[frumbert]

I have an ATV2 (os 5.2.1) connected to a XBMC PC (vista basic 32-bit) via gigabit ethernet. XBMC is the only app on the ATV2 (other than the standard ones) and I haven't got any other services at all. XBMC on the ATV2 is version 12.2, running the Confluence skin (with all its defaults).

Most of the videos I have have rebuffering issues. Usually this happens about 5 seconds into anything I play (any source resolution), and then at around 40 seconds, and then "frequently" throughout the videos, depending on their resolution. Mostly they are unwatchable.

Many of my videos also experience severe audio lagging, of about 5 seconds difference, rendering everything like that also unwatchable.

I've verified that the media experiencing the audio lag is playing properly on both the host PC, as well as through other types of clients. For instance, I can serve the files to my iPad2 through Air Video (over wifi) without any issues (no audio lag, etc); I can play them on my XBMC clients on XP (via lan), Android (via wifi) and Mac (via wifi) clients, which use SMB to connect to the host PC.

I consulted the wiki to find out possible avenues for making this work on the ATV2 and have done the simple stuff like mentioned here which references here which in turn references here (which is for Win7, so I haven't tried it on Vista yet). Some people tend to blame SMB on windows, and I *would* happily switch to something else, if available. I've looked at FreeNFS for windows, which various people love just does not work for me. The app is broken and doesn't run properly on my Vista. I have no idea how to set up a uPnP server on Vista, or even a FTP server. Would these be viable options instead of SMB? Is that even likely to be my problem?

[Eliah]

debug log (wiki) please. Im guessing the files your trying to play is not a x264?

[frumbert]

http://xbmclogs.com/show.php?id=79048

I launched, played a single file on this log, then uploaded it to xbmclogs, then quit.

The particular file in this example is in fact h264. I ran the file in mplayerx (on macos) and it showed this video info about the file:

http://i.imgur.com/v6MoURn.png

I've previously experienced the choppiness and rebuffering on other files in various formats, like these:

http://i.imgur.com/MypX3Ru.png

[Ned Scott]

Try checking some of these settings:

• I'm not sure if it's related, but there are some LCD (unrelated to TV) errors that can be fixed by going to XBMC -> Settings -> System -> Video output -> and disable the "LCD" option.

• Check XBMC -> Settings -> Video -> Video playback -> and see if "allow hardware acceleration" is turned on.

• Checl XBMC -> Settings -> System -> Audio output -> and make sure all the "...capable receiver" options are turned off.

and see if that improves anything.

[frumbert]

I turned off LCD, Allow hardware accelaration, and "DTS/AC3/Dolby etc", as well as "interface sounds". This all helped to speed up the interface itself - that is, moving left and right on the menu now animates properly rather than being a bit jerky. Videos still lag and drag unfortunately.

[Ned Scott]

Make sure "allow hardware acceleration" is on, rather than off.

Also, run MediaInfo (wiki) on one of the problematic video files.

[frumbert]

"hardware accelleration" does not appear to do anything whether it's on or off, at least on the ATV2.

If you have a look at the screenshots I linked to earlier, you can see the media info.

[Ned Scott]

I've seen those. The program MediaInfo (wiki) will give more data than that.

[jusnogood]

I have a different set-up to you...ATV2 connected via ethernet to my network..connected via NFS and SMB (I've mixed the two just to see if I can tell the difference) to my NAS.

I have had buffering issues in the following situations...

WIFI connection from ATV2 - too much happening on my wifi for this to work (daughter streaming as well as wife surfing/downloading).

I have a big Video library. When I added my very large Music collection I started to get buffering. Perhaps a space issue on the ATV2, not sure, or perhaps it was just a coincidence. I removed Music and it seems fine now.

I had buffering when I had a few processed and a load of files being copied to the NAS I was streaming from.

Also when I try to play a high bit rate 1080p file. Not really investigated seemed to happen when trying to play a large GB file.

Typically I've found on my set-up that buffering is usually caused by something else in my set-up. So I'd suggest doing what Ned said to give more media file information and perhaps closing down everything else on your network and PC to see if it works after you do that, can you monitor what's happening on your PC? Have you tried playing a SD file and a small sized HD file (720p?) to see if that works?