Stuttering on LiveTV (1 Viewer)

[jonaskp]

First, I'm posting it here in generel talk because I am not sure if this is Mediaportal related or just an issue with my network settings.

I am having trouble with the new release (actually it was there before too) when watching LiveTV.
I get stuttering and choppy video and audio. It doesn't seem to happen on my server, so it could be networking problems, but I have no problems streaming recorded TV or other stuff from the server.
I have slightly different problems on my wired client and on my wireless laptop.

On the Wired client I have perfectly fine playback until the moment where the Timeshift Buffer creates a second file(when the first one reaches its limit) as I have also described in the other thread, Timeshift Buffer file size. Sometimes this introduces a couple of seconds of stutter, and then plays normally, until next time the file is full and it repeats. But most of the time, after the second file has been created, i get stutter all the time with a few seconds between.
I tried raising and lowering the size of the timeshift buffer. I can confirm that it is at the same moment the next file is created, the stutter begins.

On the Laptop, I get stutter all the time when watching liveTV but when watching a recording or video from the server I have no problems.

If I start a recording and then (when it is still recording) access the stream I get stutter the same way. If I start a recording and (when it is still recording) goes to "Recorded TV" and plays the recording, I can play it fine without stuttering - even though this is still "almost live".
Because of this it seems to me that I have some problem with the Timeshift Buffer when streaming over the network, but I can't figure out what it can be.

I have tried both with and without Windows Firewall, and there is no difference.

I attached two sets of logs. The one with "_stutter" at the end is where I set the TImeshift buffer size to 32mb, and watched some tv with stutter. The one with "_no_stutter" is where I set the Timehift buffer size to 1000mb and watched tv without stutter. The logs are all from my wired client.
I have looked at the logs and although I have no idea what most of it means, nothing strikes me as being "out of the ordinary", but perhaps someone else can see something.

 

[jonaskp]

UPDATE: After installing SVN I still have this problem.
It also seems that it is only on the clients that it happens. When I'm using MediaPortal on the server (for testing) there is no stutter. So it obviously has something to do with my network.
I just have no idea what it is. I can easily watch movies and stuff from a network folder from my clients and I if I have a recorded show I can also watch this without problems, so the network seems to be fine. It just happens the moment there is more than one timeshift file.

I am really lost here.

For now, the workaround is to set the timeshift buffer to the highest, giving me about 15 min og watching withou stutter. If I'm watcing a show longer than that, I can hit record, and then go to "Recorded TV" and watch the show from there and ther is no problem.


Can it really be that out of 160 people who watched this thread, not even one has the slightest idea of something I could do?
It's not to sound bitter or something, I just reallywould like to find out whats causing this.

 

[SciDoctor]

I have just set up a test for this .

VISTA32 on two identical pc's (1.5Ghz AMD XP), one wired (server) and one wifi(client) both latest svn 19010.

Using BBC1 (highest bitrate channel in UK SD freeview) as test . 50FPS broadcast material. VISTA codecs.

Server LAN at 5.28% of 100Mbs, Client 22% of 24 Mbs.

Using 'shift+1' on the client I can see frames being dropped and the MP.exe on the client is using double the cpu usage that it usualy uses when running as local client..

Because of the above the client is running at near to 100% cpu load, which is probably the cause of some of the dropped frames.

I see NO extra adverse effects when the buffers on the server change 1,2,3,4,5,and 6,1 etc (250mb buffers).

There are a few glitches (from dropping frames, see above) but nothing that realy drasticaly detracts from the viewing experience. More powerful cpu's would improve this IMO

Subtitles worked and made no difference to the smoothness.

Can't test 2nd audio stream as there isn't one broadcast at the moment.

My only real concern from this test is the high cpu usage that exists from the plugin/server connection 20% at the server and probably why the client is seeing MP.exe at such high load.

Check your Networking loads and CPU loads

Changed codecs to MPA/MPV these run at 25FPS.

CPU usage is higher in MP.exe because there is little or no hardware video acceleration in MPV.

The same overal impression as above, nothing adverse when buffers change.

Just a concern with CPU load when running netwrok client.

Sorry i can't repeat your problems.

 

[chrik]

I also have problems with stuttering I also ahve a hauppauge tv tuner card. It is model 150 with newest drivers.

I got Server and client on same pc with SQL2005.

Only MediaPortal problem because it runs perfectly with Vista´s Mediacenter, but I want to use Mediaportal. pls. help.

 

[EViS]

Stuttering here too. Usually a TVServer & MP Restart solves this though. Single seat user as well. There is never a need to restart the entire PC though...

It's usually the free-to-view SD channels that stutter. Never really had a problem with BBC HD or any of the pay-to-view channels...

 

[mts]

I have exactly the same problem: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...ft-buffer-file-gets-created-41411/#post277597

 

[rolfey]

Hi, I too have the same issue, I've tried everything!

So far I've tried various different codecs, FFDshow, Purvideo, Cyberlink and coreAVC.
I've tried installing a seperate drive to time shift to, just in case there was some soft of bottleneck, not much chance of that on a raid 0 stripe though.

I've tried changing the video buffer size, tried the sigle cpu fix, tries the quart.dll fix, and still it's not fixed.

the picture glitches every 10 seconds or so, and in some cases it actually freezes for maybe 2 or 3 seconds, it's super annoying!!

Now the amazing thing that I have sorted out is the fact that my HDTV run perfectly using coreAVC, and the normal stuff runs with glitches, how about that!

You would think it to be the other way around.

I just don't know what to do now, sort of running out of ideas.

Mike

 

[elconejito]

Me too (I think). Not sure if I have exactly the same problem as I am on a singleseat. The problem occurs when I'm recording one show while watching another or if I'm recording two shows and watching one of them. Watching just one show doesn't seem to be a problem. If I push Shift-1, the frames drop from 60 down to about 40 whenever there is a stutter/hiccup in viewing and then comes back up again. I don't think it is a CPU issue (Core2Duo e6300), and I have 3 SATA drives in this system (OS, Recordings, Timeshift) so I can't imagine its a bandwidth issue there.

mts - when I saw your post I thought that was it exactly. How do you know when MP is creating a new file? I'd like to confirm it is (or isn't) the same issue you have.

How can I check CPU usage while MP is running? Obviously, can't check task manager while it's running?

 

[rolfey]

You can actually check the CPU usage while it's running, you can do it remotely using a remote task manager, if you have another machine you can use?
If you need to find the software PM me.

Mike

Oh by the way, I was just thinking, have you got your timeshift folder on the same drive as the recording folder, if so that could well be the issue, an I/0 bandwidth problem rather than a CPU bottleneck.

If you take into account it's writing 2 streams at once to the same drive, the disks are going to be thrashing like mad, if you have the option to run a seperate disk just for recording that would be a much better option.

Mike

 

[elconejito]

You can actually check the CPU usage while it's running, you can do it remotely using a remote task manager, if you have another machine you can use?
If you need to find the software PM me.

Mike

Oh by the way, I was just thinking, have you got your timeshift folder on the same drive as the recording folder, if so that could well be the issue, an I/0 bandwidth problem rather than a CPU bottleneck.

If you take into account it's writing 2 streams at once to the same drive, the disks are going to be thrashing like mad, if you have the option to run a seperate disk just for recording that would be a much better option.

Mike

@rolfey - I sent you that PM. I wonder if the software lets you track other stuff like disk I/O, etc? I think i've seen that around somewhere, but can't remember where...

[Some more background, just in case this helps]
I am not sure how long this system has been doing it. I was using the old TV Engine for a long time until RC1 came out (since PQ was so poor on TV3 before). I haven't been home that much since then and with the writers strike there wasn't much on TV anyway. So it's only recently that I noticed the stutter/pause/slowdown issue. And it took a while longer before I realized what the trigger was. Originally I had only 2 drives, an OS drive and a recordings drive a 250GB and 320GB respectively. The model#'s are in my sig. Timeshifting was on the OS drive (whatever default folder MP sets up) and the recording was on the other drive. I also was using a Hauppaugge PVR150 and and Avermedia Combo PCIe (NTSC/ATSC).

Since then I've removed the older PVR150 and replaced it with another Avermedia combo card. I also got a 3rd hard drive *just* for timeshifting. So now I've got dedicated OS, Timeshift, and recording drives. I also tried the latest SVN, not sure if it was from 6/13 or 6/22 as I'm at work right now, but I loaded it saturday morning...

The stutter/pause/slowdown doesn't seem to happen consistently (like every 10 secs), but it is semi regular.

I'll see if I can duplicate it tonite and maybe post some logs...