Laggy Jump Fwd/Back

Channels DVR Server
#1

Just the other day I decided to move my Channels DVR server from a Linux machine w/ internal SATA HDD to my 2012 Mac Mini w/ external USB drive. (to save some power since the Mini burns a lot less power than the full-tower Linux box)

Transferring the recordings over and getting the new server up-and-running went relatively smoothly thanks to the DVR backup/restore feature.

However, I've since noticed when watching recorded content that jumping forward/back is now "laggy" compared to how it used to be. When running the server on the Linux machine, jumps seemed nearly instantaneous. Now, with the server on the Mac Mini, when I jump forward or back, there is a noticeable pause of a second or 2 before the playback resumes.

Wondering if this is likely a processor thing, or a HDD access time thing.

The Linux hardware is of similar vintage, CPU, RAM, as the Mini.

I ran the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test app on the Mini, and it's reporting read/write speeds in the neighborhood of 50-75MB/s.

If you think it's HDD-limited, I might try to find a faster external HDD or enclosure. Or I might try to install it internally directly to the SATA bus.

Performance Improvements - SSD, Mesh...?
#2

Additional Info...

The playback app I've been using is a Fire Stick 4K. The speed test reports 30MB/s to the server on the Mini (I don't know what the speed to the Linux machine would've been since I'd never had reason to run it, and I've since uninstalled the DVR software from it).

My router is a Netgear N900.

The Mini and the Linux machine are both connected to the router via Gigabit Ethernet.

The Firestick is connected to the router's 5GHz WiFi channel.

#3

Oh, wait. That's Mbits/s not MBytes. 30Mbits/s is really bad.

I did some poking around and discovered that my Fire Stick had switched over to the 2.4GHz band on my router. I changed it back to the 5GHz band and now I'm getting ~180Mbits/s from the DVR speed test and the laggy behavior has gotten much better.

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#4

Glad you figured it out!

You should also make sure that Ethernet is prioritized in the Mac mini. If WiFi is, you could end up connecting to the mini over WiFi instead of Ethernet.

You can do this in the Network section of System Preferences.

#5

I have WiFi turned off altogether on the Mini, so there's no question which interface is handling the traffic.

Also, I finally went out and bought a new AC router to replace the N (amazon has a wicked deal on a Netgear AC1750 router right now, BTW). With the new AC connection the DVR app on the Fire Stick now reports 300+Mbits/s to the server. Nice!

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