Channels DVR remote stuttering

I'm in Italy remotely accessing my server in the US. When watching live programming, I am getting a stutter every 10-15 seconds. When watching recordings I get an occasional stutter but not frequently or regularly.

My setup is HDHomeRun Prime --> QNAP 253A with 8GB RAM. Watching remote on Tivo Stream 4k or web browser (I have CCwGTV and FireTV with me as options). Router in US is an ASUS RT-AC68U. I have logged in remotely and played with QOS but not seen any changes. US server is connected via Comcast and has between 5-8 Mbps up.

Italy is FTTC with 150Mbps down (router is TIM Hub+)

Stuttering occurs both with Tivo & web browser (Chrome, Firefox & Edge)

Any suggestions on Channels DVR settings and/or router tweaks?

Try the latest dvr prerelease and apk beta on the tivo

1 Like

thanks. updated the server and that seems to help (via browser). One thing I noticed was it seems the stuttering is particularly bad if the channel I am watching (live) is also being recorded. If I watch something that is not being recorded there doesn't seem to be much stuttering.

Where can I get the apk beta for the tivo?

Settings > Support > Install Beta

Thanks

I was watching live TV remotely via the web browser and experienced stuttering. I have channels running on a Windows 10 VM that dose not have access to the GPU. The CPU is an i7-7820X and the VM gets 8 VCPU so there is lots of CPU available. The stuttering was quite intermittent till two shows began to record. I don't believe there was bandwidth issues. As I reduced the resolution and bandwidth to lighten the encoding load, stuttering almost went away. Is this the same issue?

Hard to say without more details. I would recommend submitting diagnostics. If any errors appear in the DVR web ui log at the time of the issue you could also share those here to see if the community can assist.

Thank you,

I was wondering what others are experiencing. If I don't get feedback, I can try the latest pre-release and emulate being away using my phone.

Morris

I updated 4-5 days ago to most recent releases (QNAP server with HDHomeRun Prime<-cablecard / Android client). It seemed to get better.

Yesterday I was watching (Italy connecting to server in US) and did get an annoying pause every 10-15 seconds for one show I was watching (replay). Other was relatively good (2-3 pauses over an hour).

My observations - what seems really glitchy is when you're watching the same program you are recording. That happened to me Sunday as I was watching an NFL game that was also recording. Other than that, things are generally smooth but I do seem to get an occasional outbreak of pauses which I attribute to Comcast upstream issues.

I believe I've found my problem. Following a firmware update to my Asus router, the QOS settings reverted to default. I restored the proper settings and then watched via my phone over the cell network and had no issues.

Just a note, now that I'm home, streaming was using 20% of host CPU on my TrueNAS box which hosts the Windows VM for channels.

Than you all who provided feedback,

Morris

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Do you mind my asking - how do you have QOS set up? I'm running an AC-RT68U with ASUSWRT-MERLIN. I'm running Traditional QoS with my QNAP getting highest priority (which I probably wouldn't do when I am home but when I am away it's the only think I care about).

I run Cake QOS on Merlin. Unless you are oversubscribed for bandwidth this is a delightful way to setup QOS. All you need to do is set your measured upload and download speed and Cake will take care of the rest. Applications that flood the interface will be delayed for applications that do not flood the interface. Video streaming and VOIP are examples of applications that do not flood the interface as they only use some of the bandwidth. Cake is good for most games yet not all. Cake is set it and forget it and why I love it. No dealing with classifying applications, or devices. It's as easy as Cake!

Morris

Thanks - I'll look into it.

I did a small experiment just now with interesting results.

I am not recording anything at the moment. I watched NFL on NBC and on FOX. The NBC feed didn't stutter at all. The FOX feed has a pause every 10-15 seconds. My feed is a HDHomeRun Prime with Cablecard. Odd.

I'd expect the opposite. NBC is 1080i while FOX 720p. Sounds like you should limit to 720 3Mb.

Morris

I'm doing 576 @ 2Mb right now. I'll try to raise it to 3Mbps soon to see if that changes the results.

OK - I also noticed that when it is encoding NBC, it's doing it at ~30fps. However, when it is encoding FOX, it is trying to do it at 48-50 fps.

Is there any way to get Channels DVR to cap fps? I'd rather run @ 30fps with no stutter than a higher frame rate with lots of hiccups.

Added - this was true @ both 2Mb 576 & 3MBps 720.

Correction - it is CBS vs FOX, not NBC