Cannot stop the stuttering
#1
Sad 
Hello,

I'm a long time XBMC user and i think i've tried every possible advice from these forums... i've been postponing asking for help, but i'm finally going to admit i need some assistance! Please and thanks for any help/advice!

Basically, all my SD media plays fine, but MKVs, .264 and 720p stuff just skips or stutters whether from the SMB share or even through the PS3 Media Server.

Here's my setup:
  • ATV2 (FW AppleTV2,1_4.2.1_8C154 - jailbroken with both GreenPois0n and SeasonPass - some posts suggested one was better than the other)
  • Hard-wired LAN connection from PC through Buffalo Giga Airstation and a Giga hub (i've even tried just a direct connection from the PC to the ATV2)
  • XBMC - have tried both stable and nightly releases (most recent is Oct 5th's), originally installed through both the SSH command line and through NitroTV (again, some people suggested one is better than the other)
  • Skin - have tried the default, Ellipsis, Xtv-SAF, and nighty Quartz
  • Win7 (32bit) using non-password SMB shares via internal SATA HDDs
  • PS3 Media Server 1.40
  • Sound has always been fine in any language, through both "Analog" and "HDMI" settings
  • Hardware acceleration is OFF and generate thumbs, etc is OFF

I've been doing extensive testing with DVDs ("House" and "Friends") ripped directly to MKV files using the software "MakeMKV" in order to keep all audio and subtitles intact (i live in Japan, so i need the subtitles for the girlfriend unit.) The file size for these are about 1.5 Gb for a "House" episode, and about 800 Mb for a "Friends" episode. These always play fine on the computer, with all audio and subtitles selectable/playable. "MediaInfo" confirms the formats to be "Matroska" with an "Overall bit rate" under 5000 Kbps.

Last night i even went so far as to copy and then play the "House" mkv file directly from the ATV2 unit itself to rule out the streaming issues. But sadly, i still experienced stuttering (not buffering.) :mad: wtf?!?

On my last jailbreak and installation via NitroTV, i was able to get some MKV and a few .264 720p videos (< 8Gb) to play without stuttering or buffering, but that only lasted about a week. Those same videos can no longer be played.

I've read and read and experimented and tested, but i'm clearly missing something. Please, any help would be greatly appreciated!

Please and Thanks! Smile

XBMC.log has been put here:
http://pastebin.com/2EyBG3FM

Media Info for the House episode:
http://pastebin.com/sudzbzRQ
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#2
no xbmc.log...
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#3
Make sure your set up is back on the latest nightlies and get us a copy of your debug log: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW...og_for_iOS

Also, take some problematic files and run Media Info on them and tell us what it says for those files: http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en/Download
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#4
Thanks for the fast replies! MUCH appreciated!
Both xbmc.log and MediaInfo for the House episode on the ATV2 unit has been added now.

THANK YOU!
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#5
The video in question is interlaced MPEG2. MPEG2 video needs to decoded in software and deinterlacing does too. The poor ol ATV2 does not have a great deal of grunt and will struggle to play this type of content.

If you re-encode the as h264 she should play fine.

It is kind of odd to see mpeg2 in a mkv container. It's like seeing a vcd in a bluray player.
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#6
Hmmm.... i understand what you are saying, but this is simply a straight rip of the VOB files out of the DVD. The "conversion" process with the MakeMKV application is extremely fast as it doesn't really convert anything, but keeps all the audio and subtitle languages intact and in-sync. Perhaps the MKV container is just a fake shell? I've tried DVDFab, etc, etc for this kind of thing, but i continually experience total loss of audio tracks and or sync issues with the subtitles and/or the sound. I was using this particular file for testing because i was under the assumption that it was as "clean" a file as i could get. It seems i'm wrong about this! I'm also curious to know why if i play this file through my PS3 Media Server, these issues are taken care of by the time it hits the ATV2?

However, all that being said, i still have these stuttering and buffering issues with straight x264 720 rips as well (both through the SMB and through PS3 MS).

Thanks much for your input!
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#7
The ATV is not very good at playing DVD content directly. It has to decode in software and deal with a reasonably high bitrate at the same time.

I recommend using handbrake to make h264 mkv files. If you compress with h264 the files should be smaller as h264 is a better compression system and the ATV will be able to play them directly through hardware.

You might be having problems with stuttering and buffering with h264 but they should be fundamentally better than using mepg2.

Is the PS3 media server transcoding in any way? Also, the PS3 is probably sending the data using upnp which is a much lighter weight protocol than SMB.
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#8
Okay - as an experiment, i've just used DVDFab to convert the file to AppleTV format (MP4). The file drops to about 700Mb, and i ripped the japanese subtitles out using "MKVcleaver".

Arg! Same stuttering problem!

I've posted the new MediaInfo for it here:
http://pastebin.com/ryqfDvWe

Thanks
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#9
The video is now h264 at a reasonable bitrate and progressive scan.

Try turning hardware acceleration back on again. It is needed for h264.
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#10
Interesting... that seems to have done it for about 50% of my stuff now. All research i looked at indicated to keep that hardware accelerator off, so i stopped fiddling with it.

The mkv files i ripped from the DVD are now playing fine for the smaller files ("Friends"), which makes sense because of what you said in your previous post.

Thank you, it seems to be the way to go for most stuff now.

MUCH appreciated!
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#11
i can watch MKV 1080P in my atv2 downloaded from fileservers with no problem ! ( which is outputted 720P by atv2 )
I had buffering problems and it was the audio settings and i mentioned it here
Proud xbmp/xbmc/kodi user since early days of 1st gen xbox

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#12
Okay, if this is not allowed to be discussed period please could a mod just delete my post and pm me, but in my world view, if you own it you can pirate it. I love Friends, and I own every single season on DVD, but I in know way want to take the time to rip each individual episode and maybe have to redo them like you have too because I did something wrong. So I would just go online and download the series from the usual places...

Just my 2 cents
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#13
Xeno43 Wrote:Okay, if this is not allowed to be discussed period please could a mod just delete my post and pm me, but in my world view, if you own it you can pirate it. I love Friends, and I own every single season on DVD, but I in know way want to take the time to rip each individual episode and maybe have to redo them like you have too because I did something wrong. So I would just go online and download the series from the usual places...

Just my 2 cents

Xeno43, you are forgetting my biggest dilemma... i want the Japanese audio tracks and most importantly, the subtitles.... those downloads are not available! :p
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#14
Xeno43 Wrote:Okay, if this is not allowed to be discussed period please could a mod just delete my post and pm me, but in my world view, if you own it you can pirate it. I love Friends, and I own every single season on DVD, but I in know way want to take the time to rip each individual episode and maybe have to redo them like you have too because I did something wrong. So I would just go online and download the series from the usual places...

Just my 2 cents

haha, no worries man. Most of us don't even own them!
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