Specific ISO options

[jhisey]

I have a Popcorn Hour and I built a machine to act as a server.  It's based on an Abit AB9-Pro board with a Dual Core e6400, 2gigs RAM and 3 1TB HDs.  I'm using unRAID Server basic as I wanted to try it out before I plopped down money to buy the full version.  I created a bunch of .ISO's from my DVD collection and put them on one of the disks.  When I play them through the popcorn hour (using the default Samba shares I assume), the first half of the movie always plays perfectly.  Then, I start to get an occassional stutter and as the movie gets closer to the end, the stuttering gets worse and worse.  I can rewind the movie a little bit and it plays the stuttered portion just fine until it gets to a new spot.  What's got me is it's not during the whole movie, just when it gets in the second half.

 

So, my questions are, should I be doing anything special when I create the .ISO's?  Does unRAID support http sharing yet as I understand SAMBA to basically be the worst network file system out of SMB, NFS and HTTP as far as speed?  Why would this only be happening towards the end of the movies?  Thanks!

 

EDIT: UnRAID version is 4.3.1

[Joe L.]

I would ask if the popcorn  hour has the same issue with playing the same ISO image from any SMB share on your lan.

 

I have two somewhat similar AlTech MG-35 media players.  For a number of their releases, it was unable to play high bit-rate ISO images from over the LAN.  It could play them fine from its internal hard disk.  Recently, when  we pinpointed the exact release in which playing high bit-rate ISO images started to stutter, they fixed the issue.  It has no problem at all now, even with the highest bit-rate ISO images I have.

 

I would look to see if the popcorn hour has issues with playback.  It sounds as if it might.  You also might need to consider the router/hub on your lan, is it causing the stuttering.  Until you see what is going on the LAN, you will be guessing.

 

Is your unRAID server dropping packets?  Is your cabling up to the task?  Lots of possibilities.

 

I have many hundreds of ISO images of DVD's I own, and can easily serve multiple (I've tried as many as 4) at the same time from my unRAID server.  I'm not saying it can't be at fault, but odds are good it is not.    As a test, put one of your ISO images on a different PC on your lan, share the folder it is in, and play it.  If it starts to stutter half way through, look to the popcorn hour or the lan for upgrades.

 

Joe L.

[bubbaQ]

You can't stream .ISO files over HTTP.  This is not just an unRAID or PH restriction...the structure of an ISO just doesn't work for streaming.  You can stream .ISO files only with SMB and NFS. 

 

I have playes ISO files with PH and unRAID without issues... so I suspect your switch/hub or cables.  Try pausing when the stuttering starts, reboot your switch, and then resume play.  Or better yet, hook the PH directly to unRAID with a crossover cable.

[john1928]

I use .ISO files for about ~250 of my DVDs and all of them play fine on my Popcorn Hour (PCH) via SMB even from a user share.  I haven't tried multiples at the same time, but the limitation is on the gimpy transfer rate on the PCH end(or any other NMT based device (eGrate, iSTAR, PCH, etc.)).

 

I tried getting Apache running following the (very good) instructions that bubbaQ posted here http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=887.0  and here http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=871.0.  I was able to modify the boot image, install packages and such but even after editing the conf file to change the port number, move the logs, etc. I would receive a missing library error when starting apache.  Though I believe I had installed all of the packages listed.  I did some searching but couldn't track down the issue. 

 

Since I'm a linux newb and the only thing I really wanted this for was HD streaming of Blu-ray and HD-DVD I then decided to take a different approach and use a single package http server called llink (binaries here: http://www.lundman.net/wiki/index.php/Llink:linux ).  I installed it following the same process in bubbaQ's process modified a very small config file (compared to apache) and it works great.  It can play RARed files, and ISOs (tries to pick the main movie), but I use SMB for all of that and just use llink for http.   

 

 

 

 

[bubbaQ]

Llink is a good package.

 

What library did you have a problem with in Apache?

 

Transcoding HD/BluRay is a bit of a pain right now, but if you want to use media players like PH, you should consider in the future, transcoding HD/BluRay to h.264... it takes up much less disk space and less bandwidth, and gets dir of the SMB/NFS problem.  There should be a 1-click solution, like AGK, for HiDef in a year or so.  You can do it now, but it isn't quite that simple.

[jhisey]

Ok, I built a crossover cable and connected the PH directly to my unRAID server and didn't have any problems.  Now to narrow down the entire path a movie at a time   Thanks for the help!

[john1928]

Llink is a good package.

 

What library did you have a problem with in Apache?

 

I'm not strictly speaking sure it was a library issue.  Initially the syntax check didn't return any errors, and it would look like it started without errors but the process wouldn't actually be running.  So I modified the httpd.conf file again and pointed the log files to a drive instead of /dev/null.  The only line in the main.log file would then be [crit] (38)Function not implemented: mod_rewrite: could not create rewrite_log_lock.  Trying to comment out that module from the conf file led to another error (and successive commenting outs just seemed to move the error allong).

 

 

Transcoding HD/BluRay is a bit of a pain right now, but if you want to use media players like PH, you should consider in the future, transcoding HD/BluRay to h.264... it takes up much less disk space and less bandwidth, and gets dir of the SMB/NFS problem.  There should be a 1-click solution, like AGK, for HiDef in a year or so.  You can do it now, but it isn't quite that simple.

 

I remux into a .ts file (losing menu, extras, and generally foreign languages, but keeping secondary audio tracks, subtitles, etc.).  I generally avoid changing the video format since that takes so darn long and costs quality.  Much of the the content already seems to be h.264/AVC anyhow, though I do have a number of HD-DVDs that were VC-1.  I do agree that it's a rather convoluted process still, but much easier than even 6 months ago.

 

Thanks!

[bubbaQ]

I doesn't have to cost quality.... there are encoding parameters that can cut file size significantly, but still be visually indistinguishable by a human eye, when playing the video.  Of course, certain movies (chick flicks and the like) are good candidates for transcoding.... while action flicks are more challenging to transcode.

 

You can keep multiple languages, director's comments, etc.... depends on the container you use (i.e. MKV has more capabilities than AVI).

 

Since unRAID is sitting there idle 99.9% of the time, I just queue up several videos for transcoding once a week in a VM on unRAID.  HiDef takes about 20 to 25 hours per movie.  A week later, the are all done, and I test them, and delete the originals.  Converting VC-1 generally saves 50% to 75% of disk space.

[jhisey]

Ok, I take that back...  I played another movie tonight using the cross-over cable and while not as much, there was still stuttering during the end of the movie.  So now I'm left with the server (with the specs in my OP), unRAID itself, the PH, and my .ISO files.  ARG!