[Success] Complex Multi-seat install - Love you guys & (gals?) of Team MediaPortal (1 Viewer)

[dvgeek]

@thekiwi - just follow the Argus MP guide - worked great for me. I think HelDog76 is also using a mixed setup.

As from my previous post, I've migrated away from MePo in the backend. My backend is ARGUS exclusively, with one MePo front end and two OpenElec front ends (linux&Pi).

 

[HeloDog76]

@dvgeek
Yes I am using MePo as TV Server backend and the Argus TV as the scheduler for MePo. Will be giving it another go to sort thing out as soon as scheduling and recordings permit. Will report back tomorrow on the firewall config and how things worked out. May go to Pi 2 B for additional clients if Openelec works. Thanks again for all the input.

 

[dvgeek]

@HeloDog76 - Pi works great with OpenElec. If getting a new one, I would advise the new quad core one.

 

[HeloDog76]

@dvgeek
I checked the Firewall settings for Argus and everything was configured correctly.
Playing recordings from the videos folder and from TV tab in Openelec now seem to be working. vq is at a constant 99% while playback is happening. Playing previously recorded shows began working after I configured advancedsettings.xml with the following

<network>
<buffermode>1</buffermode>
<cachemembuffersize>0</cachemembuffersize>
<readbufferfactor>10</readbufferfactor>
</network>

Live TV streams are still doing the constant buffer then play every 5-10 seconds. vq gets to around 13% then drops resulting in the constant buffer issue. seems to have something to do with the live tv streams. bandwidth is there but the stream from MePo to Openelec is unstable. Once again, works fine on the other windows client I have. Going to check the antivirus exclusions on M$SE tomorrow morning to make sure they still exist since Argus was upgraded from 2.3 RC to 2.3 some months ago.

Any other ideas or suggestions are appreciated.

 

[dvgeek]

@HeloDog76 - I admit I'm getting a bit stumped. The only difference I can think of between LiveTV and RecordedTV / Videos which is related to network and streaming is the protocol used - RTSP for LiveTV and UNC for RecorderdTV / UNC. One uses UDP and the other uses TCP/IP.

It's been a while since I used MediaPortal TV configuration - so I'm not sure if there is a way to force UNC for LiveTV. In ArgusTV, I know you can do this in the setup of the ArgusTV plug-in in the frontend.

If you can set this in MediaPortal - to UNC for LiveTV, I would suggest giving this a try, and if it works, then you might want to check out your router / network on why UDP is being problematic. Maybe some UDP ports are blocked? Or UDP in general is turned off (there was a big scare put out a few years ago that turning on UDP on made the network more susceptible to hacking)?

I'm running out of ideas and suggestions...

 

[HeloDog76]

@dvgeek

Everything has been sorted out. I ran cat6 directly to the switch from the client and there was no difference. I mirrored the port on my switch and then performed a packet capture to get a better look at how the network conversation was occurring. Turns out that flow control enabled on the switch was the culprit with it causing the pauses to reduce perceived congestion. Additional Google-Fu uncovered this almost identical issue. I disabled flow control for the port which the Openelec client is connected to and hardset the network speed for 100 Full per the instructions found on the Openelec wiki. Links for anyone that may run into this are included below. Live TV streams and recordings are working as they should. Thanks again for all the feedback. Now off to start testing on my new Pi 2 B kits to reduce the client footprint even more.

http://www.solid-run.com/community/topic1812.html

http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php/Configuring_Gigabit_Ethernet

 

[dvgeek]

@HeloDog76 - Glad to hear everything worked out. Enjoy!

 

[kenwonders]

@dvgeek

Everything has been sorted out. I ran cat6 directly to the switch from the client and there was no difference. I mirrored the port on my switch and then performed a packet capture to get a better look at how the network conversation was occurring. Turns out that flow control enabled on the switch was the culprit with it causing the pauses to reduce perceived congestion. Additional Google-Fu uncovered this almost identical issue. I disabled flow control for the port which the Openelec client is connected to and hardset the network speed for 100 Full per the instructions found on the Openelec wiki. Links for anyone that may run into this are included below. Live TV streams and recordings are working as they should. Thanks again for all the feedback. Now off to start testing on my new Pi 2 B kits to reduce the client footprint even more.

http://www.solid-run.com/community/topic1812.html

http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php/Configuring_Gigabit_Ethernet

This is likely some interesting advice for anyone who has to use UNC due to RTSP for reasons they don't currently understand (like me). Thanks for the information.