P1 Streaming Issues

[cmh75]

Hi,

I have been using an old P1 for a number of years without any problems. Recently I installed a new router (Netgear Orbi).

My connection is a Synology NAS ethernet>> Netgear Orbi Router ethernet>> Netgear Orbi Satellite ethernet>> Beyonwiz P1

My problem is that I can connect to the NAS, i can access the various folders, I can select a movie to playback on the P1 and it will play.

BUT, at a random period in the movie (usually between 2 and 25 minutes) the movie will completely freeze. At this point it will often stay freezes for up to a minute before it actually starts to load and play the next movie in that folder. If not, it stays frozen and I need to restart the P1.

Netgear so far have not been particularly helpful, and their current suggestion is for me to find out the port numbers that the P1 uses. I'm not particularly tech savvy but I find it hard to see how this would help when everything is on an internal network.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Chris

[prl]

Netgear so far have not been particularly helpful, and their current suggestion is for me to find out the port numbers that the P1 uses. I'm not particularly tech savvy but I find it hard to see how this would help when everything is on an internal network.

"The port numbers that Windows sharing uses."

Port numbers are important for all Internet connections, internal or external. A full Internet connection specification is address:port. Broadly, the address represents the device to connect to, and the port number is the connection to the particular software using the connection on the device.

Are you able to test the P1 with it connected direct to the router, instead of to the Orbi Satellite?

The Orbi is a WiFi device. Where you say "Ethernet" in the connection diagram, which bits are actually wired Ethernet and which bits are WiFi?

If the P1 has a WiFi connection to the Orbi Satellite, what's doing the WiFi connection on the P1?

[Paul_oz53]

Hi,

I have been using an old P1 for a number of years without any problems. Recently I installed a new router (Netgear Orbi).

My connection is a Synology NAS ethernet>> Netgear Orbi Router ethernet>> Netgear Orbi Satellite ethernet>> Beyonwiz P1

My problem is that I can connect to the NAS, i can access the various folders, I can select a movie to playback on the P1 and it will play.

BUT, at a random period in the movie (usually between 2 and 25 minutes) the movie will completely freeze. At this point it will often stay freezes for up to a minute before it actually starts to load and play the next movie in that folder. If not, it stays frozen and I need to restart the P1.

Netgear so far have not been particularly helpful, and their current suggestion is for me to find out the port numbers that the P1 uses. I'm not particularly tech savvy but I find it hard to see how this would help when everything is on an internal network.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Chris

This doesn't sound like a network issue. I'm more inclined to think coincidence. The older wizzes have dodgy PSU capacitors that often manifest as random unexpected behaviour. Has your PSU ever been rebuilt and, if so, was it by Warkus (aka Mark Vasile)?

If not, open the box with it unplugged from power for at least 10 minutes. Look at the PSU capacitors for signs of bulging or leakage. There are pictures in this thread.

[cmh75]

Thanks Peter.

If the P1 has a WiFi connection to the Orbi Satellite, what's doing the WiFi connection on the P1?

The whole connection is via Ethernet. There is no wifi involved with these devices.

[cmh75]

Thanks Paul

I’ll give that a try, but the streaming issues only started when the new router was introduced into the network.

Chris

[MrQuade]

If the router is just acting as a Layer 2 switch, then it shouldn't be mucking around with any NAS connections.

The P1 and NAS aren't on different subnets are they?

Can you temporarily bypass the router again and test playback with it out of the loop just to make doubly sure it is causing the problem?

[peteru]

From the diagram, it looks like you are using GigE for the backhaul between the router (RBR) and satellite (RBS). You'd think that this would just work, regardless of how well those two can communicate via WiFi. You'd be wrong!

Even with Ethernet backhaul, the router and satellite require a good WiFi connection. Make sure that the RBR and RBS are located such that everything works reliably with the Ethernet cable between the RBR and RBS disconnected. Connecting Ethernet for backhaul will help with data throughput and latency, but the system management communications are still done over WiFi. If that WiFi connection is flaky, the two will stop talking to each other even if there is a perfectly good GigE cable connecting them. That will result in your NAS and your P1 having trouble communicating.

The other thing to be aware of is that there is no user visible interface for changing the WiFi backhaul channel number. Unfortunately Netgear have hardcoded the backhaul channel to sit right in the middle of the 5.4GHz band used by DSS phones. Typical symptoms of this is that as soon as you use your cordless phone, your connectivity from anything connected to the RBS goes from fine to intermittent/non-existent. I've hacked my Orbis to use a different channel number for the backhaul, so there is no interference from the Uniden cordless phones.

What firmware versions are you running on the Orbis?

tl;dr: You need to fix WiFi connectivity between RBR and RBS. Check the "Attached devices" page on the Orbi when you are having trouble. You might (or not) see the RBS disappearing intermittently.

[MrQuade]

Yikes, that sucks! But I'm not sure I am surprised given my 30 second research last night. The fact that you can't easily cute the specs on the products in this range really set my teeth on edge.

Devices trying to be smart and simple almost always seem to fail at least one of those objectives.

[Gully]

Even with Ethernet backhaul, the router and satellite require a good WiFi connection. Make sure that the RBR and RBS are located such that everything works reliably with the Ethernet cable between the RBR and RBS disconnected. Connecting Ethernet for backhaul will help with data throughput and latency, but the system management communications are still done over WiFi. If that WiFi connection is flaky, the two will stop talking to each other even if there is a perfectly good GigE cable connecting them. That will result in your NAS and your P1 having trouble communicating.

Not sure about the current stock on sale but when I bought mine, it was clearly flagged that you had to update the firmware before using wired backhaul, so you had to get it working with a WiFi backhaul first.

[cmh75]

I only recently found the time to look at this problem again, and unfortunately there has been no change.

I have tried to connect both the beyonwiz and NAS into the orbi base router via cable connection and the problem still occurs. When I connect it back to the original telstra modem/router and remove the orbi, there is no problem.

When the problem occurs, I have been monitoring the orbi and there does not appear to be any loss of connection. Interestingly, I seem to be able to stream from my NAS to macbook pro using a wireless connection on the orbi without any problems.

Is there anything I can try in the settings of the P1?

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

[cmh75]

Just thought I would add a little more detail.

When the media file freezes, the picture and audio freezes, the counter on the front of the P1 continues though for another 30-40 seconds, and then the NEXT media file on the NAS starts to load and plays without any problems.

But, the same problem happens to that new media file at some random period of time. I have just tried it again and been through 6 movies in 45 minutes. The longest a movie played for before freezing and loading the next movie was 22 minutes and the shortest was 1minute.