[DJ_Izumi]

I built a XBMCBuntu machine but I'm having issues streaming SMB over the wifi. Since XBMC doesn't buffer for 'local' data, including SMB, sometimes my wireless access point just isn't 'snappy' enough to give XBMC a packet when it wants it and XBMC either stutters or freezes and stops playing. Not only does this affect my AMD XBMCBuntu machine but also XBMC on an Intel laptop running through windows. Stops being an issue over wired Ethernet but that's not a viable solution in my condo.

https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/2607

There's this PR floating around which some people have used in custom RaspberryPi builds that enables caching for SMB and other local sources and I could really benefit from it's use. (So could a LOT of others, I found ENDLESS SMB streaming over wifi threads that are likely all suffering the same issue and no one found a solution). I know the likely answer is 'Compile it yourself and enjoy' but I have zero idea how to do that.

Anyone think they can help me out?

[Kib]

You guessed right, compile it yourself.
HOW-TO:Compile XBMC for Linux (wiki)
HOW-TO:Compile XBMC for Windows (wiki)

It is not included in the main codebase because the pull request is not clean enough to do that. It touched lots of code and might introduce a lot of secondary problems.

Why not use powerline adapters in your condo? Many people do.

[DJ_Izumi]

It is not included in the main codebase because the pull request is not clean enough to do that. It touched lots of code and might introduce a lot of secondary problems.

Why not use powerline adapters in your condo? Many people do.

Firstly, because I already blew $200 on an Asus RT-AC66U. Not keen on buying more network gear to deal with XBMC's lack of any buffer for SMB sources.

I did a lot of digging for a solution to my issue and found a lot of threads with the same problem and rarely any solution. Problem seems picky about network hardware but without buffering XBMC gets unhappy if it doesn't get an immediate response when it requests a packet. In my case, sometimes that happens on every few hours sometimes every few minutes. The absence of SMB (and other network sources) buffering seems a bit short sighted in a world where wireless Ethernet of various qualities is everywhere.

[nickr]

Frankly relying on wireless for video playback seems equally short sighted.