Stuttering playback on PS3

[KratosAurion]

Hi!

First post, first problem. I am using UMS (PMS before) for a long time now and never had any big trouble. After upgrading from 2.x.x to 3.0.0/3.1.0 I experienced a lot of stuttering and it takes much longer until the video appears on my PS3 then before.

I have a wireless connection (450MBit maximum - mostly between 270-405) which I tested before and after each try and got around 8MB/s so the connection seems to be rather fast and stable. I am not a 100% sure what the problem might be - I had some troubles with "mencoder" on Debian (unstable) and installed the version from deb-multimedia. The basic setup is PC - Wireless - Router - Ethernet - PS3 and for a second test I used PC - Wireless - Router - Wireless - Mobile phone. On my mobile phone 1080/720p content plays faster and without stuttering even though both connections are wireless now.

The only option which seemed to work is reducing the quality to the lowest setting - which I never had to do before and even then it takes a lot longer to see the video play. Furthermore I checked my CPU utilization - all 8 cores are idling during playback. I can't really explain what is happening except that my mencoder version is "faulty" or I am missing some bigger issue here. What I also noticed is that the info:

Actual/max bitrate are around 5-7Mb/s where it used to be 20+/60+ in previous versions. Sadly going back to a previous version (delete the UMS folder in .config) didn't help. So I guess the problem might be on my end aswell but I can't seem to pin point it. Hopefully someone here can help me. I attached my config files and 2 debug logs (phone, PS3) if someone needs something else please just post a message or send me a PM.

Thank you all in advance

Kind regards
KA

[KratosAurion]

Update:

I used "mencoder" from a previous UMS version (don't know why it isn't included anymore) and the problems persisted. I switched to "Automatic Wireless" quality settings and some files worked better and some stayed the same or got worse. How accurate is the information the PS3 displays? Strangely it often shows 5.1 sound with a very jumpy bitrate and ~6Mb AVC video signal and some with 2 channel sound only even though I set UMS to 2 channels and 384kbit since my TV only has 2 cheap and thin stereo speakers. Could that be a problem?

When I used a rather old UMS version (2.5.2.1) it was stuttering aswell but mainly because the h264 file got transcoded to MPEG2 highest quality instead of simple "muxing/passthrough".

Edit: Just tested on a different computer (Linux Mint Debian edition). There everything works flawless at the highest settings with 3.1.0. So there is something "wrong" with my computer. Now I just have to find out what it is

[KratosAurion]

Now I tested 3.1.0 on a completly new Debian installation and the issue is "gone" for most of the time if I put everything on automatic/wireless. However the PS3 still reports audio as 5.1 and what is even worse there is stuttering aswell when the bitrate jumps from 4-5Mbit to 10+ Mbit for no obvious reason. Furthermorer "mencoder" now puts my 8 cores on high alert at least for the first few minutes mencoder has 8 threads running high - I guess it is now transcoding instead of transmuxing. It gets better after some time but still hopts from 10-30% Anyone has any ideas or can at least point me in the right directions? I followed every step of the "how to ask for support" and it seems nobody is interested. I somehow doubt that even the developers don't have anything to say about my problems.

Edit: Of course I tested 3.1.2 aswell - the stuttering is so far better (even with settings wired/automatic and the PS3 shows 8+Mbit bitrate - didn't have time to test it very long though) but it looks mencoder is still transcoding from time to time at least in the beginning.

Edit 2: Another night watching TV ruined by UMS. The first file played without a hitch now neither wireless nor any other setting can help against stuttering and lagging when the Bitrate spikes to 30Mb or more for no obvious reason.

[sapsa]

1. mobile phone dont use 1080p so they are encoded to they native res ~ 480p ?
2. ps3 use b/g wifi, so even when your router is N, and show your max connection 300mb/s then G is still 54mb/s and you wont get that.

I remamber reading somethere here that on wireless (G) with max settings on ps3 you wont have flawless picture. and and remamber that some files are better encoded and some other are not the best in case of quality.

I would check first on wired network, it its all ok then the wifi (g) is the problem

[DeFlanko]

I agree! Im totally against Streaming or Transcoding to ANYTHING on wireless that can be wired.

Those that are natively wireless like Mobile phones or tablets we try to make tuned in the Custom Conf to be "dumbed down" for wifi so we can produce that clear clean streaming video image to it.

[KratosAurion]

1. mobile phone dont use 1080p so they are encoded to they native res ~ 480p ?
2. ps3 use b/g wifi, so even when your router is N, and show your max connection 300mb/s then G is still 54mb/s and you wont get that.

I remamber reading somethere here that on wireless (G) with max settings on ps3 you wont have flawless picture. and and remamber that some files are better encoded and some other are not the best in case of quality.

I would check first on wired network, it its all ok then the wifi (g) is the problem

Wireless is via a Asus n66u which supports like my Intel wireless card up to 450Mbit and I connected via 5GHz band and I am the only one in my vicinity. The PS3 is connected via ethernet to that router. Since everything worked before like a charm I doubt that it is really my network configuration that causes any issues. Like I wrote before often UMS starts delivering a too high bandwidth of 30Mbit instead of the regular 8-15. I don't know how your software "automatically" adjusts that but even with different profiles that is happening. And of course 30 x 8 = 240Mbit could be too high for my wireless connection. The point is how do I "turn" that off. Even a wired 100Mbit connection would be overloaded by that behavior.

[sapsa]

1. mobile phone dont use 1080p so they are encoded to they native res ~ 480p ?
2. ps3 use b/g wifi, so even when your router is N, and show your max connection 300mb/s then G is still 54mb/s and you wont get that.

I remamber reading somethere here that on wireless (G) with max settings on ps3 you wont have flawless picture. and and remamber that some files are better encoded and some other are not the best in case of quality.

I would check first on wired network, it its all ok then the wifi (g) is the problem

Wireless is via a Asus n66u which supports like my Intel wireless card up to 450Mbit and I connected via 5GHz band and I am the only one in my vicinity. The PS3 is connected via ethernet to that router. Since everything worked before like a charm I doubt that it is really my network configuration that causes any issues. Like I wrote before often UMS starts delivering a too high bandwidth of 30Mbit instead of the regular 8-15. I don't know how your software "automatically" adjusts that but even with different profiles that is happening. And of course 30 x 8 = 240Mbit could be too high for my wireless connection. The point is how do I "turn" that off. Even a wired 100Mbit connection would be overloaded by that behavior.

I wouldn't trust in the "miricle" N draft.
Like I said, connect the pc/laptop to the router just for test. If it will shutter then its the software fault, other way its russian rollet.
Oh, is the suttering allways on same file/sam time of file? is it BDR h264 10bit flac with 5.1H profile ?