Will a busy HDD lead to pixalation during playback?

2010-05-09 09:15

At random times (sometimes not at all during the whole movie) when I stream from a HDD (mkv 1080p) I get pixelation during a frame like you get when you FF/RW. I'm wondering if the reason is because the HDD I stream from is getting too busy? I'm often seeding a lot with bittorent from the same HDD.

I'm running Win7 and using trunk 28256 over a gigabit LAN.

SlaveUnit · 2010-05-09 17:47

I dont believe it should. The queues would drain and the picture would just pause all together.

**gabbott** · 2010-05-09 17:59

Does the problem go away if you are doing nothing on the HDD but stream that video?

2010-05-09 20:29

gabbott Wrote:Does the problem go away if you are doing nothing on the HDD but stream that video?

I haven't tried as I'm running utorrent 24/7. I guess I could turn it off for a couple days and see if it still happens. But if according to SlaveUnit pixalation isn't even a symptom of a busy HDD I don't know what good it'd do.

If pixalation occurs once during a movie, it will almost always occur multiple times later on.
If I rewind and play same scene pixalation won't show up again.
I think I've never seen it happen with DVDs, AVIs, or 720p MKVs.

So how should I troubleshoot this?
I guess I could pause the movie when it happens, see if utorrrent is seeding a lot (+5 MB/s) and try turning it off. But I don't know if it really matters if I'm seeding 10 torrents with combined upload of 1 MB/s or +5 MB/s.

Would a pixalation error show up in the normal XBMC log? Obviously I can't run the debug log during a movie. Isn't there a way to run the dubug log without the text overlay?

Maybe this thread is getting OT for the support section. Though I just wanted to know if busy HDDs led to pixalation.

SlaveUnit · 2010-05-09 21:37

What video card do you have?

Just pause the damn torrents for 5 mins. Big deal. Your credits arent going to be effected that much. You could have already tried that by now.

**gabbott** · 2010-05-09 21:39

Quasit Wrote:I haven't tried as I'm running utorrent 24/7. I guess I could turn it off for a couple days and see if it still happens. But if according to SlaveUnit pixalation isn't even a symptom of a busy HDD I don't know what good it'd do.

It would be an easy troubleshooting step to at least answer your question of whether the problem is possibly due to a busy HDD.

**gabbott** · 2010-05-09 21:41

Quasit Wrote:Would a pixalation error show up in the normal XBMC log? Obviously I can't run the debug log during a movie. Isn't there a way to run the dubug log without the text overlay?

if debug is enabled, then sure it is logging while playing a movie.

2010-05-09 21:50

gabbott Wrote:if debug is enabled, then sure it is logging while playing a movie.

What I meant the RAM/CPU overlay is annoying when watching a moive. Not that it wouldn't create a debug log during playback.

**gabbott** · 2010-05-09 21:54

Quasit Wrote:What I meant the RAM/CPU overlay is annoying when watching a moive. Not that it wouldn't create a debug log during playback.

Might be the price you'll have to pay to track down your issue if it ends up a debug is the only way to troubleshoot the problem Smile

Don't believe there is a way to disable that overlay

**gabbott** · 2010-05-09 22:01

Oh, another troubleshooting step, what if you were to play the video locally on the xbmc box instead of streaming it?

Quasit Unregistered	2010-05-09 09:15 Post: #1 At random times (sometimes not at all during the whole movie) when I stream from a HDD (mkv 1080p) I get pixelation during a frame like you get when you FF/RW. I'm wondering if the reason is because the HDD I stream from is getting too busy? I'm often seeding a lot with bittorent from the same HDD. I'm running Win7 and using trunk 28256 over a gigabit LAN.
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SlaveUnit Posting Freak Posts: 1,736 Joined: Oct 2008 Reputation: 14 Location: San Diego	2010-05-09 17:47 Post: #2 I dont believe it should. The queues would drain and the picture would just pause all together.
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gabbott Team-XBMC Member Posts: 1,547 Joined: Jul 2007 Reputation: 26	2010-05-09 17:59 Post: #3 Does the problem go away if you are doing nothing on the HDD but stream that video?
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SlaveUnit Posting Freak Posts: 1,736 Joined: Oct 2008 Reputation: 14 Location: San Diego	2010-05-09 21:37 Post: #5 What video card do you have? Just pause the damn torrents for 5 mins. Big deal. Your credits arent going to be effected that much. You could have already tried that by now.
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gabbott Team-XBMC Member Posts: 1,547 Joined: Jul 2007 Reputation: 26	2010-05-09 21:41 Post: #7 Quasit Wrote:Would a pixalation error show up in the normal XBMC log? Obviously I can't run the debug log during a movie. Isn't there a way to run the dubug log without the text overlay? if debug is enabled, then sure it is logging while playing a movie.
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Quasit Unregistered	2010-05-09 21:50 Post: #8 gabbott Wrote:if debug is enabled, then sure it is logging while playing a movie. What I meant the RAM/CPU overlay is annoying when watching a moive. Not that it wouldn't create a debug log during playback.
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gabbott Team-XBMC Member Posts: 1,547 Joined: Jul 2007 Reputation: 26	2010-05-09 21:54 Post: #9 Quasit Wrote:What I meant the RAM/CPU overlay is annoying when watching a moive. Not that it wouldn't create a debug log during playback. Might be the price you'll have to pay to track down your issue if it ends up a debug is the only way to troubleshoot the problem Don't believe there is a way to disable that overlay
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gabbott Team-XBMC Member Posts: 1,547 Joined: Jul 2007 Reputation: 26	2010-05-09 22:01 Post: #10 Oh, another troubleshooting step, what if you were to play the video locally on the xbmc box instead of streaming it?
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