The Official HTPC Thread

[2gunsup]

I've been running into buffering problems with my Plex + Roku combo lately. I'm not sure what's causing it either.

It only does this for movies, not for any TV shows. I have my default quality stream setting at 10mbps, when it pauses, I'll knock it to 8mbps and it usually clears up, but last night it was still stuttering so now it's an issue that I'm going to solve today.

I remember the last time I has this problem, AVG was the culprit. Once I removed that the streams went through fine.



Only new thing that I've installed on my PC since that AVG removal is the Hangout plugin in Chrome and I doubt that's what's causing this.

I know it's not my connection because...

[Wired]

And on wifi I pull 20mbps in every room that I have a Roku. I know it's good enough for movie streams because I've watched plenty before recently without these problems. And when I throw a movie on, nothing else is streaming or downloading at the same time.

I have a dual-band router that supports like 300mbps so shouldn't I be able to get even faster speeds over my wifi? Or is 20 the most you can get? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

How do you know how fast your Roku is pulling data? Also, I'd convert all these units to megabytes per second so that its not confusing. I've recently changed my Roku to 8 mpbs @ 1080p. 10 seems to be too much for my Roku over wireless.

Bandwidth conversion calculator | web.forret.com

Edit: Turns out there's a Roku Speed Test App,

https://owner.roku.com/Account/ChannelCode/?code=speedtest

I get 20 down on the Roku. I'm assuming local network should at least match that or be even better,

 

[GoldenGlove]

I just grabbed that app, I'm going to try it in a few.

I didn't know what the Roku's were pulling, I was just running the speedtest app on my phone in the same room. I'm going to see what's up with that app now though.

 

[choc_cardigan]

i downloaded xbmc but i cant find navi-x

 

[badvillain]

Does anyone know of any open source software/webapps that can make a custom guide for live tv? Like WMC but open and customizable. I want to build a plex/wmc live tv clone and make it look sick.

Only open source though cause I want to give it away for free after.

 

[lawdhavmercy]

i downloaded xbmc but i cant find navi-x

https://code.google.com/p/navi-x/downloads/list

 

[2gunsup]

Does anyone know of any open source software/webapps that can make a custom guide for live tv? Like WMC but open and customizable. I want to build a plex/wmc live tv clone and make it look sick.

Only open source though cause I want to give it away for free after.

Perhaps MythTV.

MythTV - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
MythTV, Open Source DVR

 

[Tha Snowman]

I just grabbed that app, I'm going to try it in a few.

I didn't know what the Roku's were pulling, I was just running the speedtest app on my phone in the same room. I'm going to see what's up with that app now though.

Buffering is going to be either your cpu can't transcode fast enough or you don't have enough bandwidth. Does the roku support wireless-n? What cpu is in your server? Is the server hardwired or wireless too? I've found wireless-wireless connections to be pretty slow. Hardwiring at least one endpoint helps dramatically.

 

[Hersh]

rasberri pi.. or android HDMI...for xbmc streaming no local files?

 

[GoldenGlove]

Buffering is going to be either your cpu can't transcode fast enough or you don't have enough bandwidth. Does the roku support wireless-n? What cpu is in your server? Is the server hardwired or wireless too? I've found wireless-wireless connections to be pretty slow. Hardwiring at least one endpoint helps dramatically.

My Rokus support wireless N
CPU = i5-3570K
My server is hardwired (getting 5.5 to 6 MB/s down, ping is like 20)

I've watched movies before perfectly fine with this setup. Seems like after Comcast doubled my net speeds a few months ago it's been acting up.

Everything else streams flawlessly for me (Netflix, Amazon Instant, TV shows via Plex + Roku, HBOGo etc)

 

[Tha Snowman]

My Rokus support wireless N
CPU = i5-3570K
My server is hardwired (getting 5.5 to 6 MB/s down, ping is like 20)

I've watched movies before perfectly fine with this setup. Seems like after Comcast doubled my net speeds a few months ago it's been acting up.

Everything else streams flawlessly for me (Netflix, Amazon Instant, TV shows via Plex + Roku, HBOGo etc)

Your internet speeds are irrelevant for intranet streaming, just fyi. But it sounds like your system/network is not the culprit.

Did the exact same movies work fine before and are now stuttering? You say tv shows are fine, are they encoded differently than the movies you're trying to stream?

I've seen the audio codec used cause problems in the past. Audio is usually encoded in mp3 or aac for lower quality rips (smaller file sizes), and DOLBY or DTS for high def TV and Bluray rips.

More than likely you'll be able to track the problem to some combination of container (mp4, mkv, etc.), video codec, and audio codec used. Most video players will show you the codecs used somewhere in the toolbar. In VLC, it's Tools -> Codec Information.

 

[GoldenGlove]

Your internet speeds are irrelevant for intranet streaming, just fyi. But it sounds like your system/network is not the culprit.

Did the exact same movies work fine before and are now stuttering? You say tv shows are fine, are they encoded differently than the movies you're trying to stream?

I've seen the audio codec used cause problems in the past. Audio is usually encoded in mp3 or aac for lower quality rips (smaller file sizes), and DOLBY or DTS for high def TV and Bluray rips.

More than likely you'll be able to track the problem to some combination of container (mp4, mkv, etc.), video codec, and audio codec used. Most video players will show you the codecs used somewhere in the toolbar. In VLC, it's Tools -> Codec Information.

Finally got around to looking at this in VLC.

So far all of the mkv movies have the audio encoded in Dolby or DTS 5.1.

The TV shows are AAC so that's where the issue is more than likely. But I know that I've streamed some of these movies that are in encoded in Dolby/DTS before without it messing up, so I'm not sure what's happened overtime that's causing my stuff to act like this now.

 

[GoldenGlove]

If any of yal are using Plex + Roku... will changing some of these settings on this screen fix my issue with the buffering for movies?

 

[badvillain]

Perhaps MythTV.

MythTV - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
MythTV, Open Source DVR

Eh it's software based, I wanted to make a web app. I could make Plex from scratch; it's just a web app that runs off your localhost and the MVC is controlled via backbone.

I'll dig into myths' source and see if it can't be ported.

 

[2gunsup]

If any of yal are using Plex + Roku... will changing some of these settings on this screen fix my issue with the buffering for movies?

Never had a need to mess with those settings. Have you recently changed between plex media server versions? Are you running the latest version? Is the issue resolved when the roku is wired?

Eh it's software based, I wanted to make a web app. I could make Plex from scratch; it's just a web app that runs off your localhost and the MVC is controlled via backbone.

I'll dig into myths' source and see if it can't be ported.

Keep us posted. You doing strictly a live tv interface or something that can be used with ones local library?

 

[badvillain]

Keep us posted. You doing strictly a live tv interface or something that can be used with ones local library?

All in one...tv + library. I've gotten to the point as a dev if something I want doesn't exist I just make it. It will probably take me till the end of year till I have something though.

I'm also working on the TotalFinder equivalent for Windows which will be a desktop app styled liked a metro app.