Mailing List Archive: MythTV: Users

Mythdora 4 Frontend Database Woes / Network Lag

Index | Next | Previous | View Threaded

opustormy at gmail

Jul 21, 2008, 5:35 PM

Post #1 of 13 (1003 views)
Permalink

Mythdora 4 Frontend Database Woes / Network Lag

Hey all,

I'm having issues with my combined Backend/Frontend and my Frontend. They
are running on two separate TVs, and require the settings to be different.
However, It appears that the settings (such as GUI Offset) are shared across
the myth databases, and so I'm not sure how to achieve different settings on
the two Frontends.

In addittion, is a Megabit (100/10) network enough to stream HD video from
my backend to my frontend? I'm using samba and although the video looks
gorgeous, it is rather choppy with a lag spike every 3/4 seconds or so.

Thanks!

Jonathan

myth at dermanouelian

Jul 21, 2008, 6:00 PM

Post #2 of 13 (986 views)
Permalink

Re: Mythdora 4 Frontend Database Woes / Network Lag [In reply to]

On Jul 21, 2008, at 5:35 PM, Jonathan Seawright wrote:

> Hey all,
>
> I'm having issues with my combined Backend/Frontend and my Frontend.
> They are running on two separate TVs, and require the settings to be
> different. However, It appears that the settings (such as GUI
> Offset) are shared across the myth databases, and so I'm not sure
> how to achieve different settings on the two Frontends.

You need to use unique identifiers for each of your frontends. This is
one of the first options in the frontend settings.

> In addittion, is a Megabit (100/10) network enough to stream HD
> video from my backend to my frontend? I'm using samba and although
> the video looks gorgeous, it is rather choppy with a lag spike every
> 3/4 seconds or so.
>
> Thanks!

Yes, 100 Megabit is fast enough for 2 video HD streams. You can adjust
your samba settings to use larger packets or better yet - stop using
samba. I'm not sure why you're using it. Videos will stream to the
frontend without any such sharing of video directories.

_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users[at]mythtv.org
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

opustormy at gmail

Jul 21, 2008, 6:54 PM

Post #3 of 13 (977 views)
Permalink

Re: Mythdora 4 Frontend Database Woes / Network Lag [In reply to]

On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 8:00 PM, Brad DerManouelian <myth[at]dermanouelian.com>
wrote:

> On Jul 21, 2008, at 5:35 PM, Jonathan Seawright wrote:
>
> > Hey all,
> >
> > I'm having issues with my combined Backend/Frontend and my Frontend.
> > They are running on two separate TVs, and require the settings to be
> > different. However, It appears that the settings (such as GUI
> > Offset) are shared across the myth databases, and so I'm not sure
> > how to achieve different settings on the two Frontends.
>
> You need to use unique identifiers for each of your frontends. This is
> one of the first options in the frontend settings.
>
> > In addittion, is a Megabit (100/10) network enough to stream HD
> > video from my backend to my frontend? I'm using samba and although
> > the video looks gorgeous, it is rather choppy with a lag spike every
> > 3/4 seconds or so.
> >
> > Thanks!
>
> Yes, 100 Megabit is fast enough for 2 video HD streams. You can adjust
> your samba settings to use larger packets or better yet - stop using
> samba. I'm not sure why you're using it. Videos will stream to the
> frontend without any such sharing of video directories.

Okay, What is the best way to allow access to the video?
Myth on my frontend would complain about not being able to find the videos,
so I mounted the directory as /storage like it is on the main mythtv box. I
get the feeling that sharing video is a setting somewhere in the setup?

>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users[at]mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

beww at beww

Jul 21, 2008, 7:31 PM

Post #4 of 13 (974 views)
Permalink

Re: Mythdora 4 Frontend Database Woes / Network Lag [In reply to]

On Monday 21 July 2008 19:54:39 Jonathan Seawright wrote:

> Okay, What is the best way to allow access to the video?
> Myth on my frontend would complain about not being able to find the videos,
> so I mounted the directory as /storage like it is on the main mythtv box. I
> get the feeling that sharing video is a setting somewhere in the setup?

If you really need to mount them NFS is better than samba.

Your subject mentions MD4, I assume you are aware that MythDora 5 has been
released.

beww
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users[at]mythtv.org
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

opustormy at gmail

Jul 21, 2008, 7:38 PM

Post #5 of 13 (977 views)
Permalink

Re: Mythdora 4 Frontend Database Woes / Network Lag [In reply to]

On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 9:31 PM, Brian Wood <beww[at]beww.org> wrote:

> On Monday 21 July 2008 19:54:39 Jonathan Seawright wrote:
>
> > Okay, What is the best way to allow access to the video?
> > Myth on my frontend would complain about not being able to find the
> videos,
> > so I mounted the directory as /storage like it is on the main mythtv box.
> I
> > get the feeling that sharing video is a setting somewhere in the setup?
>
> If you really need to mount them NFS is better than samba.
>
> Your subject mentions MD4, I assume you are aware that MythDora 5 has been
> released.
>
> beww

I'm sorry, I am actually using MD5, I am just stuck in the past!!
(forgot that I had upgraded everything)

>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users[at]mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

myth at dermanouelian

Jul 21, 2008, 7:38 PM

Post #6 of 13 (976 views)
Permalink

Re: Mythdora 4 Frontend Database Woes / Network Lag [In reply to]

On Jul 21, 2008, at 7:31 PM, Brian Wood wrote:

> On Monday 21 July 2008 19:54:39 Jonathan Seawright wrote:
>
>> Okay, What is the best way to allow access to the video?
>> Myth on my frontend would complain about not being able to find the
>> videos,
>> so I mounted the directory as /storage like it is on the main
>> mythtv box. I
>> get the feeling that sharing video is a setting somewhere in the
>> setup?
>
> If you really need to mount them NFS is better than samba.
>
> Your subject mentions MD4, I assume you are aware that MythDora 5
> has been
> released.

I'd have to know more about the "not able to find the videos" problem.
Actually, I assumed you were talking about recorded programs and not
videos. If you are talking about MythVideo then you're doing it right,
but need to fix your Samba settings to something reasonable for
sending single large files (the default is for lots of small files).

I don't agree that NFS is better than Samba (I think they're both ok
and equally annoying in their own ways), but I agree that the default
NFS settings work better for streaming video than the default Samba
settings.

Your ideal samba settings depend on your networking usage and all that.
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users[at]mythtv.org
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

opustormy at gmail

Jul 21, 2008, 8:01 PM

Post #7 of 13 (976 views)
Permalink

Re: Mythdora 4 Frontend Database Woes / Network Lag [In reply to]

On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 9:38 PM, Brad DerManouelian <myth[at]dermanouelian.com>
wrote:

> On Jul 21, 2008, at 7:31 PM, Brian Wood wrote:
>
> > On Monday 21 July 2008 19:54:39 Jonathan Seawright wrote:
> >
> >> Okay, What is the best way to allow access to the video?
> >> Myth on my frontend would complain about not being able to find the
> >> videos,
> >> so I mounted the directory as /storage like it is on the main
> >> mythtv box. I
> >> get the feeling that sharing video is a setting somewhere in the
> >> setup?
> >
> > If you really need to mount them NFS is better than samba.
> >
> > Your subject mentions MD4, I assume you are aware that MythDora 5
> > has been
> > released.
>
> I'd have to know more about the "not able to find the videos" problem.
> Actually, I assumed you were talking about recorded programs and not
> videos. If you are talking about MythVideo then you're doing it right,
> but need to fix your Samba settings to something reasonable for
> sending single large files (the default is for lots of small files).

I'm talking about plain ol' recorded programs. When I attempt to watch one
without mounting the samba share, it tells me that the video file cannot be
found.
I do believe that this is becuase it is looking on it's own drive and not on
the master server... so to fix this (probably a little bit of a patch more
than anything else?), I simply mounted the /storage share at the point where
it has been looking for the videos, so it accesses them via samba.

I actually recall watching mythtv on my linux box without having to do funky
networking mounting... it SHOULD work without it correct?
I get the feeling that it is a setting that carried over from the main box
(because their configurations were shared previously)

myth at dermanouelian

Jul 21, 2008, 8:13 PM

Post #8 of 13 (976 views)
Permalink

Re: Mythdora 4 Frontend Database Woes / Network Lag [In reply to]

On Jul 21, 2008, at 8:01 PM, Jonathan Seawright wrote:

> On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 9:38 PM, Brad DerManouelian <myth[at]dermanouelian.com
> > wrote:
> I'm talking about plain ol' recorded programs. When I attempt to
> watch one without mounting the samba share, it tells me that the
> video file cannot be found.

What does your frontend log file say? How about the backend log?

> I do believe that this is becuase it is looking on it's own drive
> and not on the master server... so to fix this (probably a little
> bit of a patch more than anything else?), I simply mounted the /
> storage share at the point where it has been looking for the videos,
> so it accesses them via samba.
>
> I actually recall watching mythtv on my linux box without having to
> do funky networking mounting... it SHOULD work without it correct?
> I get the feeling that it is a setting that carried over from the
> main box (because their configurations were shared previously)

Yes, it should. It sounds like your storage group settings are broken.

nick.rout at gmail

Jul 22, 2008, 12:17 AM

Post #9 of 13 (967 views)
Permalink

Re: Mythdora 4 Frontend Database Woes / Network Lag [In reply to]

On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 3:13 PM, Brad DerManouelian
<myth[at]dermanouelian.com> wrote:
> On Jul 21, 2008, at 8:01 PM, Jonathan Seawright wrote:
>
> On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 9:38 PM, Brad DerManouelian <myth[at]dermanouelian.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> I'm talking about plain ol' recorded programs. When I attempt to watch one
>> without mounting the samba share, it tells me that the video file cannot be
>> found.
>
> What does your frontend log file say? How about the backend log?
>
> I do believe that this is becuase it is looking on it's own drive and not on
> the master server... so to fix this (probably a little bit of a patch more
> than anything else?), I simply mounted the /storage share at the point where
> it has been looking for the videos, so it accesses them via samba.
>
> I actually recall watching mythtv on my linux box without having to do funky
> networking mounting... it SHOULD work without it correct?
> I get the feeling that it is a setting that carried over from the main box
> (because their configurations were shared previously)
>
> Yes, it should. It sounds like your storage group settings are broken.
>

Actually looking at the first part of the original post in this
thread, is it that there is some confusion between the two frontends
(one local to the backend and one remote). IIRC If the system thinks
the frontend is local, then it will try and access the recorded show
off the hard drive instead of streaming it. And it will fail cos its
not really local.

Do the machines have unique network names?
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users[at]mythtv.org
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

opustormy at gmail

Jul 22, 2008, 2:45 PM

Post #10 of 13 (930 views)
Permalink

Re: Mythdora 4 Frontend Database Woes / Network Lag [In reply to]

On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 2:17 AM, Nick Rout <nick.rout[at]gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 3:13 PM, Brad DerManouelian
> <myth[at]dermanouelian.com> wrote:
> > On Jul 21, 2008, at 8:01 PM, Jonathan Seawright wrote:
> >
> > On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 9:38 PM, Brad DerManouelian <
> myth[at]dermanouelian.com>
> > wrote:
> >>
> >> I'm talking about plain ol' recorded programs. When I attempt to watch
> one
> >> without mounting the samba share, it tells me that the video file
> cannot be
> >> found.
> >
> > What does your frontend log file say? How about the backend log?
> >
> > I do believe that this is becuase it is looking on it's own drive and not
> on
> > the master server... so to fix this (probably a little bit of a patch
> more
> > than anything else?), I simply mounted the /storage share at the point
> where
> > it has been looking for the videos, so it accesses them via samba.
> >
> > I actually recall watching mythtv on my linux box without having to do
> funky
> > networking mounting... it SHOULD work without it correct?
> > I get the feeling that it is a setting that carried over from the main
> box
> > (because their configurations were shared previously)
> >
> > Yes, it should. It sounds like your storage group settings are broken.
> >
>
> Actually looking at the first part of the original post in this
> thread, is it that there is some confusion between the two frontends
> (one local to the backend and one remote). IIRC If the system thinks
> the frontend is local, then it will try and access the recorded show
> off the hard drive instead of streaming it. And it will fail cos its
> not really local.
>
> Do the machines have unique network names?

They have different IPs. I also changed the DB header for the machines to be
different.
It might be a network problem, because I disabled the SMB mount and it's
streaming, and it keeps studdering every 3/4th of a second or so. My
switches hang when the video hangs, so i think it's a packet size problem?
Any idea on a recommended size?

>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users[at]mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

myth at dermanouelian

Jul 22, 2008, 2:56 PM

Post #11 of 13 (928 views)
Permalink

Re: Mythdora 4 Frontend Database Woes / Network Lag [In reply to]

On Jul 22, 2008, at 2:45 PM, Jonathan Seawright wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 2:17 AM, Nick Rout <nick.rout[at]gmail.com>
> wrote:
> They have different IPs. I also changed the DB header for the
> machines to be different.
> It might be a network problem, because I disabled the SMB mount and
> it's streaming, and it keeps studdering every 3/4th of a second or
> so. My switches hang when the video hangs, so i think it's a packet
> size problem?

Switches? More than 1? Sounds like a bandwidth problem. If you're
running 10 megabit at any point, I would say it's not enough for a
smooth HD stream. You mentioned 10/100 which I assumed meant your
switch was capable of 10 or 100 and you were running 100. Make sure
you're running 100 megabit and put your frontend on the same switch as
your backend to see if it helps.

opustormy at gmail

Jul 22, 2008, 8:20 PM

Post #12 of 13 (908 views)
Permalink

Re: Mythdora 4 Frontend Database Woes / Network Lag [In reply to]

On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 4:56 PM, Brad DerManouelian <myth[at]dermanouelian.com>
wrote:

> On Jul 22, 2008, at 2:45 PM, Jonathan Seawright wrote:
>
> On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 2:17 AM, Nick Rout <nick.rout[at]gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> They have different IPs. I also changed the DB header for the machines to
>> be different.
>
> It might be a network problem, because I disabled the SMB mount and it's
> streaming, and it keeps studdering every 3/4th of a second or so. My
> switches hang when the video hangs, so i think it's a packet size problem?
>
>
> Switches? More than 1? Sounds like a bandwidth problem. If you're running
> 10 megabit at any point, I would say it's not enough for a smooth HD stream.
> You mentioned 10/100 which I assumed meant your switch was capable of 10 or
> 100 and you were running 100. Make sure you're running 100 megabit and put
> your frontend on the same switch as your backend to see if it helps.
>
Hmm, The way that the network is wired in our house, is there is a main
switch,
and I have switches placed between that and the myth boxes so that I can tap
into the connection with say, Xbox when a friend comes over...
you're saying to try ditching the switches? I kinda doubt that's the
problem- I get the feeling that it's a MTU problem on my backend/frontend
(packets too small?)

>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users[at]mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
>

myth at dermanouelian

Jul 22, 2008, 10:56 PM

Post #13 of 13 (906 views)
Permalink

Re: Mythdora 4 Frontend Database Woes / Network Lag [In reply to]

On Jul 22, 2008, at 8:20 PM, Jonathan Seawright wrote:

>
> On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 4:56 PM, Brad DerManouelian <myth[at]dermanouelian.com
> > wrote:
> On Jul 22, 2008, at 2:45 PM, Jonathan Seawright wrote:
>
>> On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 2:17 AM, Nick Rout <nick.rout[at]gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> They have different IPs. I also changed the DB header for the
>> machines to be different.
>> It might be a network problem, because I disabled the SMB mount and
>> it's streaming, and it keeps studdering every 3/4th of a second or
>> so. My switches hang when the video hangs, so i think it's a packet
>> size problem?
>
> Switches? More than 1? Sounds like a bandwidth problem. If you're
> running 10 megabit at any point, I would say it's not enough for a
> smooth HD stream. You mentioned 10/100 which I assumed meant your
> switch was capable of 10 or 100 and you were running 100. Make sure
> you're running 100 megabit and put your frontend on the same switch
> as your backend to see if it helps.
> Hmm, The way that the network is wired in our house, is there is a
> main switch,
> and I have switches placed between that and the myth boxes so that I
> can tap into the connection with say, Xbox when a friend comes over...
> you're saying to try ditching the switches? I kinda doubt that's
> the problem- I get the feeling that it's a MTU problem on my backend/
> frontend (packets too small?)

No, what I'm saying is "Make sure you're running 100 megabit and put
your frontend on the same switch as your backend to see if it helps."

Index | Next | Previous | View Threaded

Interested in having your list archived? Contact lists@gossamer-threads.com