U5 is lagging when playing movies with loading/cashing on and off

[DantesAID]

Hello everyone, 

Here is the problem that i am noticing for the last month or so and here are the steps i took to debug it.

1. Full restart of U5

2. force to stop Plex (this is the app i use to mange and watch all my movie libraries)

3. Make sure i am on the latest firmware for the app and the unit.

 

Problem is for whatever reason the U5 has been having slowdowns while watching new movies in my collection. They start playing fine but then every 10-15minutes i get little loading icon in the middle of the screen that shows the precashing of the movie OR it indicates that connection is slow and its unable to pull the moves from my local PC connected to the same network as U5. I dont think its the network bandwidth issue since i have been able to watch moves in (.mkv) well over 20-28gigs in size but maybe has something to do with the type of codec and or bitrate those movies have been encoded. Here is the example 

Media

• Duration 2:00:20
• Bitrate 15045 kbps
• Width 3824
• Height 1588
• Aspect Ratio 2.35
• Video Resolution 4K
• Container MKV
• Video Frame Rate 24p
• Video Profile main 10

Part

• Duration 2:00:20
• File 123.mkv
• Size 12.65 GB
• Container MKV
• Video Profile main 10

• Codec HEVC
• Bitrate 14276 kbps
• Language English
• Language Tag en
• Bit Depth 10
• Chroma Location topleft
• Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
• Coded Height 1592
• Coded Width 3824
• Color Primaries bt2020
• Color Range tv
• Color Space bt2020nc
• Color Trc smpte2084
• Frame Rate 23.976 fps
• Height 1588
• Level 5.0
• Profile main 10
• Ref Frames 1
• Width 3824
• Display Title 4K HDR10 (HEVC Main 10)
• Extended Display Title 4K HDR10 (HEVC Main 10)

• Codec EAC3
• Channels 6
• Bitrate 768 kbps
• Language English
• Language Tag en
• Audio Channel Layout 5.1(side)
• Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
• Display Title English (EAC3 5.1)
• Extended Display Title English (EAC3 5.1)

• Codec SRT
• Language English
• Language Tag en
• Title English
• Display Title English (SRT)
• Extended Display Title English (SRT)

• Codec SRT
• Language English
• Language Tag en
• Title English
• Display Title English (SRT)
• Extended Display Title English (SRT)

 

 

as you can see there is nothing strange about the codec and the compression of the video file.

Same issue comes up with files that are double in size and bitrate = 25k

Checking Plex network bandwidth, its around 90 mbps which is more the sufficient for the network to handle. Also this what plex is showing me, "the amount ongoing bandwidth reserve for this playback is 54mbps".

 

 

I did try VLC on U5 to play the save video and its even worse

 

I dont understand what the issue is.

The video file is located on USB3 external HDD and its working fine, as expected. 

Nothing else is connected to U5, no hdd, no memory sticks and all that

[Emporium]

WiFi or wired ?   If it is WiFi, can you test with Wire ?   Could be router getting overwhelmed and not the U5.

I gave up on plex a little while ago.  Every version brought a new bug which annoyed me.  I have my video library on my Synology and just use DS Video.   But in this case, since you tried streaming using VLC, I don't think it is a plex issue.

I'm assuming no transcoding is enabled on the plex server ?  Does it do this with h.264 encoded media also ?

Have you tried to use a file browser (lie ES File explorer, solid explorer, total commander, etc..) which has SMB support, to try to copy the file from your file server over to the U5, to see if it can do so in a stable manner without slowdowns ?

There are quite a few variables and you need to divide and isolate them one by one.   File server, network (wifi vs wired), router, plex server config, etc..

Does your equipment support 5.1 surround ?  Have you tried with media that does NOT have 5.1 audio (just stereo) ?  If your setup does not support 5.1 audio, try disabling the auto detection.. From Home screen, Settings->Device preferences->Display and Sound->Advance sound settings->Select formats (and select "none: never use surround sound").

 

 

 

[DantesAID]

Hi,

I want to test something and i have a question. I want to move a file directly to U5 and play from it to see if thats the issue. The problem is the U5 does not have enough space (i think default is like 26gigs). Can i attach USB3 memory drive say 256gigs and transfer the video file directly from my computer to the USB drive and then using Plex/VLC to play it directly from the USB?

It would be super usefully in cases like this that maybe my files is to big and i could in the future attach a few TB drive to U5 and have on it only the super large files that are = to 30-50gigs in size.

Thank you 

[dishuser]

why not format the external in the base as internal first and then transfer over the usb?

[Emporium]

9 hours ago, DantesAID said:

Hi,

I want to test something and i have a question. I want to move a file directly to U5 and play from it to see if thats the issue. The problem is the U5 does not have enough space (i think default is like 26gigs). Can i attach USB3 memory drive say 256gigs and transfer the video file directly from my computer to the USB drive and then using Plex/VLC to play it directly from the USB?

It would be super usefully in cases like this that maybe my files is to big and i could in the future attach a few TB drive to U5 and have on it only the super large files that are = to 30-50gigs in size.

Thank you 

Once you plug a USB drive into any Buzz, you can launch VLC and you can then scroll down to the external device, and locate the media file that is on it and play it.  I do it all the time on my mom's box.

 

 

[DantesAID]

Meaning,

Copy the file to USB, unplug it from the pc, connect it to the U5 and play the movie like that?

I just did that and it seems to work just fine in VLC and Plex as well. I was just hopping not to do this everytime i get the file that is more or equal to 30-60gigs (ps i understand network limitation for pulling such a large file). Thing is i have a lot of them so it would be much easier for me to select say 200gigs of such files and do the transfer directly to the drive that is connected to U5. As suppose running around unplugging them from PC to U5 and back. 

Just saying  

 

PS, i seem to remember Nvidia shield had this ability. Any drive i would connect to the unit would show up on my PC

[Emporium]

Did you read what DU said ?  If it is seen as internal storage, then the enable of sharing will be able to browse that also.

Other option if you want is to use a file manager (I use solid explorer, but there es file explorer, total commander, etc..) which have SMB support and can access you other network shares and you can initiate the copy from your U5 and copy from your remote share to your box.  I do this all the time.

But WHY copy locally ?  The U5 has a gigabit connection, why not just stream directly from network instead of copying locally ?  Even without setting up any plex or jellyfin server, you can use VLC and it will allow you to browse your local network.  I just tried it even on my older 4900 and it saw all 5 of my currently active NAS servers without even a hesitation and was able to browse and stream.

 

 

[DantesAID]

Yes i did and let me get this straight. 

Here is what i am doing but for some reason i am still unable to see my newly formatted USB as a drive on my windows machine. Attaching a few photos, hopefully it will explain what i am seeing on my screen. I have no problem accessing "INTERNAL" shares on U5 and able to transfer files to that but again its doing it to the local memory of U5. How do i get to newly installed USB drive on my windows machine?

Windows commander shows me the same folder structure as explorer. Shows internal but not external USB attached.

 

As for streaming over gigabit connection. It works fine is i am pulling a movies say around 15-25gigs in size but if my MKV file is 35-50gigs then U5 and in effect gigabit network is unable to play it properly. I am starting to get slow downs every now and then depending on the size. The bigger the size the more lag i get when pulling it from the network thats why i want to be able to move large moves to say USB HDD that is directly connected to U5. I dont mind moving the file over network from PC to U5 i just need to figure out how to make my USB stick or in effect HDD that i have hooked up to U5 be visible in windows.

 

PS. I am able to copy and delete files from INTERNAL no problem, its just INTERNAL only has 23gigs available, u know what i mean. 

 

[Emporium]

First of all, something is not normal with your box slowing down on large files.  I have easily streamed 50GB BluRay rips (with a dozen or so included soundtracks and dozens of subtitle tracks encoded in the mkv), without an issue in the past directly from my Synology RS2418+ NAS, and from my smaller DS1817+.

Secondly why are you so stuck on trying to get the U5 drive visible on windows ?  Why don't you just use a file manager on the U5, and do it the opposite way around like I mentioned previously.  

Solid explorer, ES File explorer, Total Commander just to name a few are Android file managers which support SMB and can see windows file shares.  Find the window share, select the movies you want, and copy them over to your attached storage.  Not complicated really.

 

[dishuser]

if internal is showing only 23 gb then you didn't format external to internal