[colon7]

First, please forgive my poor English. I, as a non-native speaker, will try my best to describe my question clearly.

I'm using a Sony Z9F TV (android 8.0). Kodi 18.2 installed(32bit, also curious about why can't I install the 64bit one). 
Through 5G WIFI, using Webdav connected to a Synology NAS.

Actually I have already tried several protocols to make the NAS as source. For ordinary movie files(BD iso included), all the protocols work perfectly. But I have lots of 4k movies in the form of BDMV folders in the NAS, things are very different.

NFS/SMB: starting loads very fast. but during the playing the loading circle appears every 2-3 minutes. stutters a lot. (I checked the router log, it seems these two protocols can't make full use of the network bandwidth.)
FTP: takes a unacceptable long period of loading time before start playing. but once starts, it plays very smoothly.
Webdav: the loading time and streaming speed are both good, but new problem appears. To play a same movie, sometimes it works perfectly; sometimes it can't even start, the loading circle spins for sereval seconds then disappears like nothing happened. this problem appears very often but irregularly.

Here's a log showing a typical senario, that for the same movie, first it blanked out; the second try, it played good. (Not sure whether I make the Log right.)
https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/yQ4Z3GtxGR/

It bothered me a lot since I cannot find a perfect protocol.
I also tried to exclude some possible reason. everything worked good on my android phone under same network.
Please kindly give me some advice. Thank you.

[colon7]

Anyone have same problem?
And please kindly let me know if any developer is reviewing this problem. Thanks.

[colon7]

Is it a bug that I need to report to the github site or something?
Sorry for the bump. Just not sure if anyone's checking it.

[jools5000]

I think you might find WebDAV is only used by a small number of people, hence why you haven't had many answers.  SMB/NFS are much more popular

Sony's Android implementation isn't very good and I am not suprised you found problems (I'm saying this as a Sony Bravia TV owner as well).  I use a separate device for running Kodi

You have done the right things by trying different protocols. 

Can you try using a wired connection to the TV? Wired tends to be more reliable than Wi-fi.

[supertoto1977]

Hi,

As jools5000 said, use NFS/SMB shares. Be carefull the wired connection is limited to 100M which is not enough to stream full 4K movies.
For the sutters, you need a custom advancesettings.xml to increase the cache. I can play 4K rip (not full) with a wired connection and without stutters. 
You can check the wiki or ask google to know how to create and deploy the advancesettings.xml in Kodi for Android.
My advancesettings.xml in my Sony AF9 looks like :

<advancedsettings>
    <cache>
        <memorysize>262144000</memorysize>  <!-- number of bytes used for buffering streams in memory When set to 0 the cache will be written to disk instead of RAM -->
        <buffermode>1</buffermode>  <!-- Choose what to buffer:
    0) Buffer all internet filesystems (like "2" but additionally also ftp, webdav, etc.) (default)
    1) Buffer all filesystems (including local)
    2) Only buffer true internet filesystems (streams) (http, etc.)
    3) No buffer -->
        <readfactor>8.0</readfactor> <!-- this factor determines the max readrate in terms of readbufferfactor * avg bitrate of a video file.
                                          This can help on bad connections to keep the cache filled. It will also greatly speed up buffering. Default value 4.0. -->
    </cache>
</advancedsettings>

[supertoto1977]

Sorry, the good filename is advancedsettings.xml and not advancesettings.xm

[colon7]

I think you might find WebDAV is only used by a small number of people, hence why you haven't had many answers.  SMB/NFS are much more popular

Sony's Android implementation isn't very good and I am not suprised you found problems (I'm saying this as a Sony Bravia TV owner as well).  I use a separate device for running Kodi

You have done the right things by trying different protocols. 

Can you try using a wired connection to the TV? Wired tends to be more reliable than Wi-fi.

Agree! Sony's not doing its work good!
Wired connection is not very convenient for me, and AFAIK the Ethernet port of Bravia TV is only 100M (Shame on Sony!:-( ) , perhaps not enough for BD playing.
I just hope NFS/SMB on my TV could make full use of the bandwidth, in that case everything would be perfect.
Thanks for your advice.

[colon7]

Hi,

As jools5000 said, use NFS/SMB shares. Be carefull the wired connection is limited to 100M which is not enough to stream full 4K movies.
For the sutters, you need a custom advancesettings.xml to increase the cache. I can play 4K rip (not full) with a wired connection and without stutters. 
You can check the wiki or ask google to know how to create and deploy the advancesettings.xml in Kodi for Android.
My advancesettings.xml in my Sony AF9 looks like :

<advancedsettings>
    <cache>
        <memorysize>262144000</memorysize>  <!-- number of bytes used for buffering streams in memory When set to 0 the cache will be written to disk instead of RAM -->
        <buffermode>1</buffermode>  <!-- Choose what to buffer:
    0) Buffer all internet filesystems (like "2" but additionally also ftp, webdav, etc.) (default)
    1) Buffer all filesystems (including local)
    2) Only buffer true internet filesystems (streams) (http, etc.)
    3) No buffer -->
        <readfactor>8.0</readfactor> <!-- this factor determines the max readrate in terms of readbufferfactor * avg bitrate of a video file.
                                          This can help on bad connections to keep the cache filled. It will also greatly speed up buffering. Default value 4.0. -->
    </cache>
</advancedsettings>

Hi there.
I tried adding this xml file before. It did help in lower bitrate movie streaming, but didn't solve my problem.
I just don't know why SMB/NFS can't make full use of the bandwidth, since FTP/Webdav can stream much higher bitrate movies(like over 60Mbps)  perfectly. And I even tried two high-end routers, same results.
Could you please try streaming a Larger one through SMB/NFS sometime? I'm guessing it's possibly a protocol problem in Sony TV android implementation.

Thank you so much for your reply.

[supertoto1977]

Hello,

I tried with a full 4K bluray (bitrate > 80Mbps). No stutter/buffering issues with NFS share, Wifi AC and my advancedsettings file (mandatory for 4K) on my Sony AF9.
With the 100MB wired connection, i had some buffering as expected when the bitrate is too high.
With the Wifi AC, the output in Kodi (Ctrl+O) shows that the buffer is full.

My network is very simple : NAS (NFS shares) -> ISP Modem Router -> TV in the same room.
I disabled the IPV6 on my router.
I disabled the wifi automatic search in the TV network options.
I have no app like netflix or amazon prime installed. no notification for the apps.

Do you have the last firmware? because Sony provided a fix for the Wifi issues on the AF9 and ZF9.
Moreover, you can try with MrMc (it works for me too).