Gap Delay between clips

[Omne666]

Hi people...

Just a query...I've been noticing lately that the buffering on both gen ATVs seems a bit slower. I play a lot of music video clips, and theres a decidedly larger pause between one finishing and the next starting. So much so that a still image of the one loading seems paused for a few seconds on screen before starting to actually play.

Is this normal for all??

Its definitely not there for straight music with no video.

Im wondering if:
1. My Drobo seems really slow lately...could that be it?
2. My devices are hard wired ethernet...could it be a switch box?
3. Perhaps the latests updates to either iTunes or the ATVs? (though this doesnt explain the first gen ATV doing the same.)

Thoughts??
(Im asking because Im sure it didnt use to be like this)

 

[adbe]

Hi people...

Just a query...I've been noticing lately that the buffering on both gen ATVs seems a bit slower. I play a lot of music video clips, and theres a decidedly larger pause between one finishing and the next starting. So much so that a still image of the one loading seems paused for a few seconds on screen before starting to actually play.

Is this normal for all??

I haven't noticed anything, but then I might just not be doing what you are doing.

That said:

Im wondering if:
1. My Drobo seems really slow lately...could that be it?

Quite possibly. If access to Drobo hosted files seems slow from your desktop/laptop, that'll likely have a knock on effect for streaming. Still, buffering is supposed to be taking care of this kind of thing.

2. My devices are hard wired ethernet...could it be a switch box?

I'd be surprised if you're really stressing a 100Mb line, unless you have a lot of other stuff going on. If you're wondering about bad cabling or faulty hardware, just ping some things on your network and look for high packet loss.

3. Perhaps the latests updates to either iTunes or the ATVs? (though this doesnt explain the first gen ATV doing the same.)

Yes, if this is the case it'd need to be for iTunes only. Are you sure your server system isn't just choking or RAM starved?

 

[Omne666]

Quite possibly. If access to Drobo hosted files seems slow from your desktop/laptop, that'll likely have a knock on effect for streaming. Still, buffering is supposed to be taking care of this kind of thing.


Yes, if this is the case it'd need to be for iTunes only. Are you sure your server system isn't just choking or RAM starved?

I have a sneaking suspicion that the Drobo will be the culprit. It 'seems' to have gotten slower the last couple of months, even though I've expanded its capacity to avoid a slowdown due to lack of space.

As for the server....its a new iMac i7 with 16Gb RAM....and its like lightening...cant see it being that. Actually, now that I think of it, this begun before I upgraded iMacs so definitely not!

Thanks for the response. Will transfer a bunch of video clips to the internal drive, reload them into iTunes and see how they go. (Mind you, the iTunes Library file is on the Drobo also...dang!...another possibility!)

 

[Omne666]

Ok, shifted a bunch of videos to an internal HDD...still a pause but probably half of having them on the Drobo.

To test even further, shifted the same ones to the internal SDD drive. No improvement over the internal HDD, so we definitely have a buffering pause thats unavoidable.

But the Drobo is not a good option even via FW800 connection.

 

[adbe]

Ok, shifted a bunch of videos to an internal HDD...still a pause but probably half of having them on the Drobo.

To test even further, shifted the same ones to the internal SDD drive. No improvement over the internal HDD, so we definitely have a buffering pause thats unavoidable.

But the Drobo is not a good option even via FW800 connection.

ATV2 or both?

I only have a first gen, but if you're seeing this issue on an ATV1 as well, I'm willing to take a few moments to test music videos on mine.

 

[omni]

this probably isn't your solution but I ran into a ton of stuttering issues with Blu Ray rips out of nowhere (movies that used to play fine started stuttering) and I went crazy trying to pin point it.

Updated drobo, tried wired, tried wireless, put files on hdd, tried plugging hdd into airport, etc.

The culprit turned out to be iTunes itself. I rolled back to 10.1 or something really old like that and everything played fine.

I ended up buying an old mac mini to become my itunes server that i would have to never update and now that drives everything.

 

[Omne666]

The culprit turned out to be iTunes itself. I rolled back to 10.1 or something really old like that and everything played fine.

Actually, thats my belief as well now because this problem didn't exist 12months ago, 1st or second gen ATVs.

I play a lot of music videos at parties etc...and have had a great experience with them. Now Im not so sure it'll be the best option.

But thanks...youve confirmed for me my suspicions. I have an old mac mini also that I may put to use this way also.