Buffering issue while reading videos

[scharnhorst]

Hello

I have an issue with my Subonic while reading video (mkv 1080p).
It always stop to buffer.
I tried to lower the bitrate without any success.

My specs.

Server :
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
Core I3 2100 Sandy Bridge
8 GB DDR3
SSD 256GB Crucial M4 (For OS and Subsonic)
SUBSONIC 4.8
Optical Fiber 100Mbits/s up & down.

Client:
Windows 7 64 SP1
Core I5 3337U
8GB DDR3

Chrome (up to date)


Thanks in advance for any help.

[GJ51]

Open task manager on the server and check the CPU load. 1080p video takes a lot of CPU power to transcode. If the CPU can't handle the load, the alternative is to reformat the video to mp4 or flv and play them in the native format wothout any transcoding.

HTH

[scharnhorst]

Many thanks for your reply, I have checked CPU and it is never higher than 75% when I have this kind of issue.
Is it too high?

[GJ51]

Then it's not the CPU and with 100mbps up/dn it shouldn't be a bandwidth issue either.

I'd maybe start looking at network issues that may be causing routing/throughput conflicts.

There is also a possibility that hard drive load can be a factor if it has other heavy load going on at the same time.

I'd also try an mp4 at 1080p without any transcoding to see how it behaves.


Looking at your specs it looks like you should be OK for 1-3 1080p videos at the same time.

Run a lan speed test between the server and a client to see what you get.

Are you getting these problems on wired, wireless, or both?

Open Task Manager, click on the performance tab, then click on the "Open Resource Monitor" link. Browser around ther to see if you can spot a bottleneck. Click on all the tabs and watch graphs and look at the details to see if you can spot something that gives you some clues.

[scharnhorst]

I have just checked something else.
When I read the video on a Virtual Machine (hyper V with Windows 7 64Bits) of the server (the same hosting subsonic) , there is no buffering

[GJ51]

Many thanks for your reply, I have checked CPU and it is never higher than 75% when I have this kind of issue.
Is it too high?

!!! My guess is that you may be only using 1 core to do the transcoding and it's maxed out - therefore 25% total CPU usage.

Start a video and check the CPU graphs on the CPU tab to see if one core is maxed and the others are just idling.

[scharnhorst]

Server is connected to Internet through a NETGEAR 5-Port Gigabit Switch (GS605NA) and then to the Modem.
No wireless connection used.
Storage is based on SEAGATE 4TB and HITACHI 4TB.

[GJ51]

I have just checked something else.
When I read the video on a Virtual Machine (hyper V with Windows 7 64Bits) of the server (the same hosting subsonic) , there is no buffering

That is truly strange. Maybe the NIC setup for the VM conflicting with the host machine? The VM getting clear connect, but host having problems due to the way the VM is set up? Just guessing.

I ran into a few issues setting up NICS for VM's when I first started doing it.

Maybe turn off the VM temporarily to see if it improves the Host performance.

[scharnhorst]

Sorry I made a mistake.
When CPU usage was at 75% server was running a virus scan at the same time

I have made another test without any virus scan and with 2 streaming at the same time

1*Avi 700MB
1*MK 1080P 12GB

And please find below cpu usage for this task

[GJ51]

Now open resource manager and see if Subsonic is only engaging one core.

See how it looks like the first core is just about maxed out?

More accurately, I should be saying thread rather than core as the i3 is a hyper-threaded dual core.

Open the Services section on the CPU tab in Resource Monitor and check the load being drawn by the Subsonic service.

[scharnhorst]

CPU usage while streaming only 1 avi 700MB



CPU usage while streaming only 1 MKV 1080P 12GB

[GJ51]

Yes - lower res avi files don't pull as much CPU load. The second shot again indicates that the 1080p is not using all the CPU threads evenly - What's your transcoding string?

[scharnhorst]

As you can see on this screen, CPU usage reached 100% for only 3s and during this lap of time streaming stopped for buffering

[scharnhorst]

Yes - lower res avi files don't pull as much CPU load. The second shot again indicates that the 1080p is not using all the CPU threads evenly - What's your transcoding string?

I'm deeply sorry but you are speaking chinese for me
All settings are set by default.



Is it what you were asking for?

[GJ51]

My apologies, it's not always apparent what a user's experience level is.

ffmpeg -ss %o -i %s -async 30 -b %bk -r 23-.976 -s %wx%h -ar 44100 -ac 2 -v 0 -f flv -vcodec libx264 -preset fast -threads 0 -

is the string I use on my site for the flv/h264 Encodage line in block Etape 1.

You can't read the entire string in the block unless you click on the block and then scroll to the end.

I recommend copying what you have in there now to a notepad and then testing the string I've entered above.

I was a bit skeptical about an i3 keeping up with 1080p video and that still may be the problem, but I haven't used many of the Sandy Bridge CPU's so I can't compare. In general I've only been able to get 1080p to work well on quad core CPU's but thay are older than the current line of CPU's and the newer CPU's may be more efficient than my older models.