NAS media content issue

[zasker]

Hey guys,

 

As of late I seem to be having some issues with my streaming certain media off my NAS to TV's around the house. The NAS is two bay and in raid0 (I plan to change to raid1 once I get some larger drives) and is connected directly into my router via ethernet, the first TV I have issue with is the one in the same room which is also connected directly to the router through ethernet also. The second issue is with the TV in the back room which connects via wifi, both seem to experience the same issue but on a different scale.

The best way I can describe the issue is as if the file is buffering, the film/show stops and stutters and then sometimes will cut out. I assumed it could have been an issue with using plex so I set up WD's own media streaming but the issue still occurs. 

Any ideas on how I could solve this? The router is the standard ISP one so maybe that is the issue? 

[leadeater]

What's the NAS? Check the CPU load when playing content to make sure it isn't a CPU usage issue, should be able to do this in the web admin console.

[zasker]

Sorry only just checked the forum.

I was using it last night to watch a film and it started stuttering, went into the web console and the cpu was hitting 100% so I'm now guessing that is the issue opposed to the router. As for the NAS it is a WD EX2, I found the unit cheap (but new) with no HDD's so stuffed two 3tb drives in, in raid 0.
 

The only programs enabled on the drive are HTTP, FTP, P2P downloads, web file viewer and transmission. The issue did start when using plex (which is a built in app) so I switched to using the built in WD media centre app. I can't disable any of the download or file viewer apps, however, i've just logged in now and cpu usage is 0% but roughly 50% of ram is in use (512mb in the NAS) and it does state there are 59 process running (im assuming background stuff) and i've checked their cpu usage and their all at 0% except for transmission which pops up to 9% from time to time. 

There is an activity chart which I think might prove helpful... It just for the duration I've been logged in but note the spikes in cpu usage... Thats a bit strange isn't it? 

EDIT - thanks for the reply btw

Edited August 28, 2016 by zasker

[leadeater]

8 hours ago, zasker said:

Sorry only just checked the forum.

I was using it last night to watch a film and it started stuttering, went into the web console and the cpu was hitting 100% so I'm now guessing that is the issue opposed to the router. As for the NAS it is a WD EX2, I found the unit cheap (but new) with no HDD's so stuffed two 3tb drives in, in raid 0.
 

The only programs enabled on the drive are HTTP, FTP, P2P downloads, web file viewer and transmission. The issue did start when using plex (which is a built in app) so I switched to using the built in WD media centre app. I can't disable any of the download or file viewer apps, however, i've just logged in now and cpu usage is 0% but roughly 50% of ram is in use (512mb in the NAS) and it does state there are 59 process running (im assuming background stuff) and i've checked their cpu usage and their all at 0% except for transmission which pops up to 9% from time to time. 

There is an activity chart which I think might prove helpful... It just for the duration I've been logged in but note the spikes in cpu usage... Thats a bit strange isn't it? 

EDIT - thanks for the reply btw

Plex can be rather CPU intensive if the video quality is high or it is doing on the fly transcoding. Also unfortunately I can't actually see the images.

 

Try transcoding a video to a lower bit rate and playing that to see if the stuttering stops.

[samiscool51]

Plex needs many cores

follow this for content streaming (this was tested with windows server 2012 r2, should be the same with other OS's)

 

4K need 8-core or more

1080 4-core or more

720 dual core or more

480P and below single core or more

 

also @leadeater , next time if anyone has a question or problem about plex streaming/plex hardware requirements for streaming 4K, 1080 or other resolutions, send them the link to this post right here.

 

[leadeater]

3 hours ago, samiscool51 said:

Plex needs many cores

follow this for content streaming (this was tested with windows server 2012 r2, should be the same with other OS's)

 

4K need 8-core or more

1080 4-core or more

720 dual core or more

480P and below single core or more

 

also @leadeater , next time if anyone has a question or problem about plex streaming/plex hardware requirements for streaming 4K, 1080 or other resolutions, send them the link to this post right here.

 

Something like Plex should probably have a sticky somewhere, either here in Servers and NAS or somewhere else. Btw what was the CPU you were testing with? I run mine on 2x E5520 but the VM only has 4 vCPU's and doesn't use much at all when playing 1080p content even with two people watching different videos, I haven't actually tested 4K though.

[samiscool51]

59 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Something like Plex should probably have a sticky somewhere, either here in Servers and NAS or somewhere else. Btw what was the CPU you were testing with? I run mine on 2x E5520 but the VM only has 4 vCPU's and doesn't use much at all when playing 1080p content even with two people watching different videos, I haven't actually tested 4K though.

can't remember, was using a server at work for testing, was just using plex as a test subject, even tho it will never transcode video, it was going to be a mail server

i just did that for fun, also the data was useful for the organization and i got to keep it

but the CPU's where hitting 50%-90% ultill for transcodeing, and i was watching south park for 1080 test and below, and a downloaded LTT video for the 4K test

 

also @zasker try linking them up to each other via a Ethernet cable, that realy improves the speed between the computers and probely will fix the stuttering issue

their is a LTT video about it but i can't remember what i was called

[zasker]

5 hours ago, samiscool51 said:

can't remember, was using a server at work for testing, was just using plex as a test subject, even tho it will never transcode video, it was going to be a mail server

i just did that for fun, also the data was useful for the organization and i got to keep it

but the CPU's where hitting 50%-90% ultill for transcodeing, and i was watching south park for 1080 test and below, and a downloaded LTT video for the 4K test

 

also @zasker try linking them up to each other via a Ethernet cable, that realy improves the speed between the computers and probely will fix the stuttering issue

their is a LTT video about it but i can't remember what i was called

 

The TV I was using the other night was linked up with ethernet, not directly but through the router. 

From what you said in the your other post though it may be the quality being too high for the NAS, its a of the shelf NAS and probably more aimed at cloud backups and file access (which I do use it for also).

Thinking about what you said about more cores for quality I may look into doing a server build in the spirit of the 8core gaming frankinstein video haha. 

10 hours ago, leadeater said:

Plex can be rather CPU intensive if the video quality is high or it is doing on the fly transcoding. Also unfortunately I can't actually see the images.

 

Try transcoding a video to a lower bit rate and playing that to see if the stuttering stops.

 

I'll give that a try with the movies... The thing that get me confused is it doesn't happen when I watch TV off of the NAS, but then again the episode are only 20 or so minutes.

Like I said before, I think it may be wise to look into a more purpose built machine for the job... and by purpose buillt, im meaning cheap ebay server hardware and see how it goes

[Eniqmatic]

WD EX4 has an ARM CPU (I think, from memory) and therefor cannot do any transcoding. It will be able to handle a single stream but other than that it will probably struggle as you are finding out. As mentioned, try lowering your resolution first then work from there.

[Eniqmatic]

On 8/29/2016 at 0:47 AM, samiscool51 said:

Plex needs many cores

follow this for content streaming (this was tested with windows server 2012 r2, should be the same with other OS's)

 

4K need 8-core or more

1080 4-core or more

720 dual core or more

480P and below single core or more

 

also @leadeater , next time if anyone has a question or problem about plex streaming/plex hardware requirements for streaming 4K, 1080 or other resolutions, send them the link to this post right here.

 

I'm afraid I have to disagree with you. I've used a dual core intel chip to handle 2 streams at the same time. Streaming doesn't take much power as mentioned by @leadeater. Transcoding is a different subject.

 

There are also more considerations to take into account other than just pure resolution such as bit rate, bit depth, compression method (h264 vs h265/HEVC) etc.

[zasker]

On 8/30/2016 at 8:50 AM, Eniqmatic said:

WD EX4 has an ARM CPU (I think, from memory) and therefor cannot do any transcoding. It will be able to handle a single stream but other than that it will probably struggle as you are finding out. As mentioned, try lowering your resolution first then work from there.

 

I only ever use a single stream at a time... I either watch the media in the front or back room, or on my laptop if I'm at uni... Although I should probably be studying haha. 

As for the resolution I understand what you mean and I will try it however this confuses me, see the other night I watched a film, 1080p quality and it stuttered like crazy, however last night I watched another film, also at 1080p and I had no issues at all. 

I don't know if this could be the issue but is it possible there is something wrong with the TV? I have noticed when the stuttering occurs the TV becomes unresponsive, it wont pause the media or even turn off. 

[Eniqmatic]

48 minutes ago, zasker said:

I only ever use a single stream at a time... I either watch the media in the front or back room, or on my laptop if I'm at uni... Although I should probably be studying haha. 

As for the resolution I understand what you mean and I will try it however this confuses me, see the other night I watched a film, 1080p quality and it stuttered like crazy, however last night I watched another film, also at 1080p and I had no issues at all. 

I don't know if this could be the issue but is it possible there is something wrong with the TV? I have noticed when the stuttering occurs the TV becomes unresponsive, it wont pause the media or even turn off. 

What you are talking about is streaming. I don't want to come across as condescending and tell you things you already know, but streaming takes place when the playback device (in this case, the TV) can play the source container natively. Transcoding takes place when the playback device is unable to play a specific format, the server will convert the file on the fly whilst it is being played, into a container that the playback device understands.

 

Now then, with that out the way, I do believe your NAS is not capable of transcoding, which in a way is good as it takes that out of the equation. That means the playback device must be able to natively play the content you want to play. You say you have your TV hooked up over ethernet correct? That eliminates wireless. Does your TV have an internet browser? If so could you go to a speedtest website and test your speed? This will just ensure there are not bottlenecks over your network and where your cable is concerned. I know you aren't playing content over the Internet, it's not that I want to test.

 

Can you also confirm if the issue occurs when playing the same file? This would indicate the TV maybe has a problem playing back a particular container, such as mkv for example. I.E can you play one file and it works fine, then play another file and it stutters. Exit and play the file that was working and it is fine, then play the bad file and it stutters. Is it reproducible every time is what I am asking.

[Yamoto42]

I like Kodi with a MySQL backend personally...I've tried Plex and Emby...Plex was just annoying.  Emby was alright...but the Raspberry Pi is perfectly capable of decoding it's own files.  I might have stuck with Emby if it wasn't so finicky with libraries...and even then I found most of its background activity to be quite unnecessary.

[leadeater]

12 hours ago, zasker said:

I only ever use a single stream at a time... I either watch the media in the front or back room, or on my laptop if I'm at uni... Although I should probably be studying haha. 

As for the resolution I understand what you mean and I will try it however this confuses me, see the other night I watched a film, 1080p quality and it stuttered like crazy, however last night I watched another film, also at 1080p and I had no issues at all. 

I don't know if this could be the issue but is it possible there is something wrong with the TV? I have noticed when the stuttering occurs the TV becomes unresponsive, it wont pause the media or even turn off. 

Keep in mind resolution isn't the only factor, two videos can be the same resolution but have much different bit rates. Check the actual file sizes, this is a crude but fast way to check if one has a higher bit rate as it will be a larger file. The better way is to actually check the video information and find out exactly what it is.

 

As @Eniqmatic mentioned about transcoding I would think this is more likely the issue, find a common encoding that all your devices support i.e. mp4 and make sure you transcode everything to that before putting it in to plex then you shouldn't have any issues. 

[Eniqmatic]

Quick tip, if you are using Plex, click the file info button when looking at a file you want to play, it will tell you all the information you need, including bit rate.

[zasker]

19 hours ago, leadeater said:

Keep in mind resolution isn't the only factor, two videos can be the same resolution but have much different bit rates. Check the actual file sizes, this is a crude but fast way to check if one has a higher bit rate as it will be a larger file. The better way is to actually check the video information and find out exactly what it is.

 

As @Eniqmatic mentioned about transcoding I would think this is more likely the issue, find a common encoding that all your devices support i.e. mp4 and make sure you transcode everything to that before putting it in to plex then you shouldn't have any issues. 

1

That explains a fair bit... but it leads me to another question.

Would it be possible to write a script for a raspberry pi to automatically convert any video file placed on the NAS to MP4 (and delete the old file)? That would save me a hell of a lot of time and I want an excuse to buy one lol.

[Eniqmatic]

19 minutes ago, zasker said:

That explains a fair bit... but it leads me to another question.

Would it be possible to write a script for a raspberry pi to automatically convert any video file placed on the NAS to MP4 (and delete the old file)? That would save me a hell of a lot of time and I want an excuse to buy one lol.

I'm sure a simple cron job ran every few minutes would suffice, with mechanisms to check another one isn't running. Not sure how well a Pi would handle conversions like that however, not sure if it would have the power.