Choppy playback over wired LAN

Hi Ram.

Let me clarify. I was indeed using the switch portion of my router… The ports were 10/100…

Manually assigned the ip address, subnet, and gateway of the nic card of my desktop to match the hubs.

192.168.1.100 for my desktop IP

192.168.1.1 as my gateway.

For my hub I did 192.168.1.101 IP

and match the gateway 192.168.1.1

The hub was able to see my shared folders and I was able to play any file I wanted from my shared folder.

Does this help?

heid4055 wrote:

Hi Ram.

 

Let me clarify. I was indeed using the switch portion of my router… The ports were 10/100…

 

Manually assigned the ip address, subnet, and gateway of the nic card of my desktop to match the hubs.

192.168.1.100 for my desktop IP

192.168.1.1 as my gateway.

 

For my hub I did 192.168.1.101 IP

and match the gateway 192.168.1.1

 

The hub was able to see my shared folders and I was able to play any file I wanted from my shared folder.

 

Does this help?

 

Yes, I understand what you did but I don’t understand why it helped.  If the hub & attached router(switch) are communicating with each other then they have compatible setup info, or at least that’s how it seems to me.  I don’t understand how changing those compatible numbers to other compatible numbers makes any difference.  Do you?  You seem to be implying that before you did this you were unable to see your network shares on the hub.  Is that true?

EDIT:  My router and I suspect most home routers assign IP addresses to each network device regularly (dynamic IP).  If I change my setup numbers as you suggest they will only remain that way until the next assignment cycle occurs, unless I configure my network for static IP addresses.  Have you configured your system for static IP?

Thats right. I was unable to see my shared folder on my desktop. I was tryin to eliminate as many things as possible. So a direct connection from the hub to the computer seemed to work for me!

Are you having trouble with your connection as well?

heid4055 wrote:

Thats right. I was unable to see my shared folder on my desktop. I was tryin to eliminate as many things as possible. So a direct connection from the hub to the computer seemed to work for me!

 

Are you having trouble with your connection as well?

I was unable to see any network content for several days after initial hookup until I was assisted to discover that my hub had a different workgroup name than the rest of my network devices.  It amazed me that any device trying to join a network isn’t able to sense the necessary information during their handshake.  Once I changed the workgroup name on the hub everything became visible.  Then the real problems began and here we are.

Ok, you’ve said you’ve had THREE UNITS all that have the same problems with choppy playback.

I tend to think that eliminates a defect.  

But here’s one thing that worries me.

You said you’re using TWO routers, correct?

Please tell me that only ONE of them is using the “WAN” port;  that being the port that heads out to the internet, and the OTHER router is NOT using its WAN port for ANYTHING, right?

TonyPh12345 wrote:

Ok, you’ve said you’ve had THREE UNITS all that have the same problems with choppy playback.

 

I tend to think that eliminates a defect.  

 

But here’s one thing that worries me.

 

You said you’re using TWO routers, correct?

 

Please tell me that only ONE of them is using the “WAN” port;  that being the port that heads out to the internet, and the OTHER router is NOT using its WAN port for ANYTHING, right?

 

I only have two units with choppy playback.  One is the hub you and I have conversed wioth before and the other is a “LIVE” I just got back from RMA.  My gateway router , of course, connected to my cable modem through the WAN port and the cascaded router is connected to it through the LAN port.  The cascaded router’s WAN port is vacant.

My suggestion at this point is a process of elimination… Move the WD as close on the network to the storage as you can. Eliminate “hops.” See if you can connect your PC and WD directly together using a crossover and eliminate ALL network hardware.

TonyPh12345 wrote:
My suggestion at this point is a process of elimination… Move the WD as close on the network to the storage as you can. Eliminate “hops.” See if you can connect your PC and WD directly together using a crossover and eliminate ALL network hardware.

That sounds like what Heid 4055 did.  I’ve heard of cross over cables but I’ve never known what they are used for.  I’ve also seen motherboards with more than one ethernet port but never knew what went in there.  I guess that’s what you’re recommending isn’t it?  If so I would have to install a NIC because my MB only has one port.  I’m not  familiar with the pinout of a cross over.  Is it the same as an “A” cable used in other countries or different.  I’d have to make up a jumper on the hub end.

Well boys & girls here’s an interesting development.  I reset my firmware to factory defaults and the files that wouldn’t play are now playing.  Having proclaimed this fixed prematurely at least once before I have learned my lesson, however firmware bugs are the only thing that fits all the facts in my situation.  I’ll be watching and reporting back.

I know the question wasn’t about audio. My point is that people that want to reduce quality of playback are probably the same folks listening to 128kbps MP3’s on their 100 gig ipods. It’s silly…

If you are getting choppy playback, the solution isn’t to reduce quality… It’s to figure out what the problem is. I’m able to stream HD over my wired Network no problem. I’m willing to bet that your router is the issue.

I’m not even really sure how to respond to this. Reducing the bitrate is reducing quality…

spookster86 wrote:

I’m not even really sure how to respond to this. Reducing the bitrate is reducing quality…

Uh, no.

Converting from WAV to FLAC is reducing Bitrate.   FLAC is a lossless codec.   Meaning, what comes out is identical to what went in.

Reducing Bitrate is NOT the same as reducing QUALITY.   

A true audiophile would know that.  ;)

Similarly, taking a compressed h.264 stream and recompressing it using a much more efficient, advanced coder, yields dramatically lower bit rates while maintaining psychovisual quality.

spookster86 wrote:

I know the question wasn’t about audio. My point is that people that want to reduce quality of playback are probably the same folks listening to 128kbps MP3’s on their 100 gig ipods. It’s silly…

 

If you are getting choppy playback, the solution isn’t to reduce quality… It’s to figure out what the problem is. I’m able to stream HD over my wired Network no problem. I’m willing to bet that your router is the issue.

If my router is the problem then why am I able to watch the same files that play choppy on the wired hub, play perfectly on a nearby wireless PC?

I am experiencing the same issue. It seems that any MKV file over 4.whatever GB’s and the WD gets all choppy. Usually within the first 20 seconds of hitting play.

Everything used to work fine.

I am using an Apple Airport router that I have always used.

My WD is hard wired to it.

Again, everything used to work fine. 1 day about a month or so ago, everything just stopped working if it is a larger file.

Any suggestions besides the router?

Again, only reason I ask that is I have used this router with the WD Live since day 1 with no issues, till recently.

If there are settings or something in the router that I need to set/adjust, please let me know.

Any information is greatly appreciated.

jdnidle wrote:

I am experiencing the same issue. It seems that any MKV file over 4.whatever GB’s and the WD gets all choppy. Usually within the first 20 seconds of hitting play.

 

Everything used to work fine.

I am using an Apple Airport router that I have always used.

My WD is hard wired to it.

 

Again, everything used to work fine. 1 day about a month or so ago, everything just stopped working if it is a larger file.

 

Any suggestions besides the router?

Again, only reason I ask that is I have used this router with the WD Live since day 1 with no issues, till recently.

 

If there are settings or something in the router that I need to set/adjust, please let me know.

Any information is greatly appreciated.

Based on my recent experience I would reset the hub to factory defaults if I were you.

UPDATE:  I just watched two hours and four minutes of Iron Man 2 and the hub never missed a frame.  I hope the WD firmware code writers are reading this.

When you say hub, are you talking about the WD Live TV device?

Cause there is nothing wrong with my router. Again, it has been the same one from day 1 when everything worked.

I read yesterday about backdating the firmware, so I went back to version 1.2 and it told me that my network share was not accessible. I am going to the 1.03 version that seems to work for everyone now.

I will let you know if that fixes my issue.

Thanks for the response.

jdnidle wrote:

When you say hub, are you talking about the WD Live TV device?

Cause there is nothing wrong with my router. Again, it has been the same one from day 1 when everything worked.

 

I read yesterday about backdating the firmware, so I went back to version 1.2 and it told me that my network share was not accessible. I am going to the 1.03 version that seems to work for everyone now.

 

I will let you know if that fixes my issue.

 

Thanks for the response.

I have a feeling you’re on the wrong forum.  The device being discussed here is called a hub (it contains a HDD) to differentiate it from the WD Live & the WD Live + which don’t contain a HDD.  I own both a hub & a Live player and have recently reset both to default firmware.  Default on the hub is 2.xxx.  Default on the Live is 1.3.xxxx.  If your default software is 1.xxxxx then I believe you are talking about a Live or Live+ & not a hub.  I’m not trying to chastise you but rather to point out that they are different devices and advice for one isn’t necessarily appropriate for the others.

Your are right that reducing the bitrate is not reducing quality, but only if you are using a lossles codec. Of courese I know that… But typically, folks don’t even know what lossles and lossy even means. Typically we’re talking about lossy codecs such as MP3. But I digress. His issue is his network. That’s my guess.

spookster86 wrote:

Your are right that reducing the bitrate is not reducing quality, but only if you are using a lossles codec. Of courese I know that… But typically, folks don’t even know what lossles and lossy even means. Typically we’re talking about lossy codecs such as MP3. But I digress. His issue is his network. That’s my guess.

Apparently youy stopped reading my posts some time ago.  My problem disappeared when I reset my firmware to factory defaults.  In fact I just watched another 2+ hour movie that ran perfectly.