problems with streaming from nas

[heavyxol]

Hello,

I hope it is alright & in agreement with the board rules to warm up, i. e. re-awake this thread.

I use an XBOX (with 64MB) and XBMC4XBOX V3.5-r32977 for streaming SD-videos in MPG-Format from an ACER Windows Home server WHS340 with seven harddisks of 9TB capacity altogether (four in the "main" chassis and three - including one 2TB HD - in a Fantec enclosure, which was formerly attached to the server over ESATA, but now over USB, since app. 2 weeks ago ESATA started causing the server often to freeze (after more than half a year of correct functioning), when the 2TB HD was addressed, i.e. used).
These freezes have completely gone after the switch to USB, but the 2TB HD (which shows absolutely no bad signs in its S.M.A.R.T values) quite often "refuses" to serve data for several moments (up to 15 s), what - in my view - is probably based on some kind of a still undocumented incompatability between WHS340 and this disk and what causes the movie stream to be disrupted quite often resulting in a very bad move experience.

I now hoped to resolve this issue by using the advancedsettings.xml (placed in Q:\userdata and - at least acc. to the LOG (http://pastebin.com/td0rk5qr) - obviously loaded by XBMC4XBOX). But whatever I try (e.g. cachemembuffersize 20971520 or 0*) it seems to me that on my XBOX the buffer is never used/filled at all, as the "movie disruptures" do not disappear at all and - in contrast to the screenshot in the starting post of this thread - I always get/see "0 B" for the value of the cache and pausing the movie directly after its start does not change the latter situation.

Any hints to solve the problem will be appreciated.


*After each change of this file the XBOX was restarted from XBMC, of course.

[BuZz]

I have split your topic - if you have a problem you should open new threads and not add to existing ones.

Can't remember if the vfs cache is used for samba, but it may well not be.

I recommend you solve the issue at the source - it may well be a power saving issue with the HD - it may be spinning down, and it takes a while for everything to get going once it has.

Have a google (eg http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/98335 ... windows-7/)

I don't think the vfs cache is going to help you here anyway.

[heavyxol]

Thank you for your answer.

Sorry for insisting, but...

1) in spite of the fact that the cache seems to have been correctly declared in the advancedsetings.xml (& seems to be used as visible in the log) I do not see any usage of it at all (e.g. the size is given by "0 B" when I display the details on the screen)). The reason why still is to be cleared, since....
2) I use exactly the same server setting with another XBMC (but this time based on a Raspberry Pi); there I had met the same "movie disruptures" and there they could be cured in the very first attempt by using the above file after I had updated to a Gotham-based XBMC version.
3) Because of the latter observation (which I had not reported since I did not want to bother you too much with - possibly - less interesting "side-observations") I had used the development thread (treating advancedsetings.xml) instead of opening a new one.

Thus, I do not see why the same (=usage of the cache) should not be possible and helpful with my XBOX which I'd prefer to use, since the XBMC surface is (by far!) more fluid there than in the Raspberry. Therefore, I would greatly appreciate any hints leading me to using the cache also on my XBOX. Thank you.

[BuZz]

1) I already explained I don't think the cache is used for samba protocol. Hence it showing 0.

2) XBMC4XBox is not XBMC and XBMC has differences in their cache system.

I recommend you look into why the delay occurs, rather than trying to work around it. Did you look into if the HD is spinning down for example ?

[BuZz]

You might also look into your samba config - maybe pointing WINS address at the NAS. Do you use a static IP for the NAS ?

[heavyxol]

Thank you for your suggestions. However, you are the first who explicitely states that XBMC4XBOX's advancedsettings.xml does not support Samba; I have never read this before - that's why I was so tenacious trying to use the same remedy as on my Raspberry.

Yes, I use a static IP for the NAS.

No, I haven't taken spinning down of the HD into account yet (but will), as the system (with the 2TB) had been working for almost half a year or so (almost) w/o any problems, and the ruptures appear in the middle of a streaming process (not at its very beginning, where it is more likely that the HD might have gone asleep and needs time to wake up), i.e. while the HD is supposed to be working (because it had been delivering data just moments before).

You might also look into your samba config - maybe pointing WINS address at the NAS.?

Do you mean the samba config in XBMC? Usually (I am not a native speaker) I have no problems understanding spoken or written English, but here (I beg your pardon) I have no clear clue, what you are suggesting: "maybe pointing WINS address at the NAS?". Is a WINS (whose entry in the XBMC config is empty at the moment as far as I remember) mandatory? & "pointing" to what?

[BuZz]

There are some caches that are not used for local network data. the VFS cache might be one of them. I can't actually remember, and I'd need to check. There is an additional optimisation which is also disabled for samba due to some issues with playback of isos I never worked out (it is a transfer size thing - which causes xbmc4xbox to do more sensible packet/io sizes/)

regarding WINS - it is a setting in xbmc4xbox http://www.xbmc4xbox.org.uk/wiki/Settings/Network - it can help with machine name resolution.

it can help with some samba playback issues. I saw that you had some errors related to "not finding computer name" in the log, so this could help perhaps.