(Solved) Media playback hanging (vanilla unRAID no plugins)

[Poprin]

For some reason my very newly built unRAID server is having issues. I thought I would post this in general because I'm not sure what's causing it and I'm not running any plugins currently. (other than unMenu, screen)

 

So when I first starting tinkering I setup the unRAID server and couldn't be ar*ed to pre-clear the drives. I had my 1tb Samsung as parity and 640gb WD with data on. I setup Plex plugin (which currently is disabled) and I could stream to my laptop via wifi using plex home theatre no problem. My primary media machine downstairs (running Windows 8.1) has XBMC installed and I was simply pointing it to the shares on unRAID. This was also playing media no problem.

 

So I decided to start tinkering some more and add more drives, so I installed a 1tb Hitachi, pre-cleared the drive (no errors) and swapped this over as the parity. Then I pre-cleared my Samsung (that was parity) and swapped that over with the WD data drive. Then pre-cleared the 640wd and added to the array as well.

 

However now my media machine downstairs running Win 8.1 and XBMC keeps hanging during playback. Sometimes the file stops playing altogether. Even more annoyingly this is not consistent! So I can playback an entire episode of something (say an hour long) no issues. Other times the file is unwatchable. Before making the above changes I played back two films and about 4-6 episodes from TV shows. The films are HD but compressed to about 2gb and the series are SD file sizes approx. 400mb. No problems at all.

 

So I'm confused, I haven't really changed a great deal (other than disabling Plex). I'm quite confident it's not network performance. My unRAID server is cabled direct to my Virgin Superhub and my media PC is connected using netgear Ethernet over power connectors. Now these are good quality 500MB/s ones and I get a solid 19MB/s file transfer speed to the PC from the unRAID server which is more than fast enough. If I run a continuous ping from my laptop to both my unRAID and my Media PC my unRAID returns <2ms and my media PC <6ms which again appears fine. I've had one or two dropped packets over an hour long test  but nothing serious.

 

So I'm open to any thoughts, as I mentioned above I'm currently not using Plex, I am literally just looking at the unRAID shares (SMB) and trying to play the file via XBMC. The point is, this was working fine when I first tested it before changing the drives. The drives are showing 0 errors in SMART reports.

 

Additional information that may or may not be useful...

 

unRAID server is set to DHCP and I've set a DHCP reservation on the router

I've added the shares into XBMC in the following way //tower/movies (rather than mapping the drive in windows)

My media PC is using DHCP

My media PC is overkill fast so it's not the hardware!

There is nothing in the syslog at all.

[CaptainSpalding]

Does a reboot help?

 

Did you ran parity checks after you rebuilt the parity?

[Poprin]

Does a reboot help?

 

Did you ran parity checks after you rebuilt the parity?

 

Hi Cpt, yes after rebuilding parity to the new drive I have also since run a full parity check. I have rebooted the server 3 times, I have also rebooted the modem and both Ethernet over power devices just in case. It's really bizarre and annoying!

[CaptainSpalding]

What kind of hardware do you have on your unraid?

[Poprin]

What kind of hardware do you have on your unraid?

 

Motherboard: MSI 760GMA-P34 (FX) AM3+

CPU: AMD Athlon II x4 610e 2.4ghz (Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 pro)

RAM: 4gb (2x2) Corsair XMS3 1333mhz CAS9

USB Drive: 8gb Kingston Data Traveller USB3

PSU: Corsair CX430

Parity: 1tb Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.D

Data 1: 1tb Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ

Data 2: 640gb Western Digital Blue WD6400aaks

All in a fractal design define mini.

 

So if anything for my needs I'm probably overkill.

 

 

[unevent]

Since you have static DHCP, try using the server IP instead of //tower when adding your network shares.  Post a full syslog if problems continue.

[Poprin]

OK so I think I've improved the situation but still not resolved it entirely.

 

I have changed the DHCP settings on my router to give myself 10 available static addresses at the start of the range (DHCP now starts at .11). I cleared out all my reservation settings and rebooted the router just to be sure.

 

I then set the static address on my unRAID server itself, I have also set my media PC to a static address also. I have then uninstalled XBMC and cleared all the settings files. I have re-installed the latest non beta version which is 13.0 I believe.

 

I have then mapped two drives on my media PC (running Win 8.1 FYI) one for Movies and one for TV series. I have mapped both of these shares using the unRAID IP address rather than it's machine name.

 

This appears to have cured the problem with regards to playback hanging and skipping. However I still have one issue, if I pause playback for any length of time, when I resume the playback the video will play for approx. 2-3 seconds and then cut out and dump me back to the XBMC menu. When I then try to restart the video it buffers for about 10 seconds where as usually it starts straight away.

 

Any ideas!! It's a real pain in the backside, especially as it worked fine initially! The only thing different from before is I'm not running Plex! I would try turning Plex on but I need another drive to work as an apps store and the one I had lined up turns out to be nailed so I need a new drive!

 

As mentioned before nothing in the syslog at all. Everything in general appears to be working perfectly and file transfer speeds are really good.

[Poprin]

Another thing to add, as I have been doing some research. My disks are set to spin down after 1 hour... so unfortunately this is not the problem.

 

Also re syslog errors, I was only checking recent errors assuming an error had happened while playing the file. I have noted the following errors in syslog though. Should I be concerned? Also strange that Plex is throwing an error as it is installed but not running?

 

May 16 23:01:33 patflix kernel: atiixp 0000:00:14.1: simplex device: DMA disabled (Errors)

May 16 23:01:33 patflix kernel: ide1: DMA disabled (Errors)

May 16 23:01:33 patflix kernel: ata5.00: HPA detected: current 1953523055, native 1953525168 (Errors)

May 17 04:40:03 patflix kernel: Plex Media Serv[2493]: segfault at fffffffc ip b5a309ca sp bf8386f0 error 5 in libstdc++.so.6.0.13[b599d000+e4000] (Errors)

May 17 10:11:11 patflix kernel: Plex Media Serv[2613]: segfault at fffffffc ip b59d69ca sp bff2a330 error 5 in libstdc++.so.6.0.13[b5943000+e4000] (Errors)

May 18 04:40:02 patflix kernel: Plex Media Serv[2819]: segfault at fffffffc ip b59f59ca sp bfe6c2a0 error 5 in libstdc++.so.6.0.13[b5962000+e4000] (Errors)

[dgaschk]

Attach a syslog.

[Poprin]

May 16 23:01:33 patflix kernel: atiixp 0000:00:14.1: simplex device: DMA disabled (Errors)

May 16 23:01:33 patflix kernel: ide1: DMA disabled (Errors)

May 16 23:01:33 patflix kernel: ata5.00: HPA detected: current 1953523055, native 1953525168 (Errors)

May 17 04:40:03 patflix kernel: Plex Media Serv[2493]: segfault at fffffffc ip b5a309ca sp bf8386f0 error 5 in libstdc++.so.6.0.13[b599d000+e4000] (Errors)

May 17 10:11:11 patflix kernel: Plex Media Serv[2613]: segfault at fffffffc ip b59d69ca sp bff2a330 error 5 in libstdc++.so.6.0.13[b5943000+e4000] (Errors)

May 18 04:40:02 patflix kernel: Plex Media Serv[2819]: segfault at fffffffc ip b59f59ca sp bfe6c2a0 error 5 in libstdc++.so.6.0.13[b5962000+e4000] (Errors)

 

OK researched the above errors, DMA disabled appears to be a bit of a false positive and nothing to worry about.

 

HPA is probably due to the fact I'm using second hand drives and one of them must have been used on a Gigabyte board previously so I've found some info which I will use to try and resolve this tonight.

 

The segfaults in Plex appear to be a bad password in the settings file which I discovered from on old post on these forums, changed this and haven't had another error yet...

 

Also I will attach a syslog later when I get in.

[Poprin]

OK... seem to be replying to my own post a lot. Talking to yourself is a sign of madness isn't it? Well hopefully if someone is having the same problem as me this thread might help a little.

 

So it turns out that I had not resolved the pausing and dumping back to menu problem in XBMC. It pretty much ruined my viewing experience of Game of Thrones so this s**t got serious fast. Bit of hanging in Big Bang Theory I can accept but Game of Thrones... oh it's on unRAID!

 

I set about google like a man possessed, after some research I discovered quite a lot of information regarding SMB shares over wifi and Ethernet over power devices (which I am using on my Media PC). The general consensus appears to be that since XBMC ver9 they have changed the way XBMC handles SMB and in short it's now pants. It is advised on several forums and blog posts to use the NFS protocol instead.

 

I accessed my unRAID GUI and enabled NFS sharing and then enabled NFS on both of my media shares. The hard part was getting Windows 8.1 to map said NFS shares. I found a post on the limetech forums where someone explained how this is done which was a big help!

 

I did a small test yesterday evening but it is looking extremely promising, XBMC is noticeably more responsive. I have managed to pause playback several times and resume without issue and I have had no buffering at all. In fact it's as responsive as it was when the media was on the physical drive. I shall continue to test over the next few days and report back. Also unRAID was in no way to blame as this was down to my media PC and / or my home network.

 

I'm currently compiling my own list of instructions from my experiences which I may spew forth on to the forums, as it may help somebody. I think I'm probably an A typical user in my requirements so you never know.

[DaleWilliams]

Glad to hear you're making progress.  I think you're the first on the forums to come across this behavior....and a solution, too!

 

But you didn't answer the real question, "Why does every wedding on GOT end with a bunch of dead people?" 

[Poprin]

Glad to hear you're making progress.  I think you're the first on the forums to come across this behavior....and a solution, too!

 

But you didn't answer the real question, "Why does every wedding on GOT end with a bunch of dead people?" 

 

Spoiler alert lol! But yes it is possibly one of the most violent programs I've ever watched. The episode where a soldier helps a young boy with the broken legs off the ground and just stuffs his dagger through his throat is particularly haunting!

 

Anyway still no errors so far so I'm being optimistic, would like to do some more testing before saying it's resolved though.

 

Managed to clear HPA off one of my drives also so I'm pretty damn happy with myself at the moment.

[jumperalex]

BAH!!! It is not a spoiler to say someone has died in GoT, nor at a GoT wedding.  Saying who, how, and what happens next might be, but not the fact in and of itself.

 

That would be like claiming "SPOILER ALERT!!! - The Sun Rose This Morning" 

[Poprin]

Just a quick follow up on this, changing the shares to NFS has made a massive improvement. Again, this is likely nothing to do with unRAID and more to do with either my media PC and Windows 8 or my network. However I have seen posts on other forums with people reporting similar playback issues so this may be of use to some people.

 

FYI as you are likely aware you can run both NFS and SMB protocol on the share as I am still using SMB to upload data to the server from my other machines and using NFS purely for streaming content.