Slow response with FF 30 Second For Some Shows vs Others (Video Codec Related?)

Channels Android TV
#1

I have a HDHomeRun Flex 4k recording mostly ATSC 1.0 and also have Philo w/ programs recorded via TVE. I've been seeing issues a lot of times when watching a program and trying to FF in 30 second increments with my Nvidia Shield but haven't been able to pinpoint specific examples of it working fine vs. when it doesn't work fine.

Around here, the motto always seems to be that it's network related, but I don't believe it is because why would some programs work fine and other not. I'm more inclined to believe it's either something with the specific codec/resolution that's involved, at least on the Android side.

The program "Tough As Nails" was recorded OTA and when watching it, the fast forwards were very slow and sometimes hang for a few seconds instead of being instant.

On the other hand, the program "On Patrol Live" was recorded via TVE and the fast forwards are very responsive / instant.

I've included the stats from Media Info for both files:

tough_as_nails
tough_as_nails805×595 41.8 KB

on_patrol_live
on_patrol_live806×593 37.7 KB

#2

5gb vs 1gb, ie 5x network pressure

#3

Sorry, I'm just not buying this. This is the standard explanation here, but I have all kinds of different media (large and small) that gets played through VLC, Kodi, and even Channels and never have any issues except these particular files that are being recorded and played back via Channels. And a network should be handle multiple streams of media (Silicon Dust has stated that average network bandwidth should handle 5-6 streams at a time) and yet this is one thing streaming on my network at a time via a recording no less.

Do you guys even consider for one second that the Android client might not be playing the files properly? Have you guys even tested it? There are so many bugs and errors on the Android client that's it's apparent to me that you guys barely test on that side, so to dismiss this as network related doesn't seem acceptable to me.

#4

What’s the speed test results on your shield?

#5

It's fluctuating a bit, but I'm seeing it around 5ms of latency mostly.

#6

Doing some experimentation with those two files on the Nvidia Shield via VLC.

One difference I'm seeing when playing in VLC. The "Tough As Nails" file cannot be fast forwarded or rewinded in VLC (via 10 sec forward/back buttons or pressing left/right). The "On Patrol Live" file, however, can be fast fowarded / rewinded in VLC.

This would seem to indicate to me that the Shield doesn't like the OTA file format a whole lot.

#7

I’m asking about speed. Do a speed test in the Channels app by visiting Settings > Support.

This will test the speed between your shield and your Channels DVR Server. Look for the Mbit/s unit.

#8

61.35 Mbit/s

#9

Also, when I play the file from the X-Plore file explorer and it launches in VLC that way, it does fast forward / rewind very responsively in 10 second increments with no issue at all and no "hanging".

I think this in and of itself proves that the Channels Android Client video player is not able to handle these files properly. Nothing to do with my network as I suspected.

#10

And before you ask, I have hardware decoding on, but there's no difference when running software.

#11

I rebooted my Windows 10 machine that has the Channels DVR server on it, and this morning and now the file is playing fine.

Any idea why this would make a difference?

1 Like
#12

Did you do a speed test after the reboot?

I would certainly put 61mbit/s in the slow category.

#13

After reboot, speed test is returning 1006 Mbit/s.

I'm going to schedule this Windows 10 server to reboot everyday overnight.

Appreciate the help.

#14

Windows sometimes just is weird and has a very slow network connection.
Reboot or restart of its network adapter works.

#15

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