HD-200 MKV 1080 stuttering

[veger69]

Here are my system details:

My sage server is a vista machine with
ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1100 (PC2 8800)
BFG 8800gtx oc graphics card

I am using a Linksys WRT160N Ultra RangePlus Wireless-N Broadband Router as a switch only cat5 cable goes from computer to router from router to HD-200

The HD-200 has had its firmware updated and my sagetv is using version 6.5

After usually one hour or so of viewing I am having stuttering problems with 1080 mkv playback. This has happened with multiple movies. It will start to freeze audio and video for 1 to 2 sec. If I hit pause it will continue to stutter until the video catches up to where I assume I paused the movie and then stop. If a skip back 10-30 sec with the remote it will continue on with no stuttering for a while then start up again however not in the same place. I have checked the server for Norton or another program possibly bogging the server down but no obvious offenders. I sometimes run Utorrent while watching movies and have shut that down with no changes in the stuttering.
I have noticed the HD-200 can run hot. At first I had it on top of my cable box and then later on top of a bluray player in both spots it became very warm to the touch. Could overheating be causing the stuttering? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Nothing could be worse than getting jerked out of the movie experience by stuttering and makes this otherwise great product worthless.

One last thing media plays fine on my server so if overheating of the HD-200 is not the problem then its the bandwidth of the network. I have no Idea on how to troubleshoot this.

[valnar]

Before I got to the end of your post, I was thinking heat. Try running it with a fan on it.

The second possibility is your Linksys router, but more unlikely. A dedicated switch usually does a better job.

[veger69]

I am going to move it to the top of my media center where it is not enclosed and not absorbing heat form another unit. I did not have time last night to test it. I just wanted to see if anyone else has had overheating problems with the unit.

[veger69]

I am still having stuttering problems even with HD-200 on top. The HD-200 was barely warm to the touch so I'm leaning away from it being the problem. Also jumping back 30 sec or so fixes the stuttering for a period which doesn’t seem to say heat either. How is Sagetv support I put an e-mail in to them but no reply so far.

[Clift]

Usually support is pretty good about getting back to you in a timely manner. I would wait 72 hrs or so and if you don't get any response, send them another request.

[veger69]

Update:

I have not been able to fix this problem yet. The support has been trying. I get a response once a day through email. This is making for a long process.

Summarized issues:
#1 Video stuttering after 1/2 hr to 1 hr of playing movies. Sometimes does not happen at all. skipping back 10-30 sec will let it play through the same scene with out stuttering so it does not seem like the problem is a high bit rate choking the connection. All movies play fine on my server.

#2 DTS audio drops out for a second every 2 to 3 seconds on certain movies but other DTS titles play fine.

I copied a portion of one of the movies that the audio drops out on to a mem-stick and played it directly from the HD-200 it played fine no problems.


This makes it seem like a network problem. I’m using a wrt160 lynksys router as a switch. I believe it has either (4) 10-100 ports or (4) 10-100-1000 ports. I thought about getting a dedicated switch but it just seems unlikely that that is the problem. I turned off all norton protection with no change and tried removing the router from the system by connecting the hd-200 directly to the server. However the HD-200 was unable to find the Sage server after connecting them this way. Is there something I need to reset before is will see the server once it has been configured? I ran through the setup menu again but it did not help. Can anyone help me configure the router and norton to open up all the doors between the HD-200 and my server?

Any help would be appreciated

other ideas:
shorten cat 6 cable 25' cable currently, Upgrade to cat 7 cable
get a gigabit switch

[tt55du]

veger69,
I am also having stuttering problems, but I'm using my Sage HD200 in standalone mode.

It involves mkv files and the dts on my denon receiver drops out every 2-5 seconds, but only on certain movies.

I also ruled out heat and bandwidth since It works fine on other larger mkvs immediately after I play the one that stutters. My Sage and NAS are also on the same gigE switch with little congestion. To be sure, I opened up the closet door and cranked up the fan to which my media setup is and moved the network ports closer so they are on the same gang within my switch.

I reverted back to the OLD supported firmware from last year and it was even worse, so I upgraded to the latest beta to no avail.



So my next step is to scan the video files to see what codecs and bit rates they use. If you have a good good utility I'm open to try it. The one I had G-spot did not provide much info.

Perhaps I should also try moving the movie to a USB harddrive to play from the port directly sans the network.

I'm not ruling out the Denon receiver either, it may be a problem with how it receives the DTS info.

Perhaps it's just a matter of a new firmware as well.

[veger69]

I updated to the latest beta on the HD-200 last night with no changes other than now when the video starts stuttering it will eventualy freeze up while the audio continues on.

One new thing I noticed, If a title starts stuttering I tried switching to another movie quickly to see if it would also stutter (giving me evidence of a network problem) but instead the new title started right up with no visible problems. I then switched back to the first title and it was still stuttering. Seems to point at sage having probelms with specific encoded titles as apposed to the bandwith but I do not know how to test to see if its the network choking.

If you find a good app to monitor the bit flow let me know

I am also using a Denon reciever but since the DTS played fine off the stick I believe it must be the bandwith since it only happens on certain DTS titles.

[tt55du]

From your prior post, I'm guessing you are using the HD200 in extender mode.

One way to eliminate the network issue is to use a crossover cable and connect the Sage box directly to your PC. Or get a cheap 100Mb switch and just connect the two and manually set IP addresses.

It could be your PCs ability to get the data out of the Sage App.

You can test the sage app by trying to use the HD200 in standalone mode, and just try to connect to your PC using a network share without Sage Server running.

Also, if your PC is fast enough, try using VLC to play the file on your computer. Unfortunately, my computer is too slow for me to try right away, but it will help rule out the quality of the file.

Though my problem seems different from yours, it is related, and It may be a problem with the Sage Firmware.

unfortunately I will not be able to work on this any further until this weekend.

[veger69]

Yes I do use it in extender mode but I have also assigned the HD-200 to use the windows network and used it in standalone mode. The performance was the same on the two DTS audio tracks that give me trouble in extender mode. I did have to use my Linksys WRT160 as a switch but I believe the ports are rated as Gigabit switch speeds so they should not have been a problem. still I may pick one up a frys to be able to rule that out as the issue.

I did try to connect directly from the computer to the HD-200 but now I believe I know why I could not get the server to see the HD-200. I was using regular cat6 cable and not a patch cable or computer to computer cable.

I also have played most of my media on my server as I use it in my bedroom for viewing. All my problem videos play fine from there.

[veger69]

The DTS probelm seems to be an encoding problem. When I tried the movie on the memory stick I had to to mux a small peice of the movie since I only have a 2g stick. I used the GDSMux from Haali Media Splitter and the test worked with no problems but I failed to test the small peice over the network first. The mux plays fine over the network as well. So if you have any troubled with mkv DTS movies I suggest remuxing them with GDSMux. It does not re-encode them it just re-binds them in a MKV wrapper but seems to do the trick.

Still working on the video stuttering haven't heard from sage support in a couple of days.

[veger69]

ok finally was able to get a hd-200 log from telnet. Vista has it turned off by default and you need to turn it on first. The problem seems to be audio related causing the client to pause. Here is a portion of the log showing the issue

v dec pts 238023945 disp pts 238023945
audio pts is smaller than stc, entering paused mode
HDMI 1 (change 0)
v001 a002
stc 5289895 a pts 238045284 (5289895)
v dec pts 238046445 disp pts 238046445
v002 a000
stc 5292046 a pts 0 (0)
v dec pts 238074570 disp pts 238072680
audio pts is smaller than stc, entering paused mode
HDMI 1 (change 0)
v002 a000
stc 5292055 a pts 0 (0)
v dec pts 238108320 disp pts 238108320
Count is 0
v001 a000
stc 5293706 a pts 0 (0)
v dec pts 238143960 disp pts 238143960
audio pts is smaller than stc, entering paused mode
v001 a000
stc 5293715 a pts 0 (0)
v dec pts 238179555 disp pts 238179555
HDMI 1 (change 0)
v001 a000
stc 5295826 a pts 0 (0)
v dec pts 238215195 disp pts 238213305
audio pts is smaller than stc, entering paused mode
v001 a000
stc 5295835 a pts 0 (0)
v dec pts 238248945 disp pts 238248945
HDMI 1 (change 0)
Count is 0
v001 a000
stc 5297889 a pts 0 (0)
v dec pts 238284585 disp pts 238284585
audio pts is smaller than stc, entering paused mode
v001 a000

sent it off to support hope they can figure out whats causing this

[tt55du]

I also tried remuxing using MKVtoolnix to no avail, but I have some good news.

I used TSMuxer and remux to m2ts and it worked fine.

Bad news is I don't know exactly what remuxing to m2ts does and have to read up some more.

I've only tried on one file so far so I can't assume it'll always work. I will try on another file this weekend. I also wonder if remuxing to m2ts changes the fidelity of the sound.

[veger69]

I'm no expert but I believe re-muxing only binds the media together unless you specificaly have it re-encode.

[tt55du]

Sounds reasonable since the remuxing is realitively quick ~15 minutes as opposed to rencoding or transcoding.

You should give TSmuxer to an mt2s container a try. Your Video stuttering may be caused an audio problem that prompts it to go in to "paused mode" as indicated by your log.

[tt55du]

Looks live another beta firmware was released v20090505


Core changes:

1. Fix playback of some mkv and wmv files
2. Improve performance of streaming from network shares when using a windows server.


The improvements look promising for mkv playback, and may even resolve any network issues you might have had.

[RichardB97]

I have the same symptoms that you describe (pauses/stutters after 1 hour of playback). For me, this occurs while watching 720p mkv files. My network is hardwired, although there are two 10/100 switches between the Vista64 server and the HD200 Extender. I've been wanting to cable up a direct crossover to see if it is network related, but haven't had time yet.

Let us know if the new firmware (20090505) made any difference for you.

[veger69]

it has not helped me but I'm hoping that by sending my log showing the problem to the developers I will have a solution soon.

[tt55du]

No real noticeable improvements for me either, the same file that stuttered before still stutters, but my particular audio problem has seemed to have been resolved by remuxing the very few problem files to m2ts using TSmuxer.

[veger69]

GOOD news on the video stuttering problem. Here was the email I received this morning

"Sean, The developers were able to reproduce this and it will be fixed. George"

Now if we could just get these other issues ironed out. I sent this email yesterday


George I'm having 2 other problems both sound related. I have tried to get help on the forums but no one has been able to help.

Problem #1
When playing WMV with WMA9 6ch audio my receiver treats it as stereo and will not play back 5.1 sound. Any attempt to FF or pause or rewind restarts the WMV from the beginning of the video. The video will then start to stutter and audio is not in sync with the video being shown. Attached are the log files in the "logs WMV error.zip" file.

Problem #2
When playing certain MKV's with 5.1 dts (so far two) the audio will drop out every 2-3 seconds for a length of about 1 sec or less throughout the movie. I think this may be an encoding issue but have enclosed logs in "DTSdropout.zip" just in case it is a Sage issue.

Let me know if you would like me to send separate requests for official SAGETV Support.