MyBookWorld, TwonkyServer, iPhone 4, plugplayer & remote....

[Kaptemplar]

...streaming

Here is my set-up guys,

I have a MyBookWorld White Light version NAS that contains all of my music and streams to my iPhone PlugPlayer app. At home on Wi-Fi the app works very well. Remotely I have the following set-up: I installed an app in my NAS to broadcast a VPN and I connect to such VPN using a forwarded port and a Cydia app called GuizmoVPN. Once connected, the PP app reads my library and streams it remotely. The performance in this case is all over the place. There are days where no songs skip at all while I drive home for instance and there are days where I have to turn off the app because I couldn't stand the skipping anymore. Now I understand that there are a lot of factors out of my control such as 3G connectivity/availability, however, there has to be some solutions you guys know about to help improve performance.

I would like to add that the issues started when I added 4 gigs to my library. I have had my library with the same data for about one month or so and remote performance was outstanding. Then once I finished downloading some stuff I added it to my shared music folder in my server and I noticed that the problems started ever since. My library is roughly 150 gigs so I doubt 4 gigs alone would cause an issue so something else must be the problem.

Here is something that happened yesterday as I was tinkering around with the TwonkyMedia Server IU. I enabled a pictures folder and I noticed that the time that iTunes takes to read MyBookWorld's library must have double at least (~5 minutes to 10 minutes). As of right now, I only have the music folder active but iTunes is still running kinda slow.

Do you know what may be causing these issues and how to solve them or at least improve performance.

Thanks.

[Kaptemplar]

I really want this to work as well as it did before so I'll closely be watching this topic and providing details as needed. I doubt it has to do with wireless coverage because I had issues streaming just now and the phone is 10 feet away from the NAS server. In addition, one of the times where I used it extensively with no hiccups included a long drive 2 hour drive through desolate roads and that time I only had interruptions in a dead 3G spot. The stuttering is constant if that helps.

[Kaptemplar]

So I did some more testing and long story short, I'm 90% certain that the main issue is the TwonkyMedia Server in my WD. I think it may be some database issue. Any one have experience with these issues and TM server? Also do you think it is worth the trouble to upgrade to TM6? I don't wanna waste 20 bucks to have the same exact issues...

[Twonky_Rick]

If upgrading to TS 6.0 doesn't resolve your issues, I'd be happy to refund your money if you contact me at tmm-beta@pv.com and provide me with the e-mail address you use to upgrade.

Of course, you shouldn't try to upgrade your NAS unless you've done this before and are really good with Linux. You can really mess things up if you don't know what you're doing.

- Rick

[Kaptemplar]

I did a restart of the NAS as opposed to the TM component of it and that seemed to do the trick but I am concerned about having to do this everytime I move stuff around. I get the feeling it may be a CPU issue on the side of the NAS server. I'll give some more time and see how about what to do. My question to you is, do you guys feel you made a lot of improvements from TM5 to TM6?

[Kaptemplar]

Did some digging and testing and got it working back to normal. I am convinced that the issue was related to my WDMBWE's CPU choking on request since it is somewhat underpowered. My question now is, is it worth/money the trouble upgrading to TM6? Is it optimized to take less of a toll on the CPU? What do you recommend?

[Twonky_Rick]

My question to you is, do you guys feel you made a lot of improvements from TM5 to TM6?

Yes.

My question now is, is it worth/money the trouble upgrading to TM6?

Since you have a money back guarantee, I would upgrade if you're tech saavy enough to install the software on your NAS. It's not an easy process and is only recommended for Linux experts however.

Is it optimized to take less of a toll on the CPU?

Yes. Although if your library is really large, you might still need a faster NAS for good performance.

- Rick

[Kaptemplar]

Define really large...

[Kaptemplar]

I would like to add that I just updated to 6 after fours of endless researching and trying. I'll test it out for the next month and then buy it.

[Twonky_Rick]

I would like to add that I just updated to 6 after fours of endless researching and trying. I'll test it out for the next month and then buy it.

Let us know what you find. I've seen other benchmarks which show it is much faster than TS 5.x.

- Rick

[Twonky_Rick]

Define really large...

It really depends on the type of NAS that you're using. I would expect that some NAS would have problems with a music library larger than 40GB. For a library over 100GB, I would think you'd want a really powerful NAS or a PC.

- Rick