streaming movies have recently become unwatchable due to jerkiness

hi all, have had my unraid server up and running for a few months now and have generally been enjoying it greatly!

 

in the last two weeks, the movies i stream to my pc from my unraid server have become unwatchable due to choppiness in both the picture and the audio.  i really don't know what's happened, i haven't changed my player (media player classic) or anything else that i can recall.. but it just seems like my connection speed can't keep up with the movie.  i also haven't changed any equipment. 

 

i'm running 5.12b.  any suggestions on how to debut this problem?  i should add that when i stream from the server, the entire pc seems to bog down and get only partially responsive... like the mouse jerks when moving, etc.

 

when i copy a file to or from the server, the copy speeds seem fine however the pc becomes essentially unusable during the copy operation, like the mouse is almost entirely frozen... when the job is done, everything is fine again. 

 

any thoughts please please please?

 

Can you try a different player? A different computer?

Can you try a different player? A different computer?

 

oops sorry edited my original post while you were replying.  have tried a couple of players, haven't tried another computer (i only have the one on my network plus the unraid server).  both players are jerky

 

i updated my original post to specify that my pc seems to almost hang when i'm transferring files... this never used to happen but i'm not sure what caused it, or how to fix it.  its entirely possible it has nothing to do with the server at all and might just be a pc-side problem but i'd still appreciate any advice!

 

Attach a syslog: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=9880.0

oops here we go

grither_syslog_jul_21_2012.zip

Just to clarify, files on the local hard drive play fine?

yes, i have almost everything on the server but i have a couple on the pc and they play perfectly fine!

you know i might have answered a bit too hasty... i copied over the 'problem' videos from the server directly to my pc and i'm having major trouble playing them off the pc.  i had other files on the pc that did play fine, but i guess its better to try the exact same file, once off the server, and once off the pc.  they are both giving trouble unfortunately

 

i will try to troubleshoot my pc problem (but still happy if anyone has any advice)

 

also i haven't seen any feedback on my log file, maybe everything looks okay?

 

 

sigh.  got my movies playing well however file transfer is still a total nightmare... when moving files to the server, or from, essentially immobilizes my pc until the transfer is complete

 

its not a real old pc... its an 17 920 with 12 gb or ram, and the pc and server are connected directly through a gb switch.  lights on the switch indicate that they are connected at gb speeds

 

thoughts?  its not that the transfers are slow, i get about 30mb/sec however the real prob is that pc is basically frozen while the transfer is happening

 

Assuming it's a windows box, run msconfig, go to the services tab, check "hide all ms services", check "disable all", go to startup tab, check "disable all", click ok, let the machine reboot, and try again. If that changes the situation, then it's one (or more) of the items that you unselected. If the situation stays the same, I'd suspect a hardware fault, probably bad ram or bad network card, or possibly a rogue windows update on the network card driver, or a virus of some flavor. The easiest way to tell if it's hardware or software would be to run a live linux cd and see if the problem still occurs.

Hey i had this issue... it was a setting in my Ethernet driver.  I forgot what it was... Grrrr. Let me try to remember.  It was some kind of buffer or something ... let me try to find it. I had jerky playback as soon as i changed it.  I was golden.

found it...

 

check out this thread it fixed my problem... there were a couple settings to change. let me know.

 

Device Manager > Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller Properties > Advanced > Interrupt Moderation: Disabled. (Enabling it is the single biggest issue for streaming HD videos.)

 

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1303171/bluray-playback-now-is-choppy-from-network

ok did as you both suggested and problem still persists!  super unresponsive pc while copying files to and from server, even with basically no services loaded

 

also my NIC is onboard but i noticed i have two slots so i tried the other one but no luck.  weird problem

 

so i guess i should proceed to the next steps as jonathonm suggested... wonder how i can get my hands on a linux live cd?

 

do you have a spare NIC card ? Try that and disable the onboard NIC....

i think you have a PC hardware issue... what switch are you using? have you tried new cat 5 cables etc.... since it was working fine... i think you ahve a hardware issue...

I think I have an old nic. Could try installing but I know it's not gigabit but maybe that doesn't matter for testing

hmmm installed the old nic and disabled the onboard.  things seem a bit better... still some freezing but overall can move the mouse enough to open this page and type this reply

 

 

definitely not perfect, only a little better.  can someone point me to a linux boot cd so that i can try copy in linux to see if its a windows/virus problem?

 

 

can someone point me to a linux boot cd so that i can try copy in linux to see if its a windows/virus problem?

Any of the ones on this page with "desktop" listed should give you something to play with. You may have to try a couple different ones until you settle on one that has an interface you can work with. Different distros emphasize different utilities and functions, so I'd try several.

ended up updating my mobo bios...haven't done that since i built the computer about 3 years ago...

 

everything seems very zippy so far!  haven't seen a single mouse lag!  would have had several by now ie every 5 seconds or so but seems to be working well so far! 

 

when i built the pc i included 6gb of ram... about 3 or 4 months ago i added another 6gb... the total of 12gb was definitely recognized but i'm now wondering if it wasn't optimized or something until you update the mobo?

 

anyway don't really know but for the first time in awhile things seem to be running better than ever!  whoohoo!

 

cool....!!!!!!!

Yes thanks for all your help. Was surprised that he mobo was the key. I appreciate all your help