Android Severe Live TV Buffering/Lag Issue on MXQ TV Box (so far only pausing fixes it)
#1
I am having an issue where when I attempt to watch live over-the-air TV on my Android TV box via Kodi 15.2 Isengard, the box experiences severe lag, stopping the video feed every 2 seconds to buffer, over and over again, anywhere from "Buffering... 8%" to "Buffering... 12%", unless I pause it for 5 to 10 seconds, which usually fixes the issue for about half an hour before it starts happening again. Sometimes not even that fixes the issue, and it'll keep buffering no matter how long I have it paused. This happens even when the box is hard wired into my home network with an ethernet cable. What's weird is that it can play pre-recorded shows just fine, without any buffering at all, even when connected wirelessly. It's only when I try to watch live television that this happens.

Front-End Client Used:
Tictid OTT TV Box from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/TICTID-Android-Aml...B00WON0Q8W
Model: MXQ
Manufacturer: MBX
Device/Product: m201C
Brand: MBX
Android Version: 4.4.2 (Kit Kat)
API Level: 19
Build ID: KOT49H
Fingerprint: MBX/m201C/m201C:4.4.2/KOT49H/20150602:user/test-keys
Build number: KOT49H.20150602 test-keys
Kernel version:
3.10.33
user1@ubuntu-server #12
Tue Jun 2 15:11:01 CST 2015

CPU: Amlogic S805 Cortex-A5 Quad Core @ 1.5 GHz
Processor: ARMv7 Processor rev 1 (v7l)
Cores: 4
Max Frequency: 1536 MHz
Instruction Sets: armeabi-v7a, armeabi
SIMD Instructions: NEON
BogoMips: 2.00
Hardware: Amlogic Meson8B
Revision: 000a
Serial: 1b00000000000000

Memory: 831 MB
System RAM: 831 MB
JVM Max Memory: 64 MB
Internal Storage: 4703 MB

GPU: Mali-450 Quad Core @ 600 MHz
Renderer: Mali-450 MP
Version: OpenGL ES 2.0
Vendor: ARM
GLSL Version: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 1.00

Software:
Kodi 15.2 Git:2015-10-19-02e7013 (Compiled: Oct 19 2015)
NextPVR PVR Client Version 1.10.8



Back-End Server Used: (currently)
HP 15-F111DX laptop, stock build, right off the shelf, no modifications
CPU: AMD A8-6410 APU with AMB Radeon R5 Graphics, 2000 MHz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
RAM: 8.00 GB (6.94 GB total physical memory)
HDD: WDC WD30 EZRZ-00Z5HB0 SCSI Disk Device, 750 GB, 5400 RPM
Software: NextPVR 3.5.7


Tuners Used: 3 x SiliconDust HDHomeRun Connect HDHR4-2US with up-to-date firmware


So, how exactly do I fix this buffering issue? Is there some setting in Kodi that I need to adjust?
I've tried modifying the advancedsettings.xml file as described under the http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Modify_the_video_cache page, but none of the four examples given on that page have fixed the issue. Is there some special combination or some other settings I also need to set in the advancedsettings.xml in order to get it to work right on the MXQ Android TV Box?
Or is the Android TV Box I got simply not powerful enough and I need to buy one with a better CPU/RAM/memory to get it to work?

Or does the problem originate in the back-end server computer? Is there some setting in NextPVR I need to adjust, possibly in the registry, or is the computer I'm using just not powerful enough?
Could the issue be in the network itself, particularly the TP-Link TL-SG1008D bridge that I used to interconnect the three tuners, the server, the client, and the router that assigned their IP addresses. Again, this buffering/lag issue occurs even when the client android TV box is directly hard wired into the ethernet bridge through a 3 foot cat5e ethernet cable, and it only occurs with live television. Pre-recorded TV can play just fine without any buffering at all.
Again, pausing the live TV for about 5 to 10 seconds temporarily fixes the issue, but only for about half an hour before it starts all over again, if that's any clue as to what's causing this problem and how I can fix it and not have to keep pausing the live TV in order to get it to work.
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#2
Can you get us a debug log (wiki)? My guess would be that Kodi mistakenly thinks it needs to buffer when it doesn't, which is why letting it pause for a few seconds seems to fix it.
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#3
Well, here's a debug log: http://filebin.ca/2TEldlxeGPDB/kodi.2016...-old01.log

It took a while to get one because once I figured out how to turn on debugging, I had to figure out how to root my Android TV Box so that I could get access to the debug file, as well as perform several debug sessions so that I could have a debug file that contains plenty of instances of the buffering issue happening.

Anyway, everywhere there's a message containing "------ Window Init (DialogSeekBar.xml) ------", that's where buffering occurs. I seem to be seeing several common messages around these, including:

Code:
0 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(video)::Get - asked for new data packet, with nothing available
0    INFO: CDVDPlayerVideo - Stillframe detected, switching to forced 25.000000 fps
0   DEBUG: video stream stalled. start buffering

What exactly does this mean? Like I said, this buffering issue occurs even when the Android TV Box is plugged directly into the network with a physical ethernet cable, giving it access to a connection more than fast enough to stream high definition video. Does the message about asking for a new data packet and none being available mean that the server is to blame, or is it some setting on the client box that needs to be adjusted?
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#4
I'm guessing the video had some change mid-stream, which is normal for live TV, and that causes Kodi to think that the video has stalled and needs to buffer. A dev would need to look into this, as it's way above my head.
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#5
If you could, use your same forum username and password and make a ticket for this on http://trac.kodi.tv . Just say what you said here.
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#6
PVR Video Cache Settings will likely need to be adjusted along with the Kodi Video cache itself, you will have to experiment yourself:

http://kodi.wiki/view/Advancedsettings.xml#pvr
http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Modify_the_video_cache

Just for info your device does not run Android TV. Its just the regular Android OS to avoid confusion.

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#7
(2016-01-12, 21:57)ChaosMageX Wrote: Well, here's a debug log: http://filebin.ca/2TEldlxeGPDB/kodi.2016...-old01.log

It took a while to get one because once I figured out how to turn on debugging, I had to figure out how to root my Android TV Box so that I could get access to the debug file, as well as perform several debug sessions so that I could have a debug file that contains plenty of instances of the buffering issue happening.

Anyway, everywhere there's a message containing "------ Window Init (DialogSeekBar.xml) ------", that's where buffering occurs. I seem to be seeing several common messages around these, including:

Code:
0 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(video)::Get - asked for new data packet, with nothing available
0    INFO: CDVDPlayerVideo - Stillframe detected, switching to forced 25.000000 fps
0   DEBUG: video stream stalled. start buffering

What exactly does this mean? Like I said, this buffering issue occurs even when the Android TV Box is plugged directly into the network with a physical ethernet cable, giving it access to a connection more than fast enough to stream high definition video. Does the message about asking for a new data packet and none being available mean that the server is to blame, or is it some setting on the client box that needs to be adjusted?

Hello,
have you solved this problem? I have the exact same on a similar box with S905 http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=272258
Advancedsettings tweaks does not change anything.
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#8
http://kodi.wiki/view/Advancedsettings.xml#pvr

Code:
<pvr>
    <minvideocachelevel>5</minvideocachelevel>
    <minaudiocachelevel>20</minaudiocachelevel>
  </pvr>

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Severe Live TV Buffering/Lag Issue on MXQ TV Box (so far only pausing fixes it)0