[LIVE] Pirates of the Caribbean/ION/Stuttering
#1
Hello all.

I was wondering if some willing souls could share their experiences. I have ripped about 15 Blu-Ray movies to M2TS so far using Clown_BD. I always take only the main movie and the best English audio track. The files are kept on my media server (Windows Server 2003) and I have a Zotac IONITX-A-U system that I built with Live Camelot. While my main network is Gigabit...the switch where I have my HTPC is 100mbit only (a 5 port gbit switch is on the way).

So far, everything has played flawlessly with the exception on the 3 Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I get stutters about every 2 minutes and 2 - 3 dropped frames during that time. The only thing I can see that is different about these movies is that they are encoded as h264 vs. VC1 which the rest of my movies are. Also, they are the only movies that are pushing a bitrate of 30mbit+.

If anyone has one or all of these movies (and preferably and ION system), can you see if you get stuttering? I am really hoping that the cause if teh 100mbit link...but I doubt it.

TIA for the help!

John
Reply
#2
sorry, double post
Reply
#3
Is it always at the same position (time) in the movie? If yes, then maybe the bitrate is really to much for the 100mbit ethernet Eek

I think the best would be if you copy the movie on an external harddrive and test if it will work Wink

Then you will see if your ethernet is the problem.
Reply
#4
sylvio2000 Wrote:Is it always at the same position (time) in the movie? If yes, then maybe the bitrate is really to much for the 100mbit ethernet Eek

I think the best would be if you copy the movie on an external harddrive and test if it will work Wink

Then you will see if your ethernet is the problem.

It is pretty consistent at same parts of the movies.

Good idea. I actually have my blu-rays ripped to a WD My Book that is connected via eSata to my server. I'll just bring it upstairs and hook it up to the HTPC via USB and see what happens. Not sure why I didn't think of that before...but I guess that is why I asked: just needed someone to rattle my old brain! Smile

Thx!
Reply
#5
Update:

I replaced my 100mbit switch with a gbit switch and have the same exact problem. The new switch shows gbit connections on both ends via the green indicator lights (versus amber for 100mbit).

I still have to bring the USB drive upstairs and hook it up directly to see if this is a network issue or possibly an issue with the processing power of my IONITX.

Stay tuned...

John
Reply
#6
Update #2:

I connected the USB HD directly to my HTPC and all stuttering has ceased. So, it appears that my issue is definitely network related...whetehr it something inherent to XBMC or my network hardware (switches, cabling, etc.). About the only things I have left to try are to replace the cables with ones that I know are CAT6 and take the second switch out of teh mix (run a cable directly from my main switch to my HTPC...one less hop).
Reply
#7
I'm having the same issue with stuttering on both of my ION machines and nothing I do seems to fix it (9.11 Live CD installed to HD). The late summer versions of XBMC played very smoothly - no stuttering or buffering of any kind.

In my opinion, this is a XBMC issue with the latest 9.11 Live CD. My network seems fine with general use and file transfers, etc. One thing I need to test is to try XBMC on my Win 7 machine (core i5) and see if there is any stuttering present there.

Matt
Reply
#8
Smeezy101 Wrote:I'm having the same issue with stuttering on both of my ION machines and nothing I do seems to fix it (9.11 Live CD installed to HD). The late summer versions of XBMC played very smoothly - no stuttering or buffering of any kind.

In my opinion, this is a XBMC issue with the latest 9.11 Live CD. My network seems fine with general use and file transfers, etc. One thing I need to test is to try XBMC on my Win 7 machine (core i5) and see if there is any stuttering present there.

Matt


Smeezy...I know some of the later Live builds had problems with the Nvidia drivers and VDPAU. Did you update the driver manually? If not, do this:

Taken from here: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=64535

Code:
From XBMC GUI:

Close XBMC (Not shut down your PC -- this can also be done via. SSH and killing X).

Login at the command prompt using the username/password you setup when you installed XBMC Live.

wget http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/190.53/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-190.53-pkg1.run

sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-190.53-pkg1.run

Note: At the end of the Nvidia driver installation it will prompt you asking if you wish to modify your current X config -- it defults to no (leave it this way).

sudo reboot

I was having choppy video problems until I upgraded the Nvidia drivers. Once I did this, everyhting played fine...except for the problem with high bitrate movies over the network as described above. But, this appears to be more of a network issue than a cpu/gpu power issue.

John
Reply
#9
johnodon Wrote:Smeezy...I know some of the later Live builds had problems with the Nvidia drivers and VDPAU. Did you update the driver manually? If not, do this:

Taken from here: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=64535

Code:
From XBMC GUI:

Close XBMC (Not shut down your PC -- this can also be done via. SSH and killing X).

Login at the command prompt using the username/password you setup when you installed XBMC Live.

wget http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/190.53/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-190.53-pkg1.run

sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-190.53-pkg1.run

Note: At the end of the Nvidia driver installation it will prompt you asking if you wish to modify your current X config -- it defults to no (leave it this way).

sudo reboot

I was having choppy video problems until I upgraded the Nvidia drivers. Once I did this, everyhting played fine...except for the problem with high bitrate movies over the network as described above. But, this appears to be more of a network issue than a cpu/gpu power issue.

John

*** Nevermind - i forgot to stop X ***

I'm getting a permission denied error after entering the wget line.
Reply
#10
Don't know why you would get a permission denied when trying to download a file. Did you change directories? Maybe you are trying to DL it a directlory where you do not have write permissions?

I am far from a Linux guru, but try this first...

1. Login to the terminal with your username/password/
2. sudo su root
This will ask for your password again
3. now try teh wget and in the install again...


John
Reply
#11
johnodon Wrote:Don't know why you would get a permission denied when trying to download a file. Did you change directories? Maybe you are trying to DL it a directlory where you do not have write permissions?

I am far from a Linux guru, but try this first...

1. Login to the terminal with your username/password/
2. sudo su root
This will ask for your password again
3. now try teh wget and in the install again...


John

Sorry John,

I forgot to exit out of XBMC. After that, I was able to install the drivers per your instructions.

During my short test during lunch, things were 100% better. I will test more of course but just the number of dropped frames improved tremendously. In my 10 minute test of a M2TS file, the number of dropped frames was only 1. Dropped frames with the previous drivers would have been at least 50 to 60 during that time period.

Thanks again!

Matt
Reply
#12
I'm sure you are good to go Matt. Glad I could help.

John

* johnodon flexes his Linux muscles! Wink
Reply
#13
johnodon Wrote:I'm sure you are good to go Matt. Glad I could help.

John

* Smeezy101 flexes his Linux muscles! Wink


After testing with 2 movies (m2ts) tonight, I can say that the stuttering is gone. Both movies had only 1 to 2 dropped frames. However, the dreaded pausing and buffering is still there. Any chance your Linux muscles have any knowledge of linux networking? Wink
Reply
#14
Smeezy101 Wrote:After testing with 2 movies (m2ts) tonight, I can say that the stuttering is gone. Both movies had only 1 to 2 dropped frames. However, the dreaded pausing and buffering is still there. Any chance your Linux muscles have any knowledge of linux networking? Wink

That is a problem I have yet to see. The worst I have ever had is a 1 - 3 dropped frames about every minute. I have never seen the "buffering" message on this platform. I used to see it on ocassion on my XBOX1.

Sorry.

John
Reply

Logout Mark Read Team Forum Stats Members Help
[LIVE] Pirates of the Caribbean/ION/Stuttering0