Q10 Pro - Stuttering on UHD iso rips

[JohnnyBoyIsMe]

Hi,
I am having trouble playing UHD iso rips over the local network. When playing it stutters to unwatchable levels, both sound and video like its lacking bandwidth.

Everything is connected via gigabit switch, Cat6 cable and all devices have gigabit ports

Equipment
Asustor as202te NAS
Q10Pro - 17.6 & 2.0.8

The Iso's are around the 75Gb range, but i can play non iso UHD content around the 55GB range no worries. Also, if i plug a usb drive into the q10pro directly, those same UHD iso files play fine.

It looks to be a network related, but as all the gear is gigabit im not sure where to start.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

[Mount81]

Have you tried the SAMBA patch?

Also, can you paste in the MediaInfo data from those iso's and also from the .mkv's that playing stutterfree? I'm curious about their bitrates as I've have some similar stuttering issues even with 45Mbit/s bitrate videos (OFW 2.0.6). Tho' the root of the issue might be different as I -yet- suspect primarily my notebook's upload bandwidth where I stream the videos from. But it's not the first time that I've read complains about HiMedai's problematic 4K streaming, so who knows what's the real bug in here...

Also: check the cables, and try to change/swap them for testing.

Have you tried what I've suggested in your other thread, to plug out and in again the UTP cable?

[JohnnyBoyIsMe]

File that works - HEVC @ 53.92Mbps (53.2GB file)
File that stutters - HEVC @ 61.41Mbps (58.6GB file)

It shouldn't be a bandwidth thing, as when i copy files from my PC to NAS via wired network i get speeds of around 90-95Mb/s, which is a order of magnitude larger than the streaming sizes.
 
Have tried pulling out and plugging back in the network cable with no differences (waited about a minute before re-plugging in)

Have tried a different patch cable from Q10 pro to switch, and also different cable from switch to NAS. no difference.

[JohnnyBoyIsMe]

Have now been playing around with these iso files some more

Changing network cables didn't really do anything, maybe slightly better but still not watchable.

Have tried via wifi (both 2.4 & 5ghz) both work but unwatchable and worse than the network cable.
Not sure if there would be any settings in the NAS itself?

[Mount81]

By 90Mb/s you mean MByte/s or Mbit/s? Because if it's Mbit, than something is limited to 100Mbit bandwidth in the chain. And that can be often insufficient for high bitrate 4K videos. Yes, theoretically this still should be enough for a 60Mbit/s video, but not sure how it's more tricky technically during SMB steaming. In this case i would recheck the chain and the router settings (i.e. bandwidth management/limitations, device link speeds, resource and overall network workload), to make sure that everything is on Gigabit speed. Are you sure that all cables are CAT6?

Have you tried to playback those files from the NAS on your PC with MPCHC (or with DSPlayer+MadVR) to see if they also stutter?

[JohnnyBoyIsMe]

By 90Mb/s you mean MByte/s or Mbit/s? Because if it's Mbit, than something is limited to 100Mbit bandwidth in the chain. And that can be often insufficient for high bitrate 4K videos. Yes, theoretically this still should be enough for a 60Mbit/s video, but not sure how it's more tricky technically during SMB steaming. In this case i would recheck the chain and the router settings (i.e. bandwidth management/limitations, device link speeds, resource and overall network workload), to make sure that everything is on Gigabit speed. Are you sure that all cables are CAT6?

Have you tried to playback those files from the NAS on your PC with MPCHC (or with DSPlayer+MadVR) to see if they also stutter?

Transfer is 90MB/s not Mbps,

Have tested with the MPCHC player and works fine with no stuttering on my PC

Everything is all Cat6 as i installed it myself and purchased all the gear etc.

I'll go over the settings in the router and if there is any limitations in the switch i have purchased but doubt it. Its just weird

[pcristi]

Transfer is 90MB/s not Mbps,

90MB/s is right speed over samba server(v3.1.1) on this box, for streaming is use samba client(v1.5) witch maybe not provide same speed level because of samba server settings from your NAS. Please enable NFS  protocol on your NAS and give a try to see if solve problem.

[Mount81]

There were a several report here and also on a different Forum, regarding 4K playback stuttering on OFW 2.0.8 and 2.0.7 through LAN.  Some have reported that going back to 2.0.6 solved this issue. But if NFS is a solution to you, try that first.

But this would definitely mean that the different firmwares producing inconsistent and unpredictable SMB network handling resulting in bandwidth insufficient deficiency, which is unacceptable from a relatively pricey dedicated 4K media player in 2018, that must be somehow fixed and normalized by HiMedia. 

[JohnnyBoyIsMe]

Transfer is 90MB/s not Mbps,

90MB/s is right speed over samba server(v3.1.1) on this box, for streaming is use samba client(v1.5) witch maybe not provide same speed level because of samba server settings from your NAS. Please enable NFS  protocol on your NAS and give a try to see if solve problem.

Very interesting going through this process.

As it turns out, setting my NAS to enable NFS solved the problem completely. Now works with zero stuttering and perfect playback.
Just needed to move my media around to a NFS share location and worked a treat.

Thanks for everyones input and help

[newbi14]

Its wright, FW 2.06 is the best version, today. THX
No issius with data up to 350mbps/s, ....

[JohnnyBoyIsMe]

Well the jerky playback is now back.

It works fine up to about 70mbps files but those over stutter. The files at 95mbps are completely unwatchable.

Looks like i will need to try 2.0.6.

Do i need to do anything special to load it?

[Bostjan]

LAN in Q5/Q10 Pro indeed seems to be a bottleneck in overall. I did a little bit of testing and measurements and you can check them here: http://www.futeko.com/newforum/index.php?topic=2689.msg23032#msg23032
In the table you can see that the problems with high bitrates first start on LAN, even when having 1Gbps connection and a server that is able to share video using full LAN bandwitch.

[Mount81]

LAN in Q5/Q10 Pro indeed seems to be a bottleneck in overall. I did a little bit of testing and measurements and you can check them here: http://www.futeko.com/newforum/index.php?topic=2689.msg23032#msg23032
In the table you can see that the problems with high bitrates first start on LAN, even when having 1Gbps connection and a server that is able to share video using full LAN bandwitch.

The state "Slower"in your chart means stuttering during playback in this case?

I have also read several complains here and on another Forum regarding the 4K playback stuttering with various firmwares. Sometimes the decimation of the "LAN speed" reported to happen juts suddenly after weeks or months of issue free operation with the same firmware already installed. There may are some firmwares that are more likely to be concerned, but it still doesn't show some pattern to conclude anything useful, that what could cause the issue. Plus many users didn't detected -or just not reported- this at all.

Could be firmware related, or even that the Ethernet adapter/controller is just somehow not equally the same quality or type in each particular Box.

Or there might be some problems in the firmware with SMB protocol communication or compatibility with the other devices within the LAN stream chain. I have also read, that in some cases, switching from SMB to NFS just solved the problem completely.

140Mbit/s is that what would be safely necessary for stutter-free high-bitrate 4K video playback and it should be issue free served by any up-to-date and more serious media players (advertised with Gbit Ethernet), regardless of the network protocol type used.

So it's still rather some kind of mystery for now...

[Bostjan]

LAN in Q5/Q10 Pro indeed seems to be a bottleneck in overall. I did a little bit of testing and measurements and you can check them here: http://www.futeko.com/newforum/index.php?topic=2689.msg23032#msg23032
In the table you can see that the problems with high bitrates first start on LAN, even when having 1Gbps connection and a server that is able to share video using full LAN bandwitch.

The state "Slower"in your chart means stuttering during playback in this case?

By stutter I understand video playback playing fine one second and then fraction of a second later it drops few frames and continues with playback and so on. The result is the video that keeps loosing frames and therefore you miss some information/video. Further, if you have 30 sec video it will also take 30 seconds to play it in reality, but with lost frames. This is usually what happens .
In my case it was different, frames didn't seem lost, but the video was played in "slow motion". The result was that 30 second video took 60 seconds to be played in worst case or somewhere in between depending on bitrate and transport (see table for details).

[pdasterly]

nfs is faster, enable 24Hz in playback, setting correct mtu on router