Android Amazon Fire TV - buffering and cache issues
#31
I'm not sure the buffering over wifi has ever worked super well in kodi/xbmc - at least it hasn't for me, and I started using xbmc on the original xbox. Ideally I would like to have a config entry for the speed of the network (or even better, have kodi stress test the network itself and find the average and lows). With a file size, duration, max cache, and network speed, it should have all the necessary information to only pause to buffer at the beginning of playback (or when skipping around).

Hard-lining the machine is the only way I've ever had it run flawlessly. Netflix seems to have very clever and conservative buffering algorithms, because I never have problems with it over wifi. But I'm guessing it's very complex and/or low priority since the issue has persisted.
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#32
(2015-03-22, 23:47)darkalbino Wrote: I'm not sure the buffering over wifi has ever worked super well in kodi/xbmc - at least it hasn't for me, and I started using xbmc on the original xbox. Ideally I would like to have a config entry for the speed of the network (or even better, have kodi stress test the network itself and find the average and lows). With a file size, duration, max cache, and network speed, it should have all the necessary information to only pause to buffer at the beginning of playback (or when skipping around).

Hard-lining the machine is the only way I've ever had it run flawlessly. Netflix seems to have very clever and conservative buffering algorithms, because I never have problems with it over wifi. But I'm guessing it's very complex and/or low priority since the issue has persisted.

I don't usually have problems with Netflix either over wifi. When I do, it's usually some sort of hangup, or bottleneck with the device or it's firmware, not Netflix. The cool thing about Netflix, is you can go on to their website and lower the video quality if it's buffering too much. Pretty much any connection will run the lowest resolution on Netflix.
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#33
(2015-02-28, 21:37)crystalgipsy Wrote:
(2015-02-04, 17:11)benholtby Wrote: Anyone managed to fix this? Have the same issue on Kodi on FireTV with Plexbmc and amber even after changing the advance settings. The weird thing is that if I play any file through Kodi it streams absoutely fine but as soon as I switch to Plexbmc it just buffers all the time. Can get by with just playing on Kodi but want to track watch status across my Plex, might give MB3 a go when the synology pack is openly available.

Have a similiar issue with PleXBMC on the AFTV.I dont use it for internet material though only local network from my server. For local playback I changed the settings for PleXBMC so it forces streaming over Samba, its on Auto be default, but the default behaviour is HTTP. You also have to make sure you mount the smb paths to the media in Sources in Kodi otherwise it wont play a thing These also need to be the same root as what your sources are on PMS. You might be able to use some path substitution in Kodi if not.

Doing this improved playback for me although I still get random frame skipping, this is less going direct via kodi and not plexbmc. I find I do have to reboot the AFTV every couple of days as playback just gets worse and thats for Prime/Netflix and Kodi.

Only just tried this as I stuck to using Kodi but it still wouldn't fix it. Tried SMB and the other option (can't remeber what it is) but the cache still goes gets full. I'm happy using Kodi for now as it works flawlessly and will keep an eye out to see if this gets resolved but thanks for sharing!
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#34
Finally got this sorted last night.

Following crystalgipsy's suggestion regarding SMB I tried setting it up on the PLEXbmc settings and it didn't change anything. I then reset the smb server on my Synology and opened the port in the Synology DSM firewall and made sure the guest account had read/write access to the file which let me access it on my computer but the not the FireTV box. I then found a little option in the Plexbmc settings that was not selected which let me enter the server details manually which then let me play through Plexbmc without the dreaded cache issue! The option is in the same screen were you select between auto/smb/afp file services for those who cannot locate.

Hope this helps.
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#35
Hello,

I just found this thread,I am having the same issue with the amazon fire stick.

When streaming via netflix or kodi plugins HD video streams fine.

As soon as I try to stream over my local network it stutters and buffers.I am trying to stream over the PLEXBMC and tried SMB

I'm using kodi 14.2 and over NAS

Ive tried advanced settings,I have 2 sticks,one is only about 2 ft from the router,,the other in next room around 10-15 feet.

I have 2 nowTV boxes and they both stream perfect over plex in the same locations.

I have read others having the same issue on other forums to a point the sticks gone back.

I have tried to use the SMB option in the plexbmc options but i cannot get it to work through there despite it being ticked in synology.

Any options?Thanks
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#36
Did you get this resolved?
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#37
(2015-06-12, 16:12)tday99 Wrote: Did you get this resolved?

no
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#38
http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Modify_the_video_cache

Read the site


Your cachemembuffersize is to high
It needs for every 150mb cache 400 mb ram
You have more than 700mb cache so thats 1866mb ram
I hope this solves your problem
Succes


Sorry for the spelling im from the netherlands
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#39
(2015-02-27, 22:54)dadspet Wrote: Seems like my buffering issue has resolved itself somehow. Not sure how except except i did go into the FTV maintenance tools and zero the cache. I think this may have been what helped but not sure. I am now on KODI 14.1, with FireTV connected by powerline adapters (about 25 ft) to latest Motorola Surfoard SB6141 modem Comcast 50mb internet service (all of which I had when I had the buffering issues). Some times on HD movies I will get a buffering problem but its rare now.



Never use the xbmc maintance tool "zero cache" on a box!!!
It switching cache to use internal storrage instead of memory.
Your internal storrage is not made for that havy duty. In 2 years it will be broken
And your box is dead.
On a laptop with 160gb it is no problem but te fire tv box has 8 gb so it overwrite his data
way much
A 1080p movie is about 1 gb so every 8 movies you are overwrite it!
Very very bad for the internal storrage!
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#40
Ive tried all sorts of stuff like this and nothing works, i thought id restore my firestick to factory settings and reinstall the kodi, as soon as i installed and tried to watch a film it instantly said the cache is full!!!!! How can it be full when i factory reset everything?
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#41
(2016-11-15, 14:47)Rphillips4 Wrote: Ive tried all sorts of stuff like this and nothing works, i thought id restore my firestick to factory settings and reinstall the kodi, as soon as i installed and tried to watch a film it instantly said the cache is full!!!!! How can it be full when i factory reset everything?

That's not how the cache works. The problem has nothing to do with something becoming "full". It means your video data is coming in too slowly.
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#42
Has anyone ever found out the solution to this issue as I have now
encountered it also.

Please help!
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#43
This still an issue for me. Can anyone stream local media with a Fire TV? If so, what magic are you using? I've monkeyed around with advancedsettings.xml, moved the files from to and from a SMB share on a windows machine. It feels like this used to work better for me, but lately it seems unusable.

I've got 200+ ripped DVDs on a 2TB SSD connected to my router. Using the Kodi install on my MacBook everything works quickly and is buffer-free. On the Fire TV, selecting a local movie takes 5-10 seconds to get started and will play for less than a minute (sometimes for less than 5 seconds), stall and dump me back in to the movie menu.

Would a log help or is this a Fire TV issue?
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#44
(2017-02-23, 00:11)bumblebeeman Wrote: I've got 200+ ripped DVDs
Are you sure you are actually getting Hardware decoding of DVD ?
Because some of these DVD may be interlaced and the FireTV is likely having issues deinterlacing them.

Suggestion is to attach a Keyboard and press "O" for the Codec info window.
If you see ff-mpeg2 then you are using Software Decoding and Software deinterlacing. You want to see amc-mpeg2 for Hardware decoding.

You need to be using SPMC 16.5.5 for DVD playback as you can tweak more settings related to mpeg2 and DVD playback.

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#45
About half of the files are mp4 ripped by Handbrake (pretty sure not interlaced). The other half are ripped via random windows software circa 2005 (might be interlaced).

I think my problems had more to do with transfer speeds, because playing audio (mp3) files also caused hangs.

Either way, the problems seem to have disappeared. The only change I think I've made to the system was adding the VLC app to the Fire TV to see if my issue centered on the Fire TV or Kodi. Things played quickly and normally with VLC, then when I went back to Kodi, things were working well.

Weird
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