XBMC Buffering - Can't figure it out!

About 1 month ago, I noticed XBMC buffering every once in a while randomly. It's a gigabit network, and unRAID is negotiating giga speeds. I had thought I had it isolated, and that only content on one very old drive was the problem. It seemed only content from that drive was the issue. I got a new drive, replaced it, and rebuilt the drive from parity. And STILL content from the BRAND NEW DRIVE is buffering as well. Where do I even begin to find out what's happening?

I'm sorry I don't have an answer for you but I will say since upgrading to beta 12 my Plex server has been buffering randomly too. I looked at a 'top' one day to see what was going on and the processor wasn't even being taxed. I think it was direct streaming and not transcoding. But when it would pause like it's buffering the 'wait' portion of the cpu readout would jump until the movie started playing again. I'm wondering if there isn't something funky with I/O on beta 12. But. I haven't heard anyone else complaining.

Have you tried other players? The problem may not be the server.

I had a similar issue with XBMC a few weeks ago, I also had a drive going bad. It turned out that I also had the parity drive going bad at the same time so it was the replacement of both that fixed the issue. I know it's unlikely to help, but you never know what might be a clue.

I appreciate all the responses, and no at this point I'm willing to try anything. Yes I've tried different players and it seems to be on the server end. The thing that really bugged me, was that unRAID didn't really tell me anything was wrong with any drives. I did all the smart reports, and really didn't see anything at all that would lead me to believe something was wrong. How did you figure out it was a combination of your parity drive and a data drive?

I had a problem with plex (using v6 and docker) which was resolved by turning off cachedirs....

Another time it was my Headphones plugin on v5 causing stuttering.

What h/w do you use to run Kodi? What version of Kodi are you running?

I had issues with running HD content to a low power Android machine (PIVOS XIOS) which matches your issue. It was in the bedroom with no receiver (but in some cases worked fine in the living room connected to the receiver with passthrough enabled).

I sort of concluded that it was due to the little thing trying to do something in software that its heart couldn't handle. The NAS and the network were fine - then I bought an NUC and threw Openelec on it. No issues at all - no matter where I place it - living room installed in the media setup connected to the receiver or in the bedroom. It appears to me I needed a higher spec player for the HD content I have. Note: I tested this by running SD content on the Pivos box and got no buffering issues at all. So I tend to limit what I watch in the bedroom to SD content.

In addition, what method are you using to access the content SMB, NFS?

I have had issues using HD content to XBMC over SMB shares back a few Kodi versions back. Buffering buffering .... I switched to NFS and all went well.

One last thought, some of these players (e.g the XIOS) don't have much internal space and that can cause Kodi to appear slow. In my situation I had to run a script to migrate the user data dir to the sd card. Faster and more space. That worked for that issue.

Not all of this is related, but I hope some it helps you!!

I feel your issues are more player related that Unraid but I have nothing to base that on yet other than a gut feeling.

The networking speeds seem more than sufficient, I can read at 75-85Mb/s from the NAS. It's not a small streaming box or a nuc, it's a computer albeit an older one Athlon quad core. Is there any log somewhere that can tell me more about if it's unRAID or the client?

I don't think so. I think the time has come for a bit of planned work. Isolate the fault.

You seem to have all the tools you need. This is what I would do. At least then you can stop looking elsewhere.

Create a separate Ubuntu Live CD Boot USB.

Copy a video you know buffers to the USB drive.

[glow=red,2,300]**WARNING**  [/glow]Boot your Unraid box from that USB drive. [glow=red,2,300]**WARNING** [/glow]

[glow=red,2,300]**WARNING** [/glow] I'd be making sure that ALL my Unraid disks are disconnected from the Motherboard as to not have/allow Ubuntu in any way interact with them[glow=red,2,300] **WARNING**[/glow]

Share the video using Ubuntu (using the same protocol as in UNRAID).

Map that share (using the same protocol) in your Kodi client.

Play it and see if it buffers.

If it does not buffer than I would be thinking this tells me that it has to be something inside the Unraid box (baring the non storage components) - be it the Array, a disk, settings etc.

If it does still buffer then try isolating the fault with the Kodi client. You seem to have a PC / Mac as well as what currently Kodi is installed on having the issue. Use it - Kodi is great because it works on almost any platform.

Install Kodi on this other machine.

Attach it to your Gigabit LAN.

Map the Unraid share.

Try and play. See if it Buffers.

If still no joy then moving on to doing a similar thing with parts in your network setup.

I know it sounds like allot and perhaps others will have a simpler process for you but thats what I would do to be sure to be sure! :-)

Be methodical, plan it out, post the plan on the board once your'e done and ask for opinions. Write each part in your setup down in a list and cross it off as you test whether it has an issue.

Good Luck.

Just to let everyone know who may read this, I figured out my buffering problem. It seemed that my cache HDD was dying, although the SMART reports didn't indicate much other than it having quite a few "on" hours above it's expected life, all other health stats passed. Every time it wrote to the cache drive, or at times even accessed it (Plex, Sickbeard, Couchpotato) I would experience buffered playback on a gigabit network. I have since upgraded to unRAID v6.0beta12 and removed the old cache drive and replaced it with an Intel Enterprise 240GB SSD. I also increased the RAM to 8GB from 4GB, and all of my buffering woes seem to have vanished. The new filesystem (btrfs) for the cache drive is FAR superior and seems exponentially faster and better at doing the job of a cache drive in general.

Glad to see you sorted it out. Always an awesome feeling when that happens, 'eh? 

I think it was direct streaming and not transcoding.

I noticed that even in direct stream mode, plex chops the file in segments that it stores on your cache, or wherever you have it set for.  It then streams these chunks to you player.  At least it does if it is transcoding the audio.  I use firetv boxes for plex client and that is the way it is working on my system.  If I have a lot of activity on my cache drive, I see stuttering in video playback.