High bitrate video stuttering over wireless network

[rexian96]

I tried the search but couldn't find an exact issue discussed, so here I go.

I have a desktop (XP Pro, Athlon XP 2GHz, 512MB) with 7200RPM hard drives. The drives are not very clean (not defragmented regularly & also the cluster size is 4KB for all of them). The desktop is wired to my D-Link 108Mbps router. No firewall is running on the desktop.

The laptop is a Dell (MCE, core duo, 1GB, D-Link 108Mbps USB adapter, running Sygate personal firewall) sitting less than 10ft from the router. The connection strength is always Excellent@108Mbps. When I try to copy a file (AVI file type) from the network drive on Desktop to the laptop, Sygate shows consistent incoming network speed of over 24Mbps and the file is copied in about 4 minutes (video runtime over 10 minutes).

Now the same file when I try to play on the laptop from the network location (not the local copy), it is choppy. The video bitrate for this AVI file is about 6 Mbps (1280x720 resolution) and Audio about 448Kbps.

The CPU usage on the laptop when the video is playing is about 20% and Sygate shows an incoming network traffic speed of about 2Mbps. And the CPU usage on dektop is about 5%. Now I know, it's not the router or adapter since the file copy happens much faster (as expected). Also it seems the hard drives not being deframanted not really affecting.

It doesn't seems to be CPU either, what else should I look into ? I am not a n00b when it comes to computers but this one is leaving me clueless 🙁 SD files with bitrates about 2Mbps work just fine.

Am I missing something very obvious ? Has anybody here experienced anything like this ? Thanks for any help.

 

[drag]

It's hard to tell what exactly is going on, but I expect it has to do with latency issues.

Something like your media player is trying to keep video and sound in sync, but the way it reads the file off the share is taking to long for the remote server to respond and stuff falls out of sync.It may be able to move the file fast enough, but not be able to respond that quickly.

How to fix this, I don't know. But there are a few things I'd try...
Lowering the speed of the network down to 54 or 24 Mbps may help.
Also I'd try using a different media player that may be better at cache'ng things and keeping them in sync. Try VLC.

Otherwise I don't know much about what other settings to try or whatnot.

 

[rexian96]

Thanks drag. It could be a latency issue but when the video is choppy, I see network bandwidth is not being utilized. It sometimes even drops to 500Kbps and CPU usage 10% and the video is choppy, as if it was recorded that way. It happens only for HD videos (xvid/wmv3 with 4Mbps+ bitrate), I'll try lowering the speed in my router and see if that helps. Actually I was using the laptop's built-in Dell 54g miniPCI card before and was experiencing the same problem. I thought this could be the problem and got the 108Mbps USB one but didn't help.

I'll also try VLC, I tried playing in Media Player Classic, Nero Showtime & MCE player, they all stutter. Another thing I probably should try is, playing a DVD on the laptop with the media loaded in Desktop's DVD-ROM drive and see how it goes. If it's a bandwidth issue, the DVD playback should be choppy as well since the bitrate in the AVI file should be close to that of the DVD. I'll update shortly.

 

[techmanc]

I am guessing its the wireless connection can you try it wired I will bet problem disappers using a 100mb network

 

[rexian96]

Originally posted by: techmanc
I am guessing its the wireless connection can you try it wired I will bet problem disappers using a 100mb network

Thanks Techman. I always wanted to try this but haven't been able to find another ethernet cable 😱 I'll find 1 this week.

But don't understand why copy works but not the playing. I tried VLC to no help. Reduced the router speed to 36Mbps and the video was totally choppy. Changed back to Super-G mode (108Mbps), now the dark & low-action part plays fine as before. But high action scenees stutter as usual. I think when bitrate goes above 4Mbps, it happens. But file-transfer goes over 20Mbps always. If wired connection works, then it must be the wireless, just wondering, what am I missing though.