Playing back HD files is stop and go.

[Owen Brent]

This problem keeps coming back and I don't know what is going on. When I watch a live HD program or play back a recorded HD program the video plays for a second or two and stops for a second or two. Very regular play back and pause. If I watch the recording on the server it plays fine. If I reinstall Sagetv it works for a while. The last time it failed, I just updated the stv file to the latest but that might have been a coincidence. If I watch a SD program or a non HD file it plays fine. Thinking it was my network, I changed my router and eliminated a switch but have the same problem. When I changed the router (Asus RT-N16) I thought I found the problem because everything was working until I stopped the playback and called everyone down to watch a show. Resumed playback and the pausing started again.

Running windows seven, 2g of ram.

[jlmdxtv]

- I'd check to make sure there's no virus scanning taking place on the video files either on the server or client.
- I'd also check the network cards to make sure they are modern, fast, and have current drivers.
- If you're running wirelessly to the client then don't.
- I'd try playing the file using VLC on the client to see if it exhibits the same problems. If not, I'd disable my SageTV plugins one at time on the client to see if it improves. You may also want to try a different video renderer in SageTV (e.g. Overlay vs. EVR).

There are lots of causes for video stuttering. You might want to search the threads for more help.

john

[Owen Brent]

Thanks for the reply.

I should have mentioned that I only have this problem when watching on an extender (HD300).

I am not using any plugins at the moment (just to eliminate them).

The video files are fine (If I copy them to a thumb drive they play nice on the TV.

Do I change the video renderer on the Extender? If so how do you do this?

[bcjenkins]

How are the extender and server connected?

[Owen Brent]

Wired directly to the router.

[Fuzzy]

Could still be a network issue, or as was mentioned, some other process interfering (virus scanner, for instance).

[wubdich]

It might be worthwhile to look for a duplex-mismatch (one side half-duplex - other side full-duplex). These are hard to find issues as connections ar working but performance is really poor.

[Owen Brent]

I think I finally have it working. Two days in a row anyway. I have always been unhappy with my network setup so I changed things completely and was pulling out my hair in frustration for a while. I had a modem/router combined unit TPLink 8960N and a 8 port switch (Cisco Linksys). This was all located in my computer room on the top floor. Cable runs were fairly long with this configuration. I bought a speedtouch 516v5 adsl modem and put that within a few feet of the phone line coming into the house (basement). I then put a new router Asus rt-n16 within 30 feet of that on the second floor. I then put the 8 port switch in my computer room. Sage TV is connected directly to the router and my computer (server) is connected to the switch. Shorter cable runs and a much better router and modem. I initially tried Tomato USB (Toastman's build) on the router but must have had the configuration wrong because I had nothing but problems and pulled hair. I went back to the hardware's most up to date firmware and everything is working better. I still want to try Tomato, but when I have more time.

Thanks for everyone's help. Time will tell if I have a stable system now.

[Owen Brent]

I was wrong, it is not working. Intermittent problem (I know the worst kind). By intermittent I mean when I start up SageTV and it works, it works for the whole show perhaps more. Other times when I start up SageTV it does the play and pause thing. One thing I found interesting is that when I went to setup and switched the extender playback quality from "standard" to "High" (I hope I got that right) the play and pause is at twice the frequency. The last thing to change out would be the switch and possibly some Ethernet cables. I already changed the computer

The other issue I have that might be related is that when I turn on SageTV I often get the message that SageTV is sending a wake on Lan request but it usually doesn't work (Computer is already on too).

The half duplex/full duplex suggestion may be right, but I need to learn more about determining how to check that.

If I find out that it was one of my cables I will laugh (someday).

[wubdich]

Most common error leading to a duplex missmatch is to configure one device for full-duplex and the other for auto. The auto device will try to negotiate duplex mode - the device with full-duplex will not participate in this negotiation as it is fixed configured - the auto device will fall-back to half-duplex.

To validate:
-> Have a look at the properties of the NIC in device manager of PC.
-> if available - have a look at the web-interface of switch / router

Use IPERF to validate network throughput.