After setting up my new motherboard, I installed unRaid 4.5.6 as well as unMenu 1.3. I don't remember what version I had before my Gigabyte mobo gave up the ghost but it wasn't even close to this version. Whoa !!! This is unReal !!! Being a Mac since 1984, I installed Air Video and tried streaming one of my 720p mkv file to my iPad and iPhone without success...  :'(

 

I'm getting 100% CPU activity from my AMD Athlon X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz CPU when I'm converting a video - either live or queued - and for some reason it doesn't stream to the iPad but it works fine for the iPhone. Would it be that the image is bigger on the iPad and my computer doesn't have the oumph to convert it ?

 

Since the iPad is currently running iOS 4.2 beta, that might also be it...

 

Anyway, I'd like to know what kind of CPU you're running with Air Video.

Sempron 140 2.7 GHz with the second core unlocked.  I have no problems streaming high bitrate 720p to iPhone 4.1 and iPad 3.2.  It doesn't even use 100%.

I have a 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo. With a 720p mkv streaming to my iPhone 4, it uses ~100% of one core. With a divx file it's significantly less (25% to 60% of one core, fluctuates).

Thanks guys for your input.

Whats the problem, try another converter at first

http://www.macvide.com/Macvide_FlashVideo_Converter/

for example

Interesting

 

Thanks guys for your input.

Fireman, what did you ultimately conclude?

 

Sempron 140 2.7 GHz with the second core unlocked.  I have no problems streaming high bitrate 720p to iPhone 4.1 and iPad 3.2.  It doesn't even use 100%.

JetShred, are you streaming 720p MKV files? 

 

I have the same setup as you, it appears, with Sempron 140 with second core unlocked.  On my iPhone 4, I have to set to 1024 kbit/s or it pauses to load every 5-10 second.  But that's fine for such a small screen.  On my iPad, I can't seem to get reliable conversion at any setting. It takes a long time to load, then freezes constantly.

 

I'm wondering if I need to upgrade the CPU?  Also, is there an easy way to see CPU usage? I'm not a linux guy.

 

 

 

Select a more power processor that's compatible with the MB and swap it in.

I'm using a Sempron 140 with single core and it plays just fine on my iPad and my iTouch. All my specs are in my Signature.

Sorry for the delay in my response.  I thought maybe this thread was too old.

I'm using a Sempron 140 with single core and it plays just fine on my iPad and my iTouch. All my specs are in my Signature.

Thanks, Kizer.  The only distinguishable difference between our systems is the amount of RAM.  Everything I've been reading here indicates it's all about the CPU.  You are converting on the fly, correct?  What is your bitrate on the iPad?

 

Select a more power processor that's compatible with the MB and swap it in.

dgaschk, Yeah, I'm definitely thinking that direction, but responses like Kizer's make me pause as I'd rather not drop the cash if I don't have to.

 

I have been testing out an update to the Airvideo package on my test server.  I know it has a P4 in it... old I know... but it works as a test server.

 

I can tell you that when doing live conversion the processor is pegged nearly 100% AND playback on my iPhone IS NOT smooth.  There are some hicups and stuttering as the conversion tries to out pace the playing of the video.  If I start the playing and then pause it on the iPhone it works better.  I don't have any hard numbers but on the P4 I would probably have to start the video, pause it for a minute, and then start it again to get it to work well.

 

On my production server (Quad core Q9300) I have no doubt it would play perfectly.

Sorry for the delay in my response.  I thought maybe this thread was too old.

I'm using a Sempron 140 with single core and it plays just fine on my iPad and my iTouch. All my specs are in my Signature.

Thanks, Kizer.  The only distinguishable difference between our systems is the amount of RAM.  Everything I've been reading here indicates it's all about the CPU.  You are converting on the fly, correct?  What is your bitrate on the iPad?

 

Select a more power processor that's compatible with the MB and swap it in.

dgaschk, Yeah, I'm definitely thinking that direction, but responses like Kizer's make me pause as I'd rather not drop the cash if I don't have to.

 

 

Uh whatever the default settings is. LOL I've only played with it just watching a flick or letting my boy watch some video. It played the same with 2GB ram as well as the 4GB I have installed.

 

Yeah I was converting on the fly. Of course there is a bit of a delay at first when it first starts up. I'll raise up the bit rate to see how it reacts. Of course I'm not doing multiple things at once so my unRAID server isn't being tasked.

 

I have watched 480 and 720 content even mkv's with no obvious flickering or studdering.

I know this is an older post. I just started using unraid this past weekend, and found it odd to see there were issues running Air Video on it.

 

Doing live conversion of 2x 1080p MKVs to iPad and iPhone4 using default Air Video settings, (1536kbit/sec), with an rsync task running replicating half my media library over the network at ~40MB/sec. Video and audio on both devices is stutter free. Both cores are sitting at about ~60% usage. Killing the stream to iPhone dropped the CPU usage to about 25% and transfer speed went up to about 50-55MB/s, killing stream to iPad did no change on CPU usage, transfer speed did go up to ~60MB/s though.

 

My unraid server is:

Core 2 Duo E6550 2.3GHz

ASUS P5Q SE

8GB DD2 Memory

Using WD/Seagate Green 2TB drives.

 

iPad1 and iPhone are both running iOS 5 Beta 2.

I realize this is a very old thread but I think the content is still relevant...

 

I currently have an AMD Athlon II 170u 2.0GHz single core CPU.  DivX plays great, however this CPU is pegged at 100% and video is choppy on both iphone and ipad when I try to play 1080p x264 MKV files.

 

I chose the 170u because it was extremely low power (20w TDP) and want to stick with a low power CPU if I were to upgrade.

 

Low power options available to me (45w TDP) using my current motherboard are Athlon II X3 415e @ 2.5GHz or Athlon II X4 610e @ 2.4GHz.  Will either of these CPUs be powerful enough to stream from the unraid box using live conversion?  If so, which one is the better choice?  I assume that the Air Video server is capable of using multiple cores in a CPU so I am thinking the 610e would be the better choice even though the clock rate is slightly lower?

 

Thanks!

In case anyone is interested, I upgraded to an AMD Athlon II 615e 45w TDP which is a quad-core at 2.5GHz.  Works amazing with Air Video now.  I am able to have two simultaneous live conversion streams (one to my iphone over 4G and the other to my ipad over wifi) both of 10gig 1080p mkv files!  And according to the TOP output, there is still plenty of CPU headroom left for even more.  Very cool for a 45W TDP low power CPU!

Intel Pentium D CPU 3.20GHz