Troubleshooting Playback Stutter with local media (not iptv)

[Austin9]

I'm having some issues with stuttering for some of my library, the current example file is an MKV. It stutters every few minutes, sometimes it goes a long time without any issue and then other times it stutters every few seconds. I can't figure out how to troubleshoot. I dont have issues streaming ip-channels.

I do have hardware encoding nvenc turned on my docker container, with a nvidia gtx 1060 3gb.
Transcoder Probe says

nvenc

[Parsed_color_0 @ 0x1b8d800] size:640x480 rate:25/1 duration:-1.000000 sar:1/1
Input #0, lavfi, from 'color=black:640x480':
  Duration: N/A, start: 0.000000, bitrate: N/A
  Stream #0:0: Video: rawvideo, 1 reference frame (I420 / 0x30323449), yuv420p, 640x480 [SAR 1:1 DAR 4:3], 25 tbr, 25 tbn
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (rawvideo (native) -> h264 (h264_nvenc))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
[graph 0 input from stream 0:0 @ 0x1bd7e80] w:640 h:480 pixfmt:yuv420p tb:1/25 fr:25/1 sar:1/1
[h264_nvenc @ 0x1bb9640] Loaded Nvenc version 12.2
[h264_nvenc @ 0x1bb9640] Nvenc initialized successfully
[h264_nvenc @ 0x1bb9640] 1 CUDA capable devices found
[h264_nvenc @ 0x1bb9640] [ GPU #0 - < NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB > has Compute SM 6.1 ]
[h264_nvenc @ 0x1bb9640] supports NVENC
Output #0, null, to '/dev/null':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf59.16.100
  Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (High), 1 reference frame, yuv420p(progressive), 640x480 (0x0) [SAR 1:1 DAR 4:3], q=2-31, 400 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbn
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc59.18.100 h264_nvenc
    Side data:
      cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 600000/0/400000 buffer size: 800000 vbv_delay: N/A
No more output streams to write to, finishing.
frame=    3 fps=0.0 q=23.0 Lsize=N/A time=00:00:00.00 bitrate=N/A speed=   0x    
video:0kB audio:0kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: unknown
Input file #0 (color=black:640x480):
  Input stream #0:0 (video): 4 packets read (1843200 bytes); 4 frames decoded; 
  Total: 4 packets (1843200 bytes) demuxed
Output file #0 (/dev/null):
  Output stream #0:0 (video): 3 frames encoded; 3 packets muxed (237 bytes); 
  Total: 3 packets (237 bytes) muxed
[h264_nvenc @ 0x1bb9640] Nvenc unloaded

I'm not really sure how to troubleshoot. The client is a FireTV 4k. Sitting in the same room (I have Aruba networks access points for my small home) with my macbook air and playing the exact same content from my laptop via the webplayer it works flawlessly. Below the content it says "Remux Running at 9mbps: 4m14s @ 23.04x (556.15fps)".

Where would I start to try to troubleshoot this on the firetv? I haven't changed any settings on the default client app.

I just tested it all again, the stuttering will stop for maybe a minute between suttering at the most. The logs dont really show anything, it just says
2025/01/07 18:25:43.189604 [ENC] Starting encoder for content1.mkv in /shares/DVR/Streaming/file951-ip192.168.1.157-3876060887/encoder-17-4140705446 at 17 (32.032000) (encoder=remux, acodec=aac, bitrate=9422, segment_size=0.01)

[Austin9]

I'm running all this on my unraid server 12th gen intel with 64gb of ram. While stuttering is occurring here are the stats on the server, nothing looks crazy to me.

Channels DVR version: 2024.12.10.0055

[slampman]

Is there a reason you need to transcode? I typically play everything at original quality with few exceptions. You might give that a try

[Austin9]

I dont know if it is transcoding, isn't "remux" not transcoding? So I think posting my transcoding profile was pointless above.

However, I do think I've solved this. I was checking firewall policies, etc. Then went into the client settings on the firestick and saw a "Test speed to DVR Server" and it was abnormally low (5-7mbps) - for having 2 aruba networks access points and one that is very close, it was oddly low.

So I have a frame tv with the "box" that controls it in a drawer of a cabinet. I opened the cabinet and my speed went from 5-7 to 40mbps+. I'm now not experiencing it anymore. So I need to get a HDMI dongle and run this out of the cabinet so it gets better reception, I think.