MP3 stream still cuts out on simple file copy operation....


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Running RC8a and this still happens.

 

Example for those who want to try this. Very simple/easy to try.

 

Browse from workstation to your unraid server where you have some MP3 files. Start playing an MP3. I use VLC player. While music is playing I'll then start a copy of a large file from workstation to unraid server. Soon as file copy starts the MP3 cuts out big time. It will cut out and pause playing through-out the entire file copy operation. Soon as file copy operation is done, MP3 plays normal again. This happens when using disk share AND user share. Have tried different workstations, different MP3 files, different players, just about everything. I don't use a cache drive. Just a parity drive. Unraid server is a duo-core with 8MB ram. All drives are WD Black 7200 rpm 64mb cache drives. No errors in log.

 

If I play MP3's from another workstation and start a file copy to that workstation the MP3 will play fine. It just happens with the unraid server.

 

 

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This is just for mp3's or all media (avi, mkv, ts, etc) files as well? Should be able to test this out in a few day. Had to downgrade and catch up on work so my server is busy with backlogs to test (running b12a). Once it's completed I can upgrade back to RC8a and test for you as well. Also to be clear, your "workstation" using a windows OS with VLC? If so what OS and SP, and what version of VLC. I will try to Mirror the setup.

 

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Wow, I am surprised. I tried playing different media files and they all work fine while performing copy operations.

BUT when I tried using Windows Media Player rather then VLC the MP3 played fine!! Right now it seems this problem is directly related to VLC. I've tested this 20 times and each instance VLC failed when playing an MP3 while copying a large file to the array. Soon as Windows Media player was tried, the same MP3 file played fine. Even with multiple copy operations going on at the same time. I ran process explorer while testing with VLC and nothing out of the ordinary and nothing ran out of resources at all.

 

This does make me happy, knowing it is related to VLC and not unRaid.

 

I can play a high bitrate 1080P movie from my unRaid box using VLC and perform multiple copy/delete operations on the same unRaid server and have no problems with the video playing at all. But then again I can't play a small low freq MP3 file. Hmmmmm.

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  • 2 months later...

I just wanted to bump this and say I recently upgraded to RC8 and I still have this problem.  I'm pretty sure it's a problem in unRAID because I backup my music to a FreeNAS RAID 1 array and if I stream from there I don't get any interruptions in playback.  I would really like to see this problem addressed.  Both unRAID and FreeANS are running as VM's on the same host.

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FYI, I really can't be bothered learning the details but apparently Windows opens one network connection for all file transfers. So, if something ties up the connection then playback suffers. For example, if you access a spun down drive then the network connection "pauses" while it spins up.

 

It likely worked on the unRAID/FreeNAS combo because Windows opened a network connection to each VM.

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FYI, I really can't be bothered learning the details but apparently Windows opens one network connection for all file transfers. So, if something ties up the connection then playback suffers. For example, if you access a spun down drive then the network connection "pauses" while it spins up.

 

It likely worked on the unRAID/FreeNAS combo because Windows opened a network connection to each VM.

 

Thats the best theory I have heard so far...  I often get video stutter on mce when another machine on the network running sickbeard writes to unraid, I suspect now it may be due to a disk spinning up.  Reading this thread yesterday I did some searching and was able to change the local network buffer for media player to 60sec, I suspect this will solve the issue. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

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