Stuttering / Lag with 4k video read from smb NAS, storage device is ehdd with usb 3.0. Would like some help finding a fix

[elzorroazul777]

I am experiencing stuttering while playing 4k video from my NAS. The NAS is using smb protocol, which the samba program is directly installed to the main OS on my Proxmox server. The media is stored on an external hard drive that is connected to a SS usb 3.0 port on the rear of my server tower. The connection from the server to the Vero 4k+ is over a WiFi 6 capable, 5Ghz WiFi signal coming from my WiFi router.

This Proxmox server is just for fun, so I may revert to hosting the media files locally via powered usb hub connected to Vero 4k+. However, if there is anything that I can do to improve performance with this current setup, I’d love to know more about that.

Thank you, and happy holidays!

[fzinken]

@elzorroazul777

The connection from the server to the Vero 4k+ is over a WiFi 6 capable, 5Ghz WiFi signal coming from my WiFi router

Maybe something changed in the network, we suggest to check your network with iperf3. Please read this howto

[How To] Check Network Performance with iperf3

Sometimes it is important to check the network performance between your OSMC Device and the device providing your media (NAS, Server, PC). Especially when you are connected via wireless the throughput variations can harm you viewing experience. This short How To should give you the required information how to install iperf3 and how to run the respective tests. When doing these tests it is suggested to have a simple setup (single switch between Sender and Receiver and avoid other traffic on the …

@elzorroazul777

. However, if there is anything that I can do to improve performance with this current setup, I’d love to know more about that.

Mounting network shares with autofs (alternative to fstab)

This how-to describes how to mount your network shares via autofs. Autofs should be as performant as fstab based mounting but has the advantage that your shares are mounted on demand which also should give you more reliability in case of network interuptions. First install the autofs package sudo apt-get install autofs If you already have mounted your shares already via fstab comment out that line in fstab and reboot. For this how-to we are going to use a directory for each server, if you wa…

[sam_nazarko]

@elzorroazul777

The NAS is using smb protocol, which the samba program is directly installed to the main OS on my Proxmox server.

Make sure the Proxmox machine is up to date.
If I were you, I’d run the SMB server in a KVM guest on the machine for more consistent performance. You’ll also get all of the graphs which will indicate any performance problems.

If your other VMs are quiet, you should still be able to check the performance graphs for network via the web interface.

[elzorroazul777]

This is good advice, thank you Sam! Streaming to my pc results in the same stuttering so I think it’s the host, not the client. Either way, I’ll do some more investigating with regard to the proxmox server.

Also, I thought I might look into using a spare sata hdd as cache for the video stream as I think the read rate from the usb hdd may be part of the bottleneck.

[elzorroazul777]

Thank you, that’s really helpful. It looks like the maximum bitrate after running the test for 60 seconds was 322 Mbits/sec.

[fzinken]

@elzorroazul777

322 Mbits/sec.

That should be more than enough. Problem must be somewhere else. Maybe try the autofs way but I doubt that’s the issue. Did you try to play the file locally?

[elzorroazul777]

Alright, I took another look around and found that I mistakenly had the external drive plugged into a usb 2.0 port, not usb 3.0. I’m sure this is what affected performance.

[angry.sardine]

USB 2.0 is fast enough for most 4K videos. You can pull data through it at more than double the maximum bit rate of a UHD blu ray - maybe even three times. If the drive is USB-powered, then USB 3.0 can supply more electric current to power it; this might be relevant if it’s a hard drive, but probably not if it’s a solid state / flash drive.