Win Gotham 13.2 - Networked drive, Gotham randomly pauses
#1
Hello, I'd really appreciate any advice you can give me on this subject, here's the basic data for my home network first:

1s (remote) PC: Win 8.1 with an external hard-drive via USB 2.0 port, connected to the router on the 2.4Ghz band (old acer 5736z laptop, doesn't have 5Ghz band feature).
2nd PC: Win 8.1 with Gotham 13.2, connected to the router on the 5Ghz band, sits just near the router (doesn't have ethernet port).
Network: QoS turned off, both PCs have static IPs and in Win's Control panel" -> "Windows Credentials" -> both PCs have each other's login information. This kind of network settings really stabilized Full HD + 5.1 surround streaming. Network has a very good signal rating.

Problem (only in full HD+surround playback):

Although setting up the network as shown above really stopped most of the pauses while watching HD movies, it randomly still happens.

I also tried the following settings in advancedsettings.xml (I have 2GB RAM, so nothing crashes):

<advancedsettings>
<network>
<buffermode>1</buffermode>
<cachemembuffersize>209715200</cachemembuffersize>
<readbufferfactor>4.0</readbufferfactor>
</network>
</advancedsettings>

No joy - I can see when playing a movie and pressing the 'o' button in the keyboard, that Gotham's buffering as expected - but this whole buffer thingy doesn't help. Just for testing I turned-off wi-fi for a few seconds (to a minute) in the remote PC where the hard-drive is, Gotham:

1. Paused the playback of the movie.
2. Continued to play the movie from the buffer until it ended.

Without testing, I get random pauses here and there, though thanks to the network settings - almost none at all.

So my question is - is there a way to stop the pausing? The information is still there, all is needed is that Gotham will continue to play from the buffer smoothly until (in actual network disturbances) the network stabilizes.

Thanks for any input you may give on this.
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#2
Update: The problem persists. Might be connected to error 0x80070035 - network path not found, usually after 10 minutes or so of idle connection.
Now trying this to avoid Windows disconnecting:

net config server /autodisconnect:-1

Still, Gotham pausing while still having the information stored in the buffer looks silly.
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#3
I had some hiccups a couple times with my system disconnecting all my network shares. My wireless bridge was having an issue. I rebooted it and I got connected again. When it had this issue of course XBMC would say the file no longer exists and asked if I wanted to remove it. Maybe a neighbor was deauthenticating me trying to capture a wifi handshake, I don't know. But dealing with WiFi networks could add a layer of difficulty in determining the issue. I'd say try somehow to get things wired up and see if the problem persists.
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#4
Thanks for the reply.

In 2014, when more and more people stream indoors, there shouldn't be any hiccups as long as your equipment's fine.

So far the net command I specified earlier seems to have resolved the streaming hiccups - good reception, excellent smooth streaming in 1080p 5.1 surround when watching long videos... and I use no advancedsettings.xml anymore.

However, only usage over time will tell if this is really the end of the problems.

IF this was really the problem, than this may mean that all the Windows users out there have it. In such a case, I'd add a function in Kodi (System -> Network menu) to disable Windows' automatic disconnection (so you won't have to type in the command yourself). Or, I'd at-least add a wiki about it.

I wonder how many more people fall-back to wired equipment instead of streaming over wifi because of such problems.
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#5
It's an opinion that may get me bitten, but i am kind of oldschool.

Wired is better, ok it is a big job or a messy job to do, especially if oyu don't want to see cable everywhere.

I've recently finished a fairly extensive wire-up at home to avoid any dropout, flakey router, and wifi dead spots in the house by running just shy of a couple of hundred meters of Cat 5e and Cat 6 cable under the floors and into the rooms I intend having Kodi set up. Yes i'll do a shocase thread when i've actually got more than one instance up and running (WIP at present!)

For the moment it could be a good move just to "test" using wired connections if you can, even run a long Cat 5e cable neatly around the edges of rooms/skirting boards to make it less of a hack or trip hazard! this will at least part way point you in the direction of the fault.
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#6
I'd do everything wired if possible, or at-least the hard-drive. But the main problem is that my USB hub requires external power, or the hard-drive causes a power failure with the other things connected together (no other USB ports are available, I have only one with the hub connected and another one for charging). External power for the USB hub is no option for me, because I want to have a battery behind the hard-drive in case of electricity grid fluctuations.
Also, as mentioned, the local PC has no ethernet port. It's wireless only.

So this is why I connect the drive to a remote laptop - I have a battery and surge protection behind it, no UPS needed.

When next I buy a computer, I'll make sure it has enough USB ports so I can connect the drive locally.

So if this case requires a bit more tweaking - I'll consider it as a service to the community (sharing the info I gather) Wink .
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#7
=\

Well... nothing I wrote above really worked.
I wired the "server" PC to the router and the "client" PC works with wi-fi.

So far a smooth playback. I just don't understand why with the cashing and everything - Gotham still pauses for a few seconds when a momentary disconnection occurs. Unless it's something completely different from what I thought.

Unless I'm proven wrong NOW, half-wired or 100% wired are the best solutions. As stated earlier (thanks guys).

-------

Final update: Eventually, nothing that I did worked. So I wired everything to the local ("client") PC, no server dependencies.
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#8
I don't think the readbuffer needs the .0
try just the 1 or put something bigger in like 10 (no decimal point)
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Gotham 13.2 - Networked drive, Gotham randomly pauses0