Issues with live TV on client PC (2 Viewers)

[mm1352000]

I find it really interesting that the continuity errors seem to occur on a 4-5 second cycle. In other words, to me it looks like there is a pattern...

Well... Can they be beaten into submission?

It is not a case of beating it into submission. The question is: what is the cause of the pattern. What else have you got running that might be impeding MP's access to the network, or which does something every 4-5 seconds? Could be anti-virus/malware/spyware or firewall stuff. Could be a bad driver with high DPC latency. Whatever it is, it is causing data to be lost...

 

[T^2]

I find it really interesting that the continuity errors seem to occur on a 4-5 second cycle. In other words, to me it looks like there is a pattern...

Well... Can they be beaten into submission?

It is not a case of beating it into submission. The question is: what is the cause of the pattern. What else have you got running that might be impeding MP's access to the network, or which does something every 4-5 seconds? Could be anti-virus/malware/spyware or firewall stuff. Could be a bad driver with high DPC latency. Whatever it is, it is causing data to be lost...

Nothing else running and nothing else that I know of on the network. Attached event logs in case it helps. Can try a couple of experiments. Move live buffer to C: drive instead of E: (the external USB3.0 drive). Turn off all anti-virsu/malware/spyware/firewall stuff (Norton).

 

[mm1352000]

I see a bunch of "Network link is disconnected." messages. No dates or times though so I can't correlate them with anything. Maybe they're normal?

If VLC on the client can view the stream from the server smoothly then it suggests the problem is client side - something related to MP. In other words, the timeshift location should be okay (though I do hesitate to say that - had bad experiences with USB storage). The other check with Norton stuff is definitely worth doing.

 

[T^2]

Ok... Here is what I found. Shutting off Norton has not effect.

Changing the drive used for Live TV Buffering does have an impact.

So with the buffer set to E:\Recorded TV\MP Time Shift Buffer I have the problem. Change the buffer to C:\Users\Public\Recorded TV and the problems go away. Playback of Live TV is perfect on the client machine. C: Drive is a SSD drive. E: Drive is a 3TB Toshiba Canvio USB 3.0 external drive.[DOUBLEPOST=1389226350][/DOUBLEPOST]More notes... Witth live buffer set to "E:\Recorded TV\MP Time Shift Buffer" I have no problems with live TV on the server machine. Also, NextPVR has it's live buffer set to "E:\Recorded TV\NPVR Live TV Buffer\". NextPVR has no problem with live TV playback on either the server machine or the client machine.[DOUBLEPOST=1389227081][/DOUBLEPOST]And more notes... Tried recording live TV. The folders for recorded TV are also set the the E: drive. Playback of recorded TV with MP on both the server and client machines is good. However, the recording seemed to have a couple of problem spots in it. Both the server and the client machines show the hiccups at the same point in time during playback. I'll record some more and see if it persist.

 

[mm1352000]

Ahhh, USB how I love it... and hate it. Check DPC latency on the server. You may find the USB driver has poor/inconsistent latency. Unfortunately that is not unusual.

 

[T^2]

Ahhh, USB how I love it... and hate it. Check DPC latency on the server. You may find the USB driver has poor/inconsistent latency. Unfortunately that is not unusual.

How do I do that?[DOUBLEPOST=1389227450][/DOUBLEPOST]Can confirm that tv recordings are messed up.[DOUBLEPOST=1389227767][/DOUBLEPOST]Just tested both live TV and recorded TV in NextPVR with buffering and recording folders on the E: drive. No issues. Worked fine.

So this begs the question. Why does it work with NextPVR and not MP?

 

[mm1352000]

Ahhh, USB how I love it... and hate it. Check DPC latency on the server. You may find the USB driver has poor/inconsistent latency. Unfortunately that is not unusual.

How do I do that?

For a quick and dirty view for W7 or lower, DPC Latency Checker:
http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

The graph is reasonably easy to interpret. Any red bars are bad. It won't give you detail about the cause though.

For W8 or more detail, LatencyMon:
http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

LatencyMon has documentation that explains how to interpret the output. Basically you're looking for high ISR or DPC counts and/or high execution time on the "drivers" tab.

 

[mm1352000]

Just tested both live TV and recorded TV in NextPVR with buffering and recording folders on the E: drive. No issues. Worked fine.

So this begs the question. Why does it work with NextPVR and not MP?

Could be several things: different buffer sizes/strategies, or different write chunk sizes...

 

[T^2]

Ok ran DPC Latency Checker with MP Live TV playback going on the server machine. Mostly smooth playback with DLC barely registering/in green. However, every couple of minutes it get both video and audio stutters and DLC shows spikes.

 

[mm1352000]

Ok ran DPC Latency Checker with MP Live TV playback going on the server machine. Mostly smooth playback with DLC barely registering/in green. However, every couple of minutes it get both video and audio stutters and DLC shows spikes.

Okay. So I guess try LatencyMon to narrow down the cause to a particular driver. I think we can both predict it will be the USB controller driver, but maybe there are other drivers that aren't helping too. Final step would be to update those drivers... or if already running latest drivers, you'll simply have to avoid timeshifting or recording onto a USB-connected drive.