Freezing viewing recorded or Live tv on Clients (1 Viewer)

[mguebert]

I am experiencing freezing on both live tv and recorded tv while viewing on clients. I have 2 clients right now. One is a Intel I3 NUC and the other is a Celeron NUC. They both experience the same freezes. The video will eventually start playing again. I have disabled Windows defender. And tried a different hard drive for the timeshift folders.

I had a scorpio blue 120gb hard drive for timeshifting I changed it to a Intel 40gb SSD.

VLC on my laptop will play the same files without any issues.

Both NUC clients have 4gb ram running Win 7 64bit enterprise.

 

[Owlsroost]

If looks like the problems are at the server end of the system - there are a lot of continuity errors in both the TsWriter and MPIPTVSource log files. No idea from the logs what might be causing the errors, but I'd take a close look at what else is running on the server (or connecting to it remotely).

What kind of network are you running ?

 

[Owlsroost]

This won't fix the problems, but for the clients the TsReader.ax here (v3.0.76.0) - https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/tsreader-for-mp-1-6-0.122083/#post-1031680 - might cope better with the stream errors.

 

[mguebert]

Thanks owlroost, the server is running Argus, MePo 1.5, and TRaid, MB3 Server and a program called processlasso to make sure the system is 100% responsive. One note though, even when the only thing running was MePo the freezes still occurred. Process wise I am using very little of my server resources.

The network on the server end, I have a 6 port Intel Gigabit network adapter. 3ports are tied together in Static Link Aggregation for 3 Gbps link, to a Dell powerconnect 2824 24port gigabit switch, the 3 ports are tied together in the switch with link aggregation.

It may help to explain how I got here. The same exact hardware, processor, ram, and tuner wise was in use with a Sage TV setup using SageDCT to interface with the Ceton Tuner. For various reasons I wanted to move on and MePo with Argus for scheduling got the nod.

My first attempt was under Esxi with a Win 7 VM dedicated to MePo and a WHS2011 VM dedicated to movie storage with Traid. I had the HBA passed through to WHS and the USB card passed through to Win 7 for the USB UIRT and HDPVR. 1 each port of the Nic dedicated to each VM.

I was having the stuttering problems, and I tried several things to get rid of them. But nothing seemed to help, so I decided to ditch the ESXI setup and I loaded WHS2011 alone. I couldn't get the tuners working, which in retrospect was probably a firewall issue. So I started over again and ditched WHS2011 for Win 7 64bit enterprise.

I got everything working except for some tuning issues which were resolved with the help of MM1352000, but the freezes are still there. I tried ditching the Scorpio blue laptop drive for a Intel SSD. The recording drive is a Seagate 1tb 7200 rpm drive on an dedicated AHCI port.

I thought maybe about the network, but I have tried single link and multiple link, doesn't seem to matter. The only thing I haven't tried is disabling jumbo frames. Could that be a factor????

The

 

[mm1352000]

Hello again mguebert

Can you please clarify: are you experiencing freezing or occasional stuttering?
With all channels equally, or a few more than others?

I ask because based on the number of continuity errors in the log file I don't see a serious server side problem. Maybe a few channels have signal quality issues, or the timeshift HDD is occasionally stressed, or the network drops a few packets... but not wholesale issues.

I thought maybe about the network, but I have tried single link and multiple link, doesn't seem to matter. The only thing I haven't tried is disabling jumbo frames. Could that be a factor????

When I first added CableCARD tuner support I had major stuttering issues with Ceton tuners. I talked to one of their engineers who told me the max packet size was 12288... so we configured that in MPIPTVSource.ini. Unless your network is grouping packets into jumbo frames I don't think it would be an issue... but you could try disabling it. Personally I think we'd see way more continuity errors if this was a problem.

mm

 

[mguebert]

I am experiencing periodic freezing, sometimes as long as a minute or so. Most of the time it will start playing again on it's own, missing the chunk of time it was frozen. The strange thing is one program was freezing alot and VLC would play it fine. It doesn't appear to be related to the channel in use. Or at least I cannot detect a pattern.

I don't think it is the hard drive. I have a dedicated recording drive a 1tb 7200 seagate and the timeshift drive is a Intel 40gb ssd. I had tried putting timeshift on the recording drive before I put in the ssd.

The only other thing I could try is a ram disk for the timeshift folder. I have 16gb of ram so it could be done with a small ram disk.

I tried the replacement tsreader file provided by owlroost. It seems to help some with the long freezes, now I am getting quite a few periodic freezes on the football game channel 702.

The signal on the channel is -4.8dbm and the network utilization is 2.3%

Sometimes when it freezes the only way to get it back is to stop playback and restart it.[DOUBLEPOST=1388962061][/DOUBLEPOST]Another note is that the same tuner's and hard drive for recording was in use with sage and it worked fine.

 

[mm1352000]

...

Okay, thanks.

Sometimes when it freezes the only way to get it back is to stop playback and restart it.

So skipping back 5 seconds doesn't help?

 

[mguebert]

haven't tried that. At the next freeze I will[DOUBLEPOST=1388962401][/DOUBLEPOST]Another note about the network, I don't think that's related. Right now as we speak my daughter is streaming a bluray over a Wireless AC link with no stutters or freezing. It does come from the Traid pool drive. Where as the timeshifting and recording on on their own. I did change to the SSD because of some smart errors, but I don't see those on the recording drive or the ssd.[DOUBLEPOST=1388962723][/DOUBLEPOST]Ok tried the skip backwards 15sec (default skip size) and no it doesn't help. In fact the skip notification stays up on the screen like MePo has crashed.[DOUBLEPOST=1388962751][/DOUBLEPOST]Had to stop playback and restart

 

[mm1352000]

Another note about the network, I don't think that's related.

I do think network, firewall or IPTV filter configuration has some role in the problem. If it didn't, we wouldn't see the discontinuity errors in the IPTV source filter log. That is the first MP component to receive/touch the stream and it is already seeing problems... so something is not right. Maybe I could put it this way: in this particular case, I think there is far more chance the issue is network/firewall/IPTV related than HDD/SSD related.

[edit: The above statement assumes your signal quality is fine based on what you said about no problems with Sage.]

Could you please put the IPTV filter into debug mode:

1. Open TV Server configuration.
2. Click open log directory in the top left corner.
3. Go up one level.
4. Open MPIPTVSource.ini in a text editor.
5. Change LogVerbosity to verbose or even data (4 or 5).
6. Save and close.
7. Restart the TV service.

Then check whether it helps to...

1. ...increase the IPTV filter RTSP maximum payload size. Edit the config file as described above. Add a zero or two on the end of RtspUdpSinkMaxPayloadSize. Restart the TV service for the change to take effect.
   
2. ...temporarily drop all firewalls and anti-virus/malware/spyware protection.

After performing these tests, please post fresh TV Server log files.

Thanks

 

[mguebert]

Its recording the football game now, as soon as it's done I will restart tv service.[DOUBLEPOST=1388965947][/DOUBLEPOST]Are client logs at this point helpful?