[Video] .MKV files stuttering on wired network

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What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. playing any .MKV file
2.
3.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
Depending upon the movie, .mkv files run fast then jutter after after a
certain time from.  Buffer never gets very high.  On Stealth it happens
near the beginning.  Sometimes it happens after the movie has been playing
for some time.  I then pause it for about 30sec to aminute and then resume
and it works for about another 10 minutes.

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
XP service pack 3

If you are transcoding a media file, which engine are you using (mencoder,
avisynth/mencoder, tsmuxer?)
Mencoder.  

If the media file is in error (or does not play flawlessly), what are the
codec informations of this file (you can use following program:
mediainfo.sourceforge.net) ? No errors

Please provide any additional information below and PLEASE JOIN debug.log
file !!
This is a brand new Pentium D 960 Dual Core 3.6 GHz 3.6GHz 4M L2 LGA775 CPU
with 1 gig memory on board.  I would think from reading the board this
would play 1080p with no problem.  any ideas.  Thanks

Original issue reported on code.google.com by wefly...@yahoo.com on 25 Jan 2009 at 4:15

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After finding the forums section, and reading through the 3 pages of similar 
issues,
it appears mine is very similar.  Buffer never gets full enough and can't feed 
the
ps3, especially during high demand video scenes.  

Original comment by wefly...@yahoo.com on 25 Jan 2009 at 4:35

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Not sure this cpu is enough to transcode 1080p. (check the cpu usage when 
simply 
playing it on your computer; if average cpu usage goes higher than 50, 55%, 
it's a 
bad sign). However, 720p should be easy

Original comment by ps3mediaserver@gmail.com on 25 Jan 2009 at 4:55

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thanks, I'll report back on Wednesday.  Out of town until then.  720p files ARE
stuttering as well though as reported in the forum.  I watched HOOSERiers 720p 
last
night and the buffer never got very high yet after 40 minutes, I had to pause 
the
movie for a minute or so every 10 minutes so I could make it to the end.  

Original comment by wefly...@yahoo.com on 25 Jan 2009 at 5:07

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Not enough?

I have a slower CPU, AMD dual core 2.6ghz and it transcodes 1080p without any 
big issues.
When played on the PC the CPU load is about 70-80%, when transcoded both cores 
are at
90-95%.

Buffer always full with 720p, but with 1080p it barely gets full (sometimes 
only)

Original comment by d.ili...@gmail.com on 25 Jan 2009 at 10:40

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I'm have this same issue with watching 1080p mkvs

I have a 2GHz Macbook Code 2 Duo with 2GB of ram over a wired gigabit network.

A couple of nights ago I was trying to watch a 1080p version of Taken, I paused 
the 
movie once it loaded and let the buffer fill up to 600MB.  Within a couple of 
mins of 
watching, the buffer would run out and the movie would start stuttering.

Lastnight I tried to watch it again, but set the max number of MB to 15, 
thinking 
that if there's less being transcoded that it might not effect the buffer as 
much.  
Let the buffer load to 600MB again and started watching.  The movie lasted a 
little 
bit longer, but started stuttering again.  The buffer never really replenished 
much 
of itself while the movie was running.

Is my comp just not good enough to play 1080p mkv's?

Original comment by o0Flip...@gmail.com on 28 Jan 2009 at 6:33

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you will either have to use txmuxer or use mkv2vob to convert it to an m2ts 
first.
Tsmuxer uses audio that scrambles the audio channels right now but is going to 
be
fixed next release.

Original comment by eket...@gmail.com on 29 Jan 2009 at 6:52

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I did a lot of experimenting today and here is what I found.  CPU load on PC was
around 50% when watched just on monitor.  Should be good enough for most 
.mkv's, even
1080p.  I watched "stealth 1080p DTS again" and did nothing fancy.  Stuttured 
just
about 2 minutes in.  Then I paused it at the very beginning and let the buffer 
fill 
up completely, 600mb.  It worked for about 10 minutes but then the buffer ran 
dry and
the stuttering began.

I also have an Imac that is wireless that I have been playing with PS3 media 
server
as well.  It is a core 2 Duo 2.4 Mhz with 2mb memory.  Not as fast as the PC, 
but it
does have an 800 mhz bus speed.  Tried the same experiment on that.  Stuttered 
about
4-5 minutes in with no buffer pre load.  After loading the buffer completely 
full,
the entire movie played fine.  The buffer would run down to about 4.5 mb in some
spots but then it would fill again.

Original comment by wefly...@yahoo.com on 30 Jan 2009 at 1:23

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I have AMD 5050E dualcore in gigabitlan, 1080p mkv movie plays fine until 
buffer is
consumed. CPUs don't use all potential, when core1 is about 95% then core2 is 
about
20% and they change positions simultaneusly. When core1 drops in 10-20% at the 
same
time core2 rises to 90-95%. Both cores are newer doing simultaneusly encoding 
at full
speed. When server is configured for 1cpu then it stays in 100% constantly. And 
it is
in fact faster than using both cores. Is there anything I can do for utilising 
both
cores at full? All other movies works great. I am using PS3mediaserver on 
ubuntu 8.10.

Original comment by antti.la...@gmail.com on 4 Feb 2009 at 9:54

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"I am using PS3mediaserver on ubuntu 8.10."

mencoder on linux does NOT have multithreaded H264 decoding (at least in 
official 
revisions). you have to build a custom mencoder build with the ffmpeg-mt 
branch. 
search the forum, some people have done that

Original comment by ps3mediaserver@gmail.com on 4 Feb 2009 at 6:04

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any news on this ? seems to me either low CPU issues or multithreaded mode not 
enabled 

Original comment by ps3mediaserver@gmail.com on 6 Feb 2009 at 9:49

• Changed title: [Video] .MKV files stuttering on wired network

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I did build custom mencoder and now both cores are working but still it is not 
enough
to produce full buffer. It would be nice to hear others comment about their
experience with 5050e cpu in linux/windows. Is it just too slow or do I have 
still
some other problems.

Original comment by antti.la...@gmail.com on 6 Feb 2009 at 10:11

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I have a similar issue with 5050e not using full CPU. However my only stalling 
with 
HD MKVs seems to be bandwidth related... Or perhaps the compression rate is 
dropped 
as the buffer is running low to generate more cpu power?

Perhaps there is a bug here. Either way there's an issue related to explosive 
bandwidth possibly caused by an empty buffer. Given that the CPUs aren't being 
taxed 
I guess there's room for improvement here.

Original comment by gmscr...@googlemail.com on 6 Feb 2009 at 10:57

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I am having the same issue with the stutters but as soon as i convert the 720p 
video
from .mkv to .mpg using mkv2vob the stream is stutter free throughout. Any 
ideas?

Original comment by chris.go...@barclays.com on 26 Feb 2009 at 11:17

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My laptop is an IBM Thinkpad Lenovo T61. In the system properties, it reads 
"Intel 
ore 2 Duo CPU T8100 @ 2.10Ghz with 0.97Gb RAM". On the laptop itself, it says 
"Intel 
Centrino vPro".
I watched several 720P and a couple of 1080P and had no problems.
Then I watched "No country for old men", 1080P (gtood movie btw ;). PMS set to 
"best 
quality", buffer set to 600Mb. The buffer filled up, but then became empty (the 
beginning of the movie shows panoramic landscape complex scenes in the desert). 
I had 
to pause the movie and wait for the buffer to fill up again. But then I had a 
message 
from windows saying "new updates were installed, please reboot the system" with 
two 
buttons (later and reboot). I felt better to realise the problem could be that 
the 
system was busy with the automatic updates downloading and installing. The day 
after, 
I watched the beginning of the movie again, and this time it worked well, 
though the 
buffer took long time to fill up during the above mentioned complex scenes.
Hope it helps.

Original comment by oua...@gmail.com on 27 Feb 2009 at 12:22

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athlon 64 X2 dual core 6400+ 3.2ghz, 2gb ram, vista, gigabit wired

Played 1080p with stuttering, then i found the dual core mode and now it works 
fine.
 I have to let the buffer build up first...

Original comment by bbell...@gmail.com on 29 Mar 2009 at 5:30

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I am facing this issue too, I used to have all my files propoerly streaming. 
the 
problem is that I don't remember changing anything except downloading the 
latest PS3 
media server version and upgrading my PS3 firmware to the latest firmware

Original comment by hgha...@gmail.com on 11 Jun 2009 at 7:09

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I have an AMD Athlon X2 5600+ Windsor (2.8Ghz).  I have a few movies in 1080p 
MKV 
format.  I initally had the stuttering problem and also a desync of audio/video.

I had the PS3 on Wifi and my computer wired.  Even running moving the PS3 to a 
wired 
connection provided the same issues.  I've now upgraded my network to be 
completely 
Gigabit, and I have not run into any issues with stuttering on streaming 1080p 
movies.

Running PMS 1.10.51, Windows Vista SP2.

Original comment by Alan.Far...@gmail.com on 1 Oct 2009 at 12:47

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I have the same problem on my PC. It happens whenever I watch 720p movies via 
ps3 media 
server (wifi) that are about 90min+. Watching 720p rips of TV Series between 40 
and 
60mins can't reproduce the stuttering effect.

AMD PhenomII X4 940 3Ghz 
4GB RAM
Win7 64bit

Original comment by lusch...@gmx.net on 4 Jan 2010 at 8:38

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Stuttering issue here as well, but it seems to happen only when I'm running mkv 
with
subtitles... watched a 720p rip of Brotherhood Of The Wolf and it would play 
fine for
about 20 or 30 minutes, then playback would get jerky and I'd have to pause it 
to let
the buffer refill. Also, it was maxing out my CPU upwards of 70-75%. I'm going 
to
test it out with another 720p file that does not have subtitles to see if that 
has
any effect. NOTE: I've been using this excellent media server for about a year 
now
and have never had this stuttering playback issue before, even with 720p subs 
so I'm
not sure what the situation is here. Will post an update after I've tested.

My system specs:

Windows XP
Pentium 4 3.00GHz
2GB RAM

PMS v1.20.409

Original comment by bps3...@gmail.com on 29 Mar 2010 at 3:06

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UPDATE: I tested v1.20.409 with an entire 720p mkv with subtitles and had NO 
stutter
at all. Hopefully that was the fix! :)

Original comment by bps3...@gmail.com on 29 Mar 2010 at 6:26

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I also have problems with some 720p movies running with subtitles. I will try 
the v1.20.409 and I will let you 
know.

Original comment by arevalo...@gmail.com on 4 Apr 2010 at 8:38

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I have this problem regularly. I'm watching "House" and "The Big Bang Theory" 
via
PMS. There are no problems when I'm watching "House" but I have the same issues 
as
described above. Both "House" and "The Big Bang Theory" are .mkv files. I have 
a Dell
Inspiron Laptop (3.5 years old) with a T2050 running at 1.6 GHz. I was running
Windows XP (SP2 & 3) and now Windows 7 => Same issues...

Original comment by Donu...@gmail.com on 4 Apr 2010 at 10:04

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UPDATE: as the comment by bps3013, new release (v1.20.409 *BETA*) fixed my 
issues with 
720p mkv files. Try it!

Original comment by arevalo...@gmail.com on 6 Apr 2010 at 9:19

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Hello

I've also been having some problems using PSM when i am trying to whatch a 720p 
movie
with subs.

When i run a 720p movie without subs, it runs smooth. 

When i run the same 720p movie with subs, it will stutter like crazy the moment 
the
first subtitels apear on screen. 

I have also tried the new beta release(v1.20.409). But that didn't make any 
differance 

Original comment by SJaY....@gmail.com on 15 Apr 2010 at 11:40

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Hi All,

I've been using the BETA now for some time on an MAc (Hackintosh) with a C2D 
2,4Ghz CPU and now on a 
Core2Quad 2,6Ghz. Stuttering has been a big issue with 1080p, also on the Quad.

After a lot of testing together with a friend of mine, we discovered that is is 
due to subs in the mkv AND using 
MEncoder. TsMuxer always works (no stuttering), as it does not (yet) uses subs. 
But with MEncoder AND subs, 
stuttering is inevitable.... Also so on a Quad Core. Of course, this only 
happens with high bitrate mkv's (like 
Avatar 1080p)

TsMuxer does seem to have a FAR lower CPU load, so if subs would be intergrated 
with TsMuxer, probably 
there would be no problem.

Original comment by mishahen...@gmail.com on 7 Jun 2010 at 3:52

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subs on causes stuttering and the buffering takes ages (compared to nosubs)
subs off = flawlessly. Buffering goes full in 1-2 seconds and movie will play 
on the second when you jump to a specific time.

I have only experienced this with .mkv's. I use this software as-is when 
installed.
My 3year old comp:
    MS Windows XP Professional 32-bit SP3
    AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+  58 °C
    Brisbane 65nm Technology
    4.0GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 389MHz (5-5-5-18)
    ASUSTeK Computer INC. M2N32-SLI DELUXE (Socket AM2 )

Me and coding is like Grandma's and computers. So if anyone has a fix. Please 
provide a "what-to-do-and-when-to-do-it" step-by-step manual for telling me 
what to paste where. Even better, make a new beta availible :D

Thnx for all the work u guys put into this!
It's really appreciated. I hope you find a fix for this soon!

Original comment by tom.myr...@gmail.com on 22 Jul 2010 at 10:33

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Hi,

When i watch 1080P (mkv) movies with subs i got the stuttering problems.

Both my core's are at 95% (only using PS3 media server)

I think it is a setting problem because before i changed settings it works fine 
but it begins to stutter because i had a 100Mbit network. I didn't now that so 
i changed settings...

Now i got a full N netwerk with gigabit router enz. but the movie is still 
stuttering.

How can i get the default settings back or how can i delete the program and 
settings so i can reinstall it again?

My asus laptop got a Intel core 2 Duo CPU T8100 @ 2.10Ghz with 3.0GB mem.

Original comment by regillio...@gmail.com on 3 Aug 2010 at 11:34

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Hi, and thanks for a great application. I use it on my AMD Athlon X2 4000, XP 
SP3, 2GB RAM. I've been trying to get some 720p mkv (h264) files to play (Top 
Gear), but playback will stutter. The transcoding doesn't keep up with the 
buffer, even though CPU utilization varies only between 50% and 70%. I haven't 
got a clue as to why. I've tried to toggle the dual cpu optimization, as well 
as installing CCCP and avisynth and setting avisynth/mencoder as top choice.

I'd be grateful for any help.

Lars Erik

Original comment by lars.eri...@gmail.com on 7 Aug 2010 at 2:38

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Btw, I also play the files on a wired network, and I view them on my xbox 360. 
I've tried both stable and unstable releases. Will try the linux version next.

Original comment by lars.eri...@gmail.com on 7 Aug 2010 at 2:39

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Also stuttering problems here. Tried a lot of different things, but nothing 
helps yet. For as far as I know the problems are only there when playing 1080p 
movies, for instance avatar and the "life" series. 

Another problem (or at least a weird thing) that I experience is that the 
screenplay is stretched at my TV. However, this can be solved using the video 
scaler.

System:
Dell studio XPS 8100
i7 870 core, 2,93GHz
6GB RAM

TV: Sony KDL EX500

Original comment by jwverm...@gmail.com on 15 Sep 2010 at 7:47

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Someone commented that his CPU might not be fast enough, I have stuttering 
issues as well and none of my cores gets above 25% while streaming

Original comment by oga...@gmail.com on 30 Sep 2010 at 11:19

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same stuttering issue on some MKV HD files but not others.Guess I need a souped 
up PC to solve it, but i only use 50% processor power when streaming MKV so who 
knows

Original comment by jontege...@gmail.com on 2 Oct 2010 at 10:26

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I am having the same stuttering problem in a high end quad core with 4GB of 
ram.  CPU's don't go over 20% during playback but I get stuttering.

Original comment by tbw...@gmail.com on 7 Nov 2010 at 6:09

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I have the same exact problem with mkv's on a Core i7 920 rig with 6GB of ram. 
If I stream Dragon Ball Kai via PS3 Media Server, all I get is stuttering 
starting at the very begining with all encoders, except TSMuxer. Unfortunately 
TSMuxer does not display any subs, so that point is moot.

PS3 is wireless and signal is between 60-70% on a Wireless G network with 
nothing else using bandwidth. I am using v1.20.412, and have tried the stable 
release, and older betas with the same exact problem. TVersity does not display 
this problem.

Specs:
Win7 64bit Ultimate
Core i7 920
6GB DDR3
2x 5850 in Crossfire, but it would happen with a single 5850 too.

Original comment by dcassid...@mass.rr.com on 14 Nov 2010 at 8:57

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I am getting this exact same mkv stuttering problem when trying to get Avatar 
1080p to work, and I don't think it is my home network or cpu.  Though I'm 
fully wireless i have 4/5 reception bars on my pc and 100% connection rating on 
the ps3.  The cpu is an AMD Phenom II X4 (Quad Core) 920 which runs at 2.8ghz, 
and I have 4 gb ddr3 installed.  My gc is a radeon hd4850.  When playing the 
movie the pc's cpu never goes over 8% usage, but on the ps3 when i press 
select, when the number to the right of AVC in the upper right hand corner goes 
above 15Mbps the movie starts stuttering and doesn't stop until it drops below 
~15Mbps.  I've tried following the guides to play with the settings a little 
bit, but nothing seems to really affect this problem.  I downloaded CoreAVC and 
am now using it to render h264, and used the win7 program to get windows to 
play along with CoreAVC.  This didn't seem to affect anything.  Then I tried 
raising tsmuxer's priority to the top, above mencoder.  This also doesn't seem 
to have affected anything.  For the people who had this problem before, did you 
get it fixed?  Did tsmuxer really fix everything?  This still seems like an 
unsolved problem to me...

Original comment by erikvie...@comcast.net on 6 Dec 2010 at 12:56

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Stuttering/transcoding issues are addressed in the FAQ:

http://ps3mediaserver.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3507&p=42818#p42818

Please discuss the issue on the forum if that doesn't solve your problem:

http://ps3mediaserver.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=496

Original comment by chocol...@cpan.org on 1 Feb 2011 at 1:00

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