Music Player / Wifi / BlueTooth Questions

Help and Support Raspberry Pi
1

Greetings :slight_smile:

I’m “kinda” new to Raspberry. I like to get into stuff myself with guides and began with the Pi for my 3D Printer and Octoprint.

I then found OSMC, used it for myself to stream some stuff. Worked out fine, some streams were offline or not playable, well… An alternative could always be found.
But as always, I wanted to go deeper. Use more. And recommended the little buddy to my sisters husband… :smiley:

As expected, he uses it much more. I set him up with SMB Network sharing for all his Stuff - Movies, series, Music and pictures.

First Problem was: Movies began stuttering after ~20 minutes. One Series was horribly stuttering every two minutes.
Activated the XSMC-Player Booster and it seems to work - for now.

Second Problem: Listening to Music. It seems the PAPlayer (Standard) doesnt get enough space to play efficiently, every 20-30 seconds is a little “lag”. Annoying on good tracks and definitely ruins “Michael Jacksons” Thriller…
When I right-click on the title, say “Play with…” and use the DVDPlayer, it works fine! The sad thing… I couldn’t find ANY option to tell OSMC “Hey, dood, use “DVDPlayer” as a standard!” - soo… maybe you guys can tell me where to find it?

My third problem… My beloved third problem… I set up RetroSMC on >my< Pi (so here we are on my Pi again :slight_smile: ). Everything according to mcobit. I then switched to a german manual for setting up BlueTooth to use wireless PS3 Controllers.

So far… so good… Was a pain to set them up. After 3 hours, the system finally got them (and i got used to using the english keymap on keyboard :smiley: ), but only if I >leave< RetroPie into SSH, check the BlueTooth Controller if its active and on “pscan”, then, and only then, I can activate the PS3 Controllers with the reset-button on the back to connect to my Pi. Kinda annoying. And on Top of that… getting into a 2 Player Game, one of the controllers is stuttering like hell (pressing button => Nothing happens, pressing again for a moment => Character walks in that direction for ~3 seconds. )

When I connect the controllers with cable, they work perfectly fine. Is that a common issue with RetroSMC? Or does anyone have a solution?

Fourth Issue: My sister and her husband live in the same house as I do. So fortunately, I can get into their Wifi-Network and stream his content via SMB, too. But - I still want to use my own content from my network.
So I disconnect my network >without< “forget”, connect to his and enter the password… watch some series… disconnect his >without< “forget” and when I try to connect to my network again, the Pi/OSMC wants my password again… trying to connect to his network also results in a password entry window… So why doesnt the Pi/OSMC save the Password?

So, summarizing:
His Pi:
Problem 1: The video player. Hope it works until eternity :slight_smile: Just changed it yesterday, he said he didn’t have any problems that evening… Hope that this week he won’t come at me again :smiley:

Problem 2: The Music Player - Seems like DVDPlayer delivers better results than the PAPlayer. But - Where can I set the DVDPlayer as “Standard”?

My Pi:
Problem 3: Connecting PS3 Bluetooth Controllers to my Pi for RetroSMC / RetroPie. Stuttering with TWO Controllers connected and the huge “way around” to first initialize them… :confused: Would be great if I could just pick up the controller like when you start the PS3.

Problem 4: Saving multiple networks incl. password to the Pi that I can switch between different wifis.

So, Posting got kinda long. Hope anyone can help me.
One more thing: If you need LOGs for this - Please, I never drew a LOG from a Pi. You guys definitely know a super cool “guide” for getting them out the easiest way. As soon as they are needed and I find out how to get them here, I will deliver them!

Setup for >BOTH< Pis is the same btw.
Its a Raspberry Pi3b with newest OSMC Version and a USB Dongle for a Logitech Keyboard. Some Heatsinks installed on the Chips and thats it :slight_smile:

Thanks in advance! :slight_smile:

2

Lets separate them out:

Problem 1. This seems solved so no further comment needed.

Problem 2. I think maybe the answer you already have is correct, you will find many threads here on how to perform the switch. Unfortunately it is not very intuitive. That said, the normal player should work well unless the files are encoded with a strange encoding. Have you purchased the mpeg and VC licences for both Pis? And installed them correctly? Debug logs may help determine why the files aren’t playing properly.

Problem 3. This is probably best posted in the RetrOSMC thread. That way @mcobit will see it and offer his expert knowledge.

Problem 4. This sounds like some kind of bug in connman (the program in OSMC that manages network connectivity). In theory it should store the passwords from time to time IIRC. A set of logs would definitely help here too.

You can learn more about how to submit a useful support request and how to create and send log files here. It’s a very straightforward process that you can do from the GUI or the command line.

Thanks for your understanding. We hope that we can help you get up and running again shortly.

3

Greetings yknivag,

So… Sadly, the husband of my sis didn’t have the “debugging” feature enabled, but he still has some problems.
Fun Fact: As soon as I sit next to the Pi, everything works fine. I leave his place - and it starts again! That thing knows when its under control! :smiley:
Conclusion: Problem 1 still exists.
Furthermore: I tried watching a movie & a series from his hard drive this evening. Movie stuttered in the first two minutes, I recognized: “Didn’t have the XSMC-Booster activated” - did that and, voila: Movie, 1:26h, worked out just fine.
Then I changed to a series (Grey’s Anatomy) and… stutter. So I went to “MyOSMC” and said “Log Upload” and clicked “Every Log”.

https://paste.osmc.tv/iyohitohen
Here it is - the log of >MY< Pi with series-stuttering. When flying over the text, I found out that there has to be a big issue with some warnings on the skin? Dunno if that has so much influence on the CPU that it begins stuttering.

Problem Nr 2: So, there is no Option to tell him to use “DVDPlayer” as “Standard Player”? Because when choosing the DVDPlayer (and even after reboot), it still says “PAPlayer (standard)” and “DVDPlayer” - no difference.
Oh, and no codecs were bought so far. The played Audio Files were MP3 Files. Have to admit, didn’t know that codecs were necessary for that! :sweat_smile:

Nr 3: I will get to mcobit for that. Thank you :slight_smile: I guess I have to provoke that error again and get a new log there? Or is it possible that this is still logged in my already posted Log?

Nr 4: Fun Fact. I booted my Pi today and… Here we go, I’m connected to my sisters WLAN instead of my own (in which I was logged in yesterday evening). When choosing mine, he still asks for a password. Actually, I want automatically connect to MY WLAN and then change to the WLAN of my Sister manually for streaming some movies and series from his Hard Drive.

Some more things that might be important:

  1. His network - PC is connected with LAN Cable to Router. Pi is in the network with WLAN. The WLAN Signal is “Good” - “Perfect”.
  2. His Hard Drive is an >external< Hard Drive, simple HDD with 3TB.
  3. Normal SMB Protocol streaming.

Some ensuring for myself:
As far as I’m familiar with PCs and Networks, some SmartPhones shouldn’t have influence on the data transfer rate for streaming. For Example, if his Wife is watching some YT Videos with her Smartphone while he wants to watch some Series on his Pi - that shouldn’t have influence. If he downloads a huge Game Update - It shouldn’t have influence on the Pi - That all because those are >Outgoing< and >incoming< transfers from the >web< to the >PC< through the >network<. This is limited by the provider / the maximum capacity of the installed line.

But >inside< the network (meaning the Streaming from PC through Router to Pi), there is a much, MUCH larger capacity. Right? So even if he would have a huge house with one PC and 5 OSMC Pi’s which are all streaming Series and Movies on each, it shouldn’t have influence on the performance, right?

(Gosh… Hope you understand what I mean. Sometimes explaining in English is hard, sorry :slight_smile: )

Last thing: We were thinking if streaming through a NAS System would solve the Problem with one hit… Might be worth a try if nothing in the log speaks for an error on the hardware.

So again, summary:
Nr1: Still exists. See Log File.
Nr2: No option to set “DVDPlayer” as standard Player - meaning have to choose him again every time?
Nr3: Does the Log also contain some lines for that problem or do I have to provoke the error again and then make a new log?
Nr4: Yeah. See Above :slight_smile:

Thanks for you fast answer, thanks to anyone reading this and thinking about solutions :slight_smile:

4

Thank you for your comprehensive reply, very helpful.

Problem 1 - From looking at the logs you are using OMXplayer. This may possibly be resolved by enabling and disabling different combinations of OMXPlayer and MMAL in >Settings>Player>Videos.

The above I think is also the answer to problem 2. If I remember correctly the option is very confusingly named. More help on that may be found in the Kodi forum when it returns from it’s lengthy downtime.

Problem 3 will need a log captured at the time the problem is occurring.

Problem 4 may need a little more specific troubleshooting. As I understand it the log you posted here is from your brother-in-law’s Pi? We would need logs from your Pi to troubleshoot your wireless issue.

Regarding your points about network traffic, you are correct in that it is unlikely to be the router causing the stuttering, but that said streaming over WiFi is frought with issues especially when there are walls in the way. If a busy WiFi channel is in operation the even your neighbour’s activity can influence your streaming due to radio interference. You can tell if the network is the cause of the problem very easily by copying a stuttering file to a USB stick and playing it directly on the Pi - if it no longer stutters then the cause is the network, if it still stutters then the cause is playback.

5

No Problem :slight_smile: Thank you for your really fast answer!

First - The Log File is from MY Pi
Hope to get a Log from his Pi this week :slight_smile:

Problem 1 - I don’t know which player is used by the Pi in the moment. The Movie on this evening was an AVI, as well as the series. I boosted both the OMXPlayer and MMAL Player in the settings menu.

Problem 2 - Okay… So no solution so far for that “standard music player” thing. Could it be solved with any addon?

Problem 3 - Upcoming Log, hopefully tomorrow :slight_smile:

Problem 4 - As stated, the Log is from my Pi. Where the network issue IS an issue :smiley: And thanks for the “brother-in-law” vocabulary… Missed that one for the last posts :laughing:

Network Traffic issue:
Well… It could get interesting here… He has ~two walls between Pi and Router. Nothing in between, in another Angle (and between those two walls) are the smartphones.
I’m a floor above - installed a repeater in the room above=>next to his router - perfect signal. And between that repeater and MY Pi is just a plasterboard (?) wall and ~4meter distance.

All tested files work perfectly fine when watched on normal home computer. So its either a network traffic issue or a hardware issue with the Pi.

About the network issue, I always thought it wouldn’t be possible as my brother-in-law and my sister sit in another corner with their smartphones and not between the Pi and the router. But it could be possible to test the repeater in their room, too.

I didn’t have the chance to activate debugging on his and watch CPU-usage while those stutters… Because as already stated, when I sit next to his Pi, it works perfectly fine… That thing is scared of me :smile:

6

Ok, I think we need to go back to basics a little here.

  1. Pick one media file that isn’t behaving.

  2. Play it in each of these configurations and report back here which work and which don’t:

  • On your Pi over the network.
  • On your Pi from a USB stick
  • On his Pi over the network
  • On his Pi from a USB stick.

This will determine whether the network is the problem or the playback. And if the playback is different between the 2 Pis.

It would also be good if we could find out more about the file you are having issues. Please see the mediainfo section in How to submit a useful support request - General - OSMC

Also if these files have mpeg streams or vc streams then you will get much better playback performance if you purchase and install the appropriate licences from the Raspberry Pi official website. They are only a few $ and will enable hardware decoding which will make for much smoother playback.

7

Okay, maybe we can close something out.
The movie I’ve seen yesterday was “despicable me 2” as an AVI File. Dunno which codec, I’m gonna look that up after work today.

I asked him today if he watched it, too. He told me he did that multiple times.
Here’s the listing for that file:
On PC, it works flawless

On HIS Pi, he watched it several times. Sometimes it stuttered, sometimes it worked flawless. XSMC Boost ENABLED.

On MY Pi, I watched it ONCE, with a stutter in the beginning. I enabled XSMC Boost and it worked flawless from that on.

If necessary, I’ll try it out with an USB Stick on both Pis.

If I understand you correctly, you guess that it’s a network issue?

8

If it stutters when played across the network but not when you play it locally from a USB stick then it is the network that is causing the stuttering. There are things that can help with this like increasing the buffer cache which are detailed on other threads here.

If the same file also stutters when played locally then the issue lies with the playback and could be that it is a codec which isn’t supported on the Pi (like HEVC 265), or one for which you haven’t licenced hardware decoding (like mpeg) or it could be other settings on the Pi.

We will only know where to look once you have tested the file from a USB stick or the SD card and then we can determine the system which has a problem.

9

What exactly is XSMC Boost?!

10

Gnah, sorry. Always thought that was its name. Looked it up again - those both options are called “MMAL” and “OMXplayer”
Not XSMC. But you have to admit, when you’re not used to it, its possible to misspell some! :smiley:

Sorry for my mistake there!

11

Sooo… Progress this far:
HIS PI:
Network Playback from Thursday - Saturday: Almost unplayable. Always stuttering.
USB Playback today (Sunday): Everything works fine…

MY PI:
Network Playback: Going worse. As always, as soon as I sit next to it, it (mostly) works fine. When my girlfriend watches something when I’m not home, its stuttering.
USB Playback: Couldn’t test it up to today. But I guess it would come out with the same.

So, this means, that the SMB Playback over Network is a problem?
What are the solutions?

12
  1. Ultimate solution fix the network
  2. You can try fstab based samba mounts or change to NFS which give better performance
13

Sooo… Finally time for that topic.

Today I tried fstab samba in the Pi. According to following manual:

Well…
MY PI
My girlfriend had problems with Grey’s Anatomy - stuttering etc. With fstab, last episode worked flawless. Have to test furthermore.

HIS PI
I interrupted him watching a series from USB. Worked >flawless<
After the series was over, I set up fstab the same way I did on MY PI.
Set up the interface, so “Series” directly routes to his series drive and “Movies” to the movies drive. (path was /mnt/series/)

Now… Guess what. When selecting “Series”, the list was almost instantly up (before it was like 3-5 secs delay until the list was loaded). Back, now to “Movies” - Same fast list loading.
Chose a Movie - tested an AVI and a MKV Version.
In the first 5 seconds… Stutter. After 10 secs - complete hickup. I finally noticed something! The WLAN Dongle lost connection. It blinked like it was searching for a signal. Pi was warm, not hot. No temperature signal or anything. Sadly, I didn’t have the chance to check debug if CPU Cores were at 90-100%.
The complete hickup endured about a minute, I then disconnected the WLAN Dongle… Finally could step one menu down, exit the movie. As it might be seen in the log - I had to disconnect the keyboard & the dongle multiple times.
BUT! I finally got to upload a Log.
https://paste.osmc.tv/enavotalev
Here it is. Hope you can get anything from it :slight_smile:

Thanks in advance!

Next steps until next advice:

  1. Setting up a Pi with OMV and SMB / NFS Share - so I can test the NFS Share function.
  2. Watch my Pi how its behaving with the fstab samba setup.
  3. Let him watch over USB until then. :slight_smile:

Some more things that came up my mind:
We’re both “cooling” the Pi with simple heatsinks (no fans) and both use the RYDGES 2.5A 5V Power Supply.

14

We cannot troubleshoot 2 different pi at the same time. There is too much information to confuse between the two. Select one and we’ll carry on.

You are using Rpi3 with an additional USB Wifi Dongle? Why not use the onboard wifi? Did you disable the onboard wifi?

Did you test with a wired connection to confirm you have a wifi issue and not a problem with the server of the content?

Ok, it may claim to be 2.5A at 5V but has anyone confirmed that? Do you ever see the lightning icon?

15

Then lets focus on HIS PI for now. Watching over Network is more important to him than me :slight_smile:

Yes, RPi3 with additional wifi dongle as I read that the internal Wifi sometimes causes some issues. But if you tell me everything is alright, I can take the dongle away and try without it.
I disabled it in the ssh, although on next start its back up again… And as it didn’t seem to cause any issues, I ignored it.

Didn’t check with a wired connection - can do that too. Although often it works. And the server of the content is being inactive while something is being streamed from it.

I admit, I never measured the power source. But - yes, I did see the lightning icon ONCE while using a 1.5A power supply. Since using the 2.5A power supply, I’ve never seen it again.

16

How are you doing that?

Yet you are here reporting issues… Did you ever try with the onboard wifi and the dongle disconnected?

That will be a key bit to know moving forward.

This is not a debug enabled log. We need more verbose info from Kodi. Please enable debugging and demonstrate again in a new log.

17

Ideally we’d want logs for all affected devices.

A new post for each device will make things clearer.

18

@Terri this is what you need to focus on!

  1. Ensure internal wifi adapter is disabled
  2. Ensure that your power supply is up for the task
  3. Check signal strength with wavemon
  4. Check network throughput with iperf3
1 Like
19

Can’t retype it now as I’m still not so familiar. But I did it nearly the same way as enabling bluetooth on my Pi for RetroPi and PS3 controllers. Guess I’d have to disable it somewhere in a file?

No. As I said, didn’t think that would cause any issues. I’m using a RPi3 on my 3D Printer with a Dongle as well, and everything works perfectly fine, without disabling onboard WLAN. This made me guess that it wouldn’t cause any trouble.

I already had a feeling about that :confused: Okay, a few questions about that.
Enabling debugging makes that white headline with CPU Core status etc appear at the top corner of the screen, right?
Does that have to be >enabled< while the stutter is happening, or is it enough to enable it when the stutter has happened and just before I upload the debug log? Might be a dumb question, but as I told him to activate it he was all like “Ah… this annoys me a lot when watching a movie” - which I definitely understand. But when its necessary for troubleshooting, maybe I can test it again with the movie from today.

Yeah. I’ll put my Pi aside for a while as I think it might be the same problem. After I cleared his problem, I will get to mine again.

  1. will google where to disable it entirely and get back to that
  2. Okay… As no “Lightning Icon” has popped up until now, I guess the supply might be okay? Or is there any way to read that from a log or command, too?
  3. & 4. Will test those!

Thank you guys for your concerns and for helping me out with advice, although I’m not so familiar with the hardware :slight_smile:

20

Add dtoverlay=sdhost to config.txt in /boot

Not really any direct info in the logs. Not having lightning bolt is good. Overall was just a reminder that USB dongles are also depending on good power.