Big AVI files (<2,35 GB) won't play from FTP with DVDPlayer

[RootUser1911]

I want to watch my videos from my FTP server which isn't located in my LAN. I use a DSL 6000 connection which is enough to watch such videos.
Every video can be played with the DVDPLayer except files which are bigger then 2,35 Gb. The Xbox tries to cache/play the video and interupts
after some time with the error you can see below. The maximum amount of kb/s my Xbox download from the FTP server in this cache period is only 50 kb/s.
The mplayer plays this kind of videos like a charm but sometimes doesn't have enough power to handle them (no gpu use), the quality isn't as good as with the DVDPlayer either.
How can I setup the DVDPlayer to play these files with taking more time to cache them? Add more cache and time to the video cache doesn't help so far. Any idea?

Here is the log:

15:39:19 M: 39440384 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: Opening: ftp://admin:XXX@31.17.109.XXX:21/4all/[-01-] Videos/The.Green.Mile.1999.German.AC3.HDRip.XViD-FuN/greenmile_funxd.org.avi
15:39:19 M: 39440384 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
15:39:19 M: 38916096 NOTICE: Creating InputStream
15:39:22 M: 35909632 NOTICE: Creating Demuxer
15:39:52 M: 30044160 ERROR: CDVDDemuxFFmpeg::Open - Error, could not open file ftp://admin:XXX@31.17.109.XXX:21/4all/[-01-] Videos/The.Green.Mile.1999.German.AC3.HDRip.XViD-FuN/greenmile_funxd.org.avi
15:39:52 M: 30081024 ERROR: CDVDPlayer::OpenDemuxStream - Error creating demuxer
15:39:52 M: 30081024 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit()
15:39:52 M: 30081024 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit() deleting input stream
15:39:52 M: 32968704 ERROR: Playlist Player: skipping unplayable item: 0, path [ftp://admin:XXX@31.17.109.XXX:21/4all/[-01-] Videos/The.Green.Mile.1999.German.AC3.HDRip.XViD-FuN/greenmile_funxd.org.avi]
15:39:52 M: 33480704 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::CloseFile()
15:39:52 M: 33480704 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
15:39:52 M: 33480704 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: waiting for threads to exit
15:39:52 M: 33480704 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: finished waiting

[M•O•D]

What's makes you think of the ftp protocol for this?


Try another protocol...


Rgds.

[RootUser1911]

How? The NAS is located at my friend 200km away and how can i use another protocoll for watching video streams? SMB, no; HTTP, not possible with the NAS; any other useable protocoll isn't for use out of a LAN isn't it?

[BuZz]

I've certainly played larger files over ftp - such as full dvd isos, but it could easily be limitations in the ftp daemon or something or some incompatiblity. ftp is a complicated protocol in that there are many servers that do things "their own way". for accessing files on a remote system http+http auth or webdav should work better.

I understand you might be limited, but this issue could easily be down to the nas ftp daemon. what other protocols does it support ?

[RootUser1911]

This is the NAS:

http://www.synology.com/products/produc ... 2j&lang=uk

I tried to playback the same file in my LAN with a very easy free to use FTP server programm called (Quick'n'Easy FTP) and it worked instantly...

This time the FTP sends nearly 12 MB data vefore the video begins. The remote NAS with FTP only gave me 50 kb/s until XBMC stopped trying to play back.
The bandwith to and from the NAS is high enough to watch the entire film without any bandwith related stutter, only the player (DVDPLayer) from XBMC
don't get this file to work. Is there any possibility to give the cache/head reading process more time?

EDIT: Now I saw, that the DVDPlayer opens nearly 30 connections and close them one after another... what could this be?



EDIT EDIT: With no cache and with maximum cache it's the same thing. It downloads with 170 kb/s (only 50 kb/s was wrong how I wrote above) and after 2 seconds falls down to 50 kb/s and then the DVDPlayer says that the files isn't playable. MPlayer loads with fullspeed and plays the file

[BuZz]

try the nightly version, as it has different cache code. you can also increase it's vfs cache in advanced settings (this setting for the nightly version)

<network>
<cachemembuffersize>5242880</cachemembuffersize> <!-- number of bytes used for buffering streams ahead in memory
</network>

[BuZz]

EDIT: Now I saw, that the DVDPlayer opens nearly 30 connections and close them one after another... what could this be?

requesting certain parts of the file I guess, but without looking at the requests, I couldn't tell you exactly as libcurl is doing the work - but I think there are some issues with the ftp daemon on your nas. I don't think it serves any purpose to debug on the ftp daemon level yet, and even if the issue is found with your ftp daemon, im not sure what we could do about it.

[RootUser1911]

I already use the nightly build from 18.august.

When the DVDPlayer plays all files up to nearly 2,35 GB, why no a little bit above this size? I mean, it works and only when the file size of 2,4 GB is reached the DVDPlayer stop working. FTP protocol may be the problem but there isn't any option which could help getting the download to work. No connection limitations, no bandwith limitation and so on, I tried to change the few options and see if anything changes while caching, but nothing did.

[BuZz]

I already use the nightly build from 18.august.

When the DVDPlayer plays all files up to nearly 2,35 GB, why no a little bit above this size? I mean, it works and only when the file size of 2,4 GB is reached the DVDPlayer stop working. FTP protocol may be the problem but there isn't any option which could help getting the download to work. No connection limitations, no bandwith limitation and so on, I tried to change the few options and see if anything changes while caching, but nothing did.

did you try the setting i mention above ?

[RootUser1911]

Don't know in which file I have to write this setting.

Btw. I put a fresh XBMC install on my disk. All settings are now at default. Im searching where to insert the value you gave me.

[BuZz]

Don't know in which file I have to write this setting.

advancedsettings.xml in UserData/

Code: Select all

<advancedsettings>
  <network>
    <cachemembuffersize>SIZE_IN_BYTES</cachemembuffersize>
  </network>
</advancedsettings>

[RootUser1911]

Ok created the file with the lines in your last post and the value you wrote above. uploaded it to userdata and repeated the test.

This file should be right?: http://79.204.183.191:1338/advancedsettings.xml

The same error like before came.

Here is a graph showing that the DVDPLayer breaks the download and the Mplayer starts playing the file.

[BuZz]

it goes back to ftp (in)compatibility again. That seems the most likely issue. You could give me access to your nas via ftp and I could test a few things perhaps.

[RootUser1911]

I will send you a PM with the login informations.

But why does the MPlayer plays the files from this FTP and the DVDPLayer not? Seems that the server gives the data how it should be.

[BuZz]

I will send you a PM with the login informations.

But why does the MPlayer plays the files from this FTP and the DVDPLayer not? Seems that the server gives the data how it should be.

I don't think it uses the xbmc ftp vfs code, so it might be doing things differently that works better with your ftp daemon. but I can't say for sure without looking into it further. out of interest, have you tried xbmc on windows/linux to see how that plays with your nas ?

[RootUser1911]

will try XBMC for win now.

EDIT: A little bit more download from the win version of XBMC but also doesn't play the video with the same graph drawn as before.

Do I need another NAS now?

[BuZz]

can you also test increasing the port range in your server settings - so as to allow more active simultaneous data connections

[RootUser1911]

will give it a try a little later, no time now

[BuZz]

I can confirm that xbmc for linux has the same issue btw. I suspect it's the ftp server data port limits as mentioned above. it does a bunch of "seeks" of which the last one fails to get any data back/fails to make a connection.

[BuZz]

the specs for your nas says it supports http and webdav btw. that would work much better than ftp for streaming. Also did you try using upnp ? (although its worth noting it seems not all upnp devices work with xbmc)