Predictable choppiness on wireless video playback

Filed under: nnxj.com — jane @ March 12, 2010 edit

I've got my XBMC set up just how I want. I've spent the last couple of weeks ripping many of my TV DVDs so I can pull them up via XBMC.

I just got the 54-G MS wireless adapter today so I could hook everything up in the bedroom where there's no wired ethernet. It works great until I go to play a video... then I get some choppiness, particularly when I first start the video. I often have to pause the video, wait a few seconds, then play again... but it still chops after a minute or two sometimes.

Moreover, when a show fades to black, particularly after an intro (about 30 seconds in), it nearly freezes there. I assume that's because the change from full picture to black to full picture requires the max bandwidth.

My signal strength is very good and all of my videos are encoded MP4 at a bit rate of 2000Kb/sec, so they should be able to stream without a problem. I have no other devices on the wireless network. The videos are streaming off of a network-attached hard drive via SMB.

Is there an easy way to stop the choppiness? Thanks.

"MP4" is not a codec but a container (which can contain any codecs, just like AVI) so you can not say plain MP4 and expect us to know what you mean, but most commonly MP4 video-files contain H.264 encoded video so that I what I assumed.

Anyhow, post a debug log on pastebin.com if you want to know more what is going on (preferably on using wireless and another one using wired network, but playing the exact same file), see: http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=Debug_log

smb is just horrible for streaming over wlan. it has quite small chunk sizes (64k in best case and very often not that against lan drives) and it requests each chunk individually, so network latency is a big problem.

smb
[request, wait response, read socket], decode, [request, wait response, read socket], decode
http/ftp
[read socket], decode, [read socket], decode

So on smb, the delay from request to response, effectivly limits the transfer speed.

If latency is the issue you could easily test it by playing the same file over ftp or http if your landrive supports any of that.

try playing around with your cache settings (for me, somewhere between 8-12MB is great, depending on the video). I've never actually used the wireless adapter, but it sounds like bandwidth issues. Try using a wired connection if possible, but if not possible then your cache settings should help.

The best settings (for me, anyhow) have been 'auto-select' for the interlace handling, high quality pixel shader, and everything else really depends on the file.

Is it an HD file? I've had issues (as have many) with HD files , as the xbox processor barely has the ability to handle high bit-rate HD (such as planet earth, 2GB+).

i have this same setup, works perfectly. Odd.
54g Belkin wireless adaptor, DVD from NAS box upstairs, works perfectly.
(not much help i know)

I tried loading an episode of Smurfs and it stuttered from the beginning, as videos often do when starting them. I can usually get them to play after hitting pause, waiting a few seconds, and then hitting play, but this time the episode just wouldn't play for more than half a second without stuttering. I tried hitting pause and play a few times before giving up and posting this log.

Here's the relevant part of the debug log:
http://pastebin.com/m6f063556

This file was being played over a 54-G wireless network with very good signal strength. It's a Quicktime MPEG-4 Part 2 file encoded via HandBrake at 2000kbps video and 160kbps audio.

Please let me know if you need any more information.

...via SMB share(s), files are AVI, DIVX or DVD ISO - all work fine. In fact anything i throw at it just works.

Just added servername/share as a source in Videos

using one of these:-

http://www.belkin.com/uk/support/product/?lid=enu&pid=F5D7330uk&scid=283

Sorry if I wasn't being clear. When I said MP4, I wasn't referring to the container, but rather MPEG-4 as the codec, as specified by HandBrake, which is specifically MPEG-4 part 2. Since I am on OS X, I can only assume it uses the Quicktime flavor of it and not DivX, though I could be wrong.

AVI's work for me. It's the mp4 or m4v videos that don't work. Doesn't matter if I use h.264 or not. The only way I can get them to work over wireless is to check a flag "HTTP Optimzed MP4" in handbrake. With this they work great. But the iphone refuses to play them so I still need two files. The mp4s work great on the hd just not when shared. The real problem is when I try to skip ahead at all. The video just goes out to lunch

@dan - How are you sharing your files? How are you converting your files?

So instead of setting up a SMB share, how do I set it up for FTP? The LAN drive supports FTP file access, but not HTTP from what I can tell. Can XBMC access an FTP folder in the same way it can an SMB one?

Did you end up getting anything on this?

I'm having the same problem and it seems to be confined to mp4/m4v file formats. AVI Xvid works great but I want to be able to use these files on my iPhone as well.

MP4 as is H.264 (a.k.a. AVC) encoded video? The Xbox is really only suited for DivX/XviD (in AVI) and MPEG-2/DVD-Video video.
http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=XBMC_Features_and_Supported_Formats/Codecs#Supported_video_formats_and_resolutions

if it is H.264 (a.k.a. AVC) encoded video then I think the wireless is the least of your problem but check this anyhow:
http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=Appendix_B:_Troubleshooting#Network_perform ance_issues_.28wired_or_wireless.29

No, most definitely not HD, as I know the XBox chokes on most high-res files. It's also not H.264, just plain MP4. H.264 is definitely more processor-intensive and would have taken a whole lot longer to encode as well.

Over the wired network on the XBox, the files play flawlessly. Also, using a 54-G wireless connection to my laptop, they also play flawlessly. So wireless is not the problem and the XBox processing power is not the problem... it's really just wireless on the XBox that's giving me issues.

I'll play with the cache settings and ramp them way up to see if it does the trick. I assume I'd need to change the LAN Video setting, right?

If that doesn't work, is there anything else I could do?

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