Stuttering on LiveTV (1 Viewer)

[JoePlumber]

Here are several things you can try whether you are using wired or wireless.

Client PC
1. set your network card receive buffer to 128.
2. set fragmentation threshold at maximum value 2346.
3. set RTS threshold to maximum value 2347.
4. set roaming tendency to conservative for WLAN.
5. enable QoS and WMM.
6. run WLAN Optimizer.Net on pcs that are wireless.
7. change to a video codec that can output NV12 (ATI MPEG Decoder).
8. change timeshift buffer to smaller size but increase # of files.

Router
1. enable QoS for local traffic.
2. enable WMM for WLAN.
3. set higher priority for video and lower priority for data.
4. disable jumbo packets if you have a mix of 100Mb and 1Gb ethernet.
5. separate local traffic from your video stream.
6. change wireless protocol to 802.11g instead of a/n.

 

[tom78]

Hello.

@ JoePlumber:
For me this shouldn't help because my configuration is only single-seat!

 

[JoePlumber]

Hello.

I did again some tests to find what causes the stuttering, but i didn't have luck.

I opened one .ts-file in the timeshift-folder with graphedit and noticed that an elecard MGEG-Decoder is used, so i started radlight and deregistered the elecard video and audio filter and restarted my system.
Now MPV / MPA was used to play .ts-files, but the stuttering also appeared in MP.
Then i deregistered the MPA/MPV filters, and i didn't get "My TV" to work any more although ffdshow is installed and the settings in MP setup were changed to ffdshow.
Then i installed saf303, changed the MP settings and TV worked again, but still with stuttering.
The next step was to change the MP settings in the directshow-filters-section from ... DMR9 to EMS?! I can't remember the correct names. ... But this also didn't solve the stuttering.

Can anybody tell me if my idea with graphedit was wrong?
Or what else could i do to find the problem?

What i noticed is, that every restart of the system solves the stuttering problem for a while.
(it seems to depend on the channel watching how long it works)

You will get stuttering when the CPU has no data to process. You can see this in Task Manager when the CPU load drops to zero. Software decoders and discontuity errors are the most likely problem areas.

Start by cleaning up all your codecs with Filmerit. Install ffdshow, Haali Media Splitter, and PowerDVD8 codecs only (don't use SAF for this test). Change your movie player and Tv client to ffdshow video/audio. In ffdshow, enable all supported raw video, enable MPEG2 and MPEG2 in AVI, enable YUY2 output, and enable the queue for VRM9.

Please attach logs.

 

[Bernardo71]

Same here....CPU load seems to be relevant ....

...when the CPU is somehow "busier" (above 20-30% load) on my Server I have NO stuttering anymore.

Means: 1 Client streaming TV from the Server --> stuttering
Opening TV Server Configuration on my Server --> Selecting a TV channel and clicking preview --> CPU Load rises and CLIENT PC has no stuttering anymore. Either the server preview screen.

Before posting these lines I have tried all possible drivers of my NVIDIA nforce 4 chipset and also all versions of the AMD CPU driver and all versions did not solve the issue. AMD Cool N Quiet has no mayor impact on the behaviour of the stuttering either.

The workaround mentioned above is reproducable and does also work if I am watching 1 channel on the Client, recording another channel on the Server and am watching the preview of a 3rd channel --> NO STUTTERING AT ALL !!! So the system supports these 3 simultaneous activities if the CPU load is "high enough".

Definition of "LOAD"....something to do NOT frequency or CPU Volatage....

Regards
B71

 

[JoePlumber]

Software decoders tend to put a heavy load on your CPU and any device that requires attention will disrupt your playback. Devices such as USB mass storage devices, playing a CD/Dvd, surfing the net, and Windows Update should not be run, unless you have a dual core CPU.

I find having many smaller timeshift buffer files is more efficient than having several larger files which MP has to delete when all the buffer files have reached their maximum file size.

 

[etheesdad]

Hi Joe

Im interested in your comment about "having many smaller timeshift buffer files is more efficient than having several larger files". How did you set MP up to use multiple timeshift buffers? What settings do you recommend in terms of number and filesizes?

 

[Bernardo71]

@JoeP.

That is the funny part of it: CPU Load is good to decrease the stuttering !!!
Not the other way around....

That was what amazed me when I figured it out.
So every recommandation of a process or software package generating a continuous 20% load would solve the issue until this issue is fixed....at least on my system.

I just found a tool which is called CPU Grab to simulate CPU load in 1% steps.
Will check the behaviour of my system with this pre-load related to stuttering and post my results here.

B71

 

[JoePlumber]

Hi Joe

Im interested in your comment about "having many smaller timeshift buffer files is more efficient than having several larger files". How did you set MP up to use multiple timeshift buffers? What settings do you recommend in terms of number and filesizes?

Hi etheesdad,

It depends on how much timeshifting you need. Smaller buffers are better if you don't do a lot of timeshifting and you switch channels quite often. Writing to the hdd takes more CPU cycles than reading. I have set my min/max files at 5 and the file size to 64MB which works ok for my wireless setup.

My timebuffer is located on a separate partition that uses 64KB cluster size (maximum for NTFS). My recorded videos are also located on a partition that has 64KB clusters. This is recommend for large video files because there will be fewer seeks on your drive. Yes, 64 is my lucky number

 

[Bernardo71]

CPU "Pre-Load" Update

@all

I installed the above mentioned tool and raised the CPU "Workload" to 25%.

Since then I have not seen any stuttering although the Coll n Quiet is activated.

So might be worth a try for the ones sharing my behaviour.

Another hint I just got from a mod was that "incompatible" skins can lead to this behaviour as well.
Just went away from Streamed MP to Blue3Wide and have been able to shut down the workaround mentioned before.

No stuttering currently observable....will check and post experiences of the next 24 hours soon....

B71

 

[psykoman]

Anyone tried 1.0 ?

Will try this release in 2009 …

Cheers