[Solved] Stuttering playback on wired connection

[Godinster]

Hi Optimus,

Sorry for the confusion. I am connected throgh a wired connection, not Wi-Fi. My PS3 is hardwired into the modem/router. What I meant was that I attempted to connect my computer through Wi-Fi to eliminate my NIC as the issue, I am 100% of the time connected, through Powerline adapter, to my router directly through CAT5/6. Long story short, my setup is entirely wired.

My Ethernet Status says connected at 100 megabit, which to my knowledge should be plenty for a 720p file. I'm guessing this is likely due to my Powerline adapter or my ISP's crappy gateway. Either way I did try it with a gigabit router as well and it had the same result. Also I dunno if it matters but my peak bitrate on UMS is never higher than 15-20 Mbps, almost always hovers around 4-5 while chopping.

I will attempt to stream a file right now and report back with a log on trace.

[Godinster]

Here's the Tracelog. This is about ~5 minutes into the show, took 15 minutes to get there amongst all the lag.

Common settings:
Maximum Buffer: 400 [Same result on 200]
Disable Subtitles
MEncoder as default [Tried Remux videos with Tsumixer both on and off, same result. probably worse with it off if anything.]
No plugins
Increased heap size to 2048 and tried it with default 768, both lagged.
Transcoding quality (MPEG-2): Wired (Automatic). Also tried Wireless automatic to see, same result.

Also tried restoring settings to 100% default, same results.

[Optimus_prime]

Strange debug log, can you post the results of a ping to your playstation from your computer.
can you do these from a command prompt and post the results:
ping -n 10 <Playstation IP>
ping -n 10 -l 64000 <Playstation IP>
ping -n 10 -l 1024 <Playstation IP>
netstat

[Godinster]

Here it is Optimus, as requested.

Code: Select all

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.2.9200]
(c) 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Brian>ping 172.16.1.65

Pinging 172.16.1.65 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=254

Ping statistics for 172.16.1.65:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 3ms, Maximum = 13ms, Average = 6ms

C:\Users\Brian>ping -n 10 172.16.1.65

Pinging 172.16.1.65 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=254

Ping statistics for 172.16.1.65:
    Packets: Sent = 10, Received = 10, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 3ms, Maximum = 6ms, Average = 4ms

C:\Users\Brian>ping -n 10 -l 64000
IP address must be specified.

C:\Users\Brian>ping 172.16.1.65 -n 10 -l 64000

Pinging 172.16.1.65 with 64000 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 172.16.1.65:
    Packets: Sent = 10, Received = 0, Lost = 10 (100% loss),

C:\Users\Brian>ping 172.16.1.65 -n 10 -l 1024

Pinging 172.16.1.65 with 1024 bytes of data:
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=1024 time=56ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=1024 time=5ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=1024 time=8ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=1024 time=7ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=1024 time=34ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=1024 time=34ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=1024 time=42ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=1024 time=5ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=1024 time=6ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=1024 time=23ms TTL=254

Ping statistics for 172.16.1.65:
    Packets: Sent = 10, Received = 10, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 5ms, Maximum = 56ms, Average = 22ms

C:\Users\Brian>ping -n 10 172.16.1.65

Pinging 172.16.1.65 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=8ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=254
Reply from 172.16.1.65: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=254


C:\Users\Brian>netstat

Active Connections

  Proto  Local Address          Foreign Address        State
  TCP    69.11.127.247:49163    server1102:5938        ESTABLISHED
  TCP    69.11.127.247:49874    bn1wns2011716:https    ESTABLISHED
  TCP    69.11.127.247:50611    a184-84-243-226:http   CLOSE_WAIT
  TCP    69.11.127.247:50612    a184-84-243-226:http   CLOSE_WAIT
  TCP    69.11.127.247:50615    a184-84-243-225:http   CLOSE_WAIT
  TCP    69.11.127.247:50643    yyz08s09-in-f6:http    ESTABLISHED
  TCP    69.11.127.247:50666    ord08s07-in-f7:https   ESTABLISHED

Not sure why it timed out on large files

[SpeedyQ]

I'm not sure what extra info the ping results are giving us.
Obviously, your network is working, only I'm still not sure at what speed; is taskmanager on your desktop showing Gigabit speed as expected?
Is it possible for you to eliminate the powerline adapter, so create the connection desktop -> router -> PS3?
See if that works properly...

[Godinster]

Apologies, not sure how I would go about checking that in task manager.

Guessing this is what you're referring to?



I'm running Windows 8 Pro if it matters.

Also I'm unable to eliminate the PowerLine adapter at the moment. I did, however, try it earlier and it had the same result. Even at 100 megabits I imagine I ought to be able to stream 720p content without issue.

[SpeedyQ]

I'm not familiar with Windows 8, but your screendumps is somehow what I would expect to see.
So between desktop and router 100Mb, which should be sufficient to watch 720p in most cases (although Gigabit would be nice ...).
And even if you drop the Quality setting in UMS a notch it should run fluently. So right now I would focus on the other parts of the chain.

I have no experience on Poweline adapters so I can't help you on that one, but I suppose it comes with a manual (or internet page).

Maybe your NIC setting on PS3 is causing problems; I certainly had that problem myself in the past.
The Duplex and Speed setting on PS3 is set to Auto negotiation/detecting (as the same is also configured on my desktop NIC).
Or maybe the latest PS3 firmware update is causing this? I am running 4.40 now and that one works just fine (not sure about latest version 4.41).

Apart from this I'm running out of ideas. Maybe Optimus has another bright idea....

[ExSport]

That your NIC shows 100Mbit it doesn't mean true speed is 100Mbit, mainly when talking about power lines.
Ping is used to detect speed of the renderer but the speed can't be taken seriously. It is informative only because PING is quite inaccurate and for some renderers or routers the size of ping sent is too big so timeout is returned = no speed detected.

[Godinster]

Spent the day working on this, narrowed it down to my network. I'm almost certain it's the Powerline adapter now, my building is quite old and it's likely throttling the speed.

[SpeedyQ]

So maybe you can rule out the powerline wiring by connecting the Powerline adapter to a good quality extension chord if you have one lying around, so that the network connection routes via this chord.