WD TV Live - bandwith usage is double as other streamers?

Hello. I have a WD TV Live and an AC Ryan streamer. Both connected to the same GB switch, and both set to stream from my computer (Win 8). Both streamers work fine, but i have noticed (when wtching my Ethernet load in Windows 8 Taskmanager (ctrl-shift-esc)), that when I stream a DVD movie (vob-files) via the AC Ryan streamer, it uses 6-8 mbit/s bandwith. Playing the same movie via the WD TV LIve it uses 17-18 mbit bandwith.

Anyone have any ideas why the bandwidth usage is so much on the WD TV LIve? (Firmware 1/2013).

Streaming the movie via a laptop with Windows 7 uses the same bandwith as the AC Ryan box (6-8 mbit approx).

Any ideas?

Same movie, approx. same time in the movie, bandwith use:

ACRYAN box:

acryan.jpg

WD TV LIVE:

wdtvlive.jpg

That’s a great question…

Quite a while ago, there was a bug in the WD that caused VOB playback to constantly OPEN / CLOSE files.  Causes stuttering for some people.

If you did a wireshark capture on your PC, it might narrow down what’s going on.

I haven’t tried looking at network usage with VOB files, but with MKV files I see exactly the same network usage as the bitrate of the file.  So my suggestion is to try streaming other file types and see if it is only VOBs.  You could convert the VOB files into MKV format using mkvmerge from: http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/

interesting

are the vob’s packed in an ISO or DVD folder structure with menu’s etc …

or maybe just loose vob files

maybe flow control is enabled on the PC

and WD player supports flow control and the other does not

not really sure here, but it is interesting

Hello again

FIrst I have taken screenshots when streaming a mp4 encoded file, at a total bitrate of 2.2 mbit.

Both streamers shows a bandwidth usage of 2-3 mbit.

ACRYAN streaming 2.2 mbit file

acryan-known-bitrate.JPG

WDC streaming same file:

wdc-known-bitrate.JPG

So the ‘issue’ might be with the vobfiles and the WDTV. But why, I wonder. 

If flowcontrol is the issue, the it should be present anytime I would be streaming, should it not?

This is weird.

Streaming a .iso file of my DVD would result in the same bandwidth usage on both streamers - 7-10 mbit.

So: Why is the WDTVLive demanding 2-3 times more data to show Vob-files than ACryan and other pc’s?

I just wish I had a old 10 mbit HUB or something. Theres no router involved (all parts connect to the same switch)

We can’t see your pictures until a moderator approves them.  You might post them to Imageshack or something instead.

Flow control isn’t the issue.   If flow control INCREASED the bit rate, that’d be a huge problem, as flow control is intended to do the opposite.  :)

Sorry about the pictures, I wasn’t aware. But the conclusion when streaming .avi, .mp4 or .iso all is ‘normal’

For the fun of it, I have just tried setting the speed of my NIC to 10 mbit/half duplex.

And now I can’t play the vob files thru the WDTVLive any more. My laptop and ACRyan is unaffected.

The WDTVLive start ok, but soon after the audio disappears and then it stutters. 

Since Im considering buying more WD TV LIve boxes, it is relevant to know the impact on my network - even Gigabit might be exhausted - and of course, there is no good reason for transporting more data than needed. 

Wonder if any else could try the same? Streaming a DVD Vob file(s) and monitor the network load?

I just tested it – and my original suspicion is correct.  The bandwidth is so high because the WD is repeatedly closing then reopening the VOB files.

The bug has returned.

I tested it on my Hub, not the SMP, but there’s no reason to assume it’s not the same.

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It is simple, free, and quite fast to convert a VOB file to an MKV file, so I don’t see why this is such a big issue.  I gave up on using VOB files with the SMP quite early on because file durations were not being properly understood by the SMP.  MKV versions have worked great by contrast.

Thank you all - This subject might be ‘academic’, but i’m glad i’m not the only one with this.

Yes, one solution might be converting to other formats, but then again, i’m simply to lazy, and I still regard the original VOB files as ‘best quality’ - even tough, with more and more blu-ray movies, DVD quality looks like old fashion VHS-tape on a CRT. :smiley:

Again, thank you all.

There’s no difference in quality between VOB, ISO and MKV; it’s simply other containers.

Exactly.  When you use mkvmerge to create an MKV from a VOB file, the video and audio tracks are simply being repackaged into a Matroska container format.  mkvmerge does not do any decoding/reencoding.  This was my point earlier.  Why subject yourself to the various issues of using VOB files when MKV files don’t have these problems and have exactly the same quality–since they contain exactly the same audio/video codings.  Creating an MKV version of a VOB file takes only a minute or two even on a slow machine since no decoding/reencoding is involved.