Android [Fire TV] Playback stops in seconds (Workaround available)
#1
Friends,

I just got a new AFTV and trying to run XBMC but playback is just not working. I have a Gigabit wired connection and most MKVs start playing quickly with sound, but then stop in few seconds. Some run for 25 seconds and others (usually the larger MKVs) quit under 10 seconds. Tried disabling hardware acceleration completely as well as with/without below network settings but nothing worked -
<buffermode>1</buffermode>
<readbufferfactor>10</readbufferfactor>
<cachemembuffersize>52428800</cachemembuffersize>

Did a factory reset of FTV and ran XBMC with default settings and just 1 video file but didn't help. The same files (shared in Drobo) work great on my HTPC (XBMC).

Here is the log with mediacodec off and then on. Thanks for any suggestions / pointers.

10/28/2014 update: See the last post for a workaround.
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#2
Anything I might have overlooked in the setup? With so many people running it I'd think most videos would play fine over a wired connection. I tried wireless also today and it's no better, which I expected anyway.

BTW, it runs the latest firmware so no rooting for now Sad
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#3
Weird. I'd try installing or sideloading a speedtest Android app just to see if it's only XBMC or if it's all traffic the FireTV is handling.
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#4
(2014-10-25, 22:22)Ned Scott Wrote: Weird. I'd try installing or sideloading a speedtest Android app just to see if it's only XBMC or if it's all traffic the FireTV is handling.

Thanks Ned, will try that next. Installing nfs 1.2.8 on Drobo now to see if connectivity over NFS helps. Somehow I feel Drobo could be the issue though XBMC on HTPC can play everything fine. By the way, FTV can play all videos on Prime. Vevo HD works fine too, absolutely no stuttering / freezing with apps from marketplace.
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#5
I assume you're using SMB/Samba right now? It's very possible that there is some weird quirk with both XBMC for Android and the Drobo, which doesn't pop up on other hardware. I've seen similar things like that happen before.
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#6
(2014-10-26, 02:53)Ned Scott Wrote: I assume you're using SMB/Samba right now? It's very possible that there is some weird quirk with both XBMC for Android and the Drobo, which doesn't pop up on other hardware. I've seen similar things like that happen before.

Yes, sharing over SMB. I copied a movie to the HTPC itself and shared from there. XBMC on FTV played it, even when I skipped a few times, 10 mins at a time. It was as good as XBMC on HTPC!

Now both HTPC (Windows 8.1) and Drobo shares were SMB and looks like the issue is with Drobo, and not XBMC on FTV Smile

While this makes me happy in a way that I don't have to return FTV but all my movies are on Drobo. Wonder what to change in Drobo 5N settings to fix this ... it's pretty much default settings with just manual IP address. Trying to get NFS working now.
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#7
Couldn't get NFS to work with XBMC on FTV Sad Installed NFS on Drobo 5N and my HTPC can see the directories shared from XBMC (Windows) but not XBMC on FTV. It can see the shared directory (/mnt/DroboFS/Shares/Public) not the files/folders under it. Possobly a bug in NFS code in XBMC for Android and that makes me wonder whether it's really Drobo, or XBMC for Android on FTV ...
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#8
An update in case anyone else encounters the same problem with this combination of FTV / Drobo 5N/ Netgear Nighthawk. I couldn't resolve SMB issue and nfs didn't work with XBMC on FTV properly either. I tried SFTP but it was too slow and was buffering too frequently.

I then installed lighttpd with simple directory listing on Drobo and set up XBMC to use HTTP Directory as source protocol and it worked perfectly. Playback is smooth and I can skip to next chapter without any noticeable delay. Only issue is that I can't delete the files on Drobo using XBMC. I am going to try WebDAV next but it's not a big issue as I can always remove the watched files from my HTPC, which connects over SMB.

I can watch 3D BluRay ISOs with just acceleration set to "software" and that shows FTV's processing power! Overall I am very happy with XBMC on FTV with this workaround Cool
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[Fire TV] Playback stops in seconds (Workaround available)0