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Hello all I have wanted to build an HTPC for a long time and have finally done so. I stumbled upon XBMC and have been having fun with both it and Make MKV (my collection is slowly being ported from iso.) The problem I am having is that I am using my gaming PC with 3TB (2 x 1.5 TB HD's in RAID 0) of storage for my media server across a wired CAT5e Network to stream media to my HTPC box with a puny 60GB SSD, the problem is I am getting sparatic playback, at times it will work fine. Then there are the times (seamingly at random intervals) when it will stop to buffer every 2-10 minutes which as you can imagine is very irritating. I am not convinced this is a network issue as it does the same thing with DVD files and Blu Ray. Also I have spent hours trying to solve this myself and searching before posting so if this has been dealt with I appologize.
HTPC
Biostar A55MH
AMD A4-3300
8GB DDR3 1866
LG Blu Ray Drive
Server
EVGA z68 FTW
Core i5 2500K
2 60 GB SSD's in RAID (Boot)
2 1.5 TB HDD's in RAID (Media)
Asus HD 6970
Network
Cat5e cabling
Run through Gigabit Switch
PC's directly connected to one another
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kricker
Team-XBMC QA Specialist
Posts: 3,912
2012-05-10, 23:53
(This post was last modified: 2012-05-11, 00:00 by kricker.)
Have you done a network bandwidth test to rule out the network? It could be a flaky network port or poor cabling. You should test that first to really make sure that is working properly.The only time I see buffering issues is when my Atom D525 server is really bogged down with CPU intensive processes and that is very rare. And I know I do have a cabling issue limiting my HTPC to just 10 MBytes/s, I just haven't taken the time to figure out which one it is.
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I haven't really done a test,however in task manager it shows network utilization capping at 100 mbps when it is set up as a 1000 mbps network (That seams high for just streaming a movie?) I also tried linking to two PC's directly through CAT6 cable I had laying around, and had the same problem.
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I had streaming issues with my motherboards network card. Ended up installing and switching to a Intel card and I now get the best speeds from my server. Just something to look at.
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That is one thing I have been considering as the motherboard is a cheaper unit, and I have been unable to find any info on the LAN chipset in it (seems to be specific to that mobo)
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all my movies are in iso format (or most of them) and they stream flawlessly on a wired 100 mbps network. try a different network card maybe? they are cheap enuf
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Just transfer a large file from your PC to your HTPC and watch the transfer speed. If it reaches more than 11MB/s then there is nothing wrong with the connection. 100Mbps is more than twice the bandwith you need to stream an uncompressed bluray movie. In the worst scenes a bluray could reach 45Mbps.
I am on a 100Mbps network as well (got one component that isn't gigabit) but it is more than good enough for streaming. I can stream full HD + transfer files + surf the internet etc. all on the same network at the same time.
