2015-01-05, 15:03
2015-01-23, 14:29
So, no fix in the newer versions? I've tried 14.1 and the 15.0 nightlies, and there are still caching issues that weren't there in Gotham for me.
2015-01-30, 12:29
I've been having this exact same problem with a wired ethernet connection. My chain is Synology DS412+ (gigabit ethernet)->Netgear ProSafe Gigabit switch->Intel NUC DN2820 running OpenElec. So, gigabit ethernet throughout the chain. The Intel has 4GB RAM and a 250GB SSD drive.
I've also been getting cache depletion issues leading to blurray MKV's (30-38Mb/s) stopping so the cache can be refilled. I can sit and watch it refill the cache very, very slowly. So, somethings clearly not right.
Anyway, I played around with advancedsettings.xml and the configuration below appears to have solved the problem for now:
<network>
<buffermode>1</buffermode>
<cachemembuffersize>157286400</cachemembuffersize>
<readbufferfactor>50</readbufferfactor>
</network>
These are exactly as recommended by the Kodi team themselves with *the exception* that I configured the readbufferfactor to '50' rather than their recommended '20'. To clarify, I do get cache depletion issues when readbufferfactor is set to '20'.
Now the cache is constantly full at about 75Mb even when the audio/video bitrate reaches a combined total of nearly 40Mb/s (the silica sandstorm in Prometheus is a good test!). The cache hardly budged from that 75Mb number and it fills almost instantly when you start a movie from scratch.
I've had no other problems since but will report back after further testing but, I agree with others comments here, this looks like a bug in Kodi Helix network caching library.
Hope this helps.
Rich
I've also been getting cache depletion issues leading to blurray MKV's (30-38Mb/s) stopping so the cache can be refilled. I can sit and watch it refill the cache very, very slowly. So, somethings clearly not right.
Anyway, I played around with advancedsettings.xml and the configuration below appears to have solved the problem for now:
<network>
<buffermode>1</buffermode>
<cachemembuffersize>157286400</cachemembuffersize>
<readbufferfactor>50</readbufferfactor>
</network>
These are exactly as recommended by the Kodi team themselves with *the exception* that I configured the readbufferfactor to '50' rather than their recommended '20'. To clarify, I do get cache depletion issues when readbufferfactor is set to '20'.
Now the cache is constantly full at about 75Mb even when the audio/video bitrate reaches a combined total of nearly 40Mb/s (the silica sandstorm in Prometheus is a good test!). The cache hardly budged from that 75Mb number and it fills almost instantly when you start a movie from scratch.
I've had no other problems since but will report back after further testing but, I agree with others comments here, this looks like a bug in Kodi Helix network caching library.
Hope this helps.
Rich
2015-02-10, 00:09
Yeah, you know there are issues with Kodi when I'm getting pausing/caching issues with Kodi running on a wired PC but not with Gotham using the exact same advancedsettings running on a laptop over wifi playing the same content.
2015-03-01, 15:05
I'm having a similar problem with VQ/AQ depleting, even when the cache is showing over 100mb stored. This is with the data stored locally, but when a lot of hard disk activity is happening.
2015-03-21, 06:28
I have the same issue with the new raspberry pi 2
I know the devs need some information to find this bug,
so i'm trying to be specific, so you can reproduce it.
first,
i tested on two pi2's which i wanted to give away as a birthday present
with OpenELEC-RPi2.arm-5.0.6.img.gz
tested with lan and wlan,
both showed the same results.
my network should not be a problem,
becaus on my nuc kodi is running well, without buffering issues.
my media is stored on a dedicated machine,
which i'm accessing via network-storage per ssh
the servers bandwith is 1Gbit,
and i can download from it with nearly fullspeed of my 100mbit internet connection (11 - 12mb/s)
i've tried to watch the same movie on my nuc and the pi2
where the pi2 is downloading with ~900kb/s from the server, and the nuc, as fast as it needs to.
i checked this speeds over the server terminal.
i can only watch movies, or shows which require less then 900kb/s download speed to be playbacked smoothly
also i tried the "solutions" people talk about at various boards and sites,
like buffermode, buffersize and so on in the advancedsettings.xml
to reproduce this, you need a pi2 and OpenELEC-RPi2.arm-5.0.6.img.gz
dd it to the sd, plugg it in, wait for OE to install,
configure the network storage (in my case it was over ssh protokoll)
feel free to ask me anything.
if someone has the same issues, pls reply
so this gets fixed soon.
sorry for my grammar
I know the devs need some information to find this bug,
so i'm trying to be specific, so you can reproduce it.
first,
i tested on two pi2's which i wanted to give away as a birthday present
with OpenELEC-RPi2.arm-5.0.6.img.gz
tested with lan and wlan,
both showed the same results.
my network should not be a problem,
becaus on my nuc kodi is running well, without buffering issues.
my media is stored on a dedicated machine,
which i'm accessing via network-storage per ssh
the servers bandwith is 1Gbit,
and i can download from it with nearly fullspeed of my 100mbit internet connection (11 - 12mb/s)
i've tried to watch the same movie on my nuc and the pi2
where the pi2 is downloading with ~900kb/s from the server, and the nuc, as fast as it needs to.
i checked this speeds over the server terminal.
i can only watch movies, or shows which require less then 900kb/s download speed to be playbacked smoothly
also i tried the "solutions" people talk about at various boards and sites,
like buffermode, buffersize and so on in the advancedsettings.xml
to reproduce this, you need a pi2 and OpenELEC-RPi2.arm-5.0.6.img.gz
dd it to the sd, plugg it in, wait for OE to install,
configure the network storage (in my case it was over ssh protokoll)
feel free to ask me anything.
if someone has the same issues, pls reply
so this gets fixed soon.
sorry for my grammar
2015-03-21, 14:24
(2015-03-21, 06:28)DrWonderBra Wrote: I have the same issue with the new raspberry pi 2
See: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/6733
There appears to be a bug in current code where the "cache full" popup occurs unnecessarily when readbufferfactor>1 (it is 4 by default on OE).
You can try a Milhouse nightly build which has the linked PR included.
Note: this is a nightly build which uses a newer database version. Might be advisable to backup first. It would be useful information if this build helps.
2015-03-21, 17:53
quick test before i went to work:
so far, i downloaded the nightly millhouse build,
used the included create-sdcard script,
but openelec freezed at boot.
you could see the blue wallpaper from kodi confluence skin, and thats it.
this needs more testing, maybe a redo of the sdcard
i will test this as soon as i have time.
interessting note btw:
on my nuc i used sshfs to mount the remote device,
and than added the movie source via /home/user/mount folder
that works fine. (i think then kodi thinks this is local media)
i tested to add a network-device over kodi via ssh/sftp protokoll,
and than i have the same buffering issues with my nuc.
seems to be a problem with the ssh/sftp plugin/code.
also increasing readbufferbafactor seems to have no impact whatsoever. even with numbers over 75.
so far, i downloaded the nightly millhouse build,
used the included create-sdcard script,
but openelec freezed at boot.
you could see the blue wallpaper from kodi confluence skin, and thats it.
this needs more testing, maybe a redo of the sdcard
i will test this as soon as i have time.
interessting note btw:
on my nuc i used sshfs to mount the remote device,
and than added the movie source via /home/user/mount folder
that works fine. (i think then kodi thinks this is local media)
i tested to add a network-device over kodi via ssh/sftp protokoll,
and than i have the same buffering issues with my nuc.
seems to be a problem with the ssh/sftp plugin/code.
also increasing readbufferbafactor seems to have no impact whatsoever. even with numbers over 75.
2015-03-21, 18:03
(2015-03-21, 17:53)DrWonderBra Wrote: quick test before i went to work:
so far, i downloaded the nightly millhouse build,
used the included create-sdcard script,
but openelec freezed at boot.
Make sure you got the correct Pi1 or Pi2 build.
It is normal to update from the stable by copying the downloaded tar file to the Update folder and rebooting.
No need to use the create_sdcard script.
http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php/Updating_OpenELEC
2015-03-23, 20:42
hello again,
i used the newest millhous nightly,
#0322, 22-Mar-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New firmware; enable Spectrum and Waveform music visualizations)
and followd the update procedure as described here:
http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php/Updating_OpenELEC
still the same problem,
i have massive buffering issues over sftp/ssh protokoll
the pi2 is buffering with max 900kb/s...
i hope there will be a solution for this :/
i used the newest millhous nightly,
#0322, 22-Mar-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New firmware; enable Spectrum and Waveform music visualizations)
and followd the update procedure as described here:
http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php/Updating_OpenELEC
still the same problem,
i have massive buffering issues over sftp/ssh protokoll
the pi2 is buffering with max 900kb/s...
i hope there will be a solution for this :/
2015-03-23, 22:39
i've tested also osmc now
because there is a accessable and most important changeable debian system.
when i use the implemented network source via ssh/sftp i get the same results with OE.
but, when i ssh into the machine, install sshfs, and mount the device manually,
everything works fine. i did this to determine wether the pi2 or it's network interface is the bottleneck or neither of them.
maybe this can help to narrow the bug down.
because there is a accessable and most important changeable debian system.
when i use the implemented network source via ssh/sftp i get the same results with OE.
but, when i ssh into the machine, install sshfs, and mount the device manually,
everything works fine. i did this to determine wether the pi2 or it's network interface is the bottleneck or neither of them.
maybe this can help to narrow the bug down.
2015-04-26, 07:17
Any progress with final v14.2? I'm stilling running v14.2 RC1.
2015-06-15, 04:53
Solved (for me):
Since I had a good reason to believe that there was nothing wrong with my box (CuBox-i4Pro), i went looking at the network.
All I had to do was enable "Global Flow Control (IEEE 802.3x) Mode" on my ethernet switch. No more cache problems. In fact I have switched to the default buffering mode "0" since I do not seem to need local caching anymore.
Granted, your network and your device may be different.
Good luck!
Since I had a good reason to believe that there was nothing wrong with my box (CuBox-i4Pro), i went looking at the network.
All I had to do was enable "Global Flow Control (IEEE 802.3x) Mode" on my ethernet switch. No more cache problems. In fact I have switched to the default buffering mode "0" since I do not seem to need local caching anymore.
Granted, your network and your device may be different.
Good luck!
2015-06-15, 21:14
(2015-06-15, 04:53)andrabr Wrote: Solved (for me):
What andrabr has mentioned is on the right track. Everything is to do with FLOWCONTROL. Mix'n'match between gigabit devices & 100mbps can play havoc in your network, especially with many home grade router/switches.
I am guessing most people here are hooking up their media servers via a Gigabit Port?
Easiest "WORKAROUND" to the problem:
1. If settings in your router/switch doesn't allow you control over flow control, then FORCE your CONNECTION to sync @ 100mbps full duplex. ie. go to your file servers nic and force it to sync at 100mbps full duplex. Obviously you'll severely cut down your gigabit capacity, but it will fix your stutters from flow control pauses.
edit:
note -
Refering to Raspberry Pi 2 b for the kodi client
Eliminated hardware setting on the Pi 2b (used various optimization configs on both config.txt & advancedsettings.xml)
Tested Router/Switch/Modem & other addon that struggled before the adjustment -
* Fritzbox AVM7390
* Various Billion 7800
* Tested a usb nic plugged on the rpi 2
Further test when I have time -
Gonna test with other gigabit NIC on the mediaserver (the one i had installed was an old realtek chipset, with latest driver).
Ensure to have latest firmware/driver on all devices
Try directly plugging both mediaserver + rpi 2 on a dedicated unmanaged & managed switch
I'll try using a wifi on the rpi 2.
What this test solved when using 100mbps full duplex end to end -
Fluid motion picture on my 2 to 6GB ( .ts .mov, .mkv) files that used to be unwatchable due to stuttering/pausing
2015-06-18, 21:21
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.
I could not find flow control on my Netgear Router.
