Hi guys.. this is my first post here and i'd like to say thanks to all the guys who put in the hard work for building imo the best media centre money doesn't buy!
I have a small problem now.. i've been using xbmc for a few years now.. but i've never had a problem streaming movies over my network. I have my pc running xp pro plugged into my small cable router which is also plug into my xbox and my modem.
Now ever since i upgraded to v2.0 my videos(which are shared on my pc) don't seem to stream correctly.. every now and then there is a slight stutter when playing back on xbmc. like a half-second pause every couple of minutes.
This primarily happens when streaming avi & mov files.
I've tried maxing out the cache sizes on xbmc video/audio but i still have the same problem.. does anyone know what could be causing this?
Any help is much appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Dre
This may or may not be your problem, but either way, its good to do... double check your switch configuration. If it doesnt allow you to hard set the ports to 100/full (which most dont), then be sure to set all your devices to auto speed and duplex. A mismatch between auto mode and 100/full usually puts the auto side into 100/half mode which can cause throughput issues.
Dre,
Second what kraqh3d said...
Also, as I just discovered, try unplugging the power on your switch/router for a few seconds, as I have found this can help w/ speed issues w/ my Linksys.
Good luck!
jc
thanks guys.. i'll give it a whirl tonight.
I tried both ideas and they didn't seem to fix the problem.. 700mb avi's play fine most of the time.. but i just tried a 200mb avi and it started stuttering hard! never had the problem before with the same file before v2.0.. weird?
and what should the cache settings be set to? 4096 or 16000?
The lower number the less stutter
quite the opposite actually.
the video cache size defines the amount of memory (in KB) that xbmc uses as an in memory buffer to store data that has already been fetched from disk or network which is still waiting to be processing and displayed to screen.
the larger the buffer, the longer it takes befor the video starts because xbmc waits for the buffer to hit a certain percentage full (i believe its 80% but dont quote me on that.) the intention is to read ahead as much as possible so that video playback is less affected by network issues.
essentially, xbmc is pulling data from from the "front" of the buffer while at the same time still reading "ahead" and refilling it at the "back".
one gotcha with changing the cache size is that this now means xbmc cant use that memory for other things. in particular, high-def output and large video cache sizes dont mix.
I have exactly the same problem as the original poster. I've been using this hardware configuration for two years without changes, the only thing I changed is updating to 2.0. So a hardware problem is highly unlikely.
Stuttering is very heavy especially at the beginning of files. For some files I can skip forward and backward again which makes the stuttering go away, but audio is out of sync then.
audio should never be out of sync after a seek. what kind of file is that? the stuttering could be because of the video database. try renaming the myvideos... file in UserData, to just verify that that is the case.
Just tried the file in Zoomplayer, it seems as if the problem is really with the video, when I jump into the middle of the file (which I did previously to test if it's okay) or anywhere else ist plays fine. When I play it from the beginning, there is neither sound nor video, so I think I'll have to fix this myself and it's not xbmc's fault. Please ignore this part of my previous post. Will try the videodatabase suggestion later.
Update: renamed video database and stuttering at the beginning of movies goes away. Searched the forums and found out that this seems to be a well-known problem. Strangely enough I've never had this problem with a database of 1000+ movies before.
Howerver, minor hangs during movies (like pressing pause and resuming immediately afterwards) still occur even after renaming the database.
This did not work for me. I'm currently using vlc to streaming from MyTheatre and it works flawlessly. However, any video that I stream via SMB will stop and start. When the video file starts playback I notice that the cache is at 0%, if I pause the video it will build up to 80% but will eventually get back to 0% and stop and start. If I stream that same video through vlc then it works just like the Mytheatre stream (obviously) and plays great with the cache hovering around 50-60%. Now, I'm guessing it must be the SMB protocol causing this. I suppose my real question here is, is anyone able to stream via SMB without these issues. BTW, I'm using a dlink wireless 802.11g router which is connected to a laptop w/ a dlink 802.11g wireless USB adapter bridged via 100mbps network card to my xbox.
I don't think this problem is related to caching issues. When I stream files through smb, the cache is constantly filled at 80% but the pause/play hang occurs anyway.
Possibly it's got to do with some things xbmc is doing in the background (if it does), because I can reproduce the hang if I turn off the harddrive during video playback, switch to the main menu while the file is still playing and cycle through the menu items "My Music" "My Videos" etc. For each movement of the cursor you get exactly the same hang that also occurs during smb playback hangs.
BTW: Are you using Multipath-bookmarks for smb?
I don't think I'm using Multipath bookmarks, where do I check that. I'm not using bookmarks at all that I'm aware of.
I believe SMB is the problem, but have no idea how to go about modifing those settings, except for cache which has done nothing. For me the cache is at 0% when the file starts, so it seems as though it's not filling up enough before it starts or throughout playback.
funny thing is.. this problem with the stuttering (pause/play) during a movie only started ever since upgrading to v2.0.. before that i NEVER had a problem.. weird?
