Internal Hard Drive Question

[bigcooljesus]

Hey all,

I have a Mede8er MED450X2 connected to my PC via my Cat 5e home network. My average read speeds over the network are 370Mbps and write speeds are 800Mbps. Movies play flawlessly, except that every so often audio will *POP* real quick as if the stream was dropped for literally only milliseconds. The movie doesn't skip and there are no lip sync issues, but very seldom this problem does happen.

I can easily live with it but I have a quick question: If I install an internal hard drive into my MED450X2, will it be utilized as cache storage for when I am watching a movie over my network?

Again, stream speeds are phenomenal, but I am just wondering if having an internal hard drive would allow the MED450X2 to automatically use a simple caching system so that even if the stream is momentarily dropped, the video would be playing off the hard drive since it is being cached so there wouldn't be any stutter, sync, or skip issues.

Thanks!

[Maasbommel]

An internal disk will not help for that, there is no disk caching, only caching in memory during streaming.

[bigcooljesus]

Oh, so the internal memory of the MED450X2 (256MB I believe) caches while streaming to help minimize skips, etc?

[jer1956]

Not enough to solve poor network setups. A proper   VOD player will store minutes of video before starting to play. The med is still just a file player which can play  files stored on a NAS.

Your problem could be overflow of some kind becuase your network throughput is too good.

DO you have CTCP of any kind enabled on the NAS? This adds flow control to the TCP stack.

[bigcooljesus]

I'm not using an NAS. I am literally using my Windows 7 PC in my bedroom to store and stream the movies to the Mede8er. My PC setup consists of five 3TB hard drives joined as one large shared drive using FlexRAID.

The PC is Core i5 2500k @ 4.5Ghz, 16GB RAM, 128GB SSD HDD (for operating system), Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 Motherboard.

Not sure if your recommendation still fits for this setup or if there is a difference between an NAS and just using a regular PC for storage/streaming.

Appreciate any tips/tricks to get the best possible results. As stated, playback is 99% smooth and perfect for my Blu-ray's (they are full 1080p, HD Audio rips). Just the occasional *POP* for a split second here and there of the audio dropping out.

Thanks!

[bigcooljesus]

Also, I used "Network" under Media Library to add my shared movie folder to the Mede8er's Favourites. Is there a difference between "Network" and "NFS" when adding a folder under Media Library?

I've been Googling NFS for Windows 7 but I think I confused myself trying to read how to set it up, if it even works with FlexRAID, etc.

Again, just looking for any tips or tricks that are possible for my setup to ensure the best possible streaming experience, even if it's just to solve millisecond audio drop outs like I am having.

Thanks!

[bigcooljesus]

Any input on the above posts?

[jer1956]

Check out the Tips section. There are example networks there. There is also a tip for turning on server fatures in win 7.