HELP: Stuttering, skipping; fast CPU, network drive

[theosib]

I'm experiencing lots of stuttering problems, and I hope someone can help me sort out the problems. To begin with, I have a fast CPU, a Core 2 Duo, and when I copy any video to the local drive, it plays back flawlessly. I have problems, however, when I try to play back from a network drive. I get lots of skipping and stuttering, and when that happens, it doesn't just pause and continue where it left off; it skips chunks of video and audio, as though it's trying to keep up with the correct time sequence. The bandwidth from the server is also way more than enough, so I'm guessing it's all down to latency.

To deal with the skipping, I found a few options that seem to help a little. In the Access modules / File, I set the caching value to 1000ms, but that makes pausing take a whole second, so I don't think this is right. In Access filters / Dump, I enabled the dump filter. I can't tell exactly what this module is for, but my guess is that it copies some of the video locally. I set the temp file size to 64Mb. I also enabled Access filters / Timeshift. Some combination of them seems to reduce the problem, but it all comes down to there being not enough buffering, and the settings I made don't seem to be fixing the problem.

Can anyone tell me what is the correct and most appropriate way to increase the buffering so that these drop-outs are eliminated? Also, is there a setting to turn these drop-outs into brief pauses instead?

Thanks!

[The DJ]

the file-caching option is the one that is for this (and yes, it does have undesirable side affects).

the dump-filter dumps all data to disc (this is not what you want)
the timeshift-filter basically allows for time-delay watching of live streams. It might be that it helps your problem, but it's not really ideal either.

Best solution. Don't use Windows networksharing, and optimize your local network to have optimal response time (response time of the server [latency] is the issue here).

[theosib]

Thanks for the response. The server is using SMB, but it's an unloaded quad-core Core 2 Duo running at 3.4GHz, running Linux. I don't think the problem is the server. Are there any other options that might help?

[dgcurtis]

I've noticed the same thing after upgrading to 0.9.3. I was using 0.8.6 and it didn't have any issues.

My mac is core 2 duo and the linux server is running samba. I downloaded miro and tried it and it runs fine but I'd rather use VLC.

Doug

[dgcurtis]

Ahh. I just read the thread at viewtopic.php?f=12&t=50244

I'm going to switch back to 0.8.6.

Thanks,

Doug

[theosib]

I don't know that downgrading is going to help you. I had these problems with the previous version, which is why I upgraded. Is there any way to talk to the developers about this?

[The DJ]

you already are.

Patches welcome if you have any.

[dgcurtis]

Downgrading fixed the issue I was having over smb networks. xvid avis and 720p mkv files play perfectly now.

Doug

[The DJ]

It's likely related to the mmap input module. I might consider bypassing mmap for files in /Volumes in a future version of VLC. Though this says more about how terrible Apple coded this than anything else.