Stuttering video playback - help with troubleshooting

Is your TV buffering after that 30 seconds or does it just play part of the file and then stop? Does the ReadyNAS seem really busy? What kind of network are you using, 10/100 or Gigabit networking? Is TV also gigabit or 10/100?

How did you stream to your laptop?
Did you use dlna?
Did you go through your router?

What model of Panasonic player are you using? Is it's firmware up to date?

The bottleneck is likely to be the Panasonic, not the readynas.

Thanks for the swift replies.

readysecure1985 wrote:
Is your TV buffering after that 30 seconds or does it just play part of the file and then stop?

It seems to play a few frames, stop, then start and play a few frames, then stop etc.

Does the ReadyNAS seem really busy?

Not that I can discern, it doesn't sound like it's overexerting itself and when I was attempting to troubleshoot it from my laptop, FrontView seemed to respond fine although I can't remember if I was using FrontView whilst playback was being attempted.

What kind of network are you using, 10/100 or Gigabit networking?

Not sure, how do I find that out? The router is a Virgin Media Superhub (made by Netgear I believe). Are all ethernet cables equal or is it worth checking them? I think but can't be sure that they are all Cat5 cables, can check but if it's a network setting or dependent upon the router then... dunno, not sure what I'm talking about tbh.

Is TV also gigabit or 10/100?

Don't know - it's a Panasonic Viera TX-L37U3B

vandermerwe wrote:
How did you stream to your laptop?

ReadyNAS > router > laptop (all connected via ethernet cable)

Did you use dlna?

Good point, no, opened and played the file on my laptop using VLC.

Did you go through your router?

Yes.

What model of Panasonic player are you using?

BluRay Disc Player DMP-BD75

Is it's firmware up to date?

Don't know, will have to check and look although it's possible, I vaguely recall doing something whilst messing about with the settings ages ago when I connected it up to the router. If updating the firmware is more involved than simply selecting an option after it's connected up to the router via ethernet then no.

The bottleneck is likely to be the Panasonic, not the readynas.

OK, if it is, that could be the least worst option to fix.

Thanks again for both your posts.

You are trying to stream MKV files? That Panasonic only seems to support those video files as far as I can see.

You may be better off getting yourself a dedicated network media player like a Dune Hd or Mede8er.

Yep, all MKV.
Haven't got the budget for Dune HD or Mede8er atm but any form of shiny gadget is always appreciated but it also won't fly with the other half :(

I'm not completely sure I get the playback chain.

You are going ReadyNAS -> Laptop (VLC) -> BluRay Disk Player -> TV?

If so, is the laptop wireless?

ReadyDLNA would not be used at all if you are doing the above.

Apologies if I didn't make it clear enough - when attempting playback on the TV the playback chain is:
ReadyNAS > router > Panasonic BluRay/DVD player > TV

When attempting playback on my laptop the playback chain is:
ReadyNAS > router > laptop

So if I use VLC on my laptop to playback a video file from the ReadyNAS, am I right in thinking that using ReadyDLNA will not be involved?
If so, then that makes it unlikely to be streaming/data issues from the ReadyNAS or issues with throughput via the router and makes it more likely to be an issue, as others have already suggested with the BluRay/DVD player or TV.

That's correct.

ChunkySocks wrote:
So if I use VLC on my laptop to playback a video file from the ReadyNAS, am I right in thinking that using ReadyDLNA will not be involved?

The fact that you can play these videos on the laptop means that NAS and the network have enough throughput to deliver the content. It would be useful to get a rough idea of the needed throughput though. A typical MKV 1080p movie runs about 8 to 12 GB. Is that approximately what you have? Or are you streaming full bluray quality (typically 25-50 GB)?

The run of the mill 1080p MKV is about 12 mbit/s, the full BluRay version runs about 40-50 mbit/s

ChunkySocks wrote:
If so, then that makes it unlikely to be streaming/data issues from the ReadyNAS or issues with throughput via the router and makes it more likely to be an issue, as others have already suggested with the BluRay/DVD player or TV.

Basically yes. There are several possibilities

(a) ReadyDLNA might have trouble processing the MKVs for some reason - header compression for instance will sometimes get in the way.
(b)The BluRay player uses dedicated hardware to decode the H.264 video in the MKV, and is specifically designed for the H.264 profile used in BluRay disks (and in some cases also the profile used by AVCHD). It is possible that your MKVs aren't compliant with those specifications.

Posting a mediainfo analysis of one of the videos would help sort that out. http://www.videohelp.com/tools/mediainfo is one download source - you will want to opt out of the adware installs. If you right-click on the MKV, you should be able to launch mediainfo. Select the text view, and cut/paste the analysis into a followup post, and I can take a look at it. (You can PM me with the analysis if you prefer).

Another approach is to find a short video (perhaps a downloaded 1080p movie promo), and attempt to play it on the BluRay player from a flash drive.

(c) There might be other incompatibilities between the ReadyDLNA server and the Panasonic DLNA client.

Aye - 8-12GB files.
Will check the firmware of the BluRay player to see if it's been updated or needs updating and also look into (b) a bit further - tomorrow hopefully when I have more time.
Thanks for the suggestions.