[unclebob]

OK, I think I've figured it out. I tried downloading over HTTP and I could see I was getting full speed but streaming over HTTP stuttered. Increasing the cache size to 15000ms in vlc worked!

I have been encoding videos with a variable bitrate, and it turns out that although the average bitrate is ~1100kbps, some sections have a bitrate greater than my line speed. I am actually getting my full line speed when streaming, it's just that my connection isn't fast enough on certain sections. On the video I have been testing, the first minute or so has the highest bitrate and I had just assumed that the entire video suffered from the same problem.

Thanks everyone - problem solved

[gigabit]

Maybe try increasing the buffer time.

[wackomoo]

eth0: 5076.24 KB/s in 11950.01 KB/s out 17026.25 KB/s total

I'm happy


unclebob: Can you stream via HTTP or does it stutter there too?

[unclebob]

I'm open to alternative methods, but it's really convenient to just go to \\10.0.0.1\ and see all my files natively in Windows, and this set up works perfectly for my iTunes collection.

What really stumps me is that I can copy a file at my full line speed, but opening a file (essentially streaming its contents) means that it stutters on playback. It's very strange.

[Myatu]

To be honest, I'm not very fond of their Windows client either. But it works

Have you thought about alternative methods for streaming your audio and video files though, because there are a number of layers on top of each other at the moment. You have the basic TCP/UDP layer, on top of that PPTP, on top of that SAMBA and finally your actual audio/video stream. One layer adds compression and encryption, and another adds more encryption. Not surprisingly, this could lead to some issues

[unclebob]

Although convenient, PPTP might not be the best choice. I think that's your biggest bottleneck...

Damn I've looked into OpenVPN and I just hate their proprietary Windows client.

[Myatu]

Although convenient, PPTP might not be the best choice. I think that's your biggest bottleneck...

[DedicatedPros]

VLC can play every file ever

Won't play rmvb And I had a few issues where it would not play some unpopular codecs, but for the most part, it does play everything

[freshwire]

VLC can play every file ever

[raxxeh]

file extensions don't mean anything other than that they are an identifier. the header of the file itsself tells the program that is opening it what type of file it is.


this is to say,

VLC could play "lol.what" if you renamed an avi to it.

[unclebob]

I didn't know you could play .part files in vlc - that's really useful.

If I were to use firefox, I could just forget samba and just serve data over HTTP, but I want something native to Windows and Samba is the only option I know of. And it won't stream fast enough.

[freshwire]

If downloading solves the problem you could try the approach of downloading with firefox (or something that saves a part file).. open the part file with a decent player such as VLC. VLC will play the .part file as it's downloading in firefox.

[unclebob]

I am debating whether to upgrade my RPS1 to something with a little more horsepower and could use a little advice before I make any rash decisions.

I have a really nice setup where I store my iTunes downloads and a few videos on my server and can stream them over a network share (using Samba) after connecting to my virtual private network (using Poptop & PPTP). However, when trying to stream video (~1100kbit/s), playback stutters. Instead, if I just copy the file to my local desktop I get a speed of ~3600kbit/s - my full line speed.

I tried disabling encryption on the VPN in case the encryption overhead was causing the poor performance but it made no difference. I am currently on the "Premium" 4MB/s iSCSI speed trial for the next 24 hours, but that has not made a difference. I even tried placing a video in a RAM disk, but playback still stutters. System load is fairly low ~0.05 when attempting to stream and the two main processes running are ksoftirqd and pptpctrl at 1.5% and 1% respectively(!)

I am not sure whether it is something that need tweaking on my current system (samba, network settings, etc) or whether an upgrade to the 19.99 Kimsufi would sort it out (even though system load is only ~0.05).

What should I do?