HD PLayback via Network

[lbrasi]

I started this thread to get some opinions from others trying to achieve the same goal as I am, successful playback of HD content from either wireless or wired network. (not from hard drive). I have had my PBO for about 4 days and wanted some feed back from others to see if anyone has been able to do this without any issues. I am really thinking of returning this player and going with something else.

CIFS and NFS shares both cause choppy/pixelated video playback and audio hiccups. I have tested with over 15 mkv files both 720p and 1080p, which all playback fine on my pc. The PBO is connected with HDMI cable to 52" Samsung LCD TV and setup for 1080 60hz with 1080 24 Hz enabled in the video settings. Network output of only 25Mpbs to 30Mbps connected to Linksys 10/100 5 port switch which in turn is connected to WRT54G2 Router running DDWRT. I have tested P02 and P04 firmware, currently running P04 firmware and .18 bootcode. The ultimate question, am I alone?

[aasoror]

I started this thread to get some opinions from others trying to achieve the same goal as I am, successful playback of HD content from either wireless or wired network. (not from hard drive). I have had my PBO for about 4 days and wanted some feed back from others to see if anyone has been able to do this without any issues. I am really thinking of returning this player and going with something else.

The majority of reports about wired network were successfully playing HD rips and BR-ISOs (some reported BR-ISO stutter on CIFS the was resolved with NFS mounts).

Now wireless (this is based on personal experience), is just inconsistent, I have played stutter free 720p files several times, yet the same files were problematic at different times. (during the same session NFS was smoother than CIFS for the very same content).

That said, connecting a wireless bridge via 10/100 port of the PBO was consistently more stable than using a wifi/usb adapter (based on my experience).

A question that might arise is the location of your shared media (you mentioned they play fine on your PC), are they local to your PC, or are they on another location (NAS, File server machine, etc ..)

The funny thing is one need to only maintain 40 mbps for a stutter free BR-ISO playback and everything else will require lower bandwidth (you got to think .. how hard is that on a 100 mbps wire or 300 mbps wifi)..

there are several reports on the networking thread, I think the average is 3~4 MBps for wifi and 5~6 MBps for wired.

[lbrasi]

All the video files are local on my PC running the NFS server. I am just dealing with BR rips (mkv) of about ~15GB in size and still having problems. Oddly 720p still causing issues.

The network transfer from NFS Server PC to another PC on the same network as the PBO cap out at Max 100Mbps (~11.5MB/sec). Why is the PBO not even able to utilize half of the network bandwidth?

[aasoror]

Why is the PBO not even able to utilize half of the network bandwidth?

some have suggested its a limitation of the Realtek SoC (similar to the Gbit speeds issues of the DNS-321/323), which something that I don't totally buy because this problem isn't as widespread on other media players sharing the same SoC. I am still convinced that its a network driver implementation (thus the variance between wired, wireless, CIFS, NFS).

[lbrasi]

For testing purposes I have removed the router out of the equation and wired the PBO and PC directly to the switch, Assigned static IPs on both PC and PBO. Network transfer speeds remain the same and problem still persists.

5 minute stream test. 6.08GB MKV File - 1080p

Current Transfer Rate 2.28 MB/s
Average Transfer Rate 1.73 MB/s
Maximum Transfer Rate 3.92 MB/s
Total Data Transferred 534 MB

[Nugpot]

I am still searching for an HD 1080p MKV that will work from USB or local HDD (without garbage colours etc), so forget about the network idea. Yea yea, I am probably trying to play mkv files that are not supported by PBO. Level 5 or something. So if you do test over the network, make sure it works from USB first. Which is very unlikely.

[lbrasi]

Thats funny because when I purchased the player the patriot wireless G adapter was included I was excited to not have to run a RJ45 cable, my excitement was soon spoiled. So I then ran a RJ45 cable and thought for sure my problems would be solved, but guess what nope. I guess I am returning this junk.

[pro510]

I have the same issue. I have not been able to play any 1080p mkv files successfully. I have a wired connection through a Gigabit switch to a Windows 7 PC (with Gigabit NIC). I have tried the NFS suggestion but it made no difference.

There's clearly something wrong with the buffering (or lack of). If I use Task Manager on the W7 PC to look at the network traffic it's extremely spiky.

[lbrasi]

The scary part is 720p files are also giving me distorted/pixelated video very often.

[JPMG]

Geeze ... I feel sorry for you, to date I have been blessed with minimal problems.

After a few minutes of testing with the wireless I went wired, never a drop out since due to that.

Local play has been fine (SD, DVD, HD ,BueRay, etc), even very large 1080 format videos. All this while a lot of other network traffic was over the wires.

The few drop out problems so far have been caused by the system serving the feed. In once case it was a uPNP connection to a XBMC unit that was in the process of updating the library, the play crapped out as that unit was updating the links. In the other I had too many sessions into/out of a server all while it was doing background maint, so the feed dropped out a bit.

I would wonder if the systems feeding the PBO are up to it. You mentioned that they play fine on your PC, do they play fine on your PC if they are hosted on another box and streamed to the PC? Plus you mentioned that the PC is also running your server in the background. Too many things running on one box?

Keep trying ... the PBO does play files well across a network, you just have not gotten it set up right yet.

Cheers!
... M ...