Maybe the new improved readrate buffering?
In fact can anyone explain how readbufferfactor is meant to work, is it still in conjunction with cachemembuffersize?
In the codec info window, is cachemembuffersize the initial value of vb: xxxx as whatever I set cachemembuffersize to in my advancedsettings.xml, it always starts off at 9830400.
Increasing or lowering readbufferfactor seems to have no effect on how much is read per second by my Pi (latest openelec-3.2 git build, 1GHz ARM, wired ethernet, XBMC NFS) as my Pi is reading between 2.1MB/s and 2.5MB/s when playing "Blade Runner - Final Cut" (VC1 video with codec license, Dolby Digital 5.1 audio selected although it also has a TrueHD track and three DD2.0 tracks). This movie buffers frequently but I actually think it buffered less (as in never, except when starting) with builds from a month or two ago.
I'd have expected the Pi to buffer more (ie. read more from the network) as the buffer began to run down, but no - it always reads roughly the same amount no matter what setting I specify and consequently it rapidly gets to a point where the buffer is empty and the movie stutters while it is refilled.
Edit1: Reverting to a build from Jul 5, I see the buffer increasing quite nicely while playing this same movie, with network traffic peaking noticeably higher (as high as 4.5MB/s), thus keeping the buffer filled with no buffering/stuttering. So somewhere in the last few weeks there has been a regression with respect to network buffering. Will roll forward through my builds and try to narrow it down...
Edit2: The buffering changes noticeably for the worse between the following two builds (from the openelec-3.2 branch):
Code:
OpenELEC-RPi.arm-devel-20130721181939-r15042 (Jun 6 2013 18:30:04 firmware)
OpenELEC-RPi.arm-devel-20130726174835-r15231 (Jul 22 2013 22:07:37 firmware)
The Jul 26 build buffers "Blade Runner" with seemingly capped network reads, which is what I still see today and so it rapidly exhausts the buffer.
It doesn't appear to be firmware related, as using the Jun 6 firmware with the Jul 26 build results in no obvious difference - the Jul 26 build with Jun 6 firmware continues to buffer with restricted network read rates. Anyone able to suggest a possible cause?
During these tests I've been using default OpenELEC advancedsettings.xml values, ie. cachemembuffersize: 20971520.