Videos randomly stop playing in Kodi - Nexus Player Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

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.

Related

Playing videos from phone

Is there a way to stream/play videos to my Nexus 7 from my phone(HTC Thunderbolt). Due to the storage limitation on the Nexus 7, I figured this might be a good solution to get around it. I want to be able to stream the media without connecting to a network/router because I spend a lot of time commuting.
I've successfully connected to my phone by FTPing using 3G/4G by tethering my phone to the tablet. I can stably transfer files at 2-2.5 MB/s which sure as hell beats Bluetooth and should be adequate to stream videos. Using ES File Explorer, I've connected to my phone using the same method and it lets me play files directly off my phone using the MX Player. Great.
Of course it's not that easy or else I wouldn't have my this thread. When I try to seek it gives me an error, "Sorry, video cannot be played". The message is persistent once it shows up and the only way to fix it is to reconnect to the network.
Any ideas on how I can get around this limitation? I can't imagine I'm the only one who's attempted to do something like this. Thanks.
I installed samba filesharing (in play store) onto my Galaxy S (CM9). This allows you to access your phone's storage while tethered by wifi to it. No router is required. For playing the video I use BS Player. Seeking works well and even 720p mkv runs without a problem.
Great! I'll give that a try and report back with the results. Thanks!
edit:
It works! I simply installed Samba Filesharing on my phone then with my tablet tethered scanned using the LAN settings on ES File Explorer. Works like a charm. Thank you so much!

Reliable video streaming to Samsung TV?

Has anyone managed to stream video properly from the S4 to a Samsung Smart TV? I can stream video to my UE55ES7000 using the Allshare option in the video app, but the video playback stops every 2-3 seconds and "Loading" appears on the TV screen. This is on short video clips of less than 15 seconds. As far as video streaming functionality goes this is pretty much a waste of time.
The TV is connected to my LAN via ethernet cable, and the S4 connected to a wifi access point which is plugged into the same switch as the TV.
Has anyone got this working acceptably?
same issue with s4 and ES6565, i believe it is because my connection are too slow.
fortunately i get a speed update tommorow, will report back if it solves the issue!
Plex
pzayx said:
same issue with s4 and ES6565, i believe it is because my connection are too slow.
fortunately i get a speed update tommorow, will report back if it solves the issue!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use Plex (http://www.plexapp.com/).
You install Plex server on your desktop and the client as an app on your Samsung Smart TV and it works pretty well.
Twonky is worth looking at as well.
cadbusca said:
I use Plex (http://www.plexapp.com/).
You install Plex server on your desktop and the client as an app on your Samsung Smart TV and it works pretty well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will Plex allow me to stream content that's stored on the phone?
itm said:
Will Plex allow me to stream content that's stored on the phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will, but you need to install install it on your phone first:
http://www.plexapp.com/mobile/
I use Imediashare to stream content to my Samsung tv (not a Smart Tv) using dlna. Does a better job compared to allshare/samumg link.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bianor.amspersonal
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
Ok I just revisited the whole Plex thing (I remember trying it a couple of years ago). I remember uninstalling it last time because it couldn't handle my large music library (85,000 tracks) - whole chunks of the collection were missing after it had completed scanning.
Unfortunately my experience is no better this time. I set up the server, then installed the Plex client on the TV and connected it to the server. I could browse the video content on the server from the TV, but whenever I tried to play back anything it just threw up a blank screen that didn't go away (I waited 5 minutes, which I figured was long enough). Same thing on 2-3 different video files.
I also couldn't figure out any way to use Plex to play back video content from the phone to the TV (which was the whole point of this thread). Setting up the phone as a media server isn't a good solution, as it doesn't have a static IP address (it seems that the Samsung TV Plex client can only connect to servers using a hard-coded IP address). So it looks like I'll be un-installing Plex (again). I'm sure Plex works great in *pple setups but I have to say it's not ready for primetime with Android/Windows users.
So I tried installing iMediaShare, but it doesn't see the TV on the network at all.
I thought this would all be much easier, particularly as I have a Samsung phone as well as a Samsung TV :0(
I just tried the next potential solution, which was the upgraded Allcast app which was released today. This was able to stream a standard def video podcast uninterrupted for a minute (there's a 60 second limit on the trial version of Allcast), but when I tried to stream mp4 HD video which was shot on the phone I got the same problem with the video stopping every few seconds to buffer.
I'm pretty sure that I was able to stream HD videos from the S4 to the TV last summer, but can't remember what I used to do it. Now I'm wondering whether an Android update has introduced the problem - maybe Ice Cream Sandwich was better able to support HD video streaming than Jelly Bean? Any views?

Kodi Crashing While Browsing Local Content (SMB)???

Does anybody here use Kodi for streaming local content from an SMB? I have a 5TB drive connected to the USB port of my Asus RT-AC68U router that I currently use to stream to two WD TV players. I bought these Nexus Players in the hopes of replacing them, as the UI on those WD TV players is old and ridiculously slow (though I do love how they can literally play anything). Anyways, I connected the SMB successfully to my NP through Kodi, and am able to get scan for metadata through "Themoviedb." HOWEVER, when I am browsing my library, it always crashes and sends me back to the NP homescreen after about 10-15 seconds. If I select a movie, it seems to play fine. But it's annoying to have to rush to pick a movie before it crashes. I am running the current 15.2 build installed directly from the Play Store.
tl;dr
Current version (15.2) of Kodi keeps crashing when browsing library of local content. PLEASE HELP. Should I uninstall this version and sideload the 15.2 ARM version?
Kodi v15.2 hasn't given me any issues when I access content from a USB drive plugged in to my D-Link DIR-880L wireless router. I posted about a related topic at http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-player/general/accessing-smb-server-usb-drive-router-t3191758. I doubt that installing the ARM version would solve your problem as the x86 version is optimized for devices like the Nexus Player.

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

[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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