Recorded TV playback stuttering (1 Viewer)

[Groovemaize]

Hi mm, thanks for your response with this, I appear to have been some what naive with my understanding of the actual problem and I appreciate your patience with me! I have successfully played back a recorded file (Deadly Pole to Pole S01E16 I think ((most recent playback in attached log)) on a client machine, it played back flawlessly as I guess you probably expected and I now appreciate the detail you talked about in your last thread wrt latency and limited buffering. I went on to test further outside of MEPO and played the same recorded file from my NAS but this time using Windows Media Player which played the file perfectly across the network. It looks like the handling of the recorded .ts file through MEPO with my configuration and codecs is probably inadequate for recorded files even though in live streaming they play fine. I've attached the latest log file and LAV configuration screen shots as requested and look forward to you response. Thanks again for the continued support.


Cheers

Guy

 

[mm1352000]

Thanks Guy

For some reason the log files don't show anything playing.

Based on the screenshots of your codec settings, I would recommend that you change audio renderer [for TV Codecs - Video etc. is fine] from "MediaPortal Audio Renderer" to a DirectSound option. I say this because the MPAR doesn't always work so well with TV content.

With regard to buffering and playback from the NAS...
One thing you could try is increasing the TsReader "BufferingDelayInMilliSeconds" setting in the registry:

Registry key added to adjust data buffering time - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Team MediaPortal\TsReader, set "BufferingDelayInMilliSeconds" to a (decimal) value in milliseconds (range is 0 to 2000, default is 0). Note - this will add delay to live TV channel changes since it needs to build up the buffer before play starts.

Hope that helps,
mm

 

[Owlsroost]

Hi mm, happy to use the LAV codecs and have configured according to the link, still seem to be seeing problems when playing back the recorded files.

Have checked the power options and changed from balanced to high performance with no power saving, the result is the same playback issue.

Hi Owlsroost, yes all clients have the same issue, as far as I remember recorded files have had this problem, although it doesnt appear to happen on animated recordings ie Deadly 60 have problems, Disney Dragons are fine! SD tv is fine.

Cheers

Guy

If SD TV plays fine, I'd install GPU-Z and monitor the GPU utilisation when playing HD TV recordings in MP - I suspect it's quite high.... (in your client logs it's an Atom D2550 cpu + GT610 gpu). Also check the temperatures if it's a 'small box' system - we have seen instances where CPUs and GPUs are throttled down because they are getting too hot playing HDTV.

MP needs a more powerful GPU than WMP to get smooth playback with Vista/Win7/Win8. Animated movies may be transmitted as 25p progressive (instead of 50i interlaced) - this makes a big difference to the GPU load.

 

[Groovemaize]

Hi mm, I have changed the audio renderer to DirectSound and increased the tsreader buffer delay to 2000 but unfortunately this has made no difference, still getting the stuttering. I cant be sure but I think the stuttering may be worse now!

Owlsroost, I dl the gpu-z and see gpu load is 43% at 68'C whilst cpu is running at 20-30%, this would seem fairly reasonable to me?

Got any other things I could try?

Cheers

Guy

 

[breese]

I see 2 things...
1 - Disable Windows Defender and any other Virus software
2- You have an application called GWXConfigManager.exe
Lots of people with CPU issues on that one

http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread.php/168102-GWX-What-is-this-software-from-MICROSOFT
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...tem32gwx/e3661a2f-93f5-4d7c-a83f-2fcc25ed7ac2

 

[Groovemaize]

Hi Breese, thsnk you for the ideas, Have just disabled both services but still getting the same stuttering. Anything else you can think of that may be worth trying?

Cheers

Guy

 

[breese]

Do you have a way of putting one of the problem machines onto a hard network line and testing it?
It is the one simple way of rulling in or out a wireless issue

 

[Groovemaize]

Well, eventually I have managed to get around this issue with a very simple fix. Its likely that .tsreader codec is struggling with the quality of my network given that I am using powerline plugs and that it only buffers 1 or 2 seconds although I still cant understand why live tv is faultless. Anyway the fix was simply to change all recorded tv file extensions from.ts to .mp4. This forces the reader to use the LAV filters which handle the files differently, buffering more of the file and the result is all recorded tv files are now flawless, alls well that ends well! Thank you to everyone for the input and patience on this one.

Cheers

Guy

 

[mm1352000]

Hello again Guy

Would I be correct to assume you tried to apply the registry buffer setting that was suggested?

and that it only buffers 1 or 2 seconds

The limit was 2 seconds when the setting was first introduced. However, it has since been increased to 10 seconds:
https://github.com/MediaPortal/Medi...ShowFilters/TsReader/source/TsReader.cpp#L406

To me it seems unlikely that increasing the delay beyond 2 seconds would help (unless your network has really long dropouts), but I suppose you never know unless you try it.

The thing that I'm not sure about is whether the setting is applied when playing recordings. I'm hoping @Owlsroost may be able to clarify. However please note that he's been away on holiday and may not respond quickly.

Regards,
mm

 

[Owlsroost]

The thing that I'm not sure about is whether the setting is applied when playing recordings. I'm hoping @Owlsroost may be able to clarify. However please note that he's been away on holiday and may not respond quickly.

It should also apply to recordings.