[gutted]

Got a suspicion my network is not performing so well. When streaming video files from a network share, the playback is prone to "stuttering".

I've been told that I can increase the buffer size to hopefully minimize this. How may I increase the buffer?

I'm using XBMC "blingbling".

Cheers,
Dan.

[spiff]

seriously man.

just look in the settings

[gutted]

Dude - like, I did, but couldn't see it. Hence my post. I'll check again - but just hoping someone might be able point me in the right direction.

[spiff]

let's see..

your PLAYING a video file. it's probably just stupid me, that immediately makes me want to look at the video player settings. oh look what's there? a cache button. now i truely wonder what that does. it probably calls my dog

[gutted]

Ok. So thanks for pointing that out. So I'm stupid. And I missed it. For which I apologise.

Dude though - no need for you to be such a d1ck about it. Jeeez.

[spiff]

yes. it lies in my nature to be sarcastic when i find ppl to be lazy. which really was the case here, not stupidity.

[gutted]

I'd been checking the "My Video" and "Network" settings. Turns out that, after going through more or less each settings option one-by-one I found the "call spiff's dog" button in the System configuration.

I posted when I had no luck finding it where I thought it "should" be. To me, it seemed like it should be in the "Network" section or "My Videos" settings. This was compounded by your post with emphasis on "PLAYING" (was that a clue for where to look, or am I incorrectly using the word "streaming"?)

But no matter. I've found the setting now, and find an array of various buffer settings.

I'm assuming that I should be adjusting the video cache, though I also note that there is a "Video Cache - DVDRom" section. I'm a bit puzzled by the "DVDRom" mention even though the settings for this section include "Local Network" and "Internet". But again - no matter. Assuming, once more, that it's better to be safe than sorry I've upped the "Video Cache - DVDRom" -->"Local Network" and also "Internet" settings from 2MB to 5MB. I've also upped the "Unknown Type Cache --> Internet" to 5MB from 4MB. And to try and cover all bases, I've upped the "DVD Cache - DVDRom --> Local Network" to 5MB from 2MB too.

This has apparently made little difference after a boot of the XB. I'm going to up these settings to 10MB and reboot, then retry.

Can you perhaps let me know which caching option is actually the one I need to increase? Have I, in fact, hit the right one already - or, indeed, is it one of the other settings that I have overlooked? I'm asking since I actually have tried what "I think" to be the right settings, and so far have not had any success. I'm a bit new to the XBMC and it would be ace to get some advice from people, here, who actually know this stuff. I've been trying to figure it out and not yet got the desired results.

Dan.

[gutted]

After upping every video setting to 10MB (except the very top setting, which has a max of 4MB) and also after upping the audio cache to 2MB things have apparently gotten worse, if anything.

Can anyone suggest what I might to to improve performance? XB is connected to the fileservers, now, but a dLAN connection rated at "up to 200mbps". I'm kind of hoping that I should be getting at least 50mbps - I was hoping I could max out the buffer and eliminate this stuttering. No luck so far...

All videos play fine when running from the XB harddisk itself.

[spiff]

a bigger cache won't help if your network can't feed the cache data at a high enough rate.

[gutted]

Dammit. Looks like my dLAN "200mbps" rated kit is even worse than I thought, in that case. Transferring a 350MB file to XB harddrive takes around 1min 40 seconds - that translates to approx 1MB in slightly less than 0.3 seconds (calculation I used is: if 350MB takes 100 seconds, then 1MB takes 0.29 seconds). That seems pretty good, to me (?) But either my calculation is flawed, or my assuming this is "pretty good" is wrong. Certainly seems like the network is the problem

[SleepyP]

let's see..

your PLAYING a video file. it's probably just stupid me, that immediately makes me want to look at the video player settings. oh look what's there? a cache button. now i truely wonder what that does. it probably calls my dog

[SleepyP]

Dammit. Looks like my dLAN "200mbps" rated kit is even worse than I thought, in that case. Transferring a 350MB file to XB harddrive takes around 1min 40 seconds - that translates to approx 1MB in slightly less than 0.3 seconds (calculation I used is: if 350MB takes 100 seconds, then 1MB takes 0.29 seconds). That seems pretty good, to me (?) But either my calculation is flawed, or my assuming this is "pretty good" is wrong. Certainly seems like the network is the problem

Are you using one of those things that uses existing power lines to do the networking? Thats the stuff I got when I googled up 200mbps.
200mbps = 25 MB/second. However, as anyone who uses CAT5E-based networks will tell you, just because it is rated for xxx data rate doesn't mean you will get that, especially for sustained transfers.
Your figure of 3.5 MB/second, is it based on your tests?
also, what exactly are you trying to stream? bandwidth required for AV varies A LOT. I have been watching really horrible rips of Farscape lately that are like 2.5 MB / MINUTE for the audio AND video. contrast with like 300 MB / minute for super dooper HD stuff, and you can understand why it's hard for us to guess what you are using...

[gutted]

Yep - Netgear "homeplug" (similar to dLAN, but I'm not sure it's exactly the same protocol). I'm using the 200mbps model, which uses the earth cable of the home electicity network to transmit data.

I'm trying to play (stream?) an AVI file from my fileserver through XBMC. The file is approx 350MB in size, and running time is 45mins.

I'm working on the assumption that CAT5e is rated for 100mbps, and that the XB has a 100mbps ethernet port. I also believe that even with a 100mbps wired LAN I'll never actually get 100mbps in one direction. I know for fact that the 200mbps kit will never get anywhere *near* 200mbps (same as the theoretical "108mbps" for WLAN), but was hoping for around 50% of this... Whether my hoped-for 50% is enough for streaming AVI files (even if I really did get as much as that), I don't know.

The value of 3.5mbps is indeed based on tests. The test was basically to transfer a file from fileserver to XB via FTP. I was getting approx 3.5mbps listed as transfer rate, peaking at 4.0mbps (that was the rating actually displayed in the Filezilla tranfer window). I also timed it, too (that's where I got my calculation from).

So when transferring via FTP (or, I guess, playing videos through XB) the data transfer will be something like:

AVI file on server --> sent to router via homeplug --> sent back to XB via homeplug --> played through TV (or transferred to XB, or whatever)

This means that I can only ever get a maximum of 50% of the available bandwidth given that the traffic will be flowing both ways on the homeplug line and the kit is rated to a maximum of 200mbps which, effectively, is the max bandwidth I can get on the home powerlines. (As in - the more homeplug devices I use, they will all eat into the same bandwidth).

I'm assuming my network is at fault - specifically I reckon the homeplug kit is not getting anywhere near the speed I'd hoped I don't know enough about the bandwidth required to play video files without stuttering. Do the figures speak for themselves? (If so please tell me :p ) Or is there something I can configure within XBMC (or elsewhere) to help?

Final note... I previously had 2 distinct networks with fileservers and XB connected on a gigabit ethernet. I linked them together using homeplug as I wanted the XBMC to be able to connect to the outside world. In that config, everything worked beautifully. Looks like I may have to revert to this setup so my wife can use XBMC while I'm away next week. Sigh.

[gutted]

(just to add - the stuttering makes playback virtually unwatchable... I've only just persuaded my wife that XBMC is the best thing since sliced bread. I can't leave it like this and risk my wife losing confidence in the setup - it took me too long to get her to "accept" the beauty of XBMC).

[SleepyP]

the video would be only 7.78 MB PER MINUTE (not second!), so it seems very suspicious that it is hiccuping. transfer the file to the local harddisk and see how it plays. I suspect you are using some sort of jocked up files.
a Debug Log would help us a LOT...