Subsonic Problem Video Stutter

[keilor290]

I have been having a problem with Subsonic for some time now and could use some help. I was using version 4.6 but installed version 4.7beta1. The problem is that at some point all videos start to stutter like someone is hitting pause and then playing in quick succession. I have been unable to find a fix for this, I have tried different transcoder settings and even different transcoders. I went as far as to set it up in Tomcat with IIS on WHS 2011 with instructions I found on this forum. Still the stutter continues. The PC that is using just a regular .exe install of Subsonic 4.7beta1 is an Alienware desktop with a core i7 920 processor a Nvidia GTX 295 graphics card and 12GB of DDR3 ram. The WHS 2011 PC has a QX6600 CPU an older Quad core at 2.66GHZ and a ATI Radeon HD 5570 with 8GB of DDR2 ram. The WHS 2011 is installed using Tomcat and IIS. Any help would be much appreciated.

[GJ51]

You should have enough hardware power to get reasonable video playback, certainly on the i920.

Try putting this file into your transcode directory and repacing ffmpeg in your video string with "Videoffmpeg" and see if that helps. This is a version of ffmpeg that is working for me in 4.7b1 right now.

: https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?ci ... 0A32A0!165


What type and resolution video are you trying to get working?

[keilor290]

Hi, Thanks for the reply. I will try this as soon as I can. I actually installed Linux Mint now and I am going to give that a try today, but will try your sugestion on the i7 920 PC and let you know how it goes.

[keilor290]

After trying the Videoffmpeg.exe on the i920 PC I notice that I don't have multiple instances of Videoffmpeg running if I skip ahead or open in a new window the movie that is playing. However I am on my home network and the stutter only happens outside my home network, so I wil have to test that part later today. I will let you know how it goes. Thanks again.

[GJ51]

What's your upload speed?

You need decent bandwidth on both ends to get smooth video playback; how much varies with the resolution of the video.

[keilor290]

Hi, I have been testing from outside the network and I can say that the Videoffmpeg.exe that you gave me works a lot better! There is still some slight stutter on some fast motion scenes but it is very slight. My home upload speed is 5Mb/s download is 25Mb/s. Here at my job where I use this it is 4Mb/s upload and 4Mb/s download I believe. Where did you find the Videoffmpeg, did you make it? Let me know if it is your creation, if it is please tell me how. Also seems that Linux Mint running from a USB drive does a good job of streaming as well, in case you were interested.

[keilor290]

OK so when testing from the QX6600 PC I still get the same problem but only in full screen mode? The weird thing is if I move my mouse around on the screen the stutter stops. The moment the mouse stops moving the stutter comes back. Also I notice that several instances of videoffmpeg pop up if I fast forward or open a new screen but disappeared faster than before. This didn't seem to happen on the i7 920 machine. Maybe it is time to do a full Linux install and leave WHS 2011 and Microsoft altogether, unless you can think of some solution? This has been driving me nuts for months. Thanks for taking the time to help me, I really do appreciate the help.

[GJ51]

I've done way too many hours of video testing and just happened to hit on different versions that do things better for some specific things than others. I downloaded this one from http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/ a while back and found that it did everything I needed it to do for video playback much better than other versions I've tested. It handles every file type I've thrown at it and it utilizes multiple core CPU's very well by distributing the load accross all cores evenly. Other versions I've tested either didn't handle every file type or didn't utilize all the CPU cores as efficiently.

You've got reasonable bandwidth assuming it's stable and consistent at the numbers you've posted, you should be able to handle 1000kbps setting without killin the rest of the office. Remember that that performance can vary if others are doing any downloading.

The next thing to look at is CPU load as transcoding takes a ton of CPU at high resolutions. When your on the server, play some hogh res video while monitoring the CPU load to see if it maxes out.

SS is truly a tweakers platform, but you can tailor what is reasonable to do with any particular harware combination so that you can get the most out of it. You may just have to find what is the max resolution video that your system can handle to get smooth playback. Realistically you probably need a quad core CPU for any video 720p or higher, up to 1080i. Blue ray takes dual quad core Xeon's or better with good upload bandwidth from the server.

You can get great video playback by converting the video files to flv or mp4 and turning off the transcoding so that the feed just goes directly to the player. JW will play either format natively, but at present we're limited to flv on the Android platform.

HTH

Another thank you to Glenn Sullivan who suggested renaming my collection of ffmpeg versions so that I could set up different transcoding settings through the different versions on the same site.

[keilor290]

Well I realized i hadn't changed the transcode string to reflect the Videoffmpeg. Works much better now. I was watching the CPU load and it is about 60-75% during the transcoding but then drops back and goes between 0-28%. However I still see multiple instances of Videoffmpeg in the process tab if I fast forward or open in a new window, this causes the CPU load to max out for quite awhile before finally dropping back. Any ideas why this happens on the home server but not the i7 920 machine? Do you think it is because I have it set to run from Tomcat and IIS? I will say this the picture looks fantastic and the stutter seems to be almost non existent, probably more network than configuration at this point. I have already donated once but will prob donate again, I really do like this software.

[keilor290]

Spoke too soon. I had it paused for awhile and when I restarted the stutter was back. The CPU load was 0%?

[GJ51]

What port number are you using?

I'd try the standard Windows install. In fact, I've done enough testing at this point that I'd recommend the 4.7 beta 1. There are a couple cosmetic flaws, but it is incredibly fast and I have all video files playing with the "Videoffmpeg" flawlessly. MY install is currently on Server 08 R2, but I also use Subsonic on WHS2011 and plan to upgrade that site very soon. You shouldn't see any problems.

If you go that route, uninstall SS and Java completely, then install Java 7.4, then SS 4.7 beta 1. The new 4.7b1 uses port 4040 as the default when you install it, so be sure to adjust your port forwarding accordingly. I'll send you a PM to my site so you can go for a test ride before making a decision.

[keilor290]

Sorry I have not been on to respond to you, got very busy the last few days. The port # is 8080 on the sever, I am not really sure how to change it since it is running through Tomcat, on the i7 920 it is 8080. I will try to install subsonic on the server with the .exe method, but I would like to know how to uninstall it from tomcat? Would I just uninstall tomcat?

[GJ51]

I've never used SS with Tomcat, but I would assume a simple uninstall would take care os it. If you have any Tomcat questions, I'd send a PM to Glenn Sullivan. I know he uses Tomcat on his server and knows all the ins and outs.

If I were in your circumstance, I think uninstalling Tomcat, Java, and Subsonic - then doing a clean instal of the latest Java, then SS 4.7 b1 should set you up pretty well. I do have some video tweaks that I'll share with you, but let's get you up and running on a clean install before we go further.

[bushman4]

With tomcat, the uninstall is actually easier...

Stop the tomcat service.
Replace subsonic.war with a new one.
Delete the "Subsonic" and "Work" directories
Restart the tomcat service

As to changing the port that Tomcat runs on, are you using Tomcat on Windows? if so, the port that it runs on is configured through the Tomcat Configuration Tool. On the Java tab are java arguments that are passed to subsonic on startup, including:

Code: Select all

-Dsubsonic.port=8080
-Dsubsonic.httpsport=8443

HTH,

Glenn

[Robandcathy]

I have same setup I920 whit whs 2011 running tomcat 6 , and only stutter I see is when trying to stream a blu ray movie to my living room computer which has a atom processor and on board graphics, but it does work fine with regular dvd, and also my cell has no problems watching blu ray, but then again my cell has a better processor then my living room computer lol. Its a newer asus aspire. Remember you can turn down fram rate if it stutters.