a ladyboy.

Educate others on how they should live their lives at any chance you get. But be considerate by prepending your sentence with “I am not showing a colonial mentality but….”
Live in cheap shitty hovels and hostels. Judge others if they do/want to live in nice places.
Bad mouth Indians all the time, but if you need help with work, feel free to ask them.
If married, dump your white wife and share (unknowingly) a Thai girlfriend with 10 other insufferable Farangs. When you find out, cry on reddit.
Hail taxis off the streets. Judge others for using ride-hailing apps. Then complain on Reddit when you get ripped off. For bonus points, pick a fight with the taxi driver and cry on reddit when your teeth get knocked out.
Use the cheapest phone possible (if possible, with a cracked screen and a battery pack permanently taped to the back) and judge others if they prefer nicer phones.
Judge people who don’t participate in adventure sports.
Bash Nestle whenever you see one of their brands anywhere. While not knowing why you’re bashing it, in the first place.
Get restless if you haven’t been in a swimming pool for more than 48 hours.

Bonus content

Health & Fitness

Hoka Mach 6 (Wide)

9 August, 2025 Scurvy Dawg Leave a comment

Recently, my Saucony Triumph 22 running shoes crossed 600kms & I started looking out for shoes to replace them. I always wanted to go back to Hokas, but I wanted something more responsive than the Clifton. After briefly considering the Rincon 4s, I decided to buy the Hoka Mach 6.

I generally prefer colourful shoes, but the Hoka Mach 6 Oat Milk variant were 50% off and the others were not.

The first impression is how light and bare they are, compared to what I am normally used to.

Comparing to my previous Saucony, I see that they are also thinner and a bit smaller (For the same size). I didn’t think of it much then, because my Saucony always felt a bit too big. As you will see later, this will come back to bite me in the ass hard.

But how do they feel while running?

Of course, they are not as plush and feel lower to the ground. However, I could feel I was running faster with the same effort. But let the numbers do the talking.

Last run with Saucony Triumph 22 — Saucony Triumph 22 vs Hoka Mach 6 4.8k comparison

First run with Hoka Mach 6 — Saucony Triumph 22 vs Hoka Mach 6 4.8k comparison

As you can see, the Hoka Mach 6 helped me shave more than a minute off my standard 4.8k run. And I did it with the same amount of effort I did with the Triumph 22, as is evident from the total calories burnt and the average heart rate.

Not so fast…

After running in them a week, I started to notice the toenails of my big toes on both feet peeling off on the outer edge. I could only attribute them to the narrower toe box and smaller size, so I had to bin the brand new Mach 6 and get the Mach 6 wide in a higher size. This time I tried them on at the store before buying. The colour was even worse.

Hoka Mach 6 wide with Hoka Mach 6 with Saucony Triumph 22

As you can see, the “wide” Mach 6 from Hoka are still narrower than the Saucony. However, my nails have been fine since then, so not complaining much. Thankfully, my pace didn’t drop with the bigger and wider shoes.

My only concern : While running, I could feel the shock of the steps reverberating through my joints, especially my hips. In the last couple of weeks, I haven’t had any joint pain, but only time will tell how this works out.

Movies

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

2 August, 2025 Scurvy Dawg Leave a comment

My Expectations : 7/10
My Rating : 8/10

I know, I know, I decided not watch MCU movies anymore, but something about The Fantastic Four : First Steps felt different.

Earth 828

What makes Fantastic Four: First Steps different is that it is set in Earth 828, which is in a different universe than the previous MCU movies. Earth 828 is a retro-futuristic version of Earth & most of the movie is set in 1960s New York City which reminds you of Mad Men. However, even though the clothes, aesthetics are 60s, the technology is futuristic.

Example, the screens are all oval shaped CRTs, video is recorded on huge tapes and audio is recorded on gramophone records.

However, there’s faster-than-light travel spaceships, flying cars & even teleportation.

Earth 828 also has a planet-wide government & no militaries. There’s a mandatory superhero tower and spaceship launches happen just off the coast of New York.

All of these things give the movie a very comic book feel, rather than sci-fi.

Galactus, devourer of worlds is an interesting character, too. Not inherently evil, he is just cursed with an eternal hunger of planets, which he is tired of. All he wants to do is bestow this hunger on someone else and rest in peace.

The movie features several fun scenes, like the neutron star-spaceship scene & the light-speed travel childbirth scene. The Mole man is also a funny character.

If Marvel produces more movies like this, I won’t mind engrossing myself in this universe once again.

Movies

Superman (2025)

26 July, 2025 Scurvy Dawg Leave a comment

My Expectations : 7/10
My Rating : 7/10

My first comment on this movie is that David Corenswet has the most generic face of all the actors who have played Superman till now. His face is so generic, if I saw him in the street right now, I may not recognise him. Kind of like bollywood actresses from the 70s and 80s. So I don’t understand why the movie even bothered to make up the eye-hypnotise thing to explain why no one recognises Superman is Clark Kent.

Otherwise the movie is a departure from the last Superman series, bright, funny and cheerful, instead of dark and broody. There’s no long-winded origin story and one gets dropped straight into the first action sequence, of which there are many.

The antagonist is Lex Luthor, who is not a Kryptonian but a very smart (as per him) weapons manufacturer, something on the lines of Tony Stark who has his employees fly around in Iron Man like suits.

The Justice Gang add a funny side to the story. The portals are really cool and the scenes are quite stylistic. There’s a part-Stitch, part-Gojira creature and the typical Eastern European despot trying to invade a moslem Central Asian country. Krypto was the most adorable part of the movie.

One thing that is common with the previous DCEU movies is that entire cities get destroyed like nothing.

Overall a decent watch. Much better than the recent MCU offers.

Movies

Jurassic World Rebirth (2025)

19 July, 2025 Scurvy Dawg Leave a comment

Jurassic World Rebirth Theatrical Poster

My Expectations : 5/10
My Rating : 6/10

I went to watch this movie only because my daughter wanted to see dinosaurs. This was a sequel of a reboot, so I had very low expectations going on. Overall, the movie slightly exceeded my expectations.

The movie starts at InGen‘s (Another company trying to play god with dinosaurs) laboratories and the most ridiculous thing happens. Just because 1 door in their lab malfunctions, their entire security system reboots and releases all the mutant dinosaurs everywhere. Which designer can design such software and how can such a design go through the design review & approval chain? In contrast, the drainage system they built at a remote tropical island can put most Indian cities to shame.

Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali were the only cast members I recognised. Other than them, the movie also stars a lower-end Orlando Bloom, a lower-end Justin Bieber and a higher-end Mukul Chadda. Scarlett had only 3 expressions throughout the movie – Grinning stupidly for no reason, applying effort during action scenes and crying.

The movie has typical action movie scenes – A group going to a watering hole in a tropical location to find an indispensable guy & convincing him to join the mission, crew members dying one by one while the others shout their names in vain, a selfless sacrifice by a crew member at the end to give others a chance to escape etc.

There are new dinosaurs, too. The main mutant antagonist looks like a T Rex-Xenomorph hybrid. There’s also a customary cute dinosaur who looks like Stitch and even one that looks like Jar Jar Binks.

There’s also prominent product placement by Altoids. Considering how most of them spent most of their time submerged in water or wet, they could have inserted an anti-fungal cream, too.

Overall, a decent watch if you have nothing better to do.

Gardening

Home Garden – Red Button Ginger (Costus Woodsonii)

12 July, 2025 Scurvy Dawg Leave a comment

Continuing my series, this post is about the Costus Woodsonii, commonly known as the Red Button Ginger.

Costus woodsonii, commonly known as Red Button Ginger or Dwarf Cone Ginger, is a tropical perennial. It is native to Central and South America. It is prized for its vibrant red cone-shaped bracts that resemble buttons, which often hold small yellow flowers. The plant has lush, spiraling green foliage and is popular in ornamental gardens for its compact size and striking appearance.

I first saw this plant when I came to Bangkok many years ago and since then, have always wanted to grow it. Recently, I asked our plant seller to get one for me and here we are.

Red Button Ginger (Costus woodsonii) — Costus woodsonii

I keep this plant in direct sunlight, in the rear balcony in the summers and front balcony in the winters, where it gets 3-4 hours of sunlight everyday.

I water it four times a week and make sure that the soil dries out between waterings.

Additionally, I fertilise it every 2 months or when it shows signs of growth, helping to promote healthy foliage and overall vitality.

You can read more about this plant here.

An Insight into my Hindside

Apple TV 4K (3rd Gen), Plex & Heat

Test Methodology

Test Results

Conclusion

I like Bhutan Airlines

What I like

What I don’t like

How India is a low-trust society

What makes me think so

Why has it come to this?

12th August Half Marathon 2025

The Run

How to be an Insufferable Farang

Exclusive Guide to be an Insufferable Farang

Bonus content

Hoka Mach 6 (Wide)

Not so fast…

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Earth 828

Superman (2025)

Jurassic World Rebirth (2025)

Home Garden – Red Button Ginger (Costus Woodsonii)

Earth bound misfit, I