HD 300--Bluray--Periodic Stutter

[civerson4]

Having a minor problem with the HD 300's.

When watching a ripped bluray, I get stutters every 15-25 minutes. Stutters last 30-45 seconds. If I stop and restart playback, sometimes the stutters will stop, other times they continue until something "catches up"

The same bluray plays fine on the server upstairs--using either sage or TMT3.

Set up:

Wired gigabit network (Wired connection for both HD 300's)
Updated HD 300 firmware (20101007-0)
Thecus N7700 NAS in Raid 5 config (7x 1TB WD drives). Stores ripped blu-rays and DVD's
Dell 24 port gigabit switch
D-link DIR 655 router
Homebuilt server with Realtek on-board gig-e NIC. Core i7 processor, 6 GB RAM
Win 7 64 running on the server, Sage v7.0.17 RC1

Ideas? My first thought was upgrading the server on-board NIC to a discrete NIC, but since the blu rays play fine on the server, I don't want to just start switching out hardware hoping it solves the problem.

One thing I have noticed, is that this only occurs if I watch a movie from start to finish. If watching a concert blu ray and skipping chapters I don't get skips/stutters (but I probably don't watch 15-25 minutes without going to the next chapter/song).

Thanks in advance for any help.

[paulbeers]

Well it sounds like a network issue. If I had to guess, its your NAS not being able to constantly keep up.

You've got 3 potential failure points:
1. NAS
2. Network
3. HD300 (most likely not this one since I haven't seen it on my Blu-Ray Rips)

To eliminate the network, I would try (if you have it) installing AnyDVD HD on a computer with a Blu-Ray drive and try streaming it directly to your HD300 from the disc.

To eliminate the HD300, try putting the rip onto an external hard drive and plugging it directly into the HD300 (in stand alone mode) to see if it plays back fine.

Otherwise if the issue isn't found with one of those two, then it is your NAS not being able to handle the throughput for extended periods.

[ojosch]

Originally Posted by civerson4

Having a minor problem with the HD 300's.

When watching a ripped bluray, I get stutters every 15-25 minutes. Stutters last 30-45 seconds. If I stop and restart playback, sometimes the stutters will stop, other times they continue until something "catches up"

The same bluray plays fine on the server upstairs--using either sage or TMT3.

Set up:

Wired gigabit network (Wired connection for both HD 300's)
Updated HD 300 firmware (20101007-0)
Thecus N7700 NAS in Raid 5 config (7x 1TB WD drives). Stores ripped blu-rays and DVD's
Dell 24 port gigabit switch
D-link DIR 655 router
Homebuilt server with Realtek on-board gig-e NIC. Core i7 processor, 6 GB RAM
Win 7 64 running on the server, Sage v7.0.17 RC1

Ideas? My first thought was upgrading the server on-board NIC to a discrete NIC, but since the blu rays play fine on the server, I don't want to just start switching out hardware hoping it solves the problem.

One thing I have noticed, is that this only occurs if I watch a movie from start to finish. If watching a concert blu ray and skipping chapters I don't get skips/stutters (but I probably don't watch 15-25 minutes without going to the next chapter/song).

Thanks in advance for any help.

Did you happen to mention whether this was on standalone mode, or extender mode? I always had stuttering issues on my HD-200 when playing Blueray 1080p rips unless I was on extender mode. My theory was that SageTV does a better job of handling video streams since they designed both sides of the client / server communication protocol, and everything has to be as optimal as it can be as it is since the HD-200 / HD-300 only has 10/100 MB/s ethernet link (your gig network means nothing since your switch port will just slow down to 100 MB/s to talk to the extender). When you run in standalone mode, it is also my theory that the Samba to Windows File Sharing communication is not all that optimal as it could be for streaming video, and that this could be why I see more tendency for stuttering with high-demand large bitrate, hi-res video streams.

So if you are on standalone mode, then try using extender mode and just keep your ISOs on the SageTV server and mount them using Virtual Clone Drive (free off the Slysoft website). I always keep my netbook by the couch so I can VNC into my server and mount ISOs remotely, then the media extender can see the files after you mount them (donno how the HD-300, is but that's how I have to do it on an HD-200).

Hope this helps...
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