PI 2 extremely poor performance video playback
#1
Sad 
Hello everyone,

I bought a PI2 last week in order to play my 1080p mkv files but can not do it. I've been scanning the web for answers, applied a lot of advices,
but nothing works.
Here's what happens and what is my setup :
I've got a DS215j Synology NAS DSM 5.2-5644 Update 1 wired to my router and a raspberry Pi2 also wired.
My Micro SD card is a Sandisk Ultra plus 64 Go formated with Fat32.
I first installed successfully Openelec 5.0.8.
I created my library by scanning my files on the Synology via SMB.
All files were analysed and got all my covers. But when i try to launch a movie, it's more than stuttering, i've got a frame every 10 seconds.
The same thing happens with NFS share which i mounted through OS with putty.
The weird thing is when i browse my files through UPNP, the video playback works flawlesslely.
But this method doesn't suit me because i can't build any library with UPNP.
So i upgraded to Openelec 6.0 : same problem with SMB and NFS, extremely slow playback.
Then i decided to format my SD card and installed the latest OSMC build.
I've got exactely the same problem. Same after manual updates for OSMC.
I must precise that i also play my mkv files from my NAS thanks to a Core i3 Windows 10 laptop with KODI using SMB without any problem even with CPL.
Local video playback on my PI2 works great also.
I don't know what to do, i'm going slightly maaaad !!!

Thank you very much for your help.
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#2
Debug log (wiki)

I'm able to play 30-40 GB Blu-ray Remux on my Pi2 without any issues.
Even if it needs to convert the audio to 2.0
All over my network.
So the hardware is able to play it.
Tried NFS and SMB.
LibreElec Kodi | Aeon MQ ?
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#3
How odd. What codec are your files encoded in within the mkv? (MKV is a wrapper not a codec - you can put lots of different codecs inside an mkv)

If you install MediaInfo on your Windows laptop and open a file in that it will give you lots of information about your files which you can leave here to give us an idea?

And a debug log would be useful. (Don't edit it - and follow the wiki instructions about how to post it)
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#4
The codecs are mainly x264 with ac3 or DTS and embedded subtitles. The problem happens also with large AVi and AVCHD files produced by two different cameras.
I will post the debug and the Media info as soon as i get back home tonight.
Thank you.
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#5
(2016-01-06, 12:33)mamoles Wrote: The codecs are mainly x264 with ac3 or DTS and embedded subtitles. The problem happens also with large AVi and AVCHD files produced by two different cameras.
I will post the debug and the Media info as soon as i get back home tonight.
Thank you.

What bitrate and are they 1080/50p or 1080/60p ? That may be an issue - as it will take them up to a higher H264 level (Levels 4.0 and 4.1 are 720p/1080i at 50/60Hz and 1080p at 23.976-30Hz, whereas you need to go to at least Level 4.2 for 1080p at 50/60Hz)

If the bitrate is higher than 40-50Mbs or so then you may also hit bitrate issues?

Also - they are 4:2:0 not 4:2:2? (4:2:2 will trigger software decoding - which will be a slideshow if you get anything at all)
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#6
I've found generally the PI can handle most video, but HD Audio or Multi Stream audio causes big problems.
I've recoded some larger files to stereo audio, not touching the video and all becomes well again - using handbrake.
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#7
Hi Noggin,

For instance, the following file can not be played properly neither NFS or SMB :

Vidéo
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : [email protected]
Format settings, CABAC : Oui
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 images
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1h 57mn
Bit rate : 11,0 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 040 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 1,85:1
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23,976 (24000/1001) Im/s
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressif
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.231
Stream size : 8,85 Gio (81%)
Writing library : x264 core 112 r1867 22bfd31
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=6 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=11036 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language : Français
Default : Oui
Forced : Non

It does work flawlessly with upnp.
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#8
(2016-01-06, 13:37)noggin Wrote:
(2016-01-06, 12:33)mamoles Wrote: The codecs are mainly x264 with ac3 or DTS and embedded subtitles. The problem happens also with large AVi and AVCHD files produced by two different cameras.
I will post the debug and the Media info as soon as i get back home tonight.
Thank you.

What bitrate and are they 1080/50p or 1080/60p ? That may be an issue - as it will take them up to a higher H264 level (Levels 4.0 and 4.1 are 720p/1080i at 50/60Hz and 1080p at 23.976-30Hz, whereas you need to go to at least Level 4.2 for 1080p at 50/60Hz)

If the bitrate is higher than 40-50Mbs or so then you may also hit bitrate issues?

Also - they are 4:2:0 not 4:2:2? (4:2:2 will trigger software decoding - which will be a slideshow if you get anything at all)

Noggin,

Even a 720p movie can not be played properly.
Here are his properties :

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : [email protected]
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 8 frames
Muxing mode : Header stripping
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1h 48mn
Bit rate : 5 732 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.259
Stream size : 4.24 GiB (73%)
Title : sanctum
Writing library : x264 core 98 r1649 c54c47d
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=8 / deblock=1:-3:-3 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=9 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.10:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=32 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-4 / threads=12 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=0 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=6 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=48 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=5732 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:0.80
Language : French
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Once again, no problem if played via UPNP
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#9
Have you tried to setup buffering from Local Storage in your advance setting yet? I did that and it helps me out. I did run into an issue though with DTS files. Once I converted them from DTS to Dolby Digital 5.1 all seems well. I was getting stuttering video and for some reason fixing the audio fixed the video as well.
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#10
Maybe a hardware failure...
Can you try with another RPI?

Even a RPI B can do this without any problems...

Regards,

Big
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#11
Both those files look fine in MediaInfo terms - nothing obviously out of the ordinary (can't be sure about the reference frames). Have you tried playing the files from a local USB stick/hard drive or copying them to the videos folder on your uSD card to remove any networking issues?

Alternatively upload a 100 or 200MB chunk and we can test?
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#12
I can't imagine a hardware fault allowing upnp playback but not nfs.

Almost certainly the issue will be external to the pi (the NAS or the network).
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#13
you're right, I missed that upnp is ok...

@mamoles, the source of UPnP is also the syno?
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#14
Hello gentlemen,

Thank you all for your help.
You were right, the problem was the NAS. I restarted my Syno an then no more problem.
I find this weird anyway because the source of the UPNP which was working well was the Synology too.
Do you think the problem could have been the way i mounted my share using putty ?
I followed the Synology procedure in order to do it.
Anyway, thank you very much for your help.
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#15
yesterday, i've set up another directory containing pictures via NFS, set up my share properties in DSM and it worked without monting the share with Putty.
Do you think it would have workes for my movies without mounting the share with Putty .
My picture share works but it's a bit slow, do you think there's a link with the fact did not mount the share ?
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