HVEC Playback issues over LAN

Hi there,

I’m encountering issues playing high bitrate HVEC movies over LAN.
In certain scenes, i noticed choppy, stuttering and a lot of caching.

I’ll try to describe my situation as detailed as possible and hope you can help me sort this out.

Server/NIC:

  • Windows 10 Pro
  • Gigabit Ethernet NIC
    • Flow Control = Disabled
    • Jumbo frame = Disabled
    • Speed & Duplex = Auto

Network:

  • 2x TP-Link Gigabit Ethernet switch
  • CAT5E / CAT6 cables.
  • Static IP on both server and Vero 4k.

Shares/Mounts:

FSTAB:

192.168.1.45:/Movies /mnt/Movies nfs x-systemd.automount,_netdev,nfsvers=3,intr,noatime,rsize=32768,wsize=32768,nolock,async 0 0
192.168.1.45:/Series /mnt/Series nfs x-systemd.automount,_netdev,nfsvers=3,intr,noatime,rsize=32768,wsize=32768,nolock,async 0 0

OSMC (advanced) settings:

  • Adjust Refresh Rate = On start/stop.
  • Advanced Settings:

buffermode>1</buffermode
memorysize>1073741824</memorysize
readfactor>6.0</readfactor

Video file information:

  • Movie name = Avengers: Infinity War 4K
  • Overall bit rate = 51.5 Mb/s
  • Format = HEVC
  • Format/Info = High Efficiency Video Coding
  • Commercial name = HDR10
  • Format profile = Main 10@L5.1@High
  • Codec ID = V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
  • Duration = 2 h 29 min
  • Bit rate = 45.9 Mb/s
  • Width = 3840 pixels
  • Height = 2160 pixels
  • Display aspect ratio = 16:9
  • Frame rate mode = Constant
  • Frame rate = 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
  • Color space = YUV
  • Chroma subsampling = 4:2:0 (Type 2)
  • Bit depth = 10 bits
  • Bits/(Pixel*Frame) = 0.231
  • Stream size = 47.9 GiB (89%)

I also tried to plug in a Gigabit Ethernet adapter just to see if that helps, but it actually made it worse. All though i just plugged it in and tested, haven’t done any tweaking at all.

At the 1h 38m mark the stutter/choppy playback is at its worst.
Some other 4k HVEC movies show the same issues.

Can anyone assist me in sorting this out please?

First start is to run iperf3 between Vero and Win10 to see the real throughput

1 Like

Thanks for the quick response, here is a iperf3 back and forth:

root@osmc:/usr/share/kodi/system# iperf3 -R -c 192.168.1.45
Connecting to host 192.168.1.45, port 5201
Reverse mode, remote host 192.168.1.45 is sending
[ 4] local 192.168.1.35 port 60820 connected to 192.168.1.45 port 5201
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.00-1.00 sec 11.3 MBytes 94.7 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 1.00-2.00 sec 11.3 MBytes 94.9 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 2.00-3.00 sec 11.3 MBytes 94.8 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 3.00-4.00 sec 11.3 MBytes 95.0 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 4.00-5.00 sec 11.3 MBytes 94.9 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 5.00-6.00 sec 11.3 MBytes 94.8 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 6.00-7.00 sec 11.3 MBytes 94.9 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 7.00-8.00 sec 11.3 MBytes 94.6 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 8.00-9.00 sec 11.3 MBytes 94.9 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 9.00-10.00 sec 11.3 MBytes 94.9 Mbits/sec


[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 113 MBytes 95.0 Mbits/sec sender
[ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 113 MBytes 95.0 Mbits/sec receiver

root@osmc:/usr/share/kodi/system# iperf3 -c 192.168.1.45
Connecting to host 192.168.1.45, port 5201
[ 4] local 192.168.1.35 port 60827 connected to 192.168.1.45 port 5201
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth Retr Cwnd
[ 4] 0.00-1.00 sec 12.3 MBytes 103 Mbits/sec 0 184 KBytes
[ 4] 1.00-2.00 sec 11.5 MBytes 96.7 Mbits/sec 0 220 KBytes
[ 4] 2.00-3.00 sec 11.6 MBytes 97.3 Mbits/sec 0 267 KBytes
[ 4] 3.00-4.00 sec 11.3 MBytes 95.0 Mbits/sec 0 269 KBytes
[ 4] 4.00-5.00 sec 11.4 MBytes 95.6 Mbits/sec 0 269 KBytes
[ 4] 5.00-6.00 sec 11.3 MBytes 94.6 Mbits/sec 0 269 KBytes
[ 4] 6.00-7.00 sec 11.4 MBytes 95.2 Mbits/sec 0 269 KBytes
[ 4] 7.00-8.00 sec 11.3 MBytes 94.7 Mbits/sec 0 271 KBytes
[ 4] 8.00-9.00 sec 11.3 MBytes 94.8 Mbits/sec 0 271 KBytes
[ 4] 9.00-10.00 sec 11.3 MBytes 95.0 Mbits/sec 0 271 KBytes


[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth Retr
[ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 115 MBytes 96.2 Mbits/sec 0 sender
[ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 113 MBytes 95.0 Mbits/sec receiver

That looks like a solid 100 Mbit connection, do I assume correctly you have a Vero4k not 4k+?
Anyhow that should be capable of playing a file with Overall bit rate = 51.5 Mb/s

First advice would be to take out the buffer in advanced settings as the default values are already optimized for the Vero.

Also is this only with on 4k movie or with all of them?

Yes you’re correct, its a Vero 4k.
Its mostly with 4k movies, all though some high quality 1080p movies have occasional issues also.

I’ve also tried using ‘memorysize>524880000</memorysize’ without luck, the issue persists.

As mentioned, remove it as the standard setting is best.
Your problem must be somewhere other than network.
As a last test to exclude the network copy the file and time the duration to see if the transfer is stable.
time cp /mnt/Movies/<location of the file> /dev/null

If that shows a value is below 90 minutes your network should be fine

In that case someone else would need to give advices.

I’ll test this as soon as i find a moment.
I appreciate all the assistance.

Another question while im doing the test mentioned above.

To see if it helps, I tried using a TP-Link UE300 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter yesterday.
Turned off my Vero 4k, plugged the adapter in, attached cable and gotten an IP from DHCP.

Tried running the same file and gotten even worse results, literaly choppy from the very start.
Aren’t these adapters plug and play? Or do i have to set them up in a way? Honestly, i haven’t really given it much thought yet and haven’t run an iPerf3 or something yet.

As i understand you correctly the issue appears a longer time

“Its mostly with 4k movies, all though some high quality 1080p movies have occasional issues also”

did you install the april update on the Vero?
What version of NFS are you running on Win 10 Pro?

can you directly connect Vero and Win10 pc on same switch as a test?

I thought the vero 4k has an 100 mb lan connection, so gb adapter won’t add something i guess

To see if it helps, I tried using a TP-Link UE300 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter yesterday.
Turned off my Vero 4k, plugged the adapter in, attached cable and gotten an IP from DHCP.

  • Yes, i did install the april update.

  • I’m using Hanewin NFS server since there is no native NFS server for Win10(?).

    • Both v2 and v3 are checked in Hanewin.
    • Maximum NFS transfer size = 32500
    • Number of UDP NFS server threads = 32
  • I could connect my Vero 4k and Windows 10 machine on the same switch, but i’m at work now so that has to wait until later today.

I am aware of USB 2.0 on the Vero 4k, however it should theoretically improve speeds a little. Instead of improving playback, it made it worse.

But the issue was there also before the april update? just to be sure. :slight_smile:

is there a reason to set all those add nfs settings? I’m not familiar with hanewin, but maybe you could try this without all those extra settings on Hanewin as wel in FSTAB.

for example this is how I set it (NAS and using /etc/auto.nfs.shares)

/mnt/diskstation/4K 192.168.2.3:/volume1/4K

when request export i get

volume1/4K 192.168.2.134(ro,async,no_wdelay,crossmnt,insecure,no_root_squash,insecure_locks,sec=sys,anonuid=1025,anongid=100)

which is default set on NAS.

Did you unplug the Vero internal Ethernet at that time?
Anyhow suggest to focus on the testing as network with 100Mbit looks ok.

I had issues before the april update also, yes.

The settings in Hanewin are set by default, i tried FSTAB without all the blocksize settings etc… but that did not help anything either, that’s why i tried including them this time.

Yes, turned the Vero 4k off, attached the Gigabit Ethernet Adapter, removed ethernet cable from internal nic and attached that same cable to the usb adapter. Then turned device back on.

Nothing but choppiness.

Have you seen this?

I’ll take a look at it as soon as i’m home, thanks for your feedback!

time cp:

real 97m38.935s
user 0m1.930s
sys 2m41.980s

Well 97 minutes for a movie that is 149 minutes should be sufficient network performance.
As mentioned, I think from here someone with more “video” knowledge have to take over.

1 Like

Thanks for your help so far though!
I’ll try suggestions made by people above after dinner.

  • Tried removing all the extra settings in the FSTAB config = No success.
  • Tried connecting Vero 4k to same switch as Win10 machine = No success.
  • Changed Hanewin settings mentioned my @ActionA above = No success

I keep running into choppy playback…