Streaming video over wired network

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  1. Posts : 51
    Windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #11

    I'm running a Buffalo Terrastation II NAS in a RAID 5 configuration with 4 x 250Gb IDE disks and a built-in 1Gb n/w connection. It is connected to a Belkin F5D5141-5 5 port 1Gb network switch, there is a second computer plugged in to this which is an email and file server which produces little additional traffic. These are connected via a 5m Cat6 network cable to a ZyXel GS108A 1Gb switch. Attached to this are the W7 machine (see below), an XP Pro machine used for TV recording and an ADSL router, again during normal use there is little extra n/w traffic.

    The W7 machine is an HP Pavilion s7620 with an Athlon64 3800 dual core processor, 2GB DDR2 memory on an Asus A8MN-BR motherboard with nVidia chipset. The nic is an onboard Realtek RTL8201CL 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet controller. It has a 200Gb eSata disk with about 50Gb free. It was a clean install of the commercially relased W7 32-bit over an existing XO installation, nothing from the XP install was carried forward. The system is fully patched and runs W7 Media Center and McAfee 2010 beta antivirus/firewall. It is primarily used for video playback but does do recording on occasion (I have checked and I do not believe this to be a factor). The W7 has default settings and drivers, with the exception that I have disabled Aero.

    The videos are primarily Divx .avi files of about 700Mb with some .dvr-ms and an increasing number of .wtv files, the latter tend to be in the region of 1-2Gb. I was using the W7 codecs but have now installed Divx 6.8 in effort to fix the problem. Let me know id there is any other info that might be relevant.
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  2.    #12

    Does your XP machine have SP3 installed?
    Also the actual hardware specs of your PC's may help - you can use the form 'W7/XP' for each category as you list them in your CP under hardware specs (add a note in last fields as such)

    for example: onboard sound/Creative X-Fi Fatality Pro
    Last edited by AngelProcesser; 15 Jan 2010 at 22:07. Reason: posts gone
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  3. Posts : 274
    Windows 7
       #13

    This is going to be a pain in the rear responding to two problems in one thread. Can't a moderator break off this hijacker?

    You can use "LAN speed test" to test your throughput.
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  4. Posts : 8
    Windows 7
       #14

    Skilled but not Logical


    surfasb said:
    This is going to be a pain in the rear responding to two problems in one thread. Can't a moderator break off this hijacker?

    You can use "LAN speed test" to test your throughput.
    You may be skilled but not logical. Both of us have problems with playback over a home network that is most likely a software problem.

    But since you seem to think I'm "hijacking" this thread and have nothing to offer I'll just go away.

    Maybe the moderator can talk some sense into surfasb
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  5. Posts : 274
    Windows 7
       #15

    PoBear said:
    I am having problems streaming video across my network to play in W7 Media Center, the video will pause and then after a period (1-10 seconds) restart playing catch up to the audio.

    The video files, mainly Divx .avi, but also .dvr-ms and .wtv, are stored on a NAS and played on a W7 Media Center machine, the network looks like this, n/w speeds in brackets).

    NAS(Gb) <-> Belkin Switch(Gb) <-> ZyXel Switch(Gb) <-> W7(100Mb)

    File copies run at about 10-11Mb/s from the NAS to the W7 machines so I think it might be some sort of buffering problem. I have increased the default buffer time in wmp12 to 60 seconds from the system default, which has reduced the incidence of the problem, but significantly increases the start of playback.

    This was a clean install of W7 32-bit over an existing XP system. All drivers were loaded from the W7 install disks and the system is fully patched.

    Anybody got any ideas?

    Thanks

    Steve
    10 - 11 MB/s is about right for a Fast Ethernet connection.


    PoBear said:
    I'm running a Buffalo Terrastation II NAS in a RAID 5 configuration with 4 x 250Gb IDE disks and a built-in 1Gb n/w connection. It is connected to a Belkin F5D5141-5 5 port 1Gb network switch, there is a second computer plugged in to this which is an email and file server which produces little additional traffic. These are connected via a 5m Cat6 network cable to a ZyXel GS108A 1Gb switch. Attached to this are the W7 machine (see below), an XP Pro machine used for TV recording and an ADSL router, again during normal use there is little extra n/w traffic.

    The W7 machine is an HP Pavilion s7620 with an Athlon64 3800 dual core processor, 2GB DDR2 memory on an Asus A8MN-BR motherboard with nVidia chipset. The nic is an onboard Realtek RTL8201CL 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet controller. It has a 200Gb eSata disk with about 50Gb free. It was a clean install of the commercially relased W7 32-bit over an existing XO installation, nothing from the XP install was carried forward. The system is fully patched and runs W7 Media Center and McAfee 2010 beta antivirus/firewall. It is primarily used for video playback but does do recording on occasion (I have checked and I do not believe this to be a factor). The W7 has default settings and drivers, with the exception that I have disabled Aero.

    The videos are primarily Divx .avi files of about 700Mb with some .dvr-ms and an increasing number of .wtv files, the latter tend to be in the region of 1-2Gb. I was using the W7 codecs but have now installed Divx 6.8 in effort to fix the problem. Let me know id there is any other info that might be relevant.
    I assume it isn't the firewall either causing the problem. I just think the codecs in W7 eat up more CPU than before. I've noticed that on my HTPC.
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  6.    #16

    I have actually found the opposite to be true, that W7 consumes less CPU.
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  7. Posts : 51
    Windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #17

    Forgive me but I am getting confused over what info people are asking me for so if I am still missing anything, can you re-request it.

    The XP machines are all SP3.

    I had a chance amongst my wife's weekend viewing to do some more testing. This is definitely related to the network. I pulled some files down from the NAS onto the W7 machines local disk and was able to play them without problem, whereas they stuttered when going over the newtwork. I also noticed, although only with limited testing that .wtv and .dvr-ms "seem" to play without problem, only the divx files are affected.

    I also spent some more time Googling this issue and have found a number of similar threads but unfortunately with no solutions yet.
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  8.    #18

    I asked about SP3 as prior to SP3 a specific download was required for XP machines and W7 machines to communicate properly.

    You seem to have isolated the issue to .divx files, so my guess is a codec is required (as I don't use .divx).
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  9. Posts : 51
    Windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #19

    I found an article on TheGreenButton which explained that installing the divx codec does not mean that it will actually be used! Apparently W7MC and WMP12 are setup to only use the MS supplied codecs. The article mentioned a tool Win7DSFilterTweaker which allows you to change this behaviour and use any installed codec.

    Setting my system to use divx 6.9 has definately made a difference but I am still getting video freezes, although they are are less frequent and do not last as long! On a positive note the videos look better.
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