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hospadam · 2011-02-01, 17:32

I just set up XBMC on my AppleTV a few days ago. I'm serving my files off of a Windows 7 SMB share. For the purposes of this... all the files I'm streaming are 720p MKVs. My computer is plugged into the router, but the AppleTV is wireless. When I'm playing a movie - I will get a "buffering" several times in the first few minutes... and then maybe once every 30 minutes. When I'm playing a TV Show, however, it seems like I get a "buffering" every few minutes.

Is there something I'm missing here? Should a wireless network be able to stream at a 720p rate?

I've noticed that when I "pause"... it's not buffering the file... any way I can stop the movie and force it to buffer? Thanks!

chad473 · (This post was last modified: 2011-02-01, 19:22 by chad473.)

Not all wireless networks are created equal, so it's not quite that easy. That being said, this seems to be a pretty common issue. I'm having buffering issues as well with files (avi and mkv) that stream perfectly fine to other devices. Network bandwidth should not be an issue since the appletv is wired to the router that the other devices are on. Media is being served from an imac connected via wireless N. If bandwidth/interference was the cause of my problems it should be causing issues with the ps3 and 360 that are wired the same way. They stream just fine though. Right now, there's no options to configure the buffer and I'm not sure what (if anything) it's buffering right now. It's also not an issue of decoding, since the files have played back fine when I moved the imac upstairs and hardwired it to my router. There's some sort of bandwidth bottleneck going on and my bet is that it's related to the xbmc buffer, or lacktherof. I've pinged the appletv from the imac server and there's no packet loss, with pings averaging 2-3ms if I recall. Scratching my head at this point. This, combined with the fact that they work just fine to devices wired in the same way as the appletv make me think that network bandwidth is not the primary issue here.

At this point I think we sit and wait. It's still quite early and the build does a lot of things right already. I'd imagine we'll see great improvements over the next few weeks and months. I hope at least, I really don't want to have to go the powerline ethernet route.

**Shoesy** · 2011-02-01, 19:32

Turn off generate thumbnails.

chad473 · 2011-02-01, 19:34

have done that, doesn't fix it. it's not running a scan either. I'll have to pull some logs from playback and see if anything stands out.

**Shoesy** · (This post was last modified: 2011-02-01, 19:37 by Shoesy.)

**Shoesy** · 2011-02-01, 19:37

(sorry)

hospadam · 2011-02-01, 20:35

Thanks for your advice! I also tried pinging my appletv from my computer - and I also got really low ping times with no packet loss. I thought it might have been some scan going on in the background too - but I really don't think that's the issue? Hmm - looks like we're both having the same issue. I do know that when I stream "smaller" bitrate files... it seems to buffer significantly less. I think you're on to something - that the AppleTV isn't buffering at all. Thanks again!

nick3331 · 2011-02-01, 22:49

That's exactly the problem, that could cause the lags of my HD-Videos. I wondered, why it was so slow, with hardware decode hd support. Although even on my iphone 3gs the hd-videos work like a charm. Maybe there is some temp-path missing in the appletv2-filesystem?

It could even be, that it's because of the ethernet-connections of the most people who tried it out, that the problem isn't recognized that much.

chad473 · (This post was last modified: 2011-02-02, 00:48 by chad473.)

hospadam, check out the most recently build in the sticky thread by meshuga (2/1/11 build). So far, i'm streaming my problematic file just fine. It's only been streaming for 10 minutes, but it would have buffered over 10 times by now previously. will need more testing obviously, but this has me hopeful.

higher bitrate 720p mkv still gave some buffering, but less than before. again, it's a file that streams just fine to other devices so network bandwidth shouldn't be an issue. Something still seems a bit wonky but regardless, some nice progress in today's build!

nick3331 · 2011-02-02, 01:20

I already am on the newest nightly build. Doesn't really help. As I said: It works great on my Iphone and Ipad. As these are different Versions, maybe the one compiled for iPad/iPhone has something, the AppleTV2 doesn't. Maybe someone like mechuga could tell us the exact differences.

hospadam · 2011-02-02, 03:53

I went ahead and installed the latest build. I think I'm having mixed results. On one hand - the whole thing *feel* much faster... but I'm still having the "buffering" issue. I'll give it the rest of the evening and report back tomorrow. Thanks for the tips!

Appletvnoob · 2011-02-02, 04:24

same here.. started buffering 30 mins in then constantly every few mins after

hospadam · 2011-02-02, 04:31

Has anyone been able to confirm one way or another - does the AppleTV actually "buffer"? As in - preload the movie before you get to that point?

Doombelly · 2011-02-02, 08:16

I would also like to know this. My mkvs also buffer alot. Hope the devs will look into it.

Evgenyy · 2011-02-02, 11:09

I was getting a lot of buffering as well and it was due to SMB shares problem. When I add SMB share manually via IP address, it buffers a lot. If I add via SMB Windows Network/Workgroup/PC Name, buffering does not occur anymore. Also you can try UPNP server - that should fix it too.