U4 Bug. Glitching on SMB streaming

[Robbks]

Upgraded from a DP-P2 to a U4
The U4 has an issue when watching content from my media server (SMB shares)
About every 10 seconds you get a frame or two of black screen. You'd call it a black flash.
No issue on the same file when casting to a Chromecast or on the old DP-P2.
Entire setup is wired, gigabit Ethernet.

Anyone else experienced this?

[MrQuade]

Anyone else experienced this?

Haven't noticed it on mine. I assume that you tried copying the files to the U4's harddisk and tried playing them directly from there as well?

Are you running the latest 20180315 firmware version?

[Robbks]

Correct Latest firmware.
But have not copied them locally.
That's the point of having a Network Media Server.

All 3 other devices tested have no issue.
DP-P2
WD HDTV live
Chromecast

After testing last night it's not all files.
Will have to see if it's file type related.
Most of mine are 720 MP4/ mkv

[MrQuade]

But have not copied them locally.
That's the point of having a Network Media Server.

The point is if they still glitch when locally stored, then it is not the network. I wasn't suggesting to play all files locally, rather determine the actual fault at hand.

[Robbks]

The U4 is connected to the same router, and cable that the P2 was.
Nothing else in the network glitches.
Not even when on wifi to Chromecast.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

The U4 is connected to the same router, and cable that the P2 was.
Nothing else in the network glitches.
Not even when on wifi to Chromecast.

Sure.
But I think the point is - does the U4 have the same issue when playing the very same media from its own HDD?
If yes, then you'll need to explore the codecs et. al.
If no, then you'll need to explore the networking side.
At least that's my read on what MrQuade has posted.

[Robbks]

It appears in some cases that stopping and resuming playback clears the glitching.
Buffering issue maybe?

[MrQuade]

Have you tried copying the files to the U4's HDD and playing them from there yet?

I'm asking you to do this so that we can rule out a problem with the U4 firmware installation, settings or your media files.

Then we can start looking at the network connection, maybe try NFS vs SMB, etc....

[peteru]

Every time that someone has reported something similar in the past, the problem turned out to be bad network infrastructure. Most commonly the cabling, but every now and then a bad switch port.

[Robbks]

Ok.
Have copied the field to the HDD.
No issues.
Played the same original file a second time from SMB.
No glitching.
Tried multiple different times when they glitch, same issue.
It's only the first play of a file from SMB that glitches. But only about 1 in 5 files will glitch.

I've also moved the U4 to the same room, and plugged I to the same switch as the share drive.
Same issue.,

I then moved the share box and u4 and plugged direct into to the router, using brand new cat6 0.5m leads.
Same issue, with the first play. But again only 1 in 5.

My DP-P2 still doesn't glitch.
WDHDTV still doesn't glitch
Chromecasts still don't glitch.
PS4 still doesn't glitch.

[MrQuade]

My DP-P2 still doesn't glitch.
WDHDTV still doesn't glitch
Chromecasts still don't glitch.
PS4 still doesn't glitch.

Of that list, only the DP-P2 and WDHDTV would be using SMB. The other two would be streaming with DLNA or something similar.

Interesting that the glitches don't occur on a subsequent playback though, and that a pause can stop them too. What if you perform a skip/seek operation?

It could well be a buffer running dry, but it's strange that others aren't seeing the same thing. It might also be some periodic task running on the U4 that is staying the network, though why you'd see the glitches go away on a second playback would be unexplained.

Are you able to test a few more things? Does your media sharing box support NFS shares? If so, try that as a comparison. Do you get glitching if you connect using DLNA from the U4 instead? Have you tried streaming from a different SMB server (share a directory from a Windows PC perhaps)?

I can't think of any other settings on the U4 that might be affecting this.
I presume that your U4 successfully updated to the later 20180417 firmware now too?

[Robbks]

Thanks Mr Quade.

The only share from my BAS is SMB.
I stream to Chromecast via ES File Explorer chromecast extension.
And I navigate to Network Shares on the WD box.

I can setup NFS shares on the NAS. But don't see it to be necessary, and dont want a DLNA server running as it's a pain in the butt on FreeNAS.
Correct.
Newest firmware successfully installed.

[MrQuade]

I can setup NFS shares on the NAS. But don't see it to be necessary,

It's not necessary, but I suggested it as a test to compare against your SMB performance.
Still not sure why you are seeing these issues when others do not though. Especially considering the rest of your network seems to be working fine.
Short of that, you may need to do some deep inspection of network traffic using Wireshark to figure out what is going wrong.