[lemonhead]

Hello experts.

I'm having choppy playback and sometimes buffering when playing full bluray (folder structure) over NFS. Trying to fix that, i was fiddling with the <network> settings in advancedsettings.xml, but whatever i did, there was no change. I could see that even though i added more memory to the buffer with <cachemembuffersize> the amount of available memory while playing did not change. After a while i tried to play the .m2ts directly instead, and at once i saw the cache memory was used and the video played without any problems. This leads me to believe that <buffermode>1</buffermode> option does not include blurays played through the bluray menu.

So my question is to You experts out there: Is my analysis correct and if so, can I make Kodi buffer blurays played through the menu, and is this behavior intentional or a bug?

Some facts about my system:
Intel NUC DN2820FYKH with 2GB memory
Openelec 5.0 (Kodi 14 stable)
I'm using no local storage and boot from my Synology NAS with pxe.
Wired Gb network.

My current network settings in advancedsettings.xml: (plays the .m2ts file perfectly, but not the full bluray)
<network>
<buffermode>1</buffermode>
<cachemembuffersize>157286400</cachemembuffersize>
<readbufferfactor>20</readbufferfactor>
</network>

I'm posting here and not on the openelec forum as i think this probably is a Kodi issue.

Thanks for reading!

/Anders

[reddy]

I think I experience the same (huge problems with bluray menus) after I installed Kodi on Ubuntu minimal 14.04LTS. Previously I had Frodo there and it was playing back flawlessly. Unfortunately, I don't know yet how to fix it/work it around

[lemonhead]

Thanks Reddy, that's interesting. I wonder if Gotham have the same behavior, i i have the time I'll try to revert to it and see. It would be nice to know if there are more than us who have this problem and if it should be reported as a bug.

[scope_v24]

Hi!

I'm facing the same difficulties as both of you.

I described my problem here:
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=214422

I already tried the cache settings and noticed that they don't seem to have an effect when playing blu-rays from folder structures.

But: Even without these cache settings the playback was fine when I played the m2ts directly.
Stuttering occured only when playing the blu-ray folder. Can you try and maybe confirm this?

Since I boot from SD-card I prepared a second card with Openelec 4.2.1 (XBMC 13.2) - the problem does not occur there (and in fact, has never occured before with any xbmc version).


Greetings!

---

Addon:
Which type of network connection do you use beetween kodi and media source?

[lemonhead]

Hi Scope!

I can confirm that playing the .m2ts file directly works perfectly, and i can see by looking at the amount of memory used that the cache is in fact used when playing the file directly, but not when played through the menu. I have yet to try to play the folder structure, but not going into the menu. Also I do not have the same problems playing Blurays on my windows HTPC, but i'm not yet sure if that is because of that the cache is used properly or that Windows handles things differently. I'll chec these things and get back to You, but i will not be able to do it today.

/Anders

[scope_v24]

Hi!

I was not able to reproduce the issue on Windows and iOS. So it seems as only linux is affected.

What do you mean by "play the folder structure, but not going into the menu"? Do you mean just playing the index.bdmv file instead of the stream file?
If yes, that resulted in the same stuttering as playing the folder structure via the "movies" menu.

Greetings!

Nico

[lemonhead]

Hi Nico,

Yeah, that was a bit unclear. When You chose a Bluray folders movie from XBMC there is a choice to play a title, or go to the Bluray menu and play it "normally", i have not yet tested if the problem is there if i chose to play a title instead of the menu. Maybe You have?

/Anders

[scope_v24]

Hi!

Since I copied only the main movie from my blu-rays the menu option makes no difference.

Nonetheless I tested all combinations:

Stuttering in all of the following cases:
playing the movie from the movies menu (play main title, select title and hit play then, show blu-ray menu)
playing BDMV/index.bdmv manually
playing BDMV/MovieObject.bdmv manually
playing BDMV/PLAYLIST/00000.mpls manually

Playing m2ts directly: no stuttering, buffering seems to work

Greetings

Nico

[lemonhead]

Thanks Nico, great work!

I think the next step is to see if this is an OpenElec or Kodi on Linux issue as all who have this problem so far seem to run OpenElec (?). If it is an OpenElec issue we should take it to the OpenElec forum instead.

/Anders

[scope_v24]

Hi!

I already found a thread in the miscellaneous section of the OpenELEC forum:
http://openelec.tv/forum/90-miscellaneou...openelec-5

To sort things out I'm currently creating a KodiBuntu with Kodi 14 and gonna check, if the issue appears on that system as well.

Greetings

Nico

[lemonhead]

Great! Trying to do a KodiBuntu USB as well, but failing to get into Kodi mode.

[scope_v24]

Hi again!

Just tried KodiBuntu 14 booted from a usb flash drive.
No stuttering there - fluently able to play m2ts as well as blu-ray folder / iso.

Just to be complete: The buffercache does not seem to apply to blu-ray folder / iso in KodiBuntu as well. But since we're using a local network we should not need the buffercache at all (and in fact it works flawlessly without, except the recent blu-ray folder issue with OpenElec).
So this is a seperate Kodi issue.

As of now I'd assume it's the stuttering/buffering when playing blu-ray folders / iso is a OpenElec issue. Will post my findings in the thread I mentioned and continue there...

Greetings

Nico

[lemonhead]

So You're saying that the not using the buffercache is by design, but that it stutters without the buffercache is a OpenElec issue?

[scope_v24]

Hi again!

Yes - to my mind it should use the buffercache when reading from a folder structure / iso.

I updated to OpenELEC 5.0.1 today, that solved the issue for me. No more stuttering!

Greetings

scope

[Ned Scott]

I know that playback from optical drives bypasses the buffer. It could be that ISOs are simply treated as optical drives in the same way, and also bypass the buffer.