Subsonic 4.5 on Windows XP Video Buffering Issue

[oldfowler]

Hi,
I am new to Subsonic. After recently installing and configuring Subsonic to handle my 689gb collection of music and video I found it to be VERY reliable for all music playback. BUT Video buffers about very 4 - 5 seconds.
My video files are AVI for the most part but when I saw this problem I converted one to .flv attempting to eliminate the transcoding to see if that was the source of the problem. It was not.
I am looking for ANY help with this issue, currently the video is unusable outside of my home network.
I have using jwplayer 5.6
I have upgraded ffmpeg
My hardware is (not the best)
Dell Optiplex 520, Celeron 3.06Ghz processor and 4gb of ram
All media data lives on a TB Drive (not WD)
Java memory limit 512 (only using about 140-180)

Any Help would be appreciated.
you may experience my video issues for yourself at
shellyfowler.subsonic.org
username : user1
password: user1

[BKKKPewsey]

which one is the flv file ?

[GJ51]

Tweaking video performance is one of the trickiest parts of Subsonic, primarily because there is such a wide variety of hardware and software that Subsonic can be run on. You are on the right track though and you should be able to get reasonably good results with the hardware you have.

The key in your case is to avoid transcoding, as your CPU just doesn't have enough power to keep up with the video stream. I use both flv and mp4 to play directly to JW player. If you use mp4, you have to remember to uncheck the transcoding settings for the players that you don't want to use transcoding, and disable it on the transcoding screen.

Once you've got the video playing without transcoding, you want to consider what other bottlenecks are invoved. Bandwidth is a big factor. Usually the upload speed from the server is where you'll see problems if you don't have good upload speed. Network traffic and hard drive utilization are also considerations. Finally, you want to look at the recieving device as its graphics capability can also affect playback performance.

Once you've assessed your overall environment, you need to format your video into the best resolution that will perform well given all that I've discussed above.

My site runs video really well - but I've got some pretty heavy hardware on gigabit lan with 35/35mbps internet connection. Even so, I found that I could not transcode-on-the-fly Blue Ray .m2ts video without buffering. I tried different settings and different versions of ffmpeg but the transcoding load was just too much for my Xeon quad core 2.83Ghz CPU. I then installed an instance of SS on my Core i7 - 950 desktop and everything ran fine with the same settings that were buffering on my server. Obviously the CPU power was the difference.

So, there you have it. Video performance is widely variable, based on hardware from end to end. Any weakness from the server to the playback device can limit capability, but there is enough tweakability that everyone can get a reasonable level of performance as long as they have realistic expectations given their own hardware configuration.

As I've said before, "You ain't gonna host SS on an atom CPU with 512mb ram and trancode Bluerays on the fly."

I use AVS Video to reformat my videos to lower reolutions for moblie playback.

HTH

Let me know if you have specific questions I can help you with.

[oldfowler]

The .flv is the 2nd one in the list... under video/ exercise / zumba gold/ 4_BASIC_RYTHMS_DVD

the first one is .avi

[oldfowler]

Bandwidth.. down 11.59 up 1.39
That is all I have ... SOOOOO if I want to tweak Subsonic so my grandkids in KC can watch videos from here in STL where do I start?
1. I can convert them all to .flv No problem.
But I have noticed I have the same buffering issue with .flv.
SO what values do I tweak in search of the perfect balance?

[BKKKPewsey]

Just re-read your post and noticed you didnt specify whether it was within or outside your lan you were having problems
If external then you have probably got the same problem as I have in that its the internet connection which is throttling your playback.
Remember its your upstream speed which is the important one here when away from your own lan.
On your server I was experiencing buffering once every 10-15 secs for about a sec at a time (with the flv) which is not too bad as I suspect there may be a large pool of water between us

With my 384k up stream I need to transcode me videos to such a low bitrate they end up looking like a slide show

[BKKKPewsey]

Whoops cross post

I would suggest giving 756k flv a try but let the GJ and the other video experts guide you further.

[oldfowler]

Will try the 756k flv tonight. Thank you

[oldfowler]

ok.. I have converted a .divx to a 752 .flv file.
I am having the exact same problem.. BUT if I pause the video for say 60 seconds then it seems to work ok for 90 seconds.
I have moved the test videos to the "test" folder accessible via the drop down box on the left menu.
The 752 flv file will actually play for over 1 minute before it starts buffering... and when paused for 1 minute it plays longer then the .avi file (most 10 minutes ) so do i need to decrease the resolution more? IT would be really nice if the progress bar would show the degree of buffering completed.

[GJ51]

Try working from a low resolution and work up until it buffers.

Edit: You can also download some sample flv's of different resolution to test.

[BKKKPewsey]

ok.. I have converted a .divx to a 752 .flv file.
IT would be really nice if the progress bar would show the degree of buffering completed.

You mean like this


SS 4.5 playing video

[oldfowler]

Yeah exactly like that...

[oldfowler]

I am currently playing an avi video from the subsonic site with NO issues... I dropped the kbps to 200 and it works great!!!!
Go figure!!!

[GJ51]

http://maplegrovepartners.subsonic.org/share/tqzQt