Full HD (1080p) streaming stutters over LAN (NFS; cat6)

[Apex]

I have recently bought a Mede8er and am encountering some problems with streaming media off my NAS. Moreover, I am not sure whether this is a limitation of the Mede8er hardware, smoothly streaming 1080p MKV files over wired lan using NFS (Samba and uPnP do not work either) does not seem to work, 720p is no problem. Videos start stuttering after +/- a minute of playback.

My setup is as follows.

Network
Router: WRT320N (10/100)
Wiring: All cat6

Media source
NAS: Synology DS410j (DSM 2.3-1157)

Player
Mede8er MED500X running firmware version 3.0.4 and directly connected to the TV by HDMI
Internal HDD: None
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
TV out: 1080p @ 60Hz
1080p 24Hz mode: off (tried auto as well without results)
Audio: Connected using Stereo RCA (analog) for testing purposes

TV
Philips 47pfl9603

MediaInfo
I have tried streaming several files, but will only provide the MediaInfo of one file in this topic, I can add more on request. The following file starts stuttering after around 30 seconds of playback.

Code:

General
Format                           : Matroska
File size                        : 15.8 GiB
Duration                         : 2h 32mn
Overall bit rate                 : 14.8 Mbps
Encoded date                     : UTC 2008-11-26 10:52:36
Writing application              : mkvmerge v2.4.0 ('Fumbling Towards Ecstasy') built on Oct 11 2008 20:13:15
Writing library                  : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1

Video
ID                               : 1
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                   : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC           : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames        : 4 frames
Muxing mode                      : Container profile=Unknown@4.1
Codec ID                         : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                         : 2h 32mn
Bit rate                         : 13.0 Mbps
Width                            : 1 920 pixels
Height                           : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16:9
Frame rate                       : 23.976 fps
Color space                      : YUV
Chroma subsampling               : 4:2:0
Bit depth                        : 8 bits
Scan type                        : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.262
Stream size                      : 13.9 GiB (88%)
Title                            : x264 - crf encode
Writing library                  : x264 core 65 r1028M 83baa7f
Encoding settings                : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:-3:-3 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=9 / psy_rd=1.1:0.0 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=24 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=6 / nr=0 / decimate=0 / mbaff=0 / bframes=5 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40(pre) / rc=crf / crf=20.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=38000 / vbv_bufsize=30000 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=1:1.00
Language                         : English

Audio
ID                               : 2
Format                           : DTS
Format/Info                      : Digital Theater Systems
Codec ID                         : A_DTS
Duration                         : 2h 32mn
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 1 510 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 6 channels
Channel positions                : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                        : 24 bits
Stream size                      : 1.61 GiB (10%)
Title                            : DTS - 1536 kbit/sec
Language                         : English

NAS resource monitor shows an upload of approximately 4MB/s (+/- 32Mb/s) to the Mede8er.

As mentioned before, there are no difficulties streaming 720p videos. Is there any way I can improve the playback of the above file or is the inability to stream the above file part of the limitations of the Mede8er? Furthermore, is it not possible for the Mede8er to use an internal/external HDD as a buffer (firmware suggestion)?

[Maasbommel]

I see you use a synology NAS.
Is JumboFrames set to off?

[Apex]

Thank you for your swift reply.

Jumbo frames is not enabled, since the nas is working in 100Mb/s (full duplex) mode and if I recall correctly, jumbo frames is only possible when operating in Gbit mode.

Moreover, should streaming of the above and similar files be possible according to your experience?

[getafix]

I am also very keen to find this out. This is very NB for me and needs to be sorted.

[Maasbommel]

I have no problems playing mkv 1080p files from my synology NAS.
Do you have it with all or only some?

If you can point me by PM to some source to download one of the problem mkv files, I will give it a try for you to verify I see the same.

See my footer for the NAS and FW version I am using from Synology.

[Apex]

Maasbommel, I will wait for the new firmware first, as it seems to improve network performance (http://www.mede8erforum.com/index.php/topic,2967.0.html), if the new firmware does not help, I will send you a PM with samples of videos that do not work for me. Thank you in advance for your help.

[getafix]

I have no problems playing mkv 1080p files from my synology NAS

What do you use to convert your blu rays to mkv and do you still keep all the audio tracks. I am not fussed about all the extra stuff, just the main movie.
Also will get be able to use chapters?

[Nicap]

I have to say that i am getting stutters in some movies also. Today i was watching Robin Hood (2010) and when the movie gets a little grainy(in the dark scenes) it starts to stutter. Then, when the scenes gets clearer(not so grainy) the stutter is gone. And when pausing the movie when it stutters and then start to playback again, the stutter is also gone for some seconds. I saw it for some other movies as well.

I'm streaming my movies form a Synology 110j.

With Prince of Persia i had also some stuttery moments. It's getting quite annoying.

[gile2004]

It is quite the same with me, too. But, difference with me is that I have my movies on Windows server 2008 system. For example, when I watch Green Zone then whenever is the darker scene or the picture becomes littlebit crispy, movie starts to stutter. I tried SAMBA, NFS and the situation is the same.

But, when I copied that same movie directly on the internal disk on mede8er, movie was playing just fine without any stuttering.

I will try v4b4 and report back if this problem is solved with new FW.

Gile2004

EDIT:

I tried v4b4 and situation is the same. So, my question isjumboframes does this has to be disabled or enabled? Flowcontrol :enbled/ disabled.

in fact, I am going to play a littlebit with this tonight and will report back.

I hope that this could solve the problem because I have more then 2 Tb of HD movies and more then half of them are 1080p and it is not the option that I have to think every time if the movie is going to play fine or not.

gile2004

[Apex]

Please keep us posted with your results Gile2004. I currently do not have a Mede8er device, as I sold it to buy the one with the newer chipset. In the meanwhile, I am still waiting to make sure the device does not suffer from the stutter problem and to be honest, I was hoping the stutter would be resolved with firmware v4.

Anyway, you should try with jumboframes disabled, as jumboframes only work on Gigabit equipment and is, if I am correct, known to cause issues with streaming.

[jer1956]

I looked into ripping and found that hardware profiles are used by some software. People are ripping uising a "PS3" setting which I think sets "unknown" in the codec profile. This may be required to get a PS3 to play the file, along with other settings in the rippers profile. It dosn't follow that  those settings are going to work with other hardware, and may even make things worse. 

[Maasbommel]

My experience with my NAS is that Jumbo frames should be turned off. Otherwise it gives problems.
I also noticed that I got a performance boost on my Synology NAS when I updated it to the latest Synology firmware:
http://www.mede8erforum.com/index.php/topic,3194.0.html

[gile2004]

So here are the results of my testing. First I tried to play with network settings on my Windows Server 2008 computer which is my primary file server. Everything was the same, movie was stuttering and what ever I do the situation was the same.

After that, i copied that same movie on my second server which is Windows server 2003 and I was quite suprised. Movie was playing much, mcuh better, stuttering was almost invisible and that was on samba share not NFS (on my windows server 2008 I have also the hanewin nfs server installed and stuttering was the same).

Now, I will install hanewin NFs server on my server 2003 machine and then I will report back what are the results.

But, I am closer to conclusion that nothing is wrong with mede8er network perfomance, you just have to pick the right combination.

gile2004

[Maasbommel]

Maybe you could check your network card drivers on your Win2008 server, are they the latest version?
Old drivers can really give bad performance.

[Apex]

So here are the results of my testing. First I tried to play with network settings on my Windows Server 2008 computer which is my primary file server. Everything was the same, movie was stuttering and what ever I do the situation was the same.

After that, i copied that same movie on my second server which is Windows server 2003 and I was quite suprised. Movie was playing much, mcuh better, stuttering was almost invisible and that was on samba share not NFS (on my windows server 2008 I have also the hanewin nfs server installed and stuttering was the same).

Now, I will install hanewin NFs server on my server 2003 machine and then I will report back what are the results.

But, I am closer to conclusion that nothing is wrong with mede8er network perfomance, you just have to pick the right combination.

gile2004

You just got me excited! I will try to get a Mede8er next week (after exams), will report back as soon as I can .

In the meanwhile, I am curious as to whether the Windows Server 2003 + NFS  setup entirely solves the problem for you. Moreover, could you check what the streaming transferrates for the server to your Mede8er are? I could not get above 4MB/s (+/- 32Mb/s) on firmware V3.