Video stuttering

[ikon]

I believe I mentioned it in another thread, but I find Qcheck to be quite useful for measuring network performance. There is a free version for non-comm use; you can get it at http://ixia.com. Be sure to get a proper endpoint for it as well.

[zeeke]

Do a check of your DMA settings on your HDDs on the server. I recently had problems with occasional stuttering when playing ripped BDs over the network. Turned out one of my 2TBs had reverted back to PIO mode.

 

The easiest way to check your HDD performance it to remote desktop into you WHS, and then install Hd Tune and run it on all your HDDs. If your CPU performance goes over 10% you have a problem. Average read speeds should also bu over 70mb or something depending on what kind of drives you use.

 

zeeke

[jeffla]

I used to have a repeatable video stutter on my ex487 with folder duplication turned on for videos. I fought DEMigrator and QSM.exe (I think that's what it was called)to stop this hourly, like clockwork video playback stutter. One day I stumbled upon the Home Server Show podcast and they were interviewing some guy from PerfectDisk. The podcast was pure geek porn and I promptly bought PerfectDisk 10 with a 3 pc license. I installed PD10 on all my home PC's as well as the ex487. PD10 said my WHS c: was 40% fragmented, I set it to defrag every Wednesday and ever since, NOT A SINGLE VIDEO STUTTER, not one in the 3-4 months since I bought PD10. Demigrator.exe still kicks in for its once an hour management, but I don't experience the problems anymore.

 

I find it hard to believe PD10 made the difference, but it was the only change to my ex487 I had made. I used to have events setup to disable demigrator and turn it back on. Nothing made any difference. PD10 (now 11) has made no noticeable impact on any of our Windows 7 computers, just the WHS.

 

I stream to a PS3 using Twonky(whs) all hard wired through a WRT54GL (tomato firmware)

 

Jeff

 

* I must point out, after entering a WGS PerfectDisk contest about a month after my PD10 purchase, I won a LX195 which I gave to my parents. Here is the post I made.

 

WGS contest thread My post is #46

Edited July 18, 2010 by jeffla

[zeeke]

I used to have a repeatable video stutter on my ex487 with folder duplication turned on for videos. I fought DEMigrator and QSM.exe (I think that's what it was called)to stop this hourly, like clockwork video playback stutter. One day I stumbled upon the Home Server Show podcast and they were interviewing some guy from PerfectDisk. The podcast was pure geek porn and I promptly bought PerfectDisk 10 with a 3 pc license. I installed PD10 on all my home PC's as well as the ex487. PD10 said my WHS c: was 40% fragmented, I set it to defrag every Wednesday and ever since, NOT A SINGLE VIDEO STUTTER, not one in the 3-4 months since I bought PD10. Demigrator.exe still kicks in for its once an hour management, but I don't experience the problems anymore.

 

I find it hard to believe PD10 made the difference, but it was the only change to my ex487 I had made. I used to have events setup to disable demigrator and turn it back on. Nothing made any difference. PD10 (now 11) has made no noticeable impact on any of our Windows 7 computers, just the WHS.

 

I stream to a PS3 using Twonky(whs) all hard wired through a WRT54GL (tomato firmware)

 

Jeff

 

* I must point out, after entering a WGS PerfectDisk contest about a month after my PD10 purchase, I won a LX195 which I gave to my parents. Here is the post I made.

 

WGS contest thread My post is #46

 

 

Even with a 40% fragmentation you should have no problem streaming if you HDD performance was OK.. Id still check with HD tune and see if they run alright

[jeffla]

Even with a 40% fragmentation you should have no problem streaming if you HDD performance was OK.. Id still check with HD tune and see if they run alright

 

Both drives are stock, the 1st came in with an average of 99MB/sec & 9.7% cpu and the other 85.9MB/sec & 8.4 cpu%

 

Had bit-torrent running FWIW while the tests were running.

 

Now that I think about it, both drives are SATA and I think pio/dma is a IDE drive setting.

Edited July 18, 2010 by jeffla

[zeeke]

Both drives are stock, the 1st came in with an average of 99MB/sec & 9.7% cpu and the other 85.9MB/sec & 8.4 cpu%

 

Had bit-torrent running FWIW while the tests were running.

 

Now that I think about it, both drives are SATA and I think pio/dma is a IDE drive setting.

 

That is not too bad. Should be ok. SATA drives use DMA/PIO settings as well. I still find it strange that you have/had studdering couse of fragmentation. What videoplayer are you using?

[jeffla]

That is not too bad. Should be ok. SATA drives use DMA/PIO settings as well. I still find it strange that you have/had studdering couse of fragmentation. What videoplayer are you using?

 

I can't say it was because of fragmentation, all I can say is, up until I used PD10 on my 100% stock ex487, every movie, SD, HD, crappy quality 500mg avi files all stuttered every hour like clockwork when demigrator kicked in. My 1st thought was the server is new, give it a few weeks and it will settle down. But a month goes by and no change, then 2 and still stuttering. I defraged with PD and not once has it happened since.

 

I use my PS3 to stream with Twonky on the whs. Hp 2.5 MSS software. The stuttering also happened if I tried streaming to anyone of our wifi windows 7 machines using either WMP or VLC player.

 

Where do you find the DMA/PIO setting for SATA drives? It's not under drive properties like I expected.

Edited July 18, 2010 by jeffla

[zeeke]

I can't say it was because of fragmentation, all I can say is, up until I used PD10 on my 100% stock ex487, every movie, SD, HD, crappy quality 500mg avi files all stuttered every hour like clockwork when demigrator kicked in. My 1st thought was the server is new, give it a few weeks and it will settle down. But a month goes by and no change, then 2 and still stuttering. I defraged with PD and not once has it happened since.

 

I use my PS3 to stream with Twonky on the whs. Hp 2.5 MSS software. The stuttering also happened if I tried streaming to anyone of our wifi windows 7 machines using either WMP or VLC player.

 

Where do you find the DMA/PIO setting for SATA drives? It's not under drive properties like I expected.

 

It is under the controller settings in device manager