streaming and VPN

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sajansen
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Nov 22, 2015 3:06 am

streaming and VPN

Post by sajansen »

hey, i have a little problem... when im streaming within my local network everything is fine, when im at my friends and use vpn to reach my files its buffering every 6 seconds

I'm trying to do the following:

Source: computer in my home network with all the media (internet: 200/20) -> Connection: vpn:pptp (max speed: 20/3) -> Destination: a friends home (internet: 30/3)

from my friends home i start up my laptop (running universal media server) and connect to vpn. i already have the database scanned and everything in it. when im at my friends place, i can view the list just fine... after a bit it starts streaming but then the problem accrues: after about 6 seconds the movie needs to buffer again and this keeps happening. when i try movies that are stored on my laptop itself, everything works fine. that would eliminate everything between universal media server and the media player i guess...so the problem has to be around the vpn and input to universal media server?

you may think internet is to slow to stream it... but this is not the problem because my upload is 20Mbit and my movies are lower. also when i stream them in vlc it works just fine. while streaming with universal media server, when i look at my internet usage it uses around 6Mbit and other movies it doesnt go more then 2Mbit... so somehow it uses just a bit less then what the movie exactly is. is there a way to fix this?

also i dont get why one movie gets 2Mbit speed and another with higher bitrate gets 6Mbit... so the lower movie could easely use the 6Mbit because its possible to get that speed if another file can do that... it looks to me its the program that converts it... its loading speed is limited to about what the movie needs to run smoothly so the system isnt fully stressed to convert and be to fast with rendering... at least its something around there... because thats the part that probably is to slow when used over vpn... the bit that picks up the file before rendering...

[this was tested with serviio! - still need to test it with universal media server when it finally decides to let me scan new folders -.-]
I can see my internet usage in a graph in real time and it also shows that pausing the video isnt helping with buffering, it just stops doing anything until i press play again so there is something in serviio... and most other media servers im guessing... that detects how much needs to be loaded from the source file to be able to keep up with the player playing the file... and thats probably what doesnt like vpn and thus is just that bit to slow... but im no programmer so i dont know how to fix it...

i did try another media streamer (serviio) and that one had the same problem.

i also tried using IP and mounted network folder but it didnt change anything with the performance.
Nadahar
Posts: 1990
Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2015 5:57 pm

Re: streaming and VPN

Post by Nadahar »

First, there is currently a bug with scanning folders. What you need to do is to add the folder, restart UMS and then scan.

About streaming via VPN 20 Mbps isn't close to being enough bandwidth. Media Servers stream high quality streams that can't be compared to youtube or netflix. Streaming from UMS even have limitations when using wireless network at 54 Mbps. Remember that normal wired network is 1000 Mbps which is quite a lot more than 20.

There are some settings you can try to tweak to see if you can get UMS to reduce the quality enough for it to work, but I'm not sure exactly how it works. Under the "General Configuration" tab you can set maximum bandwidth in Mbps (Mega BITS per second, don't mix it with MB/s which is Mega BYTES per second). On the "Transcoding Settings" tab under "Common Transcoding Settings", "Video" you can also adjust the resulting bandwidth when transcoding to MPEG.2 and H.264. For pure streaming it's not up to UMS at all, ums just forwards the file to the renderer and it depends on the file's format/bitrate if it will work or not. Remember that even though you have a 20 Mbps line, that's a theoretical value and it probably won't deliver much more that 15 Mbps constantly.
sajansen
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Nov 22, 2015 3:06 am

Re: streaming and VPN

Post by sajansen »

Thanks for the tip on the scanning :)

i know that the output of ums is to high to use over the internet, thats why i have the umc on my laptop, the output is going only on the local network. the bit that is streamed over the vpn is the source file to umc before its converted, this way its easely possible to stream it. the bandwith of the original source file is less then 20 Mbits. and to test it, vlc can play the file just fine and without reaching the 20Mbit limit. lets say the source file is around 3 gb and the film takes 2 hours to play... downlaoding 3 gb in 2 hours is easely possible. like i said, the internet side doesnt use more then 5 to 8 Mbit with most films...
Nadahar
Posts: 1990
Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2015 5:57 pm

Re: streaming and VPN

Post by Nadahar »

Ah, then I understand. Why that is a problem is just guessing on my part, it all depends on the transcoder (which is actually not a part of UMS).

We mostly use FFMpeg to transcode, but there are others as well. You can test with the different transcoders by altering their priority under the "Transcoding Settings" tab (move them up and down). Maybe the behaviour varies from transcoder to transcoder. I don't know if they read the file strictly sequential or if the "scan ahead" and does some kind of bulk processing. Maybe that's the problem, that the reading isn't evenly distributed but is done in short bursts demanding a very high bandwidth at intervals. Maybe there is an option of turning on some kind of input buffering, you'd have to look at the documentation for the individual transcoder (e.g http://www.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-protocols.html). It is possible to specify custom transcoder settings in UMS, so you can specify additional options to send to FFmpeg.
sajansen
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Nov 22, 2015 3:06 am

Re: streaming and VPN

Post by sajansen »

Sounds interesting... thinking aboutit, FFMpeg is also used for serviio... and both have the problem... the FFMpeg would be something thy have in common... im going to try and see if i can fiddle around in teh settings... FFMpeg uses continues stream, that i know for sure because the internet usage i was monitoring wasnt spiking...I'm going to try some others to see what thy do or if thy continue to render even if the player is paused... and thus allow more buffering or something...

also i got it to scan maps now... now its just waiting for it to scan 6.5 TB... -.-... lets watch a movie or 2 in the time it takes... i should really use a folder with just 2 movies in it... well thats for next time... it does need to be scanned eventually...
Nadahar
Posts: 1990
Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2015 5:57 pm

Re: streaming and VPN

Post by Nadahar »

You don't have to wait for the scan to finish to be able to use the media in UMS. It will also scan each folder you enter from the renderer on the fly, so even if the media library isn't up and running you can browse to the files via the folder structure.
sajansen
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Nov 22, 2015 3:06 am

Re: streaming and VPN

Post by sajansen »

thats good to know... :)
sajansen
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Nov 22, 2015 3:06 am

Re: streaming and VPN

Post by sajansen »

I have tried all the encoders on there and all of them dont work... could it be something else? or does someone know any other media server that works on windows and can stream to mediaplayers...?
sajansen
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Nov 22, 2015 3:06 am

Re: streaming and VPN

Post by sajansen »

I think i give up... im going to look for something like hdmi to rca... because thats the connection i need for the old CRT tv that is at my friends... -.- long live 1080 converted to 0x0 resolution
Flanker_35
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2019 5:09 am

Re: streaming and VPN

Post by Flanker_35 »

Thanks for recommending Nord VPN, I'll look into it... Can you choose any country and not just the UK or USA? Because I was planning to buy a house in Greece for the holidays, and I'm not necessarily planning to watch Netflix exclusively in Greek, I'd like to be able to access their libraries in other languages as well!
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