Stuttering playback

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Streaming
21

Thanks again Rich.

Hey, I see this post was “Posts: 4,999” for you.  One more post and you will be switched from “Honored Contributor” to “Compulsive Contributor”.   Nevertheless, you will never catch up with Tony12345abcde, so accept that and just deal with it!   :laughing:

22

I am still experiencing stuttering/buffering. It happens with, for example, The Lion King .MKV. My output settings are HDMI, 1080p, 60 htz, hdmi pass-through, 8 bit. I read somewhere that I should be at a higher bit. Is that so? Is it likely that this would cause stuttering (I apologize for my ignorance but I don’t know what the bit number/rate means)? How do I change this? Should I be checking something else?

Thank you.

23

Under what conditions are you experiencing stuttering?  From a hard drive connected to your WDTV that is connected to your TV? – i.e. an all wired chain of connections?  Is wireless in the loop in any way?

24

No wireless. Full setup details in my original post creating this topic.

25

OK, got it, but this concerns me:  >>>  The external drive is connected to my laptop via a docking station.

So, remove the drive from the docking station and connect it directly to the WD player.  Now, you are set up as I described in my last post.  And, how does it all work now?

26

@tdp23

No, 8 bit is fine.

27

Thanks for the help folks.  Good to know that 8 bit is fine – would anything other than 8 bit be even better?  If not, I won’t monkey around with it.

I will try plugging the external HD into the WD tonight/tomorrow and see what happens with playback.  Just to clarify my less than fully accurate original post, the external hard drive is actuallu plugged into the laptop directly, even though the laptop sits on a docking station for power and external keyboard and mouse.  I will be interested to see if the stuttering still happens when the drive is plugged in to the WD directly.  I don’t think this will get me out of the woods either way though.  If it still stutters then I am no further ahead in figuring this out.  If it doesn’t stutter then this seems to mean that I can’t keep the external drive up in my office with the computer, which I want to do because this is where all the content is generated (downloading, ripping, etc.).  I would have to keep disconnecting the external drive from the WD, bring it upstairs and connect to the computer, and then load it up with new content, then disconnect it from the computer, bring it back downstairs and reconnect it to the WD.  This is a pain in the neck and shouldn’t be necessary (network share feature is there to make this unnecessary).  I’m not sure, but I suspect this would also cause additional inconvenience from having to rebuild the media library every time (maybe not, but I suspect there would be some kind of additional inconvenience/headaches involved in this frequent disconnection, movement, and reconnection).  So I think I’m still in a struggle to matter what the outcome of connecting directly to the external hard drive.  I will definitely give it a shot to at least help isolate the problem, but the bottom line is that I’m absolutely open to guidance and/or creative suggestions as to how best to achieve my goal, which is to use the external hard drive to house the content which gets updated regularly, but to have the playback work properly. 

Thanks.

28

It’s all about bandwidth – bandwidth of of home network, and with stuff via internet, the internet bandwidth one subscribes to…  I have internal bandwidth max of gigabit (or 100mbps with hardware that is not gigabit).  As for internet, I pay for 30mbps, and ofthe get 35mbps.  Basically, with this bandwidth I have no problems.

29

My Internet is 50 Mbps (or “up to 50” but using speed test website I can see that I’m right around 50), but I’m not using wireless in my setup, it’s all wired. How can I test my wired
network bandwidth?

30

ok, I’ve just read through this thread, and most of this is just rediculous

let’s get a few things, straight

first the easy stuff

  1. 8bit HDMI passthrough has nothing to do with studdering videos

framerate on the otherhand can cause some issues with playback

  1. bandwidth

external internet bandwidth has no bearing at all on internal LAN connectivity

this does not mean that bandwidth is not a factor

just that you must recognize the different

internal LAN bandwidth

external internet bandwidth

these are not the same

any speedtest done, via online website is measuring internet bandwidth only

currently the only way to run accurate bandwidth test on the WD in an internal LAN is by install WDLXTV and run my editted bandwidth test script

other options for testing internal bandwidth

attach a drive to the WD, copy some files over the network to the attached drive

what the transfer speed, while not exact, it may at least give you some info to start making some relative guesses regarding network bandwidth

  1. since you mention Video_TS folders, I assume this are rips of DVD’s (SD content) not HD content

which just further supports that this likely is not a bandwidth issue

you should first run media info on the offending files, so that you actually know what codecs are involved

and you should also attach the drive directly to the WD

if it plays file, while directly attached, then the problem is the network

if it does not play without studdering while directly attached to the WD, then you have an issue with the specific file or possibly codecs

31

   ok, I’ve just read through this thread, and most of this is just rediculous

I hope this comment and little rant that followed was not directed to me, because I was referring to the home network bandwidth, and that includes the wired and wireless components.  I did throw in a comment about internet bandwidth, but only to point out that if it is high (or low) compared to the home network units. one could have problems with internet performance as well.  If someone wants “fast” , the whole enchilada must be fast.

Anyway, usually the weak link regarding stuttering is usually the wireless, so if that can be removed for even a test, and it’s all hooked up wired, even temporarily for testing, the problem can have new light shed on it as was pointed out above in a different way.

32

not really directed at anybody, but admitadly it was a rant

there’s just too many false idea’s in this thread

one idea specifically that you mentioned was to connect the drive directly to the WD

you’ll notice, I suggested the same, because this is practical and realistic,

it can also give the user a clue about what is actually going on

33

Appreciate all the help. As mentioned in my posts, there is no wireless in my setup. i did a power cycle and ISOs are now playing fine.

On to a subsequent issue – making and playing blu ray ISOs. Ive searched and found a bit of info on this but haven’t found a clear, complete topic covering this. Sorry if i have missed it. I will start a new thread for this.

34

blu-ray is not so different

  1. rip blu-ray

  2. make ISO - be sure to use UDF 2.5

  3. done

35

  i did a power cycle and ISOs are now playing fine.

OK, that does it.  I will never assume someone with a problem to be solved has done the “basics” already; i.e. a power cycle.  No matter what the problem may be, my first question will be, " Have you performed a power cycle on the darn thing yet?"  Good grief.  :laughing:   Once again, (as I bang my head against the wall) the “solution” turned out to be:   REBOOT!

36

To clarify, I had tried this previously and it made no difference. Also tried clearing all WD files and clearing media library and rebuilding. I cannot explain why it didn’t work previously, and cannot guarantee that it won’t happen again. When it didn’t work I sought input from experienced users, who confirmed that there was no other logical reason for this problem, so I did everything again and it seems to have worked. Thank you for your assistance.

37

tdp23 wrote:
To clarify, I had tried this previously and it made no difference.

To clarify my comment; it was a lame sort of joke about obvious simple fixes.  “9 times out of 10”, rebooting a gizmo fixes a problem.  Hey, my wife is a sys analyst/DBA, and very often she is a support person by default.  I kid her sometimes, and ask her how many people did she have to tell today to just reboot the PC, and then everything works again!  (Answer: Too many.)

Bottom line:  Glad to know you are back in business, and hope it stays that way!