stuttering avi playback

General discussion about the media server. Feature requests. Hints, tips and tricks.
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Are there issues with avi replay?

Poll ended at Thu Nov 10, 2005 10:27 am

Stuttering replay
1
14%
No Replay at all
1
14%
Sound and Picture not in sync
0
No votes
Sound ok, Picture stopping
0
No votes
All of the problems mentioned above occur
4
57%
No Problem with other MediaServers (Which?)
1
14%
 
Total votes: 7

hansi99999
Posts:59
Joined:Fri Jul 08, 2005 3:54 pm
stuttering avi playback

Post by hansi99999 » Sun Sep 11, 2005 10:27 am

hi,
i just want to give you my expierience about playing avis with twonks and dsm 320, which is ideed frustrating:

1. avi replay is (nearly) always stuttering.
2. the stutter is not constant within the same same avi if played several times.
3. some avi play ok, some other from the same source don't
4. all the avi i tried for testing do play well on a pc with several programs for replay.

perhaps we should open a call for this.
please fill in the poll and share your experiences.
thanks!
hansi

Danno100
Posts:87
Joined:Sun Jul 10, 2005 2:50 am
Location:Canada

Post by Danno100 » Sun Sep 11, 2005 2:34 pm

I have no stuttering problems. However, I have a wired system and I never play video from a shared drive. I believe these two things make a great difference on how people will answer this poll.

There are a lot of variations of avi and PC's generally have no problem because codecs can be installed.

hansi99999
Posts:59
Joined:Fri Jul 08, 2005 3:54 pm

Post by hansi99999 » Sun Sep 11, 2005 7:02 pm

its definitly the avi-format (which btw. means formats....)

wired or unwired is not the point, i tried both with different network components (switches) without any differences.

the same is valid for drives. it simply doesn't make any difference whether you use a dedicated or shared drive, as the drive gives a lot more throughput than the dsm needs for the stream. i tried that with different servers and drives (dedicated servers (win/linux) and running as a service.

if you convert the data from avi to mpeg, all the problems are gone.
it's a problem in the combination twonky and dsm 320 playin' avi.

i simply not sure whether its an twonky or dsm issue or both?
but it's NOT about wiring or drives.

Danno100
Posts:87
Joined:Sun Jul 10, 2005 2:50 am
Location:Canada

Post by Danno100 » Sun Sep 11, 2005 9:34 pm

I had AVI stuttering problems with Twonky, so I now use Tversity and the issues have disappeared. Also I primarily use Nero Digital MP4 formats as they give me the best video playback.

Perhaps it is Twonky and not the DSM-320. I found that Twonky couldn't play MP4's properly for a long time, but D-Link and Tversity had no problems.

I also found that both Twonky and Tversity stuttered when trying to serve off a drive attached to my NSLU2. So I moved to local drives and I have no problems anymore.

hansi99999
Posts:59
Joined:Fri Jul 08, 2005 3:54 pm

Post by hansi99999 » Sun Sep 11, 2005 11:02 pm

hi,
i just installed tversity and tried some avis. tversity stutters less, but still has (esp. with xvid) a lot of problems.
handling and configuration is simply pain in the back....

but it has made clear, that the problem lies on the twonky side, though. thanks for the hint here!
perhaps christian could say something about the issue?

the nslu is just fine as a server for videos if you change it into a turboslug. it's a simple painless operation that can be done be everyone. with turboslug the problem with serving video is gone for good.

Danno100
Posts:87
Joined:Sun Jul 10, 2005 2:50 am
Location:Canada

Post by Danno100 » Sun Sep 11, 2005 11:53 pm

Thanks for the turboslug suggestion for the NSLU2. I assume that is the mod that doubles the processor speed. I haven't tried it but will someday.

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twonky-christian
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Post by twonky-christian » Mon Sep 12, 2005 2:56 pm

problem is between the DSM-320 and the server when using DivX files. For this the DSM requests only 16KB packets - and lots of them for a video. The SLUG is pushed to its limits by all these requests. We try to solve this - but it is not so easy :-(

Danno100
Posts:87
Joined:Sun Jul 10, 2005 2:50 am
Location:Canada

Post by Danno100 » Wed Sep 14, 2005 12:39 pm

I took a XVID file that wouldn't play on my DSM and converted it (Xilisoft) to MP4 with AAC audio and it plays perfectly. Having heard of so many problems with others using XVID either stuttering or in my case actually hanging the DSM, I'm convinced now to batch convert my remaining XVID's to MP4 and have no more problems.

By the way, only a very few of my DIVX files have problems, and I know it is because of the way they are encoded, so I'm also going to batch convert these once and for all to eliminate any playback problems.

IMHO, MP4 is a guaranteed playback success option (either using Nero Digital or Xilisoft). There are just too many variations of DIVX, and XVID formats are even more problematic.

hansi99999
Posts:59
Joined:Fri Jul 08, 2005 3:54 pm

Post by hansi99999 » Wed Sep 14, 2005 6:36 pm

[quote="twonky-christian"]problem is between the DSM-320 and the server when using DivX files. For this the DSM requests only 16KB packets - and lots of them for a video. The SLUG is pushed to its limits by all these requests. We try to solve this - but it is not so easy :-([/quote]
hi christian,
thanks for your response, but i didn't talk about slug.
i used an xp-pc 3.2ghz, and have those problems.
any idea?
hansi

honek2002
Posts:1
Joined:Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:51 am

Post by honek2002 » Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:53 am

I only had this problem when I upgraded to Firmware 1.06. The same xvid files I have trouble with now would play fine with Firmware 1.05.

edit: Cancel that, I forgot I wasn't running TVMS until after I upgraded to Firmware 1.06. I had no troubles when running D-Link's MediaServer software.

TeraMa
Posts:1
Joined:Fri Oct 07, 2005 1:56 pm

Stuttering

Post by TeraMa » Fri Oct 07, 2005 1:58 pm

Hi!

Are there any news regarding the stuttering when Twonky MS is working with DMS-320?

I have the same problem. When I use a different Server Software I have no problem.

Ciao,
Matthias

dahlman
Posts:6
Joined:Fri Jan 27, 2006 12:08 am

Post by dahlman » Fri Jan 27, 2006 12:12 am

Yup, are there any news regarding the stuttering when Twonky MS is working with DMS-320?
I'am using a slug for streaming.

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twonky-christian
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Post by twonky-christian » Fri Jan 27, 2006 8:16 pm

we are working on it and our next beta will just talk exactly the same protocol as the D-Link server. Stuttering or not is than a matter of CPU power and a question if the D-Link can handle the format, but no longer a difference between the Twonkyvision server and the D-Link server. The next beta 3.1 beta 2 will be released next week.

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