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Ray Oliver · 2008-10-20, 14:02

I'm really enjoying XBMC on my Apple TV but I am having some issues with video playback. There's two issues that typically arise:

1. Video playback is choppy, especially in scenes with a lot of things moving on screen.

2. Video and audio get really out of sync, by a second or more.

The second only happens with some videos, while the first always happens. Are there any settings that I should be looking for that might solve these issues?

tyche · 2008-10-20, 15:26

Is the movie stored locally or on a network share? I suspect a network share. I found the smb connection wasn't sufficient and got buffering and stuttering. I switch to a nfs mounts on my atv and can now play my files properly.

Ray Oliver · 2008-10-20, 17:44

tyche Wrote:Is the movie stored locally or on a network share? I suspect a network share. I found the smb connection wasn't sufficient and got buffering and stuttering. I switch to a nfs mounts on my atv and can now play my files properly.

Interesting, I'll have to try that. I am using SMB.

pantherman007 · 2008-10-20, 18:40

What kind of video files? SD or HD? If HD, what's the bitrate?

My ATV setup streams SD quite well over 802.11g from SMB shares for what it's worth...

kirbypuckett · 2008-10-20, 20:50

I've had no issues streaming files via SMB across my wireless network.

pooh · 2008-10-21, 00:12

No issues here with Beta2, Samba share on linux and wireless.....

Ray Oliver · 2008-10-21, 00:46

pantherman007 Wrote:What kind of video files? SD or HD? If HD, what's the bitrate?

My ATV setup streams SD quite well over 802.11g from SMB shares for what it's worth...

Not sure of the bitrate off hand, but I'm streaming 720p MKVs.

**CASHMON3Y** · 2008-10-21, 01:12

Thats probably the source of your issue, at max the Atv can do 720p, but the MKV container is what killed you. Mind posting the bitrate?

gilbreen · 2008-10-21, 17:16

tyche Wrote:Is the movie stored locally or on a network share? I suspect a network share. I found the smb connection wasn't sufficient and got buffering and stuttering. I switch to a nfs mounts on my atv and can now play my files properly.

I have my movie files (DVD vob files) stored on a ReadyNAS. I currently have the shares on the ReadyNAS as smb mounts in my sources.xml. While the movie plays fine, it does take about a minute for the movie to start once the movie is selected. That being said, I have some TV shows as AVI files and when I select them to play, they start within 10 seconds and they are also stored on the NAS mounted as smb shares.

I am interested trying the NAS as an nfs mount to see if there is a difference or perhaps it is the fact that the file is a DVD vob. What is the syntax to use in the sources.xml file for an nfs mount?

tyche · 2008-10-21, 17:52

gilbreen Wrote:I have my movie files (DVD vob files) stored on a ReadyNAS. I currently have the shares on the ReadyNAS as smb mounts in my sources.xml. While the movie plays fine, it does take about a minute for the movie to start once the movie is selected. That being said, I have some TV shows as AVI files and when I select them to play, they start within 10 seconds and they are also stored on the NAS mounted as smb shares.

I am interested trying the NAS as an nfs mount to see if there is a difference or perhaps it is the fact that the file is a DVD vob. What is the syntax to use in the sources.xml file for an nfs mount?

i use a Readynas as well. Some others don't seem to have problems with smb but maybe the Readynas isn't the best for that protocol. When I first set up smb connections, it wasn't very good. There was a long "buffering" delay at the start and lots of stuttering. I simply enabled nfs on the readynas share and changed to nfs mounts on the apple tv. It worked so well, I just kept it and moved on. The only problem I have is if the atv reboots, I need to ssh and set my mounts again. So far I've had no luck getting them to automount. The machine rarely need to be restarted though.

I followed the steps at awkwardtv to set up nfs. Then I use mount_nfs to mount the readynas share on a local directory: eg. mount_nfs readynas:/library /Users/frontrow/Movies. Then in XBMC, just add your source as /Users/frontrow/Movies.

gilbreen · 2008-10-21, 18:05

tyche Wrote:i use a Readynas as well. Some others don't seem to have problems with smb but maybe the Readynas isn't the best for that protocol. When I first set up smb connections, it wasn't very good. There was a long "buffering" delay at the start and lots of stuttering. I simply enabled nfs on the readynas share and changed to nfs mounts on the apple tv. It worked so well, I just kept it and moved on. The only problem I have is if the atv reboots, I need to ssh and set my mounts again. So far I've had no luck getting them to automount. The machine rarely need to be restarted though.

I followed the steps at awkwardtv to set up nfs. Then I use mount_nfs to mount the readynas share on a local directory: eg. mount_nfs readynas:/library /Users/frontrow/Movies. Then in XBMC, just add your source as /Users/frontrow/Movies.

Ah, so the ReadyNAS is mounted as a share to the ATV. This is new territory for me so I'll have to read up on awkwardtv. Though you are right that the ATV rarely needs rebooting, I also need to keep the WAF high and not sure if she is interested in learning how to ssh into the ATV to remount the ReadyNAS in the event I am away and the machine goes down.

Thanks for the info!

SecretSquirrel · 2008-10-21, 22:59

Is vsync enabled - if not you'll get stuttery/tearing video effects especially on panning.

mastiha · 2008-11-03, 04:37

I've tried playing and MKV via a network share and the same MKV on the ATV. Playback with both is very "unsmooth".

The same video played on a PopCorn Hour A100 has no issues.

Yes, I have vsync enabled.

davilla · 2008-11-03, 18:45

mastiha Wrote:I've tried playing and MKV via a network share and the same MKV on the ATV. Playback with both is very "unsmooth".

The same video played on a PopCorn Hour A100 has no issues.

Yes, I have vsync enabled.

I would need a sample of the video content to see if it's a user setting issue or some other problem.

mastiha · 2008-11-03, 22:44

The file is over 4GB.

How would I extract a sample from it?