Jerky Playback? (Is it hardware or software?)

[rwc]

I have a question about jerky playback on my system.

I'm running Sage Server (headless) on a win7 x64 (with 4GB RAM) box with a Hauppauge 2250 recording 720p qam files.

The server is connected to the client via gigabit ethernet.

The client is running Sage 7, on win7 x64 (4GB RAM) and am using the built in video (an ATI 4290). I've setup and client with the shark007 pack for codecs.

If I play the recordings in TMT3 or WMP, from the shared directory on the sage server, it plays fine.

If I copy the file to my desktop and then play it inside of sage, it plays fine.

But if I play it "through the server", 95% of the time, it's jerky (about 5% of the time, the exact same recording plays fine though!)


Both the client and server are using the latest version of java. The server has it's java heap set to 1GB, the client is use 768GB.

I've also noticed that if I use TMT3 or WMP, the network usage for the file hovers between 7mbps and 13mps. If I watch it via sage, the network usage is around 6mbps.

Because I'm only having a problem inside of sage--in particular when it's pulling a file "through the sage server", I'm wondering if it's an issue with the Sage Server software? A codec issue? Or some hardware issue on the client.

ANy ideas? Any suggestions on how I start tackling it?

THANKS!

rwc

[Oddity]

Check your network card settings. Do you have jumbo frames turned on?
Check your MTU settings and also I'd advise turning off flow control as in my experience this has caused crashes and stuttering.

Try using a different switch, my linksys would cause issues but the netgear worked perfectly.

[rwc]

Well I got it fixed!

I'll be honest, I don't know if it's a combination of things I did, or just one of them, but (in case you're in the same boat) here's what I did.

* Stopped services that were chewing up network bandwidth (in particular Windows Media Network Share)

* Updated network drivers

* Installed new Cataylst drivers (along w/ new south bridge drivers) -- This seemed to help a lot! I was able to play 3 videos before the jerkiness came back!

* Installed 'reclock' from the shark007.com "tools" menu.

Reclock really seems like it did the trick, but I don't know why--can somebody tell me? (The network bandwidth is now around 14mbs while watching a video and everything is silky smooth ) )

Thanks,

rwc

[dealsdyker]

Can't tell you why but I was curious about Reclock so to save others from googling here is a description
What is it ?
The purpose of ReClock is to definitely get rid of jerky playback of AVI and MPEG material on a PC (or a HTPC driving a TV, a flat panel, or a video-projector). It's a DirectShow filter which is loaded in place of the default directsound audio renderer.
It provides a new reference clock that is locked to the video card hardware clock, in order to ensure that frames are played at the exact speed of what is expected by the video card vertical sync.
It also provides a frame rate adaptator for media files that do not match a multiple of the video card refresh rate (ex: playback of 23,976fps IVTC NTSC on a PAL TV).
The combination of the two will give you the true experience of smooth playback with your PC.
Finally it is an audio renderer with hardware or software rate adaptation in real-time, multi-channel audio, audio timestretching (pal speedup compensation) and dynamic range compression capabilities.

from http://reclock.free.fr/

also found this forum where you can ask questions http://forum.slysoft.com/forumdisplay.php?f=85

I'm NO expert here... Basically, the way I read it, if the sound and video are out of sync the video would stutter in order to keep sound smooth. What ReClock appears to do is force smooth Video playback by forcing the framerate expected by your video card. It then then makes slight modifications to sound/pitch to compensate for what would otherwise be "jerky" sound, but the changes to the sound are not really that noticeable to the human ear.