[pinoy]

I took a look at my card's settings and under Flow Control, it only has Rx, Tx, or disable.

I could not find flow control on my Netgear Router.

On your Network Card settings, look for a section typically called "Speed & Duplex" . At defaults this is set to Auto Negotiation. Set this to 100Mbps Full duplex.

As with the Netgear Router, most have flow control already set by defaults.

[Breakerfall]

I took a look at my card's settings and under Flow Control, it only has Rx, Tx, or disable.

I could not find flow control on my Netgear Router.

On your Network Card settings, look for a section typically called "Speed & Duplex" . At defaults this is set to Auto Negotiation. Set this to 100Mbps Full duplex.

As with the Netgear Router, most have flow control already set by defaults.

I found it exactly as you described and so far Kodi hasn't skipped a beat. Thanks!!

This leads me to another question. Is there a similar setting on a FireStick to set it to 100Mbps Full duplex? I have set up a couple with Kodi for friends that are also having buffering issues.

I have basically been telling them to wait for the next version of Kodi but now wondering if I might be able to fix them instead.

[ashlar]

Not necessarily the same thing, but if people look for solutions, I posted a bug for cache some days ago: http://trac.kodi.tv/ticket/16037

[pinoy]

Just got some time to toy around further. Nothing technical. But so far it is highly looking at the NIC/USB implementation on the RPI2. Could most likely be driver related (poor implementation of flow controls? or anything else). You will see lots of errors when monitoring info during the video playback. How did I come to this conclusion?

1. Put back the NIC on the SMB server to 1gbps.
2. Added an ASUS N10 300mbps USB Dongle on the RPI2

THis combo does not reproduce the jitter/pausing during playback. Video playback is smooth. Even forwarding the video is fine.

---

Just to test my findings are consistent into pointing to the culprit to be the NIC/USB implementation on the RPI2,
1. I connect the RPI2 via its NIC - Results in the jitter/pausing of video playback.
2. I connect a gigabit USB NIC on the RPI2 and connect to the network via this - Results in the same jitter/pausing of video playback.

note: consistent when playing various high quality .ts .mov .mkv etc.

[pinoy]

Not necessarily the same thing, but if people look for solutions, I posted a bug for cache some days ago: http://trac.kodi.tv/ticket/16037

more to do with driver implementation of the devices NIC. As with me the RPI2's NIC.

I've maxed all possible settings relating to Hardware settings via config.txt & advancedsettings.xml to no changes.

Have a read as to why I pointed it as being a network related.

[ashlar]

Hi pinoy, this is the Windows forum, I am using Windows, not Raspberry Pi (nothing against it, I think it's a brilliant piece of hardware).

If you check the bug I posted, the cache performance is *worse* with a higher readbufferfactor, which is the opposite of what it should be.

And, by the way, outside of Kodi my network card reaches about 200Mbps while getting files from the server. So I'm sure it's not that.

[pinoy]

Hi pinoy, this is the Windows forum, I am using Windows, not Raspberry Pi (nothing against it, I think it's a brilliant piece of hardware).

Fair call being a Windows forum...

but in retrospect if you read the thread, there were people posting regarding the same problem but with their RPI2s.

Regarding whether its a windows issue -

I've just done some testing on 2 x Windows laptops with fresh Kodi 14.2 installs.
A. i3 with Win10, connected @130mbps wlan
B. i5 with Win7pro, connected @130mbps wlan

both are connecting via smb to a machine with a win8.1 pro connected via a gigabit NIC. All are going thru a Fritzbox 7390.

Currently both are simultaneously streaming the same concert which is a 6gb .ts video.. When pressing "O' to view the stats all are behaving and No buffer issues whatsoever and is always full.

No caching issue, both started in a second after being selected, and are playing fluid motion video. No stutter at all.

Tried to replicate Mad55's advancedsettings.xml in one machine. Still no buffer issues and playing fluidly.

Have you tried to eliminate:

1. NUC (try on another machine)
2. ROUTER/SWITCH (connect it via lan)
3. NETWORK ISSUES (try directly connecting it to your Server via cable. Try limiting both nic to 100mbps/FD, try updating your NICs to the latest driver/firmware)



EDIT:

I've narrowed my problem down to my Fritzbox 7930 being the culprit!

I've decided to powerup my 48port gigabit dell switch. Hook up the RPI, SMB server & the frizt onto this. Problem solved.. No pauses on any videos.

@ashlar

Not sure what machine you have, but as a networking guy I've come across many intel based AC wifi adapters ,eg 7260 series that have severe driver issues that Intel seems to just cannot fix!

[ashlar]

I'm not using Wi-Fi. I want to stream BluRay rips from Google Drive. I have the bandwidth to do it and Drive sends stuff fast enough my way. It does that if I download the file (Aliens BD remuxed to mkv copies in about an hour or so, for a movie more than two hours long). It's Kodi that creates the problem, not my networking setup.

btw, I remarked about Windows only to say that I was on a totally different setup with respect to RPI2, I wasn't complaining about off-topic or anything like that. Just clarifying my setup.

[pinoy]

I'm not using Wi-Fi. I want to stream BluRay rips from Google Drive. I have the bandwidth to do it and Drive sends stuff fast enough my way. It does that if I download the file

(Aliens BD remuxed to mkv copies in about an hour or so, for a movie more than two hours long). It's Kodi that creates the problem, not my networking setup.

I really think you are misunderstanding the purpose of my posts.

Simple really.

1. It is safe to assume that most people on this thread is refering to Streaming Data from some kind of a file server within the LAN to a kodi client.

2. I'm a network & systems engineer. Not a soft/hw dev. When troubleshooting such as this, I'd make 100% sure to eliminate Networking Issues by identifying any bottlenecks. Then optimize the network wherever you can.

3. If the problem still persist then you can safely move on to find problems with other devices (such as your client or even kodi). But until you haven't optimized your network, seeing the issue is related to data stream.. then you cannot discount that. Just because you have enough BW doesn't mean its a clean data stream or even in my case the Router was the problem.

4. Have you even considered my proposal.. Seeing there is extra processing on your all in one dsl/router/switch device connecting all your server/clients to it. Why not relieve some of its duty and Implement say a gigabit switch and hook up all your devices to that instead. Just to see if things will improve, eliminate the dslrouterswitch device as a problem.

5. What equipment do you have anyhow? Perhaps we can try to replciate your setup.

6. Are you really planning to stream directly from Google Drive, Bluray mkv movies? via wan (internet) link? or via a mapped local file server synced to google drive ? Interesting to say the least.

7. I understand your other post elsewhere. I was getting this type of buffering issues via wired connection. I was able to eliminate it by putting a dedicated gigabit switch and relieve some duties from my adslrouter Fritzbox 7930.

8. I am almost sure that there is NO one fix all to many different buffering problems raised (including what u think is a bug you've come across). But it shouldn't discount the fact that this will help others resolve a buffering issue related to Networking. It should also point others in helping them Optimize their network & identify bottlenecks within the network.

[Mad55]

After long, long testings it came out it was an issue with my Realtek GBE driver. Resuming my machine from hibernate resulted in crappy network performance in some applications.