Playback stuttering (Webclient, mobile clients)

[altramarine 21]

Hi there!

 

Forgive me for a repetitive thread (i've read a few with similar issues).

 

First my setup:

Media Content: Synology NAS - all of of my media is 1080p mkv files

Media Browser server: dedicated computer with older Dual Xeon 2.66GHz (8 cores total), 16GB memory, SSD

Wired clients: HTPC with MBC, personal computer

Wireless clients, iPhone 5, Nexus 7 tablet

 

 

I have been having playback stutter issues with my Wireless clients. Changing to lower quality (<10Mb) usually spreads the stutters apart enough to become less intrusive. My assumption is that it is a wireless reception issue, though testing the connection i get a stable ~30Mbps.

Having said that, today, I've noticed that playing movies using a browser(Chrome) on the PC produces stutters too and that's a wired Gigabit connection.

Observations:

 

MB Server - Advanced - Transcoding -> Auto

PC MB Web Player Quality: 1080P @ 30Mbps (max)

MB Server CPU: ~27%

Mad playback stutter! approx every 2-4 seconds

 

MB Server - Advanced - Transcoding -> Max quality

PC MB Web Player Quality: 1080P @ 30Mbps (max)

MB Server CPU: ~67%

Reasonable playback stutter! approx every 30-40 sec depending on the action

 

Firefox produces the same result.

Internet Explorer 11 gives me "Video error" when trying to play content. I never use Internet Explorer, so that's irrelevant, just an observation.

 

 

Lowering the Quality definitely helps a bit but why do that on a wired connection.

 

 

Questions:

 

1. Is there a way to instruct the Web player/iOS,Android clients to not transcode, knowing I am on LAN.

2. Is it Chrome that's messing things for me?

3. That's a long shot but are these issues with Wireless and Wired clients anyway connected? because of how MB Server decides to transcode?

 

 

Thank you very much for your time and effort!

 

 

Edited June 19, 2014 by altramarine

[speechles 1929]

Did you encode the videos as 1080p @ 60fps or 30fps? It needs to be 30fps MKV. If it is disregard this post. I tried.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Edited June 19, 2014 by speechles

[altramarine 21]

Did you encode the videos as 1080p @ 60fps or 30fps? It needs to be 30fps MKV. If it is disregard this post. I tried.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Thanks for your reply! I believe it is 23.9

[speechles 1929]

Thanks for your reply! I believe it is 23.9

I assumed TV shows were the problem. Movies should be 24fps or as close to that as the audio sync let's you get. What codecs are you using? Lav? Haali splitter? Mkv isn't natively detected by most codec packs correctly.

 

http://mediabrowser.tv/community/index.php?/topic/1096-setting-up-codecs-using-ffdshow/

This worked for me using the above topic, maybe it will for you too.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Beardyname 195]

Questions:

 

1. Is there a way to instruct the Web player/iOS,Android clients to not transcode, knowing I am on LAN.

2. Is it Chrome that's messing things for me?

3. That's a long shot but are these issues with Wireless and Wired clients anyway connected? because of how MB Server decides to transcode?

 

 

Thank you very much for your time and effort!

 

 

1. Since browsers can't read the files directly i believe the server are doing a stream copy of the video and possibly the audio is being trans-coded. Same goes for the phones. You can check what is being done in the settings page i believe (does not explain why it would lag on the wired connection though)

 

2. Possibly but i would not bet on it. I know some have had problems with chrome in the past but I think that had to do more with the layout and such.

 

3. Don't know, I'm assuming MBT and MBC works fine ? Since they can play the files themselves directly.

 

Other than that your server seems beefy enough to do the transcoding so the bandwidth might be the problem.

 

I should also say that the profile thing for transcoding is just a pre-set if you change it for web player I think it overrides the pre-set. aka It's mostly good for the phones!

Edited June 19, 2014 by Beardyname

[parrotheadcubs 9]

I have been having a major issue with stuttering.  I play through IE on the Xbox One using DLNA which plays it through the video player.  I'm talking stuttering every 20 seconds.  This is only happening on my most recent rips.  However, every movie is ripped the exact same way.  Here's the media info on a recent movie that is suffering from stuttering.  Any thoughts?

 

Video

Codec H264

ProfileConstrained Baseline
Level41
Resolution1920x1080
Aspect Ratio16:9
InterlacedNo
Framerate23.97602
Bitrate16640 kbps
Bit Depth8 bit
Pixel Formatyuv420p
TimestampNone

 

Audio

Languageeng
CodecAC3
Layout5.1
Bitrate448 kbps
Sample Rate48000 khz
DefaultNo

 

Size11729 MB

PathI:\Movies\The Croods\The Croods_001.ts

[parrotheadcubs 9]

transcode-9e451960-60bb-45ba-901f-be2a2a7231e4.txt

Please see http://mediabrowser.tv/community/index.php?/topic/790-how-to-report-a-problem/

More information is needed when reporting streaming issues. Thanks.

Using the latest version of the server.  I use the xbox as DLna.  Play it from internet explorer. It will play and freeze every 20 seconds or so.  I've attached a log of my most recent attempt.

[Luke 37269]

 

I have been having a major issue with stuttering.  I play through IE on the Xbox One using DLNA which plays it through the video player.  I'm talking stuttering every 20 seconds.  This is only happening on my most recent rips.  However, every movie is ripped the exact same way.  Here's the media info on a recent movie that is suffering from stuttering.  Any thoughts?

 

Video

Codec H264

ProfileConstrained Baseline

Level41

Resolution1920x1080

Aspect Ratio16:9

InterlacedNo

Framerate23.97602

Bitrate16640 kbps

Bit Depth8 bit

Pixel Formatyuv420p

TimestampNone

 

Audio

Languageeng

CodecAC3

Layout5.1

Bitrate448 kbps

Sample Rate48000 khz

DefaultNo

 

Size11729 MB

PathI:\Movies\The Croods\The Croods_001.ts

 

 

Please see http://mediabrowser.tv/community/index.php?/topic/790-how-to-report-a-problem/

More information is needed when reporting streaming issues. Thanks.

[parrotheadcubs 9]

I think I found the reason.  The movies that play flawlessly have a bitrate of about 9000 kbps.  The ones that are stuttering are all 16K + kbps.  I'm going to try and rip another one again and try to change the bitrate option to lower and see if it works.

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

If the CPU isn't struggling, the issue is most likely network saturation.

[parrotheadcubs 9]

If the CPU isn't struggling, the issue is most likely network saturation.

Perhaps.  But I'm getting 54 MB download speed on the Xbox.

[parrotheadcubs 9]

The strange part is these same movies that are stuttering will play through the iPad app.  I then airplay it through apple tv which I have connected to the Xbox one.  Plays perfect.  Just bizarre.

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

If the iPad app is like the ones for the iPhone and Android, it will default to a transcode of 3.2 Kbps. This is a lot less network traffic and easier to play. You should be able to adjust this to higher and higher amounts until you get the same issue though. That would be the cutoff point. I just got done rewiring my entire house with Gigabit ethernet and Dual Wifi Networks in order to deal with similar issues.

 

If you run a Cat5e cable between your router and the XBOX One does it still have the same stuttering issues? 

[parrotheadcubs 9]

If the iPad app is like the ones for the iPhone and Android, it will default to a transcode of 3.2 Kbps. This is a lot less network traffic and easier to play. You should be able to adjust this to higher and higher amounts until you get the same issue though. That would be the cutoff point. I just got done rewiring my entire house with Gigabit ethernet and Dual Wifi Networks in order to deal with similar issues.

 

If you run a Cat5e cable between your router and the XBOX One does it still have the same stuttering issues? 

I don't have a cable that long.  I am using an extender of sorts.  It plugs into the outlet by the router and next to the xbox.  And then an ethernet into the xbox and one into the router from each jack.

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

I have never had good results with powerline adapters. Could be noise on the electrical lines. Video Streaming usually uses UDP which doesn't have error correction like TCP does.

[parrotheadcubs 9]

Not the best option but I don't feel like having the Xbox in the basement.  Doesn't get much use then.  I'm currently re ripping one of the stuttering movies with a lower bitrate.  We'll see if that fixes it.  If not I'll just continue with the airplay through the iPad/Apple TV/Xbone option.  Although not ideal.

[somy 24]

I have the same problem. It stutters in Chrome, I tried with both my desktop and laptop and it gives the same result.

It has nothing to do with bandwidth, and switching to low resolution/bitrate doesn't eliminate the problem completely.

The server is not doing full speed transcoding as I have a watt meter which shows that the CPU on sever is not really stressed.

The strange thing is, safari on iPad plays all material fine without any problem, and I can also observe the CPU usage at server side is higher.

It has nothing to do with Chrome also, as Plex transcodes the same videos without any problem.

This is quite annoying now