I just set up XBMC on a Mac Mini to serve up DVD's on an UNRAID server.

 

Clicking on a fresh title will take 1 to 2.5 minutes to load.

However, once the title's been loaded once, it loads almost instantly from there on out.

 

Any ideas on what might be happening here?

 

I've tried using both the server ip and the server name in XBMC and it doesn't seem to make any difference.

 

I just set up XBMC on a Mac Mini to serve up DVD's on an UNRAID server.

 

Clicking on a fresh title will take 1 to 2.5 minutes to load.

However, once the title's been loaded once, it loads almost instantly from there on out.

 

Any ideas on what might be happening here?

 

I've tried using both the server ip and the server name in XBMC and it doesn't seem to make any difference.

 

 

The server might be spinning up the disk the movie is on or XBMC might be caching some stuff so that it is ahead of what is being sent (buffering).

I disabled the spin down in UNRAID and it's still slow on the virgin play. The weird thing is that a movie will play instantly after that.

So I mapped to the server on the Mac Mini using smb://serverip and loaded up VLC. Files play instantly!

 

I ran XBMC on a Windows PC and files play instantly!

 

It must be some kind of networking issue (SMB?) between the Mac and server.

I would guess it a nameserver thing. Fyi XBMC can be set with hostname to IP in the advancedsettings.xml which should allow you to use hostnames (usefull for library hashes) but solve your slowness problem

I would guess it a nameserver thing. Fyi XBMC can be set with hostname to IP in the advancedsettings.xml which should allow you to use hostnames (usefull for library hashes) but solve your slowness problem

 

So use the name or ip? smb://TOWER or smb://10.10.10.10?

 

I'm running the Mac OSX version of XBMC so I have no idea where to find advancedsettings.xml  (nothing XBMC related in /library/application support).

the file wont exist until you create it.

 

http://www.xbmc.org/wiki/?title=AdvancedSettings.xml

 

Use name in you sources defintion and then set the ip to name in advanced settings.

 

this way the path hash of files will be created properly (which you will care about later)

So, like this?

 

<advancedsettings>

<hosts>

  <entry name="UNRAID">10.10.10.10</entry>

</hosts>

</advancedsettings>

Might be worth trying Plex if you have OS X 10.5,  just to see if you experience the same issue.

 

(Plex being a fork of XMBC)

So, like this?

 

<advancedsettings>

<hosts>

  <entry name="UNRAID">10.10.10.10</entry>

</hosts>

</advancedsettings>

 

Looks right to me but ive never used this precise setting.

 

You can turn on debug logging and in that you will see lots of cool things one of which shows that it loaded the advancedsettings file. You might even find some other oddities you can fix while your at it or the root problem you are seeing here.

 

Plex is worth a shot as well but I disagree with its existance out of principle. Its a fantastic project and they have done some amazing things but IMHO most (but not all) forks are politics and personality driven taking away from the whole.

This probably won't help but I have the same setup (Mac Mini streaming movies from unRAID) and the only delay I get is when a drive needs to spin up, and this normally only results in say 5 secs delay waiting for the movie to load.

 

I don't think I've configured anything that would have made mine work better than yours....

 

Justin

Might be worth trying Plex if you have OS X 10.5,  just to see if you experience the same issue.

 

(Plex being a fork of XMBC)

 

Just tried Plex, and yep, same issue!

do you have a nameserver set up on the unRAID server... Could the initial delay be occurring because you are going out to the world-wide-web first before looking inward to your local LAN?

 

See here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1247

and here: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Improving_unRAID_Performance

 

Note: the current version of unRAID has a field on the setup page for the nameserver... you might be able to fill it in there.

do you have a nameserver set up on the unRAID server... Could the initial delay be occurring because you are going out to the world-wide-web first before looking inward to your local LAN?

 

See here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1247

and here: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Improving_unRAID_Performance

 

Note: the current version of unRAID has a field on the setup page for the nameserver... you might be able to fill it in there.

 

Thanks, I tried that but it didn't help any.

 

Everything loads instantly from XBMC on my Windows boxes. It's just this Mac giving me issues...

do you have a nameserver set up on the unRAID server... Could the initial delay be occurring because you are going out to the world-wide-web first before looking inward to your local LAN?

 

See here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1247

and here: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Improving_unRAID_Performance

 

Note: the current version of unRAID has a field on the setup page for the nameserver... you might be able to fill it in there.

 

Thanks, I tried that but it didn't help any.

 

Everything loads instantly from XBMC on my Windows boxes. It's just this Mac giving me issues...

Is it possible it might need the equivalent configured in the MAC...?  To let it know which nameserver to use when trying to learn the route to your server.

 

I've never owner or used a MAC, so I'm completely ignorant in what the equivalent might be... 

 

Joe L.

Joe L.

Do some searching on the forum for posts by me involving the hosts file.  That should get you going in the right direction on editing that file.

Ok I tried folders instead of ISO and they load instantly on the Mac Mini XBMC. I wonder why?

Ok I tried folders instead of ISO and they load instantly on the Mac Mini XBMC. I wonder why?

 

probably because of the way the mac handles iso images.  I think disk image mounter takes them and "mounts" them.  it just does not read straight into the ISO file.  The mount process takes a little while and is probably what is causing the delay.

Strange.  How have you added the source?  I'm using the SMB option without any delay in Plex.  Only other thing I've changed from the defaults would be setting unRAID as Local Master on the Settings page (Since I have no other windows devices at home)

Strange.  How have you added the source?  I'm using the SMB option without any delay in Plex.  Only other thing I've changed from the defaults would be setting unRAID as Local Master on the Settings page (Since I have no other windows devices at home)

 

I just added using smb://Tower/Movies ; I also tried using the server ip and that didn't make any difference.

No idea then,  I've recently switched from using FreeNAS to unRAID and apart from now having many more waits for disks to spin up than before I've noticed no performance differences at all.

Well I just did some testing with my Mac Mini and BluRay rips play almost instantly.  1-2s delay to cache (set to 20s cache in Plex) and then start playing.  This is 1080p BD rips over 300MB wireless. 

 

DVD-R there is a noticeable delay to load the menu screen and again when you press play but not more than 15-20s from selecting the title from Plex and playing via the DVD menu.

 

No difference in XMBC either although I haven't changed that from the default settings at all.

 

I spun all the disks up in unRAID before starting testing

I had similar problems, but I now use the mounted shares (/Volumes/share name) instead of smb://unraid/share name. Just make sure that the shares are mounted before updating the library.

 

Roland