[haffi]

Can someone that know how this works give a good explain on how this is done in XBMC for apple tv2. Is there a 8MB buffer or ? does it shrink / enlarge depending on how many time it buffers ?

In the old days on Xbox orginal you could play with this buffer. How is this done today ?

The reason I ask is that there are many questions and Threads here that are buffer related ( protocol ) and such which seams to see empty buffers or low buffers.

For example I am trying to a play a 4.5 MB stream of MPEG2 from MythTV ( Live TV ) and on WIFI it constantly Stutters ( sound and then Video ) on Ethernet I get less Stutters but still lots of Stutters.
Same thing on MythTV frontend ( on Same Wifi or Ethernet ) everything works fine.

Thanks in advanced.

[darkscout]

It'sa CPU limitation. MPEG2 isn't decoded by the GPU. Check top when trying to play it.

[haffi]

we still have questions needing answer anyone?


its not a cpu issue since its not in full use, its sd mpeg2

[davilla]

we still have questions needing answer anyone?


its not a cpu issue since its not in full use, its sd mpeg2

"sd mpeg2" actually uses much, much more cpu that 1080p h264. Why ? Because mpeg2 is software decoded and h264 is hardware coded. Unless you run 'top', and watch the CPU usage, it's easy to make such erroneous conclusions.

[haffi]

its running around 77-84% cpu

[g-off]

Ok - you got us. We are trying to trick you. Don't believe anything Davilla says. He probably just makes it up. Almost as bad as that Memphiz guy.

MPEG2 at more than sd resolutions are going to be crap. Especially if they are interlaced.
If you want anyone to be more interested you should at least provide a logfile.

[haffi]

I'm more interested in the way the buffer works today rather then consitrade in this example problem , since alot of my mpeg2 dont have any problems at all. and no I am not saying anyone is lying, I just have read and seen so many problems that might seam buffer related problems, that I was wondering how the buffer is working.

but I'm not sure how much cpu power the atv2 can diss out, however in old days pentium II 350 mhz would handel software decode of an mpeg2, anyhow to clear up this specific example the same file works fine from atv2 internal flash mem, but let not spend time on finding this out , just wanted to get some ligt on the buffer and how it works

thanks all in advanced

[haffi]

Can someone that know how this works give a good explain on how this is done in XBMC for apple tv2. Is there a 8MB buffer or ? does it shrink / enlarge depending on how many time it buffers ?

[Ned Scott]

The problem is that people say "buffer" when they should say something like "stutter". Rule out buffering all together my transferring a small sample file directly to the ATV2s internal memory. Or upload a small sample file that show problems to Dropbox and give us the link to try. You can also try running MediaInfo on a file that is having issues.

[haffi]

Im not looking for a souloution just and explanation on how apple tv buffers video, and when I say buffers I mean read a head and store in memory/flash.

[g-off]

Use the Force - read the source

[Ned Scott]

There's nothing special on the ATV2 regarding buffering. It works the same way as XBMC on the desktop. The wiki says it uses ram for the buffer, and that you can adjust it via advancedsettings.xml.