Choppy streaming of vids off internet
#1
I recently re-installed XBMCbuntu 12.2 (frodo) onto my HTPC system (which consists of a Dell Dimension 2400, 2.4 ghz Celeron, 1.5g memory, added Nvidia GeForce 8400 GS graphics card). I've done an apt-get update / upgrade, so hopefully, the system is up-to-date. The problem is that although I can play videos off of my USB drive just fine, streaming of vids off of the internet is extremely choppy, with each "chop" happening approximately once per second. According to XBMC's "System info" option, the system is getting 60 fps and using anywhere from 40-60% CPU. Granted, my HTPC hardware isn't ideal, but I don't think it's the cause of this particular problem because prior to the re-install, videos were streaming off of the internet smoothly. Ok, that's not entirely accurate. Even then, this problem would occasionally arise and the only way I knew of to "fix" it--at least until it happened again a week or so later--was to "exit" XBMC into a classic Gnome session and then log back into XBMC. Yeah, somehow just logging out of XBMC and into a Gnome session and then back into XBMC was sufficient to "fix" the problem--at least well enough so that I could use XBMC. In case anyone's wondering why/how I had Gnome installed, my prior XBMC install began life as an Eden install, and was later auto-upgraded to Frodo. Back when the system was still running Eden I had installed the Ubuntu "App Center" and from there, a number of other apps that I like using in a classic Gnome environment (Nautilus, gEdit, etc.) so I could occasionally log out of XBMC and use the system for general computer work. And BTW, it may be my installing Ubuntu "App Center" that caused the auto-upgrade? I'm not sure... Anyway, in summary, it seems as though something about my XBMC configuration was being "initialized" as a result of my logging out and back into XBMC and that the final XBMC session benefitted from this initialization somehow... Is this even possible? I can't see how else to explain that the problem would (almost always) be resolved as a result of my doing this. Whatever the problem is, it appears to be networking related given that it occurs only when I'm streaming vids off of the internet and therefore, I don't think it has anything to do with my graphics card/driver. For what it's worth, the system is connected over WiFi via a NetGear wireless adapter (WNCE2001) but this hasn't changed since I was running the Eden release and everything was running smoothly... Ok, all of this is really just background information that I hope might trigger an "ah ha!!" in someone. My ultimate goal here is to resolve this without having to resort to logging out of XBMC or perform any other voodoo-like rituals prior to watching a movie with my family. My current install of XBMCbuntu (again, "frodo") is not customized--I haven't installed any additional software other than what apt-get update / upgrade does itself (though I likely will install some of this stuff later). I've pasted my XBMC log at http://xbmclogs.com/show.php?id=99325. Any help is very much appreciated!
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#2
For lack of a better solution, I basically did what I was doing previously--I installed "classic gnome". The only difference being that whereas before, it was installed as a side effect of my having installed a number of gnome apps, this time (again, while running under a newly-installed "frodo", xbmcbuntu session), I explicitly installed gnome from the terminal using the following command:

Code:
sudo apt-get install gnome-session-fallback

After doing so, I was immediately able to log into the "Gnome Classic" session and then into an "XBMC" session, and videos now stream off the internet as before--silky smooth. Smile Clearly, something is not being set up correctly during the default XBMC session that my logging into a gnome session is somehow fixing. Go figure.
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#3
your audio device in the xbmc session seems wrong.
delete ~/.asoundrc then set a proper audio device in xbmc.
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#4
Thanks for the reply, wsnipex! I'll give that a shot as soon as I'm able and report back with the results. Wink
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#5
(2013-12-22, 20:07)wsnipex Wrote: your audio device in the xbmc session seems wrong.
delete ~/.asoundrc then set a proper audio device in xbmc.

I was unable to locate this (hidden) file but while looking into the matter I noticed that the audio passthrough setting was "error - devices not found", or whatever. The audio output was set to "Default(Intel 82801DB-ICH4 Intel 82801DB-ICH4)" and there was no other choice there that could be made. As it didn't appear that there was much I could do with these settings, I decided to go with my earlier solution of installing the classic gnome session and using that to fix the problem whenever it arises. I definitely think that the problem lies with the audio drivers because, after having re-installed XBMC and set up the classic gnome session, logged into it and back into XBMC, the audio output driver is now set to "pulse audio...". I'm hoping that what this means is that I now no longer have to log out of XBMC and into the gnome session to fix the problem--I just need to be sure that the audio output device is set to "pulse audio...". Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, wsnipex. Assuming that Gotham isn't a complete game-changer, I might get another year or more out of this hardware. Smile
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#6
yeah, instead of fixing your real problem by selecting correct output devices, you pulled in pulse audio.
Well, whatever works for you - I guess.
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#7
An additional change I've made is to no longer log directly into XBMC. I now simply stay logged into the "classic gnome (no effects)" session and run XBMC from there. Though it may be too early to tell for sure, I think that this pretty much fixes the problem I was originally having. I seem to be able to stream vids off the internet without issue. This configuration has the added benefit of allowing me quicker access to other applications such as the browser, text editor, etc. Again, thanks for the help.
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