MKV files stutter.

Can't find value on laptop, its not in the location it should be, strangely enough. Although i think it may be set to default (512) for wireless NICs. On my desktop the value was 256 to begin with. I set it to 512, but made no difference. I couldn't see any strange differences between the configuration of the notebook nic or the desktop nic.

Can't find value on laptop...

Have done some more research: NIC Receive and Transmit Buffers seem to be optional. Some cards have the setting / other cards not.
I lowered both buffer values on my Asus/Atheros NIC down to 64 / 64. Streaming from Serviio to TV went as smooth as before.
As dysje already found out: Buffer settings do not seem to be correlated to stuttering.

Suddenly I remembered I have got a WiFi USB Stick in a drawer in the basement, I inserted it into my Server (the one that almost every mkv stutters) let i plug'and'play-install and disabled the wired NIC. Turned on TV and: No Stuttering anymore!

The only conclusion I draw is:
Samsung TV UExxD500x stutters for one reason or another when streamed via wired network. Replacing wired NIC with wireless card seem to be the cure.
(As previosly been suggested by both zip and zotune)


Summary of my testing:
Win7 64/Serviio 0.6.1/D-Link DGE 528T Stutters severly on most mkv
Win7 64/Serviio 0.6.1/TP-Link WN321G No stutter
Win7 64/Serviio 0.6.1/Atheros AR9002WB-1NG No stutter (apart from single occasion approx 7 seconds in from beginning of movie)
All computers and TV are communicating via Linksys WRT54GL router running Tomato 1.28 firmware.

Streaming-wise, the only drawback of WiFi is it takes a little longer to launch a new clip compared to a wired connection. Perhaps a little slower FF/REW response.
But of course I would prefer wired NIC, for higher speed/better connectivity at other protocols than DLNA.

If I set my wired NIC to 100mbit, nothing at all will play even remotely fluent. It'll attempt to start, but one frame per 4 seconds isn't quite watchable. Still seems like it's a really strange network issue with perhaps the TV or the desktop. I've even replaced the switch with another one, same strange issues remain.

Just found out both of my wired network cards (possibly causing the stuttering) are based upon RealTek RTL8169 chip,
according to other forums this chip is known for streaming problems.
Will try to get hold of a card based upon a different chip and do further testing. It would be intresting to know if you wired card is based upon the same chip, dysje.

Marvell Yukon here. Should be a good enough chip.

Really strange: Serviio machine on WiFi = OK, but when on wired net same config stutters...maybe the problem with D500x TV is that some part of DLNA-coversation should not go too fast?
zotune, did you ever try to run Serviio wirelessly from your Mac?

I tried ps3mediaserver too and it has an option to limit the transferspeed, which is by default set to 110mbit. I only tried it a few times on 110mbit, but never changed it, perhaps worth looking into. I tried wired from the same notebook by the way of course too, stutters. If speed was the issue on the NICs, setting the nic to 100mbit should solve something, but it doesn't. Considering my wireless nic is 144mbit.

sunnyday: no, I'm unable to because I would have to buy a usb wifi adapter for the tv.
Edit: I just tried Wifi from the computer to the same modem connected to the TV by ethernet cable. Constant stuttering, even worse than with a wired connection.

sunnyday: no, I'm unable to because I would have to buy a usb wifi adapter for the tv.

No, thats not the point. You can keep the TV on a wired connection, just the system that runs Serviio should be wireless connected. Atleast, thats what we both figured out worked for us. Although I'd hardly consider it 'working', since I dont want to stream from the notebook.

Please see my edit I just realized

Please see my edit I just realized

Your constant stuttering is due to insufficient bandwidth. Thats the downside of wifi if the range becomes too big, if there's any way to improve bandwidth temporarily (by moving the accesspoint and system closer to eachother) it'd probably be easier to test.

Constant stuttering, even worse than with a wired connection.

Sorry to hear. But I think dysje may be right about distance to WiFi station.
Actually I was a bit surprised my ten-dollar USB Stick TP-Link WN321G is able to stream HD mkv, but it is located in the same room approx 4 meters from WRT54GL router. mkv:s with 5mbps is no problem no stutter. Even though link is encrypted 64 bit WPE!

Have also done further testing on my Asus Laptop:
Streaming from internal WiFi card Atheros AR9002WB-1NG - No stutter (as reported earlier)
Streaming from internal wired card Atheros AR8151 - Some stutter, but not as much previous testing on RealTek cards.

ok i will say this one last time there is no difference in the C\D models when it comes to DLNA, even down to being fitted with same curcuit board.

I can't say there's no difference in the circuit boards between the models but there is certainly a difference in the files they'll play. I have a BD-C5500 and a BD-D5700 and with transcoding turned off certain files will play on one that won't play on the other. My D series plays files with Header Stripping where the C won't and all the files I've tried so far will FF/REW and Jump on the D. I wish the same could be said of the C series as I have to remux a lot of my movies with the --clusters-in-meta-seek added to the command line and Header Compression (none) to play on the C.

On topic, even though all files seem to play well on the D5700 I have some movies with audio dropouts. I can see the DTS light flickering on the surround reciever and I don't remember that happening on the C series. I need to make a list of the movies with dropouts and try again with transcoding turned off.

My guess is that it's mostly a software issue in the lower D series devices in regard to buffering. There may not be any difference in hardware, but software is clearly different.

Hi!
I have this mkv stuttering issue since day one (video stops here for a few tenths too) on my UE40D5000 (v1024). I have a TPLINK 1043ND with OpenWRT firmware. My desktop (Win7x64) and the TV was wired until i checked this thread today. I tried the wireless method and it works here too. Interesting thing is, the FIRST part of the transmission chain has to be wireless, that's the only way i got good results. No wonder i haven't found this out, considering my desktop is always wired. I tried my laptop as server once, but connected it by wire, just to be sure there's no bandwidth problems. I bought a Samu WLAN adapter (overpriced stuff) and tried miniDLNA on the router itself. It works over WIFI. Wired, noooo sir. Crazy stuff...
This isn't Serviio related anyway because my TV can't recognize the Serviio server over WLAN, no idea why. I can see the TV in the console, profile ok, green led. On the TV, nothing. I'll look into it later.

Alot of wireless bandwith has to do with how congested the wifi channel is. Look at this tool. http://forum.serviio.org/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2439 It will scan all the wireless signals in the area and tell you what channels your neighbors are using.

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I’ve fired up a copy of inSSIDer in several different home and SME environments where the owners were complaining of poor wireless speeds and frequent drops, only to find their wireless router working on exactly the same channel as several of their neighbors, and so all of them were competing for a time-slice of the same frequency.


I have a feeling you have not really been reading this thread before you replied? The thing is that wireless actually works in contrary to wired. Wired does not work.

The TV has to be connected over a wire, yes yes, but if the Server is on a Wireless connection, the TV plays back flawlessly, if the server is on a wired connection, the TV stutters with all larger files.

Wireless congestion will definately NOT have anything to do with this.

The TV has to be connected over a wire, yes yes,...

Doesn't matter, tried both.

I'd like to share my experience. Basically I have the same problem as mentioned above - sound failures/stuttering during MKV playback. I run serviio on W7 64-bit.

I have two Samsung TVs
- UE32C6000RWXXH - which has no problems with MKV playback at all...
- PS51D570C2SXBT (latest fw 1026.0)- which has the problems described above...

The problem seems to be connected with wired connection. I haven't experienced it when trying through wireless!
I tried following software:
- serviio is 0.6.1 (couldn't find previous versions)
- Samsung all share
- TVmobili


In first two cases the MKV playback has the sound failure. However, interesting is that TVmobili works just fine...

I did not notice any connection with different MKVs (I have just 1080p but with different content). My test included at least 20 files and ALL of them have the problem.

Regarding the previous discussion - my PC has also the Realtek network card (RTL8168E)

According to my opinion the problem seems to be more in the TV but why TVmobili works fine???

Did anybody find a solution for this problems? Could you please share?

Thank you...

According to my opinion the problem seems to be more in the TV but why TVmobili works fine???

Perhaps TVMOBiLi sends other metadata for the mkv to the renderer (TV) that tricks the TV to get it right.

Some problems can be solved using wrong settings in profiles.xml on purpose. (Like the hack for mkv to be streamed to Allshare on Android devices)

I can reproduce this problem as well with a Samsung UE32D5000PW. It plays the same MKV fine using TVMOBiLi, but using Serviio (on Mac OS X Lion) I get occasional video stutter in the video playback. However, I have this same problem when using ps3mediaserver. The only software that doesn't seem to suffer from this is TVMOBiLi. What also seems special about TVMOBiLi is the way it advertises itself to the TV, for some reason my TV recognizes it as an AllShare server instead of a normal media server like it does with Serviio and other DLNA software. So maybe it has something to do with that?