SMB playback ends after a few minutes

[GoogleCodeExporter]

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Play a file from a SMB share
2. Wait a while
3. Watch it stop suddenly and go back to the file list

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
To play the whole file, instead it just exits back to the file list after a 
while

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
.3.widescreen on 3.4 (US console), Mac OS X 10.5.6 is serving up the SMB shares 
with the built in 
server.

Please provide any additional information below.
Don't think it matters, but I'm using a mixed b/g/n network with WPA2 PSK AES.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by bck...@som.umass.edu on 1 Mar 2009 at 8:32

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Forgot to note one more thing, a few times I've noticed that it won't play back 
anything at all from the share.  
Going back up the menus to try to reconnect (or try a different share), I find 
that it won't connect to the share at 
all.

Original comment by bck...@som.umass.edu on 1 Mar 2009 at 8:33

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Just wanted to confirm that I am also experiencing this issue with v0.3.

I'd noticed that the changelog states that a previous issue with samba 
"keepalive"
packets had been resolved.  My problem seems to occur after exactly 6 minutes of
watching a video/listening to music, resulting in a fall back to main menu 
screen (or
occasionally a hard-lock with looping audio, no dump report).  6 minutes (or 300
secs) is the default time for the keepalive packets in smb.conf so I suspect 
that
this is still the cause.

I have set my smb.conf to include "keepalive = 0" and will report with back 
with more
info after testing.

Original comment by willastr...@gmail.com on 2 Mar 2009 at 7:46

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Yep, as suspected, setting keepalive to 0 seems to have resolved the issue so I 
think
the keepalive pings still need some work.

Using 3.3 - with October28th updates :( and MPCEv0.3 for what it's worth.

Original comment by willastr...@gmail.com on 2 Mar 2009 at 9:31

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Oh, sorry, PAL wii btw.

Original comment by willastr...@gmail.com on 2 Mar 2009 at 9:32

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Yeah I saw that too...but I can't even find a keepalive setting in my smb.conf, 
what OS are you using?  In OS X 
(as of 10.5.6 at least) there are two:

/private/etc/smb.conf and /private/var/db/smb.conf

The closest things I've found, which are just random guesses cause I don't 
really know what they are:
    idmap negative cache time = 5   I think this is something about domains
    max xmit = 131072     This is accompanied by "For performance reasons, set the transmit buffer size to the 
maximum and enable sendfile support."

Original comment by bck...@som.umass.edu on 2 Mar 2009 at 4:48

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I think he meant mplayer-ce's smb.conf. willastrella, do you know if the 3.0a
released posted five hours ago fixes this bug? Haven't had a chance to test it 
yet.

Original comment by haatv...@gmail.com on 2 Mar 2009 at 5:31

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Disregard that, 3.0a first froze when I tried to access my share, and then gave 
me a
black screen on application boot after shutting the Wii down. Will try disabling
keepalive for now.

Original comment by haatv...@gmail.com on 2 Mar 2009 at 5:38

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My smb shares are on a machine running Ubuntu Linux.  As far as I'm aware the
smb.conf should be the same on OSX though.  "keepalive" won't be listed under 
your
settings if you've never changed it from the default 300sec.

Simply add a new line to your config:

"keepalive = 0" (without quotes)

That should sort you out for now.  I'm gonna have a go with v0.3a in a min.  
Will let
you know how I get on after some more testing.

Original comment by willastr...@gmail.com on 2 Mar 2009 at 5:52

[GoogleCodeExporter]

haatveit
I've tested 0.3a with a Mac OS X 10.5.6 and works fine.
Can you retry?
sometimes wii network hang.
Please enable debug_network=yes to be sure that share is connected
Also be sure that you have removed invalid samba shares in smb.conf in your sd
I have problems if I add an invalid ip address, impossible to fix now.
Please post your smb.conf

Original comment by rodries@gmail.com on 2 Mar 2009 at 6:06

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I've just tested 0.3a with my setup but unfortunately it seems to have 
introduced a
new bug.

I can browse my samba shares fine but as soon as I select a file (.avi or 
.flac) the
app freezes.  I repeated this 3 times on the trot, leaving it between 5-10mins 
each
time.  The machine is unresponsive to any input from the wiimote during this 
lock up
and the display shows the screen in the state it was when the file was selected.

Any thoughts as to what might be causing this?  Presumably the fact I can 
browse my
samba shares means my configs are okay?

Original comment by willastr...@gmail.com on 2 Mar 2009 at 6:34

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ok  willastrella
I'll try to install Ubuntu to test, but it's odd that works in Mac and not in 
Ubuntu.

Original comment by rodries@gmail.com on 2 Mar 2009 at 8:09

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rodries
Sorry I screwed up, hadn't disabled the default smb2 in the new config file. 
After
fixing that it started and would let me connect to the share. However, it still 
quit
to the file list like before after some minutes.

I disabled keepalive in my samba config as willastrella suggested, but ten 
minutes
into Stargate it froze (not quitting back to the file list, the Wii remote 
doesn't
connect to it, etc). I know it's now a problem with the file itself as I 
watched it
on a USB stick yesterday. Now I wanted to do try once more to be sure I could
reproduce the bug, and it played for almost half an hour, but then finally 
ended up
freezing.

Running Arch Linux with samba 3.3.1.

Original comment by haatv...@gmail.com on 2 Mar 2009 at 8:22

[GoogleCodeExporter]

@Rodries:  First of all, kudos on keeping up the hard work on this project, it's
coming along great.

Secondly, I'm not sure that Ubuntu (or indeed any linux distro) is behind the
problems I'm experiencing.  With v0.3 I could browse my shares and play files 
with no
issues (other than the infamous "6 mins crash" caused by the keepalive pings not
being correctly returned).  Only since v0.3a have I experienced the playback 
crash issue.

How much was changed between v0.3 and v0.3a?  I think maybe (even if it's a
combination of my own settings) whatever was changed has caused me to not be 
able to
playback any media without it hanging.  Maybe I'll clear it from my SD card and 
give
a "fresh install" a go.

Original comment by willastr...@gmail.com on 2 Mar 2009 at 9:19

[GoogleCodeExporter]

willastrella I only change a "while" by a "if" in smb.c
you can see on smb.c on svn

remember wifi wii sucks, if you have a phone or a radio or another wireless near
you'll lost a lot of packets and samba freeze, wifi wii is very sensible to 
noise.
My wiimote slow down my wifi conection using wiiload

Original comment by rodries@gmail.com on 2 Mar 2009 at 9:53

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@Rodries, no probs, I'll have another test a bit later.

Yeah, I'm aware the wifi on the wii is pretty lame.  Irony is that I have 
ethernet
wall socket about 3 metres away.  Unfortunately, despite having several metres 
of
cat5 patch cable, I can't find my RJ-45 connectors to knock up a patch cable.  
I'll
get this sorted and let you know how I get on.

It's just the fact that I had no issue playing/loading files with v0.3 like I 
do with
v0.3a that led me to believe it may be a new, intermittent bug. 

Original comment by willastr...@gmail.com on 2 Mar 2009 at 10:06

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i too have mplayer random freeze after playing movies from smb (from vista) 

Original comment by magic12p...@gmail.com on 2 Mar 2009 at 10:23

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[deleted comment]

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Rodries - I went ahead and removed all signs of Mplayer CE on my SD card before
putting a clean copy of the latest version.

I'm happy to report that it seems to work very well now.  The menus feel a lot
'snappier' and seem to react quicker when accessing my shares and I managed to 
watch
a whole film yesterday without encountering a keepalive issue (with keepalive 
set to
300 on my Ubuntu file server), so I believe that issue is probably resolved.

When switching to another film I did encounter a hard lock with looping audio
however.  This doesn't seem to happen frequently now at least.

One thing I did notice was that I needed to apply the component-fix this time 
around.
 Unfortunately, it seems to stretch the image a little too far off the left and right
extremities of the screen, meaning that I lose part of the image.  Is the 
effect of
the component fix adjustable in any of the configs?

Original comment by willastr...@gmail.com on 3 Mar 2009 at 12:27

[GoogleCodeExporter]

The problem of "SMB playback ends after a few minutes" still not working for me.

I have an Iomega NAS disk and I can not set the keepalive option.

I'm using version 0.3a and the problem appears after a few minutes. I tried 
several
movies and the same thing always happens.

Original comment by amate...@gmail.com on 3 Mar 2009 at 7:48

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Sorry to 'me too' this issue, but hopefully more data will help:

Over SMB, I'm getting crashes several minutes into playback for a video (length
before crash seems to vary depending on the quality of the video, i.e. it may 
be a
total-data-transferred issue).  Using mplayer-ce-0.3, samba-3.2.8-0.26 (on 
fedora 10).

Here is smb.conf on the server:

[global]
        hosts allow = 192.168.1. 127.
        security = user
        workgroup = endonne
        netbios name = navi
        keepalive = 0

[data]
        path = /data
        read only = yes
        valid users = data

I have tried with and without the 'keepalive' and 'hosts allow' options.

I can browse the share successfully.  I can start a video.  When the crash 
happens,
the audio starts jumping, wiimote won't connect to the wii.  A hard reboot is 
necessary.

This happens every time over SMB, and never when playing from the SD card.

I'll try to grab a tcpdump of what's going on tonight.

Original comment by jpwi...@gmail.com on 3 Mar 2009 at 8:37

[GoogleCodeExporter]

@ amateosb,

Does your disconnect occur around 6 minutes every time? If so, it's almost 
certainly
keepalive that's still causing you issues.  In which case, it would appear the 
devs
need to look at this some more.

@  jpwigan,

Interesting that you get a crash every time.  I've only seen one since running 
the
latest version (after removing v0.3 altogether and replacing it with a "clean"
version of v0.3a).

I also wonder if some of these crashes could be related to the way that mplayer 
ce
handles wi-fi connection dropouts.  I've just installed an ethernet cable this
evening and it seems to have greatly increased the speed at which I can 
navigate my
shared directories.  It still takes some time for a file to begin playback (but 
I
assume this may be due to having to buffer a certain amount of data before 
proceeding).

I'll let you fellas know how I get on and whether the crashes seem to relate to 
poor
wi-fi connectivity.

Once again though, I'd like to thank Rodries and co for putting together and
maintaining such a useful app :)

Original comment by willastr...@gmail.com on 3 Mar 2009 at 10:42

[GoogleCodeExporter]

After upgrading to v0.3a (completely new install on a clean SD card), I've 
found that
the problem is somewhat alleviated, but not entirely.  Now, playback crashes 
about 11
minutes in - still crashes consistently.  Chasing down this path distracted me 
from
trying tcpdump; I'll get one of those when I can.

Original comment by jpwi...@gmail.com on 5 Mar 2009 at 4:29

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I have the same problem...

SMB share are visible but the wii freeze when I play a movie via Wifi (802.11/g)
The time is very variable (5min, 30min, 15min...) and a hard reset is needed
The same movie open on usb don't freeze..

Wii software 3.4
MPlayer 0.3a wildscreen
PC WinXP Pro
Wireless router 802.11/g

I dont find where modify the keepalive option on WinXP. I tryed modify the 
smb.conf 
with this option, but no change...

Original comment by bs863...@gmail.com on 5 Mar 2009 at 10:55

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Just testing .3a widescreen out for a bit, I got a crash but I think it was 
related to the file or decoder rather than 
the network issue (it was an H.264 mp4 and it was already having visible 
trouble decoding wise).  I played 
another file which played through fine up until the end in a 20 minute file, 
where the video stopped updating 
(audio kept going), not sure if that was a decode or network issue.

Damn, spoke too soon, just had the same back to menu problem right now on 
another file.  I'll try out the 
keepalive trick and post again.

Original comment by bck...@som.umass.edu on 6 Mar 2009 at 3:51

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Forgot to mention in my last post, while it did crash it did exit gracefully 
(back to HBC) at least.

Added "keepalive = 0" to my smb.conf and just finished watching an episode of 
Top Gear (about an hour), didn't 
have any problems.  Didn't test skipping around or anything, but at least I 
know watching straight through works.

Original comment by bck...@som.umass.edu on 6 Mar 2009 at 5:04

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I too am having an issue with mplayer locking up when watching movies via SMB. 
I 
have added the keepalive = 0 but still getting the locks.

I understand that the current thoughts is this a wifi connection issue, but is 
it 
just that mplayer can not re-establish a wifi connection after the issue popsup 
or 
is it something else. I have tried to increase the cache, hoping that a lil 
extra 
time would let it reconnect and keep pulling but no such luck.

Original comment by tay...@mailinator.com on 7 Mar 2009 at 5:43

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Can anyone confirm if using the USB network adapter route will resolve this 
issue? I 
would hate to buy it and still have the same issue, especially since I would 
need to 
run cable too =).

Original comment by tay...@mailinator.com on 9 Mar 2009 at 4:07

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I think that no-one can guarantee that the USB adaptor will resolve your 
problems.  
However, I threw out my wifi adaptor some time ago because I felt (! more than 
I 
could prove) that the bandwidth on the wifi adaptor was shocking.  Some 
comments on 
this site confirm this suspicion.  However, I am most intrigued by Issue 127.  
If I 
read this right, it does not matter what USB device you plug into the back of 
your 
Wii, you only gonna get 12 Mbps (USB 1.1).  I certainly have seen matters 
improve 
much since I am running across a powerline ethernet.  Let's face it, the true 
throughput - as opposed to the claimed b/g/n - on most wireless LANs is 
absolutely 
laughable.  And while I get plenty of random hangs, I cannot testify to the 
specific 
issue discussed here.  So you may well conclude that your problem is down to a 
slow 
connection.  MPlayer_Wii certainly appeared to have a lot of problems with slow 
networks;  MPlayer_CE appears much improved in this regard.  I look forward to 
the 
next release which, if I understand the comments in 127 correctly, should 
massively 
improve network speeds via USB.

Original comment by O...@vonRein.net on 23 Mar 2009 at 11:54

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Original comment by agent...@gmail.com on 6 Apr 2009 at 11:09

• Added labels: SMB

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Actually, I've worked on this problem but google code doesn't have a 'patch' 
section.

I'm attaching below the smb.c file after modification. Testing on my machine 
with my
video files look promising.

Please test and integrate into the build.

I will be submitting this to the libogc team directly as well.

Original comment by Dennis...@gmail.com on 18 Apr 2009 at 7:54

Attachments:

• smb.c

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Really good news!!!!

If you need a beta tester send me a build, and I'll send you feedback.

Original comment by fcuencam...@gmail.com on 18 Apr 2009 at 10:50

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DennisLKJ, could you sync with the latest SVN and apply the changes to that, 
and 
attach a new smb.c file? It will be easier to make sure I capture all your 
changes. 
Then I can review them and put them on libogc SVN. Thanks. -- Tantric

Original comment by dborth@gmail.com on 18 Apr 2009 at 3:58

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I've just double checked with the latest SVN and my file is up to date. (I was 
using
RapidSVN to get the latest trunk files). Anyway, I double checked by 
downloading the
latest file as per google code browse facility.

Note : The file attached earlier works fine with the version of libogc in the
mplayer_ce SVN. However, it doesn't play nice with the latest libogc SVN trunk. 
I'm
in the process of working out the problems before submitting to them.

Original comment by Dennis...@gmail.com on 18 Apr 2009 at 5:07

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant syncing to libogc SVN. No need to submit to 
them, I 
am them (well, one of them) ;)

Original comment by dborth@gmail.com on 18 Apr 2009 at 5:11

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Here is a version of the file which is caught up to the latest libogc SVN.

I had some problems with the latest changes in libogc (to make the socket non
blocking). These problems exist with the default mplayer build without my 
changes and
on a samba share with keepalive=0. I have done my best to resolve the issues and
integrate my changes. Again, the results look promising but require more in 
depth
testing.

Original comment by Dennis...@gmail.com on 19 Apr 2009 at 4:40

Attachments:

• smb.c

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hi
I've applyed your changes to last mplayer_ce and seems to work fine.
I've commented your changes to Tantric, probably he is going to commit to 
libogc svn
very soon. Thnks for your help.

Original comment by rodries@gmail.com on 20 Apr 2009 at 7:54

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The problem persists when playing files via SMB over Wifi with 0.5
Now the whole application doesn't hang, but the pictures freezes for some 
seconds,
while the audio glitches, then the movie might continue with skipping ahead 
through
some frames but in any case with audio and video out of sync. For, bo solution.
Happens with different movie files.

Original comment by dagorwa...@gmail.com on 22 Apr 2009 at 9:42

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This probably just means you have a poor wireless connection - bad throughput. 
Which 
means mplayer can't keep up. Good to know it isn't crashing or stopping 
completely 
anymore.

Original comment by dborth@gmail.com on 22 Apr 2009 at 10:10

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I´ve just install the 0.5

I´ve the exactly same problem than dagorwaith, Well, it´s less anoying than 
the hang :D

Original comment by german.d...@gmail.com on 23 Apr 2009 at 3:08

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@dborth: The router is in sight actually and the reception is near perfect at 
the
position of the Wii, at lest according to other WiFi devies I checked there. 

A suggestion was the puffersize, maybe increasing it would help

Original comment by dagorwa...@gmail.com on 23 Apr 2009 at 10:31

[GoogleCodeExporter]

simply change cache=xxx in mplayer.conf to increase the buffer. don't know what 
the
max is. playback will start as soon as the buffer if filled and it takes longer 
as
bigger the cache is.

Original comment by shemmerl...@gmail.com on 23 Apr 2009 at 12:53

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Well,

I´ve change the cache option (I´ve probe with 16384, 32768 and 131072) and the
freezings are quite often. I think it must be another think.

I´ve going back to 8192. It´s better.

Original comment by german.d...@gmail.com on 24 Apr 2009 at 12:29

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I met a similar problem that watching an rmvb video with SMB, mplayer-ce 0.5 
jumps
back to file list after ~100 min. Then I have to restart mplayer-ce to be able 
to
read any SMB file. Didn't meet this for short files with total watch time > 2 
hours.

Original comment by yuanc...@gmail.com on 8 May 2009 at 11:15

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I´ve gone back to 0.4 version. It`s better an occasional hang up than a more 
often freeze and audio/video 
desynchronization.

Original comment by german.d...@gmail.com on 9 May 2009 at 6:34

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I was having the same issue that most of you guys were having..
-i would start playing any movie over SMB
-7 minutes into it, my wii would freeze(no audio, frozen video, wiimote 
unresponsive)

what i did to fix this was the following
-downloaded cios installer
http://mplayer-ce.googlecode.com/files/cIOS_Installer.rar

-placed all the files in the cios installer rar file into a folder called 
ciosinstaller

-placed that folder under the "apps" directory of my SD card

-popped my SD card into my wiiwii

-launched my homebrew channel

-launched the cios installer

-clicked right on my wiimote until i found the ios36 option

-clicked A

-and allowed it to install and reboot to my homebrew channel

NOTE: must have a wifi connection.

there is also a way to do it offline...located here.
http://www.tehskeen.com/forums/showthread.php?p=62838#post62838

SOURCE: http://code.google.com/p/mplayer-ce/wiki/Configs
SOURCE: http://code.google.com/p/mplayer-ce/wiki/USB20

hope this helped someone 

Original comment by grnslv.d...@gmail.com on 30 Aug 2009 at 9:28

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version 0.62 won't freeze on smb divx.

Original comment by gsol...@gmail.com on 3 Nov 2009 at 6:43

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try latest version on topic in irc channel
Also if you have dinamyc ip on your wii change to static
please report results

Original comment by rodries@gmail.com on 26 Jan 2010 at 9:33

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The new beta version still locks even just browsing the smb dir... =(

Original comment by paulo.fe...@gmail.com on 11 Feb 2010 at 11:27

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Humm, don't know if it's related with the static ip address, but I was able to 
watch a 
20min movie completely for the first time. Unfortunately it locked the wii when 
the 
movie finished...
The wii remote blinks but doesn't get assigned.
I think just a bit more and there will be stability.

Original comment by paulo.fe...@gmail.com on 11 Feb 2010 at 12:13

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Same problem for me... 0.75 divx playback over smb was working perfectly, but I 
upgraded because dvd playback didn't work. Now with the latest version from app 
browser, the freezing bug is back, but dvds are working.

Original comment by lucas.vi...@gmail.com on 11 May 2010 at 12:25