MRobi 160 Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 Looking for some clarification on settings to help solve some buffering issues while streaming. Have the Emby server located at home, and I know my connection here can handle streaming. Have a 1Gbps download and 100Mbps upload. The bottleneck is at my camp which is in the middle of nowhere and only have access to ADSL which is a 7Mbps download and 0.5Mbps upload. And that's on a good day. I sometimes see connection speeds as low as 4Mbps. Trying to stream at the camp I get lots of buffering and Kodi gives an error "Source too slow. Read rate too low for continuous playback." I was all over my ISP for 2 or 3 weeks, had a technician come install a new line, had them run all kinds of tests and monitoring, they insist the line is good. So this is when I started digging into Emby settings and realized the problem I've been having has nothing to do with the ISP and is likely related to my settings in Emby. I've found 2 that I feel might be able to help me out, and I'm wondering which best to adjust. On the server side there is Download & Sync/Settings - Upload Speed Limit (Mbps) And in Kodi app under Video Playback there's an option to set Video Quality and I know I haven't adjusted that so it's set at 100Mbps HD (Default) In my head setting the upload speed on the server to 3Mbps and the Video Quality on the Kodi app to 3.2Mbps should fix my constant buffering issues even when my connection is hovering on the low range. Am I on the right path here? Is there anything else I should be adjusting to help stream to a slow internet connection? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRobi 160 Posted June 29, 2017 Author Share Posted June 29, 2017 When you set the video quality in the emby for Kodi addon that is what bitrate the kodi client will ask for from the server. So yes in your case setting this lower will help. Awesome, so then setting the upload on the server side wouldn't be necessary correct? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRobi 160 Posted June 30, 2017 Author Share Posted June 30, 2017 correct, the upload setting on the server is all about syncing converted media to clients that support download and sync, Kodi does not support that so this setting has no effect for Kodi. Perfect! I appreciate the help. Can't wait to try it tomorrow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRobi 160 Posted July 1, 2017 Author Share Posted July 1, 2017 So I set it all the way down to 1mbps and it's still buffering like crazy. Damn. Time to hound my isp again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 You need to play around with advancedsettings in Kodi. This is where you can fine tune everything: http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO%3AModify_the_video_cache Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRobi 160 Posted July 1, 2017 Author Share Posted July 1, 2017 You need to play around with advancedsettings in Kodi. This is where you can fine tune everything: http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO%3AModify_the_video_cache Thanks! Looking closer at this I used my old advancedsettings.xml from Openelec and did not modify to fit the new kodi 17 format. I'll try that today 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shorty1483 453 Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 (edited) Fun fact: With Kodi 16 I needed a custom advancedsettings.xml. With Kodi 17 I don't need it at all on my FTV2. Edited July 1, 2017 by shorty1483 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRobi 160 Posted July 1, 2017 Author Share Posted July 1, 2017 <advancedsettings> <cache> <buffermode>1</buffermode> <memorysize>419430300</memorysize> <readfactor>10</readfactor> </cache> </advancedsettings> Made it 52s into the first show before it buffered Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 (edited) What did you set your video quality at in the addon? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Edited July 1, 2017 by Angelblue05 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRobi 160 Posted July 1, 2017 Author Share Posted July 1, 2017 What did you set your video quality at in the addon? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1.3mbps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 And if you lower it even more, with the cache settings applied? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRobi 160 Posted July 1, 2017 Author Share Posted July 1, 2017 And if you lower it even more, with the cache settings applied? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Nope.664kbps SD still buffering every 3 or 4 minutes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 (edited) Are you sure the cache settings you picked are good for your device? I'm not an expert but this is information you can confirm pn the official Kodi forums. Would you say it helped improve the buffering a little? Or not at all? Anyway, definitely something worth asking. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Edited July 1, 2017 by Angelblue05 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRobi 160 Posted July 1, 2017 Author Share Posted July 1, 2017 Are you sure the cache settings you picked are good for your device? I'm not an expert but this is information you can confirm pn the official Kodi forums. Would you say it helped improve the buffering a little? Or not at all? Anyway, definitely something worth asking. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Ya this setting is good for 4gb ram. Only other setting I could try would be memorysize 0 to use the hdd instead of ram, but even at that I shouldn't need to buffer more than 4gb for any single file. Interesting notes... -I haven't gotten the server slow message since changing the video quality setting just buffering now. -I loaded up Exodus and we're almost fully through a movie at 720p with no buffering. -I setup iptv simple client and was watching coverage of nhl free agent frenzy in 720p @ 60fps with no buffering I'm starting to thing the issue is on the server side. The upload is 100mbps fiber so that should be plenty. Could it be that the server isn't transcoding fast enough? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRobi 160 Posted July 1, 2017 Author Share Posted July 1, 2017 And no I didn't find the settings improved anything at all 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 Something worth looking into for sure. Ask in the server forums so the right people can see your post, I'm starting to thing the issue is on the server side. The upload is 100mbps fiber so that should be plenty. Could it be that the server isn't transcoding fast enough? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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