LG 4734 -> mezzmo 3.4.4.0 - DLNA buffering issue

[itallushrt]

Hi, moved recently so rebuilding so to speak. Until my basement is finished in a few months my "standard" setup is altered a bit, but I'm also adding new kit in the meantime.

I just finished a Cat5e / Coax retrofit to the house (built in '77) and have ethernet running everywhere. Anyway in the first floor living room I have a new LG 4734. It has built in WiFi which I was using mostly successfully until I finished my wiring job. I say mostly successfully because I had buffering issues when streaming from my DLNA server, a very beefy PC, but I attributed that to the WiFi. Now that I am running over the wired LAN I am still seeing problematic buffering. Perhaps my perception is off because this is the first time I've streamed to any device that wasn't my Oppo BD player with a good size onboard RAM to cache to.

However, what is odd about it is the nature of the buffering. I guess I should say that I used this same PC, Mezzmo and an Oppo quite successfully for the last 2.5 years before we moved. The only issues I experienced then were due to poor or corrupt files. Now I'm seeing little consistency as to when or why it buffers. Lower bitrate content will sometimes buffer to the point of my exhaustion after running for 20 mins fine and I give up. Other times a 1080p film will run straight through for 2 hours. So I'm a wondering if the TV is at fault here or what and if anyone else is successfully streaming using this same model LG.

Basics:

TV LG4734 - latest firmware, LAN 100Mb FD

Server - Eight core proc, 16GB RAM, SSD system drive, SATA6Gb/s content drive, Gig LAN,
Software - Mezzmo 3.4.4.0 (latest), Win7 64bit

LAN all hardwired. Cables/punch downs test out clean. Even went as far as re-punching TV wiring. Tried several cables from TV to wall/patch and from patch to switch.
Switch TP-Link TLSG2424 - latest code. Switch ports show no errors.

Was I spoiled by my Oppo and now I'm on to dealing with crappy DLNA in reality??

Next test will be placing Oppo upstairs, streaming to it, HDMI to TV however before then ... ask the AVS Brain Trust.

Thanks.

[Paul]

Thanks for the detailed information. First thing to check is our FAQ on stuttering - http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread.php/6538-Tutorial-How-to-reduce-excessive-stuttering-or-buffering-when-streaming-videos. It lists the common causes for video stuttering/buffering. If that does not identify the cause, then let us know and we'll gladly help further.

[itallushrt]

Everything from the FAQ is covered except for changing the packet size. I haven't done that because the stuttering has stopped, but now I'm increasingly seeing a "file type not supported error" that will happen in the middle of playback. I have to shut down the tv, menu through to get back to the file share and begin playback again. The second time through the some error may occur, but never at the same point in the video. The file types are all .mkv. To be fair I'm blaming the TV...

thoughts?

[Paul]

My guess is that your TV's firmware is having troubles decoding the MKV at certain points when you are streaming and, when the firmware get into a confused state, it displays this error message as a last measure.

As a test, you could try pre-transcoding the MKV to another format and see if it plays smoothly all the way through. To pre-transcode files, see this FAQ - http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread.php/6025-Tutorial-Pre-transcoding-Files

[itallushrt]

Instead of trying to pre-transcode the .mkv I played an .mp4 and found similiar results. I don't disagree that the TV is likely having issues at some point decoding the file, but it doesn't happen at the same point in any of them.

I don't suspect I'll get much help from LG on the issue.

:(

[Paul]

Understand. Email us a set of logs and we'll see if we can spot anything wrong. Turn on logging (see http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread.php/419-FAQ-How-to-turn-on-diagnostic-logging) and restart your Mezzmo server. Reproduce the problem on your TV and then stop your Mezzmo server and exit Mezzmo. Zip up all the logs and email them to us at support [at] conceiva [dot] com.

[itallushrt]

Will do. Thanks Paul.