I have been running unRAID for a few month now and really like it as my home media file solution.  The only problem is that when I play Blu Rays files using an HTPC as my player, I am getting serious stuttering a few times during movie playback.  I have been trying to fix this for the last two month and it is annoying the hell out of me since I put quite a bit of time and money into this setup. 

 

My unRAID i am using a Abit 9 pro with the onboard NIC plus an MSI 7411 as my HTPC.  I have made all the recommended changes to the HTPC because it is running Vista to speed up the network and I made the recommended changes into my go file to speed up UnRAID.  I have a fully deployed GBit network and am using a Linksys SR2016 as my network switch.  The only thing else I can think of is that there must be something worng with my unRAID system.  I am attaching the syslog, but I will be honest. I have no idea what to look for to see if something is wrong.  I would appreciate any help someone could give me to resolve this problem. 

 

Here is a prtial of my syslog:

 

Feb 18 18:26:10 Tower emhttp: ... syncing

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: mdcmd (: start

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: md10: new disk

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: unraid: allocated 23414kB

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: md1: running, size: 488386552 blocks

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: md2: running, size: 245117344 blocks

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: md3: running, size: 976761496 blocks

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: md4: running, size: 976762552 blocks

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: md5: running, size: 976762552 blocks

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: md6: running, size: 976761496 blocks

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: md7: running, size: 976762552 blocks

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: md8: running, size: 976762552 blocks

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: md9: running, size: 976762552 blocks

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: md10: running, size: 976762552 blocks

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: mdcmd (10): check

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: md: recovery thread got woken up ...

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower emhttp: shcmd (58): udevsettle

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower emhttp: shcmd (59): mkdir -m 700 /mnt/disk1

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower emhttp: shcmd (59): mkdir -m 700 /mnt/disk2

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower emhttp: shcmd (60): mount -t reiserfs -o noatime,nodiratime /dev/md1 /mnt/disk1 >/dev/null 2>&1

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower emhttp: shcmd (59): mkdir -m 700 /mnt/disk3

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower emhttp: shcmd (59): mkdir -m 700 /mnt/disk4

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower emhttp: shcmd (60): mount -t reiserfs -o noatime,nodiratime /dev/md3 /mnt/disk3 >/dev/null 2>&1

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower emhttp: shcmd (60): mount -t reiserfs -o noatime,nodiratime /dev/md2 /mnt/disk2 >/dev/null 2>&1

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: md: recovery thread has nothing to resync

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower emhttp: shcmd (59): mkdir -m 700 /mnt/disk5

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower emhttp: shcmd (60): mount -t reiserfs -o noatime,nodiratime /dev/md4 /mnt/disk4 >/dev/null 2>&1

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower emhttp: shcmd (59): mkdir -m 700 /mnt/disk6

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower emhttp: shcmd (60): mount -t reiserfs -o noatime,nodiratime /dev/md5 /mnt/disk5 >/dev/null 2>&1

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower emhttp: shcmd (59): mkdir -m 700 /mnt/disk7

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower emhttp: shcmd (60): mount -t reiserfs -o noatime,nodiratime /dev/md6 /mnt/disk6 >/dev/null 2>&1

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower emhttp: shcmd (59): mkdir -m 700 /mnt/disk8

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower emhttp: shcmd (60): mount -t reiserfs -o noatime,nodiratime /dev/md7 /mnt/disk7 >/dev/null 2>&1

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower emhttp: shcmd (59): mkdir -m 700 /mnt/disk9

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower emhttp: shcmd (60): mount -t reiserfs -o noatime,nodiratime /dev/md8 /mnt/disk8 >/dev/null 2>&1

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md4: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md4: using ordered data mode

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md5: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md5: using ordered data mode

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower emhttp: shcmd (59): mkdir -m 700 /mnt/disk10

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower emhttp: shcmd (60): mount -t reiserfs -o noatime,nodiratime /dev/md9 /mnt/disk9 >/dev/null 2>&1

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower emhttp: shcmd (60): mount -t reiserfs -o noatime,nodiratime /dev/md10 /mnt/disk10 >/dev/null 2>&1

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md7: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md7: using ordered data mode

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md5: journal params: device md5, size 8192, journal first block 18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md5: checking transaction log (md5)

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md4: journal params: device md4, size 8192, journal first block 18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md4: checking transaction log (md4)

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md7: journal params: device md7, size 8192, journal first block 18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30

Feb 18 18:26:12 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md7: checking transaction log (md7)

Feb 18 18:26:13 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md4: Using r5 hash to sort names

Feb 18 18:26:13 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md7: Using r5 hash to sort names

Feb 18 18:26:13 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md5: Using r5 hash to sort names

Feb 18 18:26:13 Tower kernel: can't shrink filesystem on-line

Feb 18 18:26:13 Tower last message repeated 2 times

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md2: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md2: using ordered data mode

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md3: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md3: using ordered data mode

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md1: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md1: using ordered data mode

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md6: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md6: using ordered data mode

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md8: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md8: using ordered data mode

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md9: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md9: using ordered data mode

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md10: warning: sh-2021: reiserfs_fill_super: can not find reiserfs on md10

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower emhttp: shcmd: shcmd (60): exit status: 32

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower emhttp: shcmd (61): rmdir /mnt/disk10

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md9: journal params: device md9, size 8192, journal first block 18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md9: checking transaction log (md9)

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md8: journal params: device md8, size 8192, journal first block 18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md8: checking transaction log (md8)

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md6: journal params: device md6, size 8192, journal first block 18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md6: checking transaction log (md6)

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md3: journal params: device md3, size 8192, journal first block 18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md3: checking transaction log (md3)

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md2: journal params: device md2, size 8192, journal first block 18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md2: checking transaction log (md2)

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md1: journal params: device md1, size 8192, journal first block 18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md1: checking transaction log (md1)

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md9: Using r5 hash to sort names

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md8: Using r5 hash to sort names

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md3: Using r5 hash to sort names

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md1: Using r5 hash to sort names

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md2: Using r5 hash to sort names

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: can't shrink filesystem on-line

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower last message repeated 4 times

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md6: Using r5 hash to sort names

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower emhttp: disk10 mount error: 32

Feb 18 18:26:22 Tower kernel: can't shrink filesystem on-line

Feb 18 18:26:23 Tower emhttp: shcmd (59): mkdir -m 700 /mnt/user

Feb 18 18:26:23 Tower emhttp: shcmd (60): /usr/local/sbin/shfs /mnt/user

Feb 18 18:26:24 Tower emhttp: get_config_idx: fopen /boot/config/shares/Movies.cfg: No such file or directory - assigning defaults

Feb 18 18:26:24 Tower emhttp: get_config_idx: fopen /boot/config/shares/Music.cfg: No such file or directory - assigning defaults

Feb 18 18:26:24 Tower emhttp: get_config_idx: fopen /boot/config/shares/Photos.cfg: No such file or directory - assigning defaults

Feb 18 18:26:24 Tower emhttp: shcmd (61): killall -HUP smbd

Feb 18 21:00:23 Tower emhttp: shcmd (62): mkreiserfs -q /dev/md10 >/dev/null 2>&1

Feb 18 21:03:13 Tower emhttp: shcmd (63): mkdir -m 700 /mnt/disk10

Feb 18 21:03:13 Tower emhttp: shcmd (64): mount -t reiserfs -o noatime,nodiratime /dev/md10 /mnt/disk10 >/dev/null 2>&1

Feb 18 21:03:13 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md10: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal

Feb 18 21:03:13 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md10: using ordered data mode

Feb 18 21:03:13 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md10: journal params: device md10, size 8192, journal first block 18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30

Feb 18 21:03:13 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md10: checking transaction log (md10)

Feb 18 21:03:14 Tower kernel: ReiserFS: md10: Using r5 hash to sort names

Feb 18 21:03:14 Tower emhttp: get_config_idx: fopen /boot/config/shares/Movies.cfg: No such file or directory - assigning defaults

Feb 18 21:03:14 Tower emhttp: get_config_idx: fopen /boot/config/shares/Music.cfg: No such file or directory - assigning defaults

Feb 18 21:03:14 Tower emhttp: get_config_idx: fopen /boot/config/shares/Photos.cfg: No such file or directory - assigning defaults

Feb 18 21:03:14 Tower emhttp: shcmd (62): killall -HUP smbd

Feb 18 23:32:45 Tower emhttp: shcmd (63): sync

Feb 18 23:32:53 Tower emhttp: shcmd (64): /usr/sbin/hdparm -y /dev/sde >/dev/null

Feb 18 23:32:54 Tower emhttp: shcmd (65): /usr/sbin/hdparm -y /dev/sdf >/dev/null

Feb 18 23:32:54 Tower emhttp: shcmd (66): /usr/sbin/hdparm -y /dev/sdg >/dev/null

Feb 18 23:32:54 Tower emhttp: shcmd (67): /usr/sbin/hdparm -y /dev/sdh >/dev/null

Feb 18 23:32:54 Tower emhttp: shcmd (68): /usr/sbin/hdparm -y /dev/sdj >/dev/null

Feb 18 23:32:54 Tower emhttp: shcmd (69): /usr/sbin/hdparm -y /dev/sdi >/dev/null

Feb 18 23:32:55 Tower emhttp: shcmd (70): /usr/sbin/hdparm -y /dev/sdl >/dev/null

Feb 18 23:32:55 Tower emhttp: shcmd (71): /usr/sbin/hdparm -y /dev/sdk >/dev/null

Feb 18 23:32:56 Tower emhttp: shcmd (72): /usr/sbin/hdparm -y /dev/sdd >/dev/null

Feb 18 23:32:56 Tower emhttp: shcmd (73): /usr/sbin/hdparm -y /dev/sdb >/dev/null

Feb 18 23:32:57 Tower emhttp: shcmd (74): /usr/sbin/hdparm -y /dev/sdc >/dev/null

 

 

Thanks for any help!!

 

It looks like you added a new disk?  Disk 10?  Post the whole syslog using pastebin.

 

Why do you think that it is unRAID's fault?  Are you seeing poor read performance.  What is your parity check KB/sec? 

 

Stuttering may have more to do with the MPEG2 decoder, the graphics card on the HTPC, the horsepower of the HTPC, directX filters (like ffdshow), other configuration errors or likely other causes.

 

I would suggest you try and rule out some of the options.  If you copy the files to the HTPC, eliminating all networking, does everything play stutter free?  How about if you copy the files to a windows workstation and access them through a Windows share?  Stuttering?  If you can isolate the problem to unRAID, there may be more suggestions, but right now I think it is not a likely cause.  The bandwidth requirements for even BlluRay content is not that high that unRAID should have any problems keeping up.

Try playing it with VLC on your desktop.

 

 

I copied one of my movies directly from my unRAID server and my HTPC and the average transfer rate was a steady 23.3 MB/sec.  I then copied the same movie to one of my XP machines and the average transfer rate was a steady 22.6 MB/sec.   I ran my parity check afterward and the average speed was 55,232 kb/sec.  I am about 1/2 hour into watching Transformers directly from the HD on the HTPC and not stutters yet.  Is this transfer rate good enough not to cause stutters?  I do not know if it is my unRAID server causing the problem or not, but I am pretty sure a few other people have had this problem.  Thank you for any help or advise, I assure you it is very much appreciated.  This has been nagging me for months now and am using this post as a last resort.  I tried attaching my log file, but I get an error about file uploading is maximized.   I do not know what pastebin is and I cannot paste the whole thing or I get the 20000 character threshold message.  

 

 

Ok - a little quick math.

 

23 MB/sec * 60 sec/min * 60 min/hr * 2 hrs in a movie = 165,600 MB (165 GB)

 

Said another way, your setup would be capable of playing a BluRay movie of 165GB.

 

Most Blu Ray movies are more in the 18GB - 30GB range.  So you have roughly 5x - 10x the network throughput you need.

 

If you are not experiencing any stuttering with locally attached files, did you try to copy the movie to another Windows box and play it from there?

 

It almost seems like there is some sort of a network buffering issue - so that by the time your system asks for the next chunk of data it is too late to get it before it will be needed to process the next chunk of video.  I have never heard of this type of problem, but I am not a network expert by any stretch.  Try to play a movie from a Windows share to narrow down if the problem is in the HTPC side of the network or on the unRAID side of the network.

 

Pastebin is a place you can post your syslog and leave a link to it here.  A Google search returned the link as the first item.  Should be pretty straightforward.

I plan to do more troubleshooting of my network because I do believe what you mentioned is happening.  There is a delay at times in reading the packets or sending the packets.    Last night I did watch a movie stutter free playing it directly from the local hard drive.  I always get two or three stutters per movie serving it from my unRAID server. Anyway, here is my syslog below posted at pastebin.

 

http://pastebin.com/m656bd6e0

 

Thank you everyone's comments so far.

 

 

Try to play a movie from a Windows share to narrow down if the problem is in the HTPC side of the network or on the unRAID side of the network.

 

Did you try this?  The chances of narrowing this down get worse if you selectively ignore suggestions.  If also annoys the helper. 

 

I had another thought.

 

There have been reports that when unRAID spins up a drive that the network has a short period of unresponsiveness.  Is is possible that something is happening in the background that is causing a disk to spin up?  I suppose it is possible that even spinning down a disk could create a short "blip".  You might set your spindown timer to something long (e.g., 4 hours) and then spin up all of your drives, ensuring that they are up and stay up throughout a movie. 

 

BTW, I would not characterize an event that happens 2-3 times in an entire move as "stuttering".  I'd likely use the more scientific term "glitch" , or maybe "occasionally stutter".  I tend to think of stuttering as a persistant issue that happens continuously or very frequently (e.g., every time there is a bunch of motion).  Based on this new information, I would tend to rule out a bandwidth or buffering type of issue (unless you are operating right on the edge, which I doubt).  It seems more likely that some discrete event is happening either on the server or workstation (or a large burst of data is suddenly moving on your network disrupting other traffic) that is causing a disruption in network flow and causing the video to glitch.  Does any of this seem likely?

 

Next time it happens, rewind a minute or two (enough to clear the buffers) and re-watching the section that glitched to see if it recurs as the same spot.  If you find some relationship between specific spots in the movie and the glitch, you'll have narrowed down the possibilities significantly.  Although this is seeming a little less likely now, it is definitely worth trying to rule it out.

Try to play a movie from a Windows share to narrow down if the problem is in the HTPC side of the network or on the unRAID side of the network.

 

I have not yet, but I have been trying.  I have been trying to share a directory from my XP system and have it play on the HTPC but my HTPC is not seeing the shared directory.  I believe it it this norton system that is on the xp system that is causing the directory to be blocked.  I should have it tested very soon.

 

Next time it happens, rewind a minute or two (enough to clear the buffers) and re-watching the section that glitched to see if it recurs as the same spot.  If you find some relationship between specific spots in the movie and the glitch, you'll have narrowed down the possibilities significantly.  Although this is seeming a little less likely now, it is definitely worth trying to rule it out.

 

A GLITCH is a better description of the problem.  It does not happen in the same spot though.  It just happens randomly.  I have rewinded it in the same spot to see if it occurs again in the same spot and it does not.  What does happen on occasion is the movie will pause, then speed up to catch up to the scene and  then go back to normal play. 

the movie will pause, then speed up to catch up to the scene and  then go back to normal play. 

 

This behavior is typically NOT due to network issues, but rather from something like a hard drive error and retry, or a harddrive spindown/up.

 

Disable spindown on your unRAID server, and make sure nothing else is accessing it at the same time.

 

Also, try playing the same video on your PC streaming it over the network from unRAID.

I just confirmed it is not my unRAID server.  The same issue happened when I played the movie form my XP system.  I will try to figure out what's going on from here.