[bagofcrap24]

I have a quick question regarding some recommended advanced settings if that's OK.

Problem
Playback of 40-50mb/s bluray content has stop start buffering issues.
This issue is not present on another htpc on a 100mb nic.

I have my NFS shares mounted via autostart.sh so they appear as a local drive.
I added force buffer 1 and added a 20mb ram cache. Any less and I get an error about the cache being full before playback has started.
This solves the stop start buffering issue but leaves me with very little ram spare on a 256/256 setup.

My question is, is there a better setup to avoid the buffering problem?

[popcornmix]

I have my NFS shares mounted via autostart.sh so they appear as a local drive.

What mount options are you using?
You might want to try UDP and increase the block sizes. E.g.

Code:

mount 192.168.4.9:/Public -o nfsvers=3,rw,intr,noatime,rsize=32768,wsize=32768,nolock,async,proto=udp /storage/mnt

[bagofcrap24]

What mount options are you using?
You might want to try UDP and increase the block sizes. E.g.

Code:

mount 192.168.4.9:/Public -o nfsvers=3,rw,intr,noatime,rsize=32768,wsize=32768,nolock,async,proto=udp /storage/mnt

I am currently using

Code:

mount -t nfs //192.168.1.60:/DVDs /media/DVDs -o nolock

I will have a play about with some of the other variables and see if I get sorted without the cache

EDIT:
OK, the mount is read only.
increased "Hanewin NFS Server"'s NFS transfer size up to 32768 bytes and changed the mount script to process as

Code:

mount -t nfs //192.168.1.60:/DVDs /media/DVDs -o nfsvers=3,intr,noatime,rsize=32768,wsize=32768,nolock,async,proto=udp

All is looking good now. Cheers for the advice popcornmix

[Milhouse]

New OpenELEC Helix build: #0525
(Supercedes previous build)

Code:

# uname -a
Linux rpi512 3.14.4 #1 PREEMPT Sat May 24 22:56:08 BST 2014 armv6l GNU/Linux

# vcgencmd version
May 23 2014 19:17:25
Copyright (c) 2012 Broadcom
version 21d0de90961749983d49ec4e819a98a8ba4287fc (clean) (release)

# lsb_release
OpenELEC_Helix (Milhouse) - Version: devel-20140524225909-r18461-gef698a1

Based on tip of OpenELEC master (ef698a1, changelog) and tip of XBMC master (6806c33, changelog) with the following modifications:

• Includes newclock3 (except for a6a85a6, a patch to avoid hammering the GUI, which has been replaced with a static spinner)
  
• Includes Python regex package for evaluation purposes. Initial benchmarking indicates generally positive (and in some cases, significant) performance gains. See this post for a description of how to test effectiveness of this package with addons
  
• Excludes the OpenELEC fernetmenta patches due to conflicts with newclock3
  
• Excludes the OpenELEC linux-01-RPi_support patch in favour of sourcing these and possibly more recent patches directly from kernel branch rpi-3.14.y
  
• Excludes the OpenELEC xbmc-master-newclock3 patch in favour of sourcing these and possibly more recent patches directly from newclock3 branch
  
• Default setting for "Show RSS Feed" changed to disabled
  
• Disabled "Total Duration" in Confluence (see build #0221 for details)
  
• ALSA is enabled and any suitable hardware should be available in XBMC Audio Settings
  
• FIQ FSM is enabled by default. See initial post for more details.
  

Build Highlights:

1. OpenELEC:
   • strace: remove package, moved to unofficial addon repo
     
2. XBMC:
   • [guilib] Drop back compatibility code and inconsistencies (PR:4613)
     
   • [confluence] change buttons to edit controls (see #4613) (PR:4627)
     
   • [Confluence] adjustments needed by PR4613 (PR:4772)
     
   • [AE/osxsink] - bugfixes (PR:4769)
     
   • [rbp/omxplayer] Reset display region when video stream properties change (PR:4666)
     
   • settings: a setting should be disabled if its parent setting is disabled (PR:4771)
     
   • [info] Only extract thumbnails and video info from real video stream (PR:4779)
     

[Hip-Gnosis]

Hi. I'm just wondering how to get tvheadend-3.9.681 working? I've updated to the latest Milhouse build (#0525) and I don't see any available updates for the 'tvheadend' service or 'TvHeadend HTSP Client'. I'm still on tvheadend-3.4.27. Am I missing something? Thanks.

[Milhouse]

Hi. I'm just wondering how to get tvheadend-3.9.681 working? I've updated to the latest Milhouse build (#0525) and I don't see any available updates for the 'tvheadend' service or 'TvHeadend HTSP Client'. I'm still on tvheadend-3.4.27. Am I missing something? Thanks.

Have a look at the linked PR in build #0523. Addons like tvheadend are external to the main project build I'm providing here but test versions of tvheadend are available from the developers (download link in the PR). Once they publish their updated addon to the repository you should be able to upgrade, assuming you're not already on a test version.

[Hip-Gnosis]

OK. Got it Thanks Milhouse!

[Psyduckap]

Hi MilhouseVH.

I've been reading but I haven't it clear.
Can I use an usb sound card for doing passthrough with omxplayer in Helix or only with dvdplayer like in Gotham?

Thanks for your time.

[popcornmix]

I've been reading but I haven't it clear.
Can I use an usb sound card for doing passthrough with omxplayer in Helix or only with dvdplayer like in Gotham?

omxplayer renders audio from the GPU and has no knowledge of ALSA.
You will need to use dvdplayer.

[schub]

It is also reproducible with my own rpi-3.12-y based build.
It is not reproducible with my own rip-3.10-y based build, which also includes the FIQ fixes.

Does anyone of you guys have an idea whats going wrong or were to look into?

No idea really, but it would be nice to understand and fix.

If 3.10.y is okay and 3.12.y is not then it may be an upstream change (possibly to DVB-C USB stick driver, or lirc)
If you can build your own custom kernels, it may be possible to revert changes from 3.12.y tree (that aren't in 3.10.y) tree.
If you can identify the change that caused the problem, I expect we can do something about it.

Hi popcornmix,

yes i can build my own kernels. But reverting changes from 3.12.y sound like a lot of work.
I really don't know how to get all the reverted commits out of the git repository?
Once i have all the reverted commits, i can rewind 3.12.y and hopefully find a working revision.

Best Regards

[Milhouse]

New OpenELEC Helix build: #0526
(Supercedes previous build)

Code:

# uname -a
Linux rpi512 3.14.4 #1 PREEMPT Mon May 26 20:06:27 BST 2014 armv6l GNU/Linux

# vcgencmd version
May 23 2014 19:17:25
Copyright (c) 2012 Broadcom
version 21d0de90961749983d49ec4e819a98a8ba4287fc (clean) (release)

# lsb_release
OpenELEC_Helix (Milhouse) - Version: devel-20140526200520-r18473-gd1c84e1

Based on tip of OpenELEC master (d1c84e1, changelog) and tip of XBMC master (34dfc7c, changelog) with the following modifications:

• Includes newclock3 (except for a6a85a6, a patch to avoid hammering the GUI, which has been replaced with a static spinner)
  
• Includes Python regex package for evaluation purposes. Initial benchmarking indicates generally positive (and in some cases, significant) performance gains. See this post for a description of how to test effectiveness of this package with addons
  
• Excludes the OpenELEC fernetmenta patches due to conflicts with newclock3
  
• Excludes the OpenELEC linux-01-RPi_support patch in favour of sourcing these and possibly more recent patches directly from kernel branch rpi-3.14.y
  
• Excludes the OpenELEC xbmc-master-newclock3 patch in favour of sourcing these and possibly more recent patches directly from newclock3 branch
  
• Default setting for "Show RSS Feed" changed to disabled
  
• Disabled "Total Duration" in Confluence (see build #0221 for details)
  
• ALSA is enabled and any suitable hardware should be available in XBMC Audio Settings
  
• FIQ FSM is enabled by default. See initial post for more details.
  

Build Highlights:

1. OpenELEC:
   • wireless-regdb: update to wireless-regdb-2014.05.19
     
   • e2fsprogs: remove unneeded applets from image
     
   • e2fsprogs: add initramfs support, include e2fsck to initramfs
     
   • service.openelec.settings: update to service.openelec.settings-0.4.0
     
2. XBMC:
   • [Pydocs] Add info for Player and RenderCapture (PR:4789)
     
   • [videodb] don't set the playcount on scan if missing episode/season numbers (PR:4775)
     
   • [omxplayer] Allow small audio packets to be concatenated to make better use of audio fifo (PR:4777)
     
   • Use pass by ref to construct DVDMsgType (PR:4784)
     
   • Fix tag reading for some broken files, fixes #15239 (PR:4792)
     
   • [osx] utilize planar support from AE in the OSX sink (PR:4774)
     
   • Font manager cleanup (PR:4740)
     
   • [videodb] don't lookup playcounts when adding movies with no imdb/year (PR:4798)
     
   • Avoid incorrect disabling PVR addons (Alternate) (PR:4761)
     
   • EPG crash fix (PR:4758)
     
3. kernel 3.14.y:
   • dwc_otg: fix interrupt registration for fiq_enable=0. Additionally make the module parameter conditional for wherever hcd->fiq_state is touched.
     
   • config: Add ISL12057 and PCF2127 RTC driver modules
     

[Milhouse]

New OpenELEC Helix build: #0527
(Supercedes previous build)

Code:

# uname -a
Linux rpi512 3.14.4 #1 PREEMPT Tue May 27 16:45:29 BST 2014 armv6l GNU/Linux

# vcgencmd version
May 23 2014 19:17:25
Copyright (c) 2012 Broadcom
version 21d0de90961749983d49ec4e819a98a8ba4287fc (clean) (release)

# lsb_release
OpenELEC_Helix (Milhouse) - Version: devel-20140527165932-r18478-gc025763

Based on tip of OpenELEC master (c025763, changelog) and tip of XBMC master (d763372, changelog) with the following modifications:

• Includes newclock3 patches
  
• Includes Python regex package for evaluation purposes. Initial benchmarking indicates generally positive (and in some cases, significant) performance gains. See this post for a description of how to test effectiveness of this package with addons
  
• Excludes the OpenELEC fernetmenta patches due to conflicts with newclock3
  
• Excludes the OpenELEC linux-01-RPi_support patch in favour of sourcing these and possibly more recent patches directly from kernel branch rpi-3.14.y
  
• Excludes the OpenELEC xbmc-master-newclock3 patch in favour of sourcing these and possibly more recent patches directly from newclock3 branch
  
• Default setting for "Show RSS Feed" changed to disabled
  
• Disabled "Total Duration" in Confluence (see build #0221 for details)
  
• ALSA is enabled and any suitable hardware should be available in XBMC Audio Settings
  
• FIQ FSM is enabled by default. See initial post for more details.
  
• Includes RPi-specific libCEC commits from mk01/libcec. See below for details.
  
• Increase scan interval of PeripBusCEC from 5000 to 60000, reducing CPU loading by about 2% (1GHz Pi) every 5 seconds (even when CEC is "disabled")
  

Build Highlights:

libcec patches from XBian that may improve support for newer TVs (LG, Samsung) - not tested by me as I don't have CEC kit, please report any problems.
Increase CEC adapter scan frequency to reduce CPU load by about 2% (1GHz Pi).
GIF animated Confluence spinner.

1. OpenELEC:
   • projects/*/linux: disable CONFIG_BOOT_PRINTK_DELAY
     
   • projects/*/linux: enable CONFIG_STRIP_ASM_SYMS
     
2. XBMC:
   • [guilib] repeat wasn't considered for translation of constants (PR:4804)
     
   • FIX: [AE] if null sink is requested, return null sink (PR:4785)
     
   • Python API. Rename onDatabaseUpdated and onDatabaseScanStarted (PR:4744)
     
   • Fall back to using channel icon as thumbnail for recordings (PR:4401)
     
3. newclock3:
   • dvdplayer: drop old remnant of masterclock
     
   • dvdplayer: let CDVDClock hold info on what is current master clock
     
   • dvdplayer: replace old frame sleep with timestamp based one
     
   • dvdplayer: add support for allowing video player being master clock
     
   • dvdplayer: move selection of video reference clock to dvdplayer
     
   • dvdplayer: add accessor for current clock speed adjustment to dvdclock
     
   • dvdplayer: let Discontinuity function take absolute timestamp and log
     
   • dvdplayer: move limit check of clock discontinuity into dvd clock
     
   • dvdplayer: move sync after clock switch to UpdateClockMaster
     
   • dvdplayer: use master clock as basis for player to sync clock
     
   • AE: accept planar formats and timestamps at input
     
   • dvdplayer audio: simplify interface to AE, feed timestamps
     
   • paplayer: adapt to interface change of AE, feed entire frames into AE
     
   • dvdplayer: drop obsolete pcm audio codecs
     
4. libcec patches (from mk01/libcec and xbian) - see xbian issue #495 for details:
   • fix RPI POLL during LA address negotiation
     
   • fix assertion on XBMC exit
     
   • this solves problem with device dissapearing from TV's menu when source is changed to another device. (needs fix on adapter side to correctly mark devices with "ishandledbycec").
     
   • RPI updates with fixes:
     • losing device from TVs menu on source changes
       
     • XBMC Input Device settings change will not freeze XBMC (or disable adapter)
       
     • TV auto connection to adapter properly upon AS command
       
     • imposibility to switch back to RPI even if listed by TV
       
     it is possible it fixes some others as well
     
   • probably ugly hack to help with some newer Samsung TVs and activating source

[Milhouse]

Note also that the xbian patch should result in reduced CPU load by lowering the GUI update frame rate whenever the Pi is not the active CEC device, that is to say you should notice reduced CPU load when you switch source away from the Pi.

[anonimo2001]

Good morning. Sound doesn't work in this last build (the sounds of the skin work but not the audio of the movies; a lot of noises but not the audio track). Downgrade to #0526 and everything is fine.
Regards

[Milhouse]

Yep, I also get a lot of noise (very badly distorted audio) when using dvdplayer or paplayer, but omxplayer is working fine.

There were a number of dvdplayer-related commits in the last build which are most likely responsible.