Jerky playback on BD content

[shinnlly]

I tired HelenWeathers suggestion and moved the tsMuxeR'ed BD file structure to the C: drive of the SageTV server and it played fine. No issues for the 10 minutes I watched it. I then copied the original BD file structure of the same movie and also Spiderman over the to C: drive. They also played with no problems in limited tests.

Now my dilemma. I have an XBMC PC and a Popcorn Hour. Both of these devices play these same movies fine from my NAS. As the tests this week have revealed, the HD200 will not play these files from my NAS, although it will play then from the SageTV server.

I think I know where the problem lies now, and it is not strictly with the HD200 hardware or with my network. It seems to be with the SageTV software/firmware and how it handles the network traffic.

I am really at a loss to figure out how to address something like this or even how to report a bug with it. Anyone have any ideas?

BTW, I am running SageTV Server on a 6 year old PC. It is a P4 with HT. 100 MBs onboard NIC. This weekend, if not sooner, I am going to try installing the SageTV server on my XBMC PC, which is a Intel E8400 with a gigabit onboard NIC. Should be overkill, but I want to try to eliminate the server hardware as the issue.

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by shinnlly

I tired HelenWeathers suggestion and moved the tsMuxeR'ed BD file structure to the C: drive of the SageTV server and it played fine.

shinnlly, I started a thread two months ago that's somewhat related:

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...ad.php?t=38991

There has to be something that Sage can do about this. I never did submit a bug report and I should have, but it didn't seem that anyone but me was having the problem at that time.

If you do submit a report, feel free to include the above link also because it seems that it it's not your NAS or my network setup, it's how Sage handles the streaming of these files. (It happens with Blu-ray files muxed to .ts as well)

EDIT: And with earlier versions of Sage.

[shinnlly]

Originally Posted by shinnlly

This weekend, if not sooner, I am going to try installing the SageTV server on my XBMC PC, which is an Intel E8400 with a gigabit onboard NIC. Should be overkill, but I want to try to eliminate the server hardware as the issue.

I tried this tonight. Very short test (5 minutes). I played the first 5 minutes of the Pirates movie mentioned earlier with no problems at all, streaming from my NAS. The NAS with the old server scenario always showed issues in the first minute. This is the original rip, not the tsMuxeR'ed one.

I need to do some more tests to know for sure...

[valnar]

Read this thread and report back:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32366

Make sure you notice my post on the bottom.

If its not Intel or Marvell, change it.

[shinnlly]

Well, the server it is running on now has the following integrated NIC
Atheros AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 PCI-E Ethernet Controller

On the server that was not performing, it has the following integrated NIC
Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection
The server is a P4 1.8 GHz with HT and 1 GB RAM (the max the motherboard will allow)

The old server also had Power Management turned on for the NIC, so I turned it off, but it did not make a difference.

[shinnlly]

I did some more thorough tests last night. It seems everything needs to be just right to get this thing to stream BD rips without skipping.

As I had posted earlier, I had the HD200 in Extender mode streaming BD rips from my NAS with no skipping. I have an Intel E8400 CPU, an ASUS 3450 (ATI) video card, and a single stick of 2 GB RAM (no dual channel) running Windows XP.

I removed the OS hard drive and the video card from this setup. I then installed a new hard drive and installed the trial edition of Windows Home Server (WHS). I am using the on-board video (Intel GMA 3100). I also cleaned up my network wiring. And of course, I reinstalled SageTV (the WHS edition). After making all these changes, the skipping problem came back.

I will skip all the different things I tried, but it came down to two things.

1. I had to reinstall my video card.
2. I had to have my PC on the same switch as my NAS.

When I tired just one or the other of these two things, the skipping came back.

In addition, I double-checked my older PC to make sure it still did not work with the wiring setup I had. It did not. It does have an Nvidia 9500GT in it, so the issue there is the CPU or the NIC. No way for me to tell for sure. EDIT: The NIC was the problem.

In conclusion, I believe I have confirmed that the following issues can cause the skipping:

1. inadequate video card (my $35 video card from newegg was adequate)
2. "network issues" that can be solved by putting server and NAS on the same switch
3. inadequate NIC

A side note. I have 3 switches between the server and the HD200. That does not seem to be an issue.

[shinnlly]

One last note.

I bought a new Netgear NIC card and put it into the older PC.

When the PC and NAS were on the same switch, it now stream BD content perfectly. As with the new PC, if they are on different switches, there is still skipping.

I have updated the posting directly above to reflect this new info.

Good call valnar. Although my old PC had an Intel integrated NIC, that was one of the issues.

[valnar]

It could have been a faulty NIC. I've never seen an Intel based NIC be a problem before, but I suppose there is a first time for everything.


Out curiosity, what is the chain of switches? Brands, models?

[shinnlly]

Originally Posted by valnar

Out curiosity, what is the chain of switches? Brands, models?

I just bought a Netgear GS605 to remove the switch built into my router from my network. All my other switches, which I have acquired over the last year and a half, are also Netgear, and they look just like the new one. So they are also GS605, or some earlier version of that same model.

[cncb]

Unfortunately stuttering seems to be back for me in 6.5.13. Anyone else notice this?