[Q] Kodi 1080p buffer issues - Nexus Player Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi all,
I installed Kodi (ARM) - Helix (kodi-14.0-Helix-armeabi-v7a) and encounter performance/buffering issues with movie (MKV) files > 5 GB. This issue occurs within the first minute and so on. Files which are less then 5GB seem to run fine. From reading on this forum and other posts on the internet Kodi should be able to play those files without buffering issues.
My Nexus Player is connected via USB -> Ethernet hub (i initialy ran via Wifi). My movies/series are stored on my Synology NAS 213J (latest DSM). I use NFS to connect to my NAS.
Netflix and Youtube seem to run without issues whatsoever, so i don't think the connection is the issue.
I already tried the following:
- Unchecked 'MediaCodec' in the advanced video settings. This results in the following behaviour: when i try to open a file it closed Kodi instead and i am back to the main menu of the Nexus player
Please note that i am new to using Kodi. Am i using the correct version of Kodi? Can i alter something in the advancedsettings.xml? And if so, what settings should i use? Or is there another thing i could try?
Please let me know if i can provide a log-file (and how to get one ).
Thanks in advance for the help.
Update: i notice the following error in the kodi log: CDVDMediaCodecInfo::ReleaseOutputBuffer ExceptionOccurred render(1)

Update from my own investigation:
Seems to be related to the ethernet connection after all. I sideloaded the speedtest.net app and notice i only get 5Mbps speed through ethernet (connection should be atleast 80Mbps connected to the internet). I think 5Mbps wont cut it for 1080p mkv's.
I use this USB -> RJ45 cable: BobjGear USB to RJ45 Compact Fast Ethernet Adapter made for Android Tablets (bought from Amazon. I cant post the link since i am a new user). Is this cable the bottle neck?
If so, do you guys have a suggestion in what other USB -> Ethernet connector i should use (europe seller prefered)?
Thanks!

Related

WiFi connectivity problems

Has anyone had issues with their player randomly dropping connection to WiFi?
I only noticed this because I use Plex a lot. And after a few days it would stop playback and tell me it couldn't find the server. So naturally I though it was either an issue with my server (never had problems in the past) or the app.
Recently I noticed when I scroll through the apps the WiFi logo at the bottom shows its not connected.
I scrolled through setting to try and see if there's any advance settings I could tweak but there's not.
I will reset my netgear router when I get home. But has anyone experienced this yet??
Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk
Haven't had any issues staying connected to my AC68U over the past three days. Family streamed a few movies yesterday and last night and been playing music quite a bit without any problems. Hopefully resetting your router will fix your issue. Good luck.
I have also been having wifi issues on the nexus player. I have not updated to the recent image that was posted and was hoping that would fix the issue. I also have a usb ethernet adapter on the way. Not really impressed with the devices so far, am still using my mk808 primarily which the nexus player was supposed to replace
Edit: update by flashing the latest system.IMG and have not had WiFi drop out yet.
Elrondolio said:
Haven't had any issues staying connected to my AC68U over the past three days. Family streamed a few movies yesterday and last night and been playing music quite a bit without any problems. Hopefully resetting your router will fix your issue. Good luck.
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I believe I got it acting right now. I saw in another thread issues with the player dropping 5ghz signal. It was suggested to just use 2.4 band instead. When I got home this morning I set up a separate network for the player to connect to with the player as the highest priority and it seems to be jam up.
Only other issue I'm seeing is my mkv blurays will only play for a few minutes then stop. They're huge files so I'm thinking this has something to do with it. Other than that I'm happy for now!
Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk
same problem. Fix?
I have had the exact same problem. If it isn't too much trouble, would you mind explaining how you did this? I am not too versed in network technology. I am guessing this is something I do on the d-link page? Is that correct?
Thanks so much.
codygs83 said:
I believe I got it acting right now. I saw in another thread issues with the player dropping 5ghz signal. It was suggested to just use 2.4 band instead. When I got home this morning I set up a separate network for the player to connect to with the player as the highest priority and it seems to be jam up.
Only other issue I'm seeing is my mkv blurays will only play for a few minutes then stop. They're huge files so I'm thinking this has something to do with it. Other than that I'm happy for now!
Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
markculton said:
I have had the exact same problem. If it isn't too much trouble, would you mind explaining how you did this? I am not too versed in network technology. I am guessing this is something I do on the d-link page? Is that correct?
Thanks so much.
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Click to collapse
I've been using Plex for 4 years or so.. In my experience, nothing beats using Ethernet instead of Wifi...
I use TP Link Powerline extender to connect the Nexus Player (i also have a Roku next to it)... My plex media server is on a laptop connected directly to the router... I have tried everything and this set up is the fastest and the best resolution. NEVER buffers and i watch everything in 1080p.
Stop wasting time figuring out the wifi and go ethernet. You wont regret it.
Wifi needs to be better.
spyderman33 said:
I use TP Link Powerline extender to connect the Nexus Player
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spyderman33 said:
Stop wasting time figuring out the wifi and go ethernet. You wont regret it.
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How, precisely, do you have it connected? There is no Ethernet port on the Nexus Player--do you have a USB to Ethernet adapter that works? There is no arguing that Ethernet is the way to go with Plex and high bitrate; however, I rarely ever have any issues playing my 1080p stuff over Chromecast (which is 2.4Ghz N wifi only) and I have this device connected using 5Ghz 802.11ac so there should be no issues.
Sadly, mine will not stay connected to my 5Ghz 802.11ac network, it does seem to stay connected to my 5Ghz 802.11n access point a little better. I am pretty certain the Nexus Player has some wifi bugs that need to be worked out, ASAP! It's frustrating that Ethernet is not an option by default.
innoman said:
How, precisely, do you have it connected? There is no Ethernet port on the Nexus Player--do you have a USB to Ethernet adapter that works? There is no arguing that Ethernet is the way to go with Plex and high bitrate; however, I rarely ever have any issues playing my 1080p stuff over Chromecast (which is 2.4Ghz N wifi only) and I have this device connected using 5Ghz 802.11ac so there should be no issues.
Sadly, mine will not stay connected to my 5Ghz 802.11ac network, it does seem to stay connected to my 5Ghz 802.11n access point a little better. I am pretty certain the Nexus Player has some wifi bugs that need to be worked out, ASAP! It's frustrating that Ethernet is not an option by default.
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Correct, I am using an MIcro USB to USB OTG Cable http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D8YZ2SA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I am sure the bugs will get sorted out but until then, this is the best solution...
innoman said:
How, precisely, do you have it connected? There is no Ethernet port on the Nexus Player--do you have a USB to Ethernet adapter that works? There is no arguing that Ethernet is the way to go with Plex and high bitrate; however, I rarely ever have any issues playing my 1080p stuff over Chromecast (which is 2.4Ghz N wifi only) and I have this device connected using 5Ghz 802.11ac so there should be no issues.
Sadly, mine will not stay connected to my 5Ghz 802.11ac network, it does seem to stay connected to my 5Ghz 802.11n access point a little better. I am pretty certain the Nexus Player has some wifi bugs that need to be worked out, ASAP! It's frustrating that Ethernet is not an option by default.
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i could argue that ethernet is not the way to go. FireTv/Ouya/Mojo Madcatz only have a fast ethernet port (100mbps max) and ac can go close to gigabit speeds. I get 833mbps on my Netgear r8000 on ac. I can easily play 20GB+ files without any drops. I even played REMUX blurays (as long as they arent VC1, which the firetv doesnt support either) and those files played just fine too. So unless you get a true gigabit port (which i know of no Android box having) 802.11ac is the ideal option for the Nexus Player. Dont waste your money with a gigabit to USB adapter because the NExus PLayer has a USB 2.0 which can only give you a max of 480mbps.
My suggestion is save some of that money you're saving from your cable bill, sell your current router and keep that $20 you would be spending on a USB to Ethernet adapter and invest in a wireless AC router, you can get a decent Route for $100.
http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-Arche...F8&qid=1416715312&sr=8-1&keywords=wireless+ac
Also what AC ROuter do you have? if its an ASUS than im sorry, i had a ASUS 87u and changed it for a Netgear r8000 because i had constant drops with ASUS, if you turn off Beamforming it will fix your wireless AC drops. at least it did for me.
---------- Post added at 08:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:52 PM ----------
markculton said:
I have had the exact same problem. If it isn't too much trouble, would you mind explaining how you did this? I am not too versed in network technology. I am guessing this is something I do on the d-link page? Is that correct?
Thanks so much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what kind of router do you have?
mejdam said:
i could argue that ethernet is not the way to go. Fire Tv only has a fast ethernet port (100mbps max) and ac can go close to gigabit speeds.
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100Mbps is more than the device would likely ever need to stream any type of media one would stream on the Fire TV and it will get 100% of that bandwidth between the Fire TV and the switch (assuming you don't have a faulty cable, obviously) 100% of the time--regardless of what other devices on your network or your neighbors networks are doing. Sure, 802.11ac permits better than gigabit speeds... but that doesn't guarantee them. Also, there is the issue of signal degradation when you're further away from your router, the fact that it's shared bandwidth, etc. You could argue both ways but wired is definitely the more reliable option in most cases. The FireTV has either Fast Ethernet OR 802.11n, no gigabit speeds either way.
Sadly, the fire TV has issues with several audio codecs and just isn't what it should be (yet, at least). I'm kinda over the fact that I have to use an external player to play DD 5.1--which is part of the reason I decided to give the Nexus Player a try... that and I wanted to see what google could do this time around.
I have the Buffalo WZR-D1800H--It was an earlier model and not the greatest but it's worked flawlessly and lets me transfer at 40+MB/s on a different floor. I get around 12MB/s using my 802.11n 5Ghz AP upstairs (3 floors with the ac router on the first). If I got the Ethernet cable thing, I'd spend $10 on the 10/100Mbps since it would be sufficient but I shouldn't have to do that. All the other devices in my place do fine even on N, the Nexus Player should be working awesomely on ac... It just isn't and it has issues on N and G--I honestly think it may partly be a Plex issue. I think there are also some deeper wifi connectivity issues.
spyderman33 said:
Correct, I am using an MIcro USB to USB OTG Cable http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D8YZ2SA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1.
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Click to collapse
Cool, what are you using for USB to Ethernet? I have a few USB OTG cables (I got them pretty cheap when I got my first Nexus) and I might as well put them to some good use... I'd like for my Nexus Player to actually play my Plex media without all the issues! Would something like this work?: http://smile.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Ethernet-Adapter-Black/dp/B00ET4KHJ2
****
I should also add that my NAS & Plex Server (PC, used for several things) are all wired over Gigabit. My wireless router doesn't have to do that much, generally, except connect my phone, Mac Book Pro, Chromecast in bedroom, SqueezeBox and a few other little things that don't use much data.
innoman said:
100Mbps is more than the device would likely ever need to stream any type of media one would stream on the Fire TV and it will get 100% of that bandwidth between the Fire TV and the switch (assuming you don't have a faulty cable, obviously) 100% of the time--regardless of what other devices on your network or your neighbors networks are doing. Sure, 802.11ac permits better than gigabit speeds... but that doesn't guarantee them. Also, there is the issue of signal degradation when you're further away from your router, the fact that it's shared bandwidth, etc. You could argue both ways but wired is definitely the more reliable option in most cases. The FireTV has either Fast Ethernet OR 802.11n, no gigabit speeds either way.
Sadly, the fire TV has issues with several audio codecs and just isn't what it should be (yet, at least). I'm kinda over the fact that I have to use an external player to play DD 5.1--which is part of the reason I decided to give the Nexus Player a try... that and I wanted to see what google could do this time around.
Cool, what are you using for USB to Ethernet? I have a few USB OTG cables (I got them pretty cheap when I got my first Nexus) and I might as well put them to some good use... I'd like for my Nexus Player to actually play my Plex media without all the issues! Would something like this work?: http://smile.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Ethernet-Adapter-Black/dp/B00ET4KHJ2
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Click to collapse
yes my ac band of 833mbps is shared, so even if i have 8 constant devices on that band it still would be faster than a 100mbps wired connection. I own a firetv and have no issues with DD5.1 files from my Synology 1812+, by any chance are you using Samba shares from a windows box? if so thats your problem, switch to NFS shares. also wired connections are shared unless you run a router directly to your setup box without going through a switch. you didnt answer my question though, what ac router do you have that you're having issues with.
mejdam said:
by any chance are you using Samba shares from a windows box? if so thats your problem, switch to NFS shares. also wired connections are shared unless you run a router directly to your setup box without going through a switch. you didnt answer my question though, what ac router do you have that you're having issues with.
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I added in, it may not have posted until you already started your reply. I accidentally posted before I added it in--I needed to check on the model.
The Ethernet connection is only shared if you are using a hub. A switch (I have a 16 port Gigabit switch that connects to my router) provides dedicated bandwidth to each available port--up to 2Gbps/port (1 up and 1 down, concurrently). My specific switch with 16 1Gbps ports can handle up to ~32Gbps worth of traffic at once. My Plex server is connected directly to the switch as is my NAS. The only way I'd have to worry about saturating the PC (Plex Server) to switch link is if I am transferring large amounts of data between the PC and my NAS and that's not common--and definitely not the cause of my issue. It's actually never caused me an issue. The link between the Fire TV and switch is always 100Mbps (assuming there isn't any broadcast traffic or that sort of thing, which isn't likely).
I do use NFS with everything except the media shares from my NAS, sadly. It is a goal but I am going to have to install the Enterprise version of Windows on my PC--Microsoft doesn't appear to support NFS (client) on Windows 8.x unless you have Enterprise and I have Pro. I guess that's what I get for actually paying for it? I am going to put Enterprise on my PC at some point but it's not a priority. Over Gigabit, SMB is sufficient for my use--the overhead isn't an issue right now. That said, I do use Plex so the media share between the Fire TV and my Server is Plex.
If you have your Plex server on let's say port 3 and multiple devices are talking to the Plex server than that line is being shared, which was my point. Again it would take over 8 devices on my ac band before its the speed of your single 100mbps line.
Over gigabit smb is sufficient? You just said you needed to connect a hard drive to your firetv to correctly play ac3 files. Clearly smb is your problem and you don't need to pay for NFS shares, there are free alternatives. Also the speed of your "network" might be gigabit but your speed to your firetv is truly only 100mbps because that's the max the Ethernet port can go. I'm not trying to pick a fight, I'm just saying that with the nexus player 802.11ac gives you the fastest speeds. Sure wred gigabit could be faster but there's one problem, there's no gigabit port or even fastethernet port.
mejdam said:
If you have your Plex server on let's say port 3 and multiple devices are talking to the Plex server than that line is being shared, which was my point. Again it would take over 8 devices on my ac band before its the speed of your single 100mbps line.
Over gigabit smb is sufficient? You just said you needed to connect a hard drive to your firetv to correctly play ac3 files. Clearly smb is your problem and you don't need to pay for NFS shares, there are free alternatives. Also the speed of your "network" might be gigabit but your speed to your firetv is truly only 100mbps because that's the max the Ethernet port can go. I'm not trying to pick a fight, I'm just saying that with the nexus player 802.11ac gives you the fastest speeds. Sure wred gigabit could be faster but there's one problem, there's no gigabit port or even fastethernet port.
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I think there is a little bit of confusion. My Plex Server/PC are on say port 1 of my 16 port gigabit switch and is communicating with the switch at ~1Gbps. My NAS is on ports 2/3 and both ports are at a Gigabit (each NAS port has it's own IP--one is just used for my Mac and phone backups, the other is predominately used by my PC for Plex shares and whatever other files I put on there) and my FireTV is on port 4 at 100Mbps (limited by the FireTV). (I do not connect a hard drive to my Fire TV, I think someone else said that). I can stream to 3 different TVs (using a mix of a google TV (wired), Chromecast (wifi) and Fire TV (wired or wifi--same results either way) without any issues, buffering or otherwise, at full 1080p with ~12GB files all using Plex. It works near flawlessly most of the time. The only issue is that the Fire TV doesn't stream 5.1 audio (most of my content is AC3) UNLESS I use an external player (XBMC, etc...)--lots of info about this in the Plex forums.
The Fire TV does not have 802.11ac, it has 802.11n. Having it connected to an 802.11ac access point doesn't offer any real benefit other than they tend to do 802.11n slightly better than most 802.11n routers, presumably because they tend to be more powerful. There is no benefit for putting my FireTV on wifi over Ethernet--none what-so-ever since there is already an Ethernet port right next to it--because it will only add traffic to my wireless network. Putting it on wifi isn't going to give it much more bandwidth than having it connected Ethernet with the distance it is away from my 5Ghz router/AP (each is on a different floor) and the level of congestion around me on 2.4Ghz, which is on the same floor (I live in a Condo Complex in uptown Dallas, lots of other wifi routers). The connection between my Fire TV and my switch is ~100Mbps and the connection between my Plex Server is ~1Gbps. I can be moving files betwen my Plex Server and NAS at around 700-800Mbps and still play video on my FireTV from my Plex Server without any issues at it's max bitrate.
SMB is not my problem, I've been using it for a while. The Fire TV has some audio codec/passthrough issues with it's native player. If I switch to SPMC or XBMC and PlexBMC, I can play AC3 5.1 fine straight from my Plex server. I can also select External Player within Plex and play media through any external player such as XBMC without any issues with audio. The problem is that it's a pain to do it that way and it doesn't keep up with watched history, etc. like it should. You also have to manually choose the external player you want to use each time and there are issues with exiting some of them, FF/Rew, etc. The Nexus seems to be able to play my media fine with full AC3 5.1 surround... except it chokes randomly, freezes, etc. and that appears to be related to the wifi. I never said I would be paying for NFS! I will most definitely not be giving Microsoft more of my money to get a simple feature that should have been available in the pro version. As for the free options, I've tried several and they are flaky--so annoying. There is a good NFS server for Windows (Hanewin or something like that) that I've used (and actually run on my moms setup) but I need a client because my NAS does NFS. The free clients I've tried just aren't what they should be, many are dated. The good clients want money.
Ultimately, the fact that the Ethernet port on the FireTV isn't really relevant because that's all that specific port needs to be, I don't have any media with anywhere near a 100Mbps bitrate. Using a switch means that port gets 100% of its bandwidth 100% of the time regardless of what else my network is doing. A lot of people think a switch and a hub are the same thing because they look the same and kind of function the same, but they are quite different. A switch is able to provide each port it's dedicated bandwidth to each other port (traffic is only sent to the port it's designated for) and a hub is totally shared across all ports (traffic from every port is seen by every port). (I'm not suggesting you don't already know this, please don't take offense.) Sorry, I know that's a lot of info, I just want to try to clarify. It's so much easier with a whiteboard! The end result, however, is that something is not right with either the Nexus Player or Plex--I think there are issues with both considering my Nexus Player has issues connecting to my router and both access points and loses connection randomly and that when it is connected, YouTube/Hulu/Netflix all play pretty well. I, also, am not trying to argue--I'm just trying to clarify my situation.
Also, you mention if I have my Plex server on port 3 and multiple clients talking to that port... it's shared. True, but it's a gigabit connection being shared. Unless there are a whole lot of clients communicating with that Plex Server, it's not going to saturate so there should still be plenty of bandwidth for any other Plex client I might have on other ports. It would take 10 Fire TVs each playing close to a 100Mbps (bitrate) media clip to saturate my Plex Server connection (assuming there is nothing else communicating with my Plex server).
"Cool, what are you using for USB to Ethernet? I have a few USB OTG cables (I got them pretty cheap when I got my first Nexus) and I might as well put them to some good use... I'd like for my Nexus Player to actually play my Plex media without all the issues! Would something like this work?: http://smile.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Ethernet-Adapter-Black/dp/B00ET4KHJ2"
I am actually using an Apple USB to Ethernet adapter that I had lying around and never use... Its exactly like this one.
http://www.amazon.com/Apple-MB442-U...1416754525&sr=8-1&keywords=apple+usb+ethernet
I think you can use any generic one really..
It was plug and play, didnt ask for anything, it just said it was connected to Ethernet when I checked.
If anyone else is having connection issues check you Date and Time. My Nexus Player was connected but but none of the apps could connect to anything. Upon checking dmesg I saw a lot of these error exceptions
Code:
Caused by: com.android.org.bouncycastle.jce.exception.ExtCertPathValidatorException: Could not validate certificate: Certificate not valid until Fri Apr 05 09:15:55 MDT 2013 (compared to Fri Dec 31 19:41:48 MST 1999)
Turns out all the Google apps use SSL and since my date was set to 1999 the certs showed up as invalid, I have automatic time turned on.
So for now just set your date manually and don't use Automatic Date&Time.
My NP is only able to connect to 2.4Ghz wireless. I have 2 different SSID's (2.4 and 5.0) and NP can see the 5.0, but gives an error that it can't find the network after you enter the password and try to connect.
The NP also keeps on dropping the 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi connection. I have many wireless devices on this network on both 2.4 and 5.0 Ghz working just fine so I know that the router is not the issue. (Asus RT-N66U)
I'm seeing similar issues, problems with 2.4ghz and worse with 5ghz. I'm using a USB to ethernet adapter and it was working pretty well when I was home. I left for the weekend so I only got a few hours to play with it but no issues
I too had trouble connecting to 5Ghz until I manually set the channel to 48 in my ASUS DSL-AC68U router. It won't connect to any 3 digit 5Ghz channels like 149 etc.
I am having issues with most 1080p content, even over Ethernet. There are just issues with the device and with Plex that need to be worked out. Google needs to get to work on it now!

Videos randomly stop playing in Kodi

Anybody had or having this issue? I am using TVMC, and I have my video library set up with an SMB share to the Nexus. I will start playing a TV episode and it will stop a few minutes in or halfway through and return back to the episode list. I don't think this has happened with a movie (yet).
I have tried messing with Hardware Acceleration vs Software (one actually works better for streaming sources from outside of my network). Tried clearing out the cache, purging packages. None of these have made any improvements. Thinking I may try to install a vanilla version of Kodi, and maybe also try Gotham.
Did a little searching and haven't found any solutions yet.
This is probably #3 in my disappointments with this device so far along with lack of apps, the Netflix bug, SlingTV's frame rate, and the Live Channels app. Starting to wish I opted for the Fire TV.
Yep Kodi runs like sh.. on my Nexus Player as well.
But on my Shield Tv it runs without any problems.
Video not playing on Kodi
Hi, I had the same problem. My video library is hosted on a Windows 7 PC and connecting over SMB to stream a film would work sometimes but not others. After much research I found the problem to be the network connection to the Windows PC. I found this out by installing ES File explorer on my Android TV and copying a large file to the local storage of the player. The copy would usually start then suddenly stop after a random length of time, additionally the bandwidth was very low. Try this to make sure you can copy a large file to the device without any problems.
I fixed the problem with a combination of solutions. I upgraded the network card drivers of the Windows 7 PC, I purchased an OTG LAN adapter for the Nexus Player and finally I used haneWIN to connect to my media library via NFS rather than SMB.
I now have a rock solid connection.
Hope this helps
Thanks for the responses. I have found that streaming the videos to Kodi via UPnP with Emby works fine. So I am thinking that is a network issue. I have DHCP set up, so I think what I will try is setting a static IP for the Windows PC
I also have one of these Ubee Modem/Router combos, but I have been using my own router. I didn't have the Ubee in bridge mode, which I changed last night. So I will get everything set again like I had it and see if it will play without stopping.
your problem is most likely trying to stream content over wifi. i dont care what anybody says, wifi + streaming media sucks. it can work fine 1 minute and then stop working another regardless of how good your connection may be.

Nvidia shield as a fileserver/torrentbox/Kodi-box?

Hello there peeps!
Im thinking of getting rid of my old laptop as my torrentbox/Kodi and fileserver. Its noisy, draws lots of power and it can barely handle 1080p HEVC movies. So Im really longing to buy a Nvidia Shield TV 16GB
Im thinking of buying the 16GB version, putting a 128GB micro-sd card in it and use a powered usb3.0 HUB to connect my current 3 external HDDs to it.
My plans is to let the 128GB micro-sd card act as the torrent partition and storage for the games and apps. When the apps are finished Im moving the stuff to the three external NTFS HDDs and store it on them. All this would be nice to be able to manage with my Android phone. Im thinking that it might be hard on the unit to handle torrents at the same time we watch movies or play games. Is there an app to paus the torrents if the rest needs more resources, or make some kind of script?
Will all this work? Ive read that the Shield TV cant handle more than two external USBs thanks to the limitatons of Android but this can be fixed by rooting it. Is it correct?
You need to get a SMB server app working on it. Google: Funkyfresh Samba
uTorrent has an Android version.
I think Android can handle more than two ext HDD's. My sister has 4-5 HDD's connected to her AFTV, same with my cousin. Try StickMount.
I don't know but I think it's going to be hard to do what you want. I'd buy an Asus ChromeBox, put Win10 on it and use that for Kodi MySQL server, torrent, media, etc.
Ive been curious about this, when you say your sister had 4-5 HDDs connected to AFTV, im assuming she has them connected via some sort of usb hub?
I wouldn't use an SD card for long-term torrenting as they're not very good at handling frequent writing.
hobs0n said:
Hello there peeps!
Im thinking of getting rid of my old laptop as my torrentbox/Kodi and fileserver. Its noisy, draws lots of power and it can barely handle 1080p HEVC movies. So Im really longing to buy a Nvidia Shield TV 16GB
Im thinking of buying the 16GB version, putting a 128GB micro-sd card in it and use a powered usb3.0 HUB to connect my current 3 external HDDs to it.
My plans is to let the 128GB micro-sd card act as the torrent partition and storage for the games and apps. When the apps are finished Im moving the stuff to the three external NTFS HDDs and store it on them. All this would be nice to be able to manage with my Android phone. Im thinking that it might be hard on the unit to handle torrents at the same time we watch movies or play games. Is there an app to paus the torrents if the rest needs more resources, or make some kind of script?
Will all this work? Ive read that the Shield TV cant handle more than two external USBs thanks to the limitatons of Android but this can be fixed by rooting it. Is it correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So heres my experience so far: Currently I have 1 external usb 3.0 HDD connected to my shield tv. using an android app called servers ultimate pro, I was able to create multiple file servers. The nice thing is that shield tv is already low powered, but can even go into sleep mode and still run the server (i have a feeling sleep mode just turns off the screen). with servers ultimate, you can get lots of configuration options, limiting the amount of users, ip addresses that can access, you can set up basic rules, and notifications for things like if the server stops or starts, to email, text, pop up a notification, etc. Its pretty nice.
But heres the catch: I've been searching for a solution for over a month now, but transfer rates are slow im getting 5-10MBps on average, but i know the network is capable of more. after searching, it seems to be a limitation of either android, or the protocols the app is using. Another user on here pointed out to me that the SMB protocol for instance, seems to be running SMB v1 (which is already up to like V3- or V4, which are more feature rich and capable of much faster speeds)
then theres the issue of what devices will be accessing it. So far, ive tried my android phone, my windows 10 PC, and an iphone. the android phone can see the servers just fine when configured properly, iphone didn't seem to want to work without any sort of specialized app (which honestly i didn't even try after that point), and windows 10 works, but if you want to map a network drive, your going to need the SMB protocol, and even then it took several weeks of google searching until several tweaks, registry settings, etc finally allowed windows 10 to see my server.
I don't torrent, so unfortunately can't help you on that front, but like another user pointed out, using the sd card will just wear out the amount of times it can read/write. if it does work out for your needs, why not just save directly to the external HDDs?
For the record, I was able to stream using things like kodi or another media player, but i do notice that any initial loading takes several seconds. for example, initial playback will take several seconds to load, but once the video plays, it plays smooth and doesnt stutter or pause, UNLESS i were to try fast forwarding or skipping to another section, then the video takes several seconds again. this all works for my personal needs (for now) but other users might want more demand.
hope any of this helps.
unvaluablespace said:
Ive been curious about this, when you say your sister had 4-5 HDDs connected to AFTV, im assuming she has them connected via some sort of usb hub?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, both my sister and cousin have the 10 port USB 2.0 hub from Amazon working fine on their Amazon Fire TV's.
Cool, thats good to know. I've been kind of curious about this for in the future (i don't see myself using more than 4 HDD's for whatever server setup i use) Hopefully the shield wont have an issue with this, either. Now just trying to figure out my transfer speed issue. lol
Thank you very much for the experience and help!
This certainly learned me very valuable points
what is the point of putting a server on shield tv?
can you download torrents directly to the shield (hd)?
and would plex be able to see these files?
I have personally done exactly what you are looking for with one of my shield boxes. I installed a Linux chroot on my shield tv (I ended up flashing foll android as it was easier), installed transmission-cli in there, and ran kodi on top then enabled media sharing, and put an ssh server on the machine. Works fantastically.
what does this all enable to do?
This is pretty close to my plans, minus the torrent box and fileserver.
my plan is to load up my new external drive and copy everything from my laptop and existing externals into one location (so I can eliminate duplicates) and then move it to the SHIELD TV and setup KODI so it sees all my files and use it for playback (I can always routinely plan file transfers to it manually thru the USB and computer when I need to add new content), but it would be nice to be able to access the external over the network if possible.
kdb424 said:
I have personally done exactly what you are looking for with one of my shield boxes. I installed a Linux chroot on my shield tv (I ended up flashing foll android as it was easier), installed transmission-cli in there, and ran kodi on top then enabled media sharing, and put an ssh server on the machine. Works fantastically.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uhm so you are running some kind of Linux or what is foll Android?
unvaluablespace said:
So heres my experience so far: Currently I have 1 external usb 3.0 HDD connected to my shield tv. using an android app called servers ultimate pro, I was able to create multiple file servers. The nice thing is that shield tv is already low powered, but can even go into sleep mode and still run the server (i have a feeling sleep mode just turns off the screen). with servers ultimate, you can get lots of configuration options, limiting the amount of users, ip addresses that can access, you can set up basic rules, and notifications for things like if the server stops or starts, to email, text, pop up a notification, etc. Its pretty nice.
But heres the catch: I've been searching for a solution for over a month now, but transfer rates are slow im getting 5-10MBps on average, but i know the network is capable of more. after searching, it seems to be a limitation of either android, or the protocols the app is using. Another user on here pointed out to me that the SMB protocol for instance, seems to be running SMB v1 (which is already up to like V3- or V4, which are more feature rich and capable of much faster speeds)
then theres the issue of what devices will be accessing it. So far, ive tried my android phone, my windows 10 PC, and an iphone. the android phone can see the servers just fine when configured properly, iphone didn't seem to want to work without any sort of specialized app (which honestly i didn't even try after that point), and windows 10 works, but if you want to map a network drive, your going to need the SMB protocol, and even then it took several weeks of google searching until several tweaks, registry settings, etc finally allowed windows 10 to see my server.
I don't torrent, so unfortunately can't help you on that front, but like another user pointed out, using the sd card will just wear out the amount of times it can read/write. if it does work out for your needs, why not just save directly to the external HDDs?
For the record, I was able to stream using things like kodi or another media player, but i do notice that any initial loading takes several seconds. for example, initial playback will take several seconds to load, but once the video plays, it plays smooth and doesnt stutter or pause, UNLESS i were to try fast forwarding or skipping to another section, then the video takes several seconds again. this all works for my personal needs (for now) but other users might want more demand.
hope any of this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the all the valuable info!
Using the Shield TV as a torrentbox/fileserver/NAS is only temporary until I can afford a real NAS, or preferably get a mini Linux box running as a VPN server and router but that's in the future, in fact Shield tv is also in the future since I can't afford it now =)
But back to your comments, I checked out Ultimate Pro and it seems it's dead but maybe some of its servers works good Regarding SMB I'm thinking of getting another app for SMB sharing.
Another thing I'm wondering is the multitasking abilities of the Shield TV, sure it's by far the most powerful Android TV box but how can it handle torrenting, SMB sharing, running Kodi at the same time? Or do you have to manually manage it? Or get some apps that let you set up certain priorities? And will it be able to game on the Shield while Kodi/SMB/torrents running in the background?
hobs0n said:
Thanks for the all the valuable info!
Using the Shield TV as a torrentbox/fileserver/NAS is only temporary until I can afford a real NAS, or preferably get a mini Linux box running as a VPN server and router but that's in the future, in fact Shield tv is also in the future since I can't afford it now =)
But back to your comments, I checked out Ultimate Pro and it seems it's dead but maybe some of its servers works good Regarding SMB I'm thinking of getting another app for SMB sharing.
Another thing I'm wondering is the multitasking abilities of the Shield TV, sure it's by far the most powerful Android TV box but how can it handle torrenting, SMB sharing, running Kodi at the same time? Or do you have to manually manage it? Or get some apps that let you set up certain priorities? And will it be able to game on the Shield while Kodi/SMB/torrents running in the background?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't torrent, so unfortunately I can't help you there, but I have tried using my file server in multiple ways: file transfers & streaming video, while running another app, even streaming games. Here are a few examples of things i've tried:
file transferring a big file to my pc, while gamestreaming on the nvidia shield tv at the same time (worked great. I saw no issues during this time)
file transferring a big file to my pc, while running a local app such as netflix, emulators, youtube, (as you can see i tried both maximizing bandwidth, while even testing lag with cpu intensive tasks. again, worked great)
streaming a 1080p movie from the shield tv, to my pc, while gamestreaming from the same pc, back to the shield tv (seemed to work fine. honestly didnt test this for extended period.)
streaming a 1080p movie from the shield tv to my pc, while running local apps on shield tv such as netflix, emulators, youtube, etc (once again, seemed to work fine)
So as you can see, the shield tv seemed to handle everything i threw at it rather well. i even tried multiple apps for multitasking on the shield and i just honestly did not see any performance hints with the media server, aside from anything youd normally expect on the shield tv. keep in mind i am running on a gigabit ethernet network, wired on both ends, from the shield tv to the router, and router to the pc.
my only issue with it all is as mentioned before: transfer speeds are just barely fast enough, even though i know my network and the device is capable of much faster speeds, but the cpu and ram on the shield tv seemed to handle everything i tried rather well.
as for your comment about trying other smb apps, ive gone through several, and the ones i was able to manage to get working, all ended up with the same speeds as with ultimate servers pro. :\ If you can find something that gives you faster speeds, i would love to hear about it so i can try it. i tried ftp server, smb server, webdav server, etc and all seem to max out at about the same speed.
Thanks for your reply!
It really seems the Shield is awesome and powerful to handle multitasking! I'm longing to get my own!
Crappy about the SMB speeds, let's find solutions to that problems
Hm I havent found any real data on the speed between a computer and an Android device when it comes to SMB...
When I transfer between my old gaming laptop from the external usb2.0 HDDs to my Xperia Z3, I get between 700KB/s to 1100KB/s.
The laptop is connected with Ethernet cable to the Netgear CG3799 router and the Z3 is connected with full connection on 802.11N 5Ghz. Altho the laptop is pretty sweaty atm, its converting old DVDs to HEVC and downloading around 15 torrents
Ill compare speeds later when the laptop isnt as busy
What kind of speeds do you peeps get when transfering between Android devices other devices?
Which Samba app are you using?
Hey folks,
I'm trying the same now. Had an Odroid XU4 as file and MySQL Server and try to replace it for an all in one Shield TV Solution.
I'm running a rooted Shield with SambaDroid for the SMB Share which works fine. And KSWEB Server for MySQL and ftp.
Sometimes it seems like the apps are closing in the background, I don't know why, seems to be a android multitadking problem to free up RAM.
But my biggest problem is the transfer speeds. No matter what protocoll (smb/ftp) I'm not getting more then 8 MB/s read out of the box. I tried to read from internal memory, sdcard and my external HDD. All came out with the same speed connected over GBit LAN to my PC.
Write side it much faster with 20 MB/s what I do not really understand but you need root to write to external memory like sdcard or usb.
So far it works, but it is less then optimal compared to my Ordoid XU4 what did 80MB/s but has no HDMI 2.0 output :/
Maybe Android 6.0 brings more speed for the network because It has to be bottlenecked somewhere in the OS, FTP and SMB showing the same speeds.
What's funny is I was actually doing the reverse of what you're doing. I got my Shield as an Android media center device since my Odroid U2 never seemed up to my standards with Kodi. When HardKernel came out with the XU4 I scooped it up and made it my webserver, after seeing an Android TV rom out for it, I flashed it and now Kodi's UI will lag like crazy after about a half hour of usage.
Sent from my Pixel C using Tapatalk

Need HDHR user's help

I need someone who uses an HDHD for live TV on the Nexus Player to check if they can still connect to the HDHR or not. I am unable to connect to it on either of my Nexus players or on my Nexus phone, all of which are on Android 6.0.1 with Jan 1st security patch. My Android 5.1.1 tablet and windows PC has no issues so I suspect it's an incompatibility issue with either Android 6.0.1 or the most recent security patch. If it's confirmed I'm going to need to figure out how to roll back to a version that still works...
Sent from my SM-P600 using XDA Premium HD app
kisrita said:
I need someone who uses an HDHD for live TV on the Nexus Player to check if they can still connect to the HDHR or not. I am unable to connect to it on either of my Nexus players or on my Nexus phone, all of which are on Android 6.0.1 with Jan 1st security patch. My Android 5.1.1 tablet and windows PC has no issues so I suspect it's an incompatibility issue with either Android 6.0.1 or the most recent security patch. If it's confirmed I'm going to need to figure out how to roll back to a version that still works...
Sent from my SM-P600 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the latest software and it works fine with comcast for me.
[1] said:
I have the latest software and it works fine with comcast for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mine is also working fine. HDHR-Prime. I would just make sure that whatever app youre using for it, and the FW on the box are all up to date, and that the CC is pushed in completely. beyond that most issues ive had have been fixed by unplugging it, waiting, and plugging it back in.
I have HDHR Prime with comcast cable card plugged in and HDHomerun android app installed from google store on the Nexus Player. Video is good, audio is only stereo. But the stream - both video and audio freeze - frequently. I then have to switch over to the another channel, select that channel and then move back to the original channel. Not sure whether my router - running 5Ghz and wireless N - is the culprit and not able to handle the HDHR video streams. All other apps, Netflix, Sling TV etc never have any issues streaming.
Hindolam said:
I have HDHR Prime with comcast cable card plugged in and HDHomerun android app installed from google store on the Nexus Player. Video is good, audio is only stereo. But the stream - both video and audio freeze - frequently. I then have to switch over to the another channel, select that channel and then move back to the original channel. Not sure whether my router - running 5Ghz and wireless N - is the culprit and not able to handle the HDHR video streams. All other apps, Netflix, Sling TV etc never have any issues streaming.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's because it's wireless. I have 3 NPs...2 are hardwired and rarely have issues. one is wifi (5ghz) and even though it's about 15 feet from the router freezes and stutters frequently.
Thank you all. The problem was with the WiFi connection. I still don't know what was wrong exactly, but after I renamed the wifi and connected all devices over the 5ghz band they are all working now. It just seemed odd that I could connect to Lollipop and windows devices but not to marshmallow. But that was just a coincidence.
Sent from my SM-P600 using XDA Premium HD app
Hindolam said:
I have HDHR Prime with comcast cable card plugged in and HDHomerun android app installed from google store on the Nexus Player. Video is good, audio is only stereo. But the stream - both video and audio freeze - frequently. I then have to switch over to the another channel, select that channel and then move back to the original channel. Not sure whether my router - running 5Ghz and wireless N - is the culprit and not able to handle the HDHR video streams. All other apps, Netflix, Sling TV etc never have any issues streaming.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I came across this same issue, I'm not running my nexus tv over wireless, I've added an OTG usb cable, a powered usb switch, and a usb to 10/100/1000 lan adapter and noticed i was having this problem after I upgraded the firmware on my Linksys Wrt1200ac router from stock to ddwrt, I then remembered part of the setup for the hdhr prime was to make sure your router isn't filtering multicast (will be in your firewall settings). Once i changed that setting and rebooted my router I no longer had the freeze and fail symptoms.
rigbyrobot said:
I came across this same issue, I'm not running my nexus tv over wireless, I've added an OTG usb cable, a powered usb switch, and a usb to 10/100/1000 lan adapter and noticed i was having this problem after I upgraded the firmware on my Linksys Wrt1200ac router from stock to ddwrt, I then remembered part of the setup for the hdhr prime was to make sure your router isn't filtering multicast (will be in your firewall settings). Once i changed that setting and rebooted my router I no longer had the freeze and fail symptoms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your answere. If I go to security/firewall page. I do see "Multicast" is being filtered. But the setting is appearing under WAN. I disabled so that Multicast is not being filtered. No luck. The HDHR view app still shows all channels. Plays very well both audio/video for a period of time - no stuttering or glitch - sometimes few minutes and sometimes more than an hour, without any hitch. But then video freezes - no audio as well. I have to navigate to a different tv channel and select the same channel again. It works then.
Hindolam said:
Thanks for your answere. If I go to security/firewall page. I do see "Multicast" is being filtered. But the setting is appearing under WAN. I disabled so that Multicast is not being filtered. No luck. The HDHR view app still shows all channels. Plays very well both audio/video for a period of time - no stuttering or glitch - sometimes few minutes and sometimes more than an hour, without any hitch. But then video freezes - no audio as well. I have to navigate to a different tv channel and select the same channel again. It works then.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I replaced my router - Linksys WRT610NV1 (300Mbps Wireless N) with Trendnet TEW-811DRU AC1200. While there are lot negative reviews for the TEW-811DRU, it has worked very nicely for my needs. No more freezes. The router I believe can get pretty hot. Since it is winter time, it may not matter much. I will wait till summer to see whether there are issue because of that. For the price I paid < $20 it is a great buy even if it works for a very short time.

[SOLVED] Help with streaming 4k video across network

EDIT: Seems to be working just fine now. Getting sustained 80mbps across my network for playback, no issues. In the settings, I migrated everything to the SD card, but I think Kodi (and thus Plex temp files) are still on the internal storage. Maybe this fixed it, who knows.
I'm having trouble getting 4k video to play back continuously without pausing and skipping. I occasionally get the message that the source is too slow. Here is a quick overview of my setup.
- Media is on an UNRAID server running plex. It's an AMD A6-3500, 8GB memory, 3x 4TB WD Red (1 parity).
- UNRAID server is connected by ethernet to my Asus RT-AC87U. My shield was connected on 5g, but I ran a temp ethernet cable and still see the issue.
- Kodi 17 is running on my Shield TV using the PlexKodiConnect plugin. Video playback is direct play, no transcoding (verified in Plex).
I'm not sure where the trouble lies and exactly where to work.
I did test by using SolidExplorer to copy the 4k file to the device to see what rates I get. Speeds are about 6-8MB/s but its very inconsistent and drops below 1MB/s often. I'm not sure if this is a good test to go by or not. Is the Shield capable of streaming and playing 4k over a network? Or is the hardware not fast enough to do this?

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