Gigabit LAN Streaming

[sixersclt]

Has anyone had success streaming on a gigabit LAN? When I force the NIC to 100 Mbps on the 1000M lan, DVBDream streams fine. When it streams on a 1000M lan, DVBdream drops off now and then. The stream is fine, then drops to 0, then back up to 10+ Mbps. This happens with both H.264 and SD.

Stream is also works fine on a 100M router. Two different 1G routers have the same problem streaming DVBDream. Some folks think it is the NICs, but they transfer files across the network at 300 - 500 MBps.

Ideas?

[genpix]

Can be a NIC, indeed. Especially, if it's old card.
try to disable jumbo packets for that NIC (in card settings).
On my old motherboard with integrated 1Gbit NIC I saw BSOD once in a while (during transfer of large files to the server), until I disabled jumbo packets for that NIC.
Surely, absence of jumbo packets slows 1Gbit line a bit.
But it was easier then buying a new card (or motherboard).

[sixersclt]

Jumbo frames is disabled - so that is not it. The routers I have tried, Dlink DIR-655 and Netgear WNR3500 both act the same dropping the stream on 1Gb. I've posted on Dlink forums and they think it is the embedded Realtek chip on the MBs and advise putting in an intel pci nic.

On older 100M linksys and netgear routers, 3 of them total, they all stream even H.264 fine to VLC. So don't know if it is the router(s) on the Gb lan or the nics on the GB lan. Everything has static IPs and port forward to the VLC machine. MTU is 1500.

I do think there is an issue with DVBDream though. On the 100M routers, DVB chokes/glitches at 10Mbps. That happens also to be the max limit on the lan screening screen. There are H.264 channels that stream over 10 Mbps now and then. I tried every setting - stream buffers, video and audio buffers, packet size, so forth and so on.

[genpix]

could be the firmware bug in Gbit routers.

I have old DSL modem (for about 3 years now).
Never had a problem until my daughter started to play her games (when she came home from college for school break and brought her laptop).
I don't remember the name of the game (it's some on-line strategy game).
And it worked fine back in college (on her laptop).

But at home, after 5-10 minutes of playing, DSL modem stopped responding and had to be restarted.

I search the net (and tech support forum for that game). Apparently, many people experienced the same thing, but game software developers were not able to reproduce that (thread was about 180 pages; I did not even bother to read them all).
All I "extracted" from reading few first and last pages, that high throttling of IP packets from game simply crashed modem's software/firmware.

Two possible solutions:
1) replace the DSL modem (no way; I don't play games myself, and I don't care)
2) fix the software to reduce high IP packet throttling

since I can not change software, I went very easy way: temporally reduced NIC speed on my daughter laptop from 100 to 10mbit (this is new Dell XPS which does not even have Gbit).
And my DSL modem stopped crashing.

My point is: there are DSL modems (with modern chips and latest software) which work properly with that game. That's why there were gamers who did not complain (and why software developers were not able to reproduce the problem).

Could be the same with your Gbit routers. You need the one with latest chipset and software.

[sixersclt]

Thanks for the feedback. You are always a wise source.

The router is the latest and greatest Dlink 655, latest hardware rev 4 and the latest firmware 1.21. I even tried the beta firmware over at dir655 forums (where a discussion like this is taking place under the DIR655 folder, google dlink forums) and that changed nothing. Also tried a netgear WNR3500 - does the same thing on Gb lan.

I would like to try streaming with TSReader. But, I can't figure out how to get TSreader to do anything. I need a guide for dummies, but can't find one.

Some think the nics, I think the router and DVBDream is the wild card.

[toshiba]

I use a DIR-655 rev.A2 FWv.1.21. It being easy enough, I decided to test streaming through mine. I verified I can stream wired Gb and Wireless-N (can connect ~300Mb) from a Vista x86 workstation to an XP x86 laptop through the DIR-655. I don't seem to have any problems other than the fact that my laptop isn't powerful enough to render the h.264 streams. I was streaming to VLCv.0.9.8a using DDv.1.4i p1.

Maybe you should borrow a Gb NIC from someone to see if it makes a difference. Also, try disabling the QoS engine on the DIR-655--it was off when I tested.

[sixersclt]

Thanks for testing that!

Just to make sure I have it correct, you were using DVBDream to stream live H.264 and not streaming something recorded over VLC?

When I stream recorded material over VLC, everything works fine on DIR655 rev A4. You have rev A2.

What happens to me is with DVB streaming live H.264, the DIR655 drops out the stream to 0 and then back to normal. It cycles in and out. Would it be possible to watch your network task manager to see if it cuts in and out please with live DVBDream streaming? You don't need anything on the other end to capture the stream.

Also, do you have an motherboard embedded nic or a card? Regardless, what is the brand/chip? Some think my Realtek 8111 embedded chip is the problem.

Thanks in advance.

[genpix]

btw, do you have PCI or USB DVB card?
If it's USB, try to disconnect all other USB devices (especially, external USB hard drives).

Also, while streaming, open Analysis -> PID Statistics and check for Continuity Errors.
Do you have any?

[toshiba]

My NIC is embedded on an Abit IP35pro mainboard. The interface is a Realtek, my driver is labeled "Realtek RTL8169/8110 Family PCI GBE NIC", the driver date is 1/20/09 v.6.216.120.2009. Jumbo's are disabled.

I'll let you know what I observe while streaming. I can say right now, however, that I stream h.264 locally to MPC without any problems. I don't know if these means much since the network interface driver is likely not invoked for this, but I could be wrong.

I'm scanning for channels now, I will let you know if I find any dropouts while streaming to another IP address.

[sixersclt]

I did some more testing at the request of Dlink. Here are the H.264 MPEG2 stream test results. MTU 1500, no jumbo frames, DIR655 1Gb router rev 4, same motherboard realtek 8111 embedded NIC as Toshiba. Streaming to VLC from DVBDream 1.4ip1 to 239.255.255.250 with 56k buffer, video options 4Mb,8Mb,64K & renderless

1 - Direct PC to PC 1 Gb NIC - no problems, peaks around 13/14 Mbps

2 - Through 100Mbps Router - no problems, peaks around 13/14 Mbps

3 - Through DGS2205 1Gb Switch - stream capped at 10 Mbps at which time it pixelates and sound drops - mostly recovers when stream <10 Mbps, but then stream drops off to 0 Mbps- recovers after a while or not at all

4 - Through DIR655 1Gb - acts same as DDGS2205 switch - 10 Mbps cap, drops out, might recover - or not

5 - Streaming end 1 GB - 10 Mbps cap limited when connected to DIR655 or DGS2205 but no drop outs. No cap or drop out Direct PC to PC or over 100Mbps router.

How do you get MPC to pick up the stream - I can't figure it out.

Thanks for the help!

[toshiba]

First off, I forgot that I too have a DGS2205 switch between the workstation running DD and the DIR655.

The DIR655 is at the default 1492 MTU.

I can only get MPC to pick up the stream locally using the built-in DD integration. I use MPC from here: http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/. It has support for the EVR in Vista which gives much better video than native DD.

Have always had trouble with MPC over the network, so I use VLC. However, if you go into DD options and look at the integration section you will see the command line arguments you use to launch MPC to pick up a UDP stream. Also, I don't stream to the broadcast address b/c that kills my network, I stream directly to the IP of the client.

I still need to test streaming as you requested, just haven't had time.

[sixersclt]

I too have DGS2205s - 5 of them in the network. I don't run Vista - totally gave up on streaming with that due to MMCSS. It took me about a week to figure out that was the issue. Even with SP1, I still had trouble. Enough trouble, so I just went back to XP.

Regardless, I got the DIR655 to work out by setting jumbo frames at 4k on the nics, even though MTU is 1500 on the DIR655.

I stream to 239.255.255.250 and any machine on the network can pick it up. It does not slow anything down for me considering ~15 Mpbs streaming is less than 2% of the LAN. In DVBDream, have a 56k stream buffer with 4/8/64/1 video option packet sizes. It streams SD or HD without flaws. Of course, you need a dual core to be able to handle watching it in VLC or MPC.

The DIR655 can do the 2 Xboxs getting H.264 recorded streamed to them both at the same time with Tveristy while watching live H264 streamed from DVBDream on another network machine.

[toshiba]

Interesting about streaming to the broadcast IP. If I do that I can't even browse the web on the system running DD.

[sixersclt]

DIR655 - Does the broadcast address show up on the DIR655 - status - device info at the bottom IGMP Membership? Do you have multicast streams enabled - advanced - advanced network - multicast streams at the bottom?

Have you throttled MMCCS in vista registry? I assume you have installed SP1. Try 40 to 60 throttle to see what happens. MMCCS cripples the machine network traffic, without SP1, and would slow everything down on a vista machine realtive to other LAN traffic while streaming.