Help! Extreme buffering when DVR is turned on

Channels DVR Server
#1

Hi,

I’m new to the Channels app and DVR. I purchased Channels app for Fire TV yesterday. When I started watching live TV (HD Homerun Prime tuner), it seemed to work fine, with only a few seconds buffering at the beginning. Then I subscribed to Channels DVR service. I installed it on my WD MyCloud EX2 Ultra NAS. After the DVR was turned on, everything went south. On my fire TV, when I play any channel, it buffers for 8-10 seconds (small rotating circle) then the video plays for 3-4 seconds then it buffers again for 8-10 seconds and so on. Totally unwatchable. Same thing happens when I watch TV on computer through the Channels DVR settings area. I’m having same issues when I play recorded videos on the DVR too.

Any clue why this may be happening? Any settings that I need to change in my NAS? Or is my NAS not powerful enough? Or something else? My internet is Verizon Fios Gigabit speed.

Is there a suggested minimum configuration to run Channels DVR without buffering?

Thanks.
Pushkar

#2

What kind of network connection on the HDHR Prime tuner and WD NAS?

Your Internet connection speed has no bearing.

#3

Thanks Jim.

I’ve wired connections on both HDHR and WD NAS. Is that what you meant to ask? Or are you asking about the speed? If so, how would I check the speed?

Thanks.
Pushkar

#4

It sounds like you’re using remote login mode. Go to the DVR tab and click logout. Then try unchecking and rechecking the Bonjour checkbox on your DVR web UI. The app should discover your DVR automatically without doing a remote login.

1 Like
#5

You’re welcome. Yeah, that’s what I was wondering. Are you using the FiOS modem’s built-in network switch for the HDHR and NAS wired connections?

The point I’m getting to is something is throttling performance. If it’s not the MyCloud EX2, which, IIRC, has enough power, then I’m suspicious of your network.

For a single stream, even tuner -> NAS -> FTV (which is, technically, two streams), even 100mb/s would be more than adequate. And it’s not likely your WiFi connection, or you’d have seen it with tuner -> FTV.

Could be one of your network cables, I suppose. Can you get a terminal session into the EX2? If so, you can do something like
$ ifconfig eth0
and see the network interface’s error stats.

#6

Bingo! Yes, I was doing remote login. Looks like the fire TV app was not automatically detecting DVR so the only way I could see was DVR menu under settings. I followed the steps above, restarted fire TV and woohoo! Life seems back to normal now at home. Thanks Aman for quick help to resolve the issue.

With that said, does it mean that if I remote login into tbe DVR, I will get the buffering issue? I do want it to work remote too.

1 Like
#7

Thanks Jim,

Both are connected directly into the fios router. In the Ex2 setting I don’t see any network error status. I think the issue was remote login as called out by Aman.

#8

The EX2 has an ARM processor which is not capable of transcoding. You could set the Wi-Fi Streaming Quality to Original, but that will require a fast internet connection on both sides.

#9

I see. I’m new to NAS as well so I’m still learning. I saw lot of discussions about Synology DS218+ on this forum. Is that a good one that is capable of transcoding and hence remote steaming?

Alternatively, I’ve a Windows HTPC that I used for WMC. It has a decent configuration of 16 GB RAM and Intel i5 3.5 GHz. Do you think it’s capable of transcoding Channels DVR videos? I may just stick with the same machine instead of using NAS. Thoughts?

#10

Yes both of those are Intel based and can transcode with hardware acceleration

#11

Thanks!