Shield buffer cache on WiFi exhausting, causing freezing

[haizman]

I have a few Nvidia Shields in the house, one hard wired and the other on Wifi. I recently upgraded the DVR server docker (Unraid) from the FancyBits to the channelsdvr_nvidia image maintained by timstephens24.
After the upgrade the Wifi connected Shield started to experience freezing behavior. When displaying statistics it appears that the "Total Cache" value will deplete at random times - which corresponds to the freezing behavior.
Some observations -
Other Wifi clients in the house using the Channels app (ex; phone) are not experiencing the same issues, so it seems localized to the Shield only.
Using the "Test Speed to DVR Server" on the Shield returns the expected results - Wifi 200+ Mbit/s and hardwired 990+ Mbit/s
The Total Cache on this Shield does not exhaust when connected to ethernet. I've played back multiple shows and streamed TVE for an hour or more without problems when hard wired.
Curiously, only the Channels app seems to be impacted when connected to Wifi. All other streaming apps work fine all day long (ex: Amazon, Netflix, etc) when on Wifi.

Everything else related to the Channels DVR and app have been working without issue, with the exception of the Shield on Wifi. I even reverted back to the FancyBits docker but the issue persists.
I don't have a way to hard wire this Shield at the moment (it's in a bedroom), so any advice would be appreciated on this topic!

[tmm1]

Sounds like your wifi network is dropping packets or something else is going on. If cache is dropping that means its not receiving any data from your DVR server to fill it up.

What kind of router/APs? Did you reboot them? Is it a mesh?

[haizman]

I agree it has the appearance of a router issue, but as mentioned - other streaming services on this Shield have never seen any buffering issues. I have also seen this cache depletion/freeze happen while streaming local recorded shows from the DVR, but the buffer is much bigger than when watching TVE, so it happens much less frequently. Is the buffer cache something that is configurable with the Channels app?

[tmm1]

Recorded content can be buffered ahead of time. Live tv cannot be buffered because it's coming in live and you can't move into the future.

If other apps aren't affected that means your network route to the internet is fine, but the route to your dvr is experiencing latency.

First step would be to hardwire your dvr if it isn't already.

[haizman]

I temporarily put a mesh node with wired backhaul near this Shield and was able to get a consistent cache buffer (no freezing) after 20 minutes or so of testing. "Test Speed to DVR Server" went from 200+ Mbit/s to 400+ Mbit/s.

This tells me the Channels app simply needs more bandwidth for TVE or local recording playback versus the typical streaming services. I'll have to figure out MoCa or Powerline solution to get this working consistently in the future.

[tmm1]

Typical streaming app will notice limited bandwidth and reduce quality automatically, because they already have pre-generated different quality versions of every video.

With the DVR you're downloading and watching the original quality directly. And in the case of OTA, those files are still using mpeg2 and 3x larger than anything a streaming service would be using.

But the answer is yes, Channels will benefit from anything you can do to lower latency and increase bandwidth.

[eric]

If you install the Beta app and go to the Debug menu and enable Always use HLS Streaming you may see better performance.