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[tmarnik]

Is there anybody out there who actually uses Gizmo to watch videos when traveling? I've tried to get some discussion going on two other threads and I've been ignored, so here goes one more try:

I can't get video to playback remotely without nearly constant pauses. I've tried on my Kindle Fire (wifi only), my Droid Razr Maxx (wifi, 3G, and 4G LTE), and my laptop (wifi only).

I don't think my in-house LAN speed is a problem because I get smooth video using wifi on any of my devices when I'm home. If I turn wifi off on the Maxx and use the Verizon 3G network when I'm home, I'm back to frequent pauses.

Shouldn't client-side buffering be able to smooth out the video playback in spite of local network issues?

I realize there is a lot I don't know about the Gizmo architecture and video buffering, but this sure seems like an issue worth exploring.

If remote video could work reliably, it would be HUGE. Imagine the marketing value prop when jriver can say that MC is a viable alternative to Slingbox-type devices.

[Scolex]

Odds are the frequent buffering is due to your internet upload speed. What is it rated at and what kind of speed do you get when running a speed test at www.speedtest.net
If you pause the video for a while to build the buffer does it help? I am not sure how big the buffer is when using Gizmo which is why I ask, that and the fact that I don't have
any trouble streaming video, I have a 4G connection most of the time though and 2Mbps upload speed.
3G is only fast enough for low res/bit rate video in my experience.

[tmarnik]

I have FiOS 35/35 service, and speedtest.net is showing 19.60 Mbps Up/19.23 Mbps Down, so I don't think it's my home network.

It doesn't seem like it's buffering at all, because pausing the video - even for very long periods - has no effect.

That's why I really don't understand what's going on. It seems like the Gizmo client isn't doing any buffering at all, which seems like it could be easily fixed.

[Scolex]

Definitely not a bandwidth issue.
What happens if you use WebGizmo or WebPlay instead of Gizmo?
Have you run a line quality test to check for packet loss. http://www.dslreports.com/pingtest

[Castius]

I have the same issue.

[imugli]

Have you guys tried playing with the conversion settings?

[tmarnik]

The packet test came back with 0% loss and an average latency of about 58 ms across all tests.

If by Conversion Settings you mean the Encoder setting on the configuration of the Generic DLNA Server, I've tried it with the default setting of MP 240P and MP4 720P. I'm open to suggestions on which others to try. I can find no info on the Wiki or the forums that explain anything about the differences.

I have tried WebGizmo from the laptop but not yet from the Maxx. I will give that a shot and report back.

In the meantime, is there anybody out there who has any insight into how jriver is handling buffering? When I'm out testing, the playback progress bar in Gizmo does not show the video being buffered ahead the way youtube does. Does that mean the Gizmo client is just not buffering? Can that be changed?

[Scolex]

I ran some tests in that I started a video and then immediately paused it to try and see buffer size.
Here is what I found according to my network activity monitor and the Media Network page in MC.

Samsung Stratosphere Android 2.3.5 Gizmo
Buffer size is approximately 8MB as the MC Media Network page stopped at 8.1MB until I restarted play
Samsung Stratosphere Android 2.3.5 WebGizmo
Same as above only it stopped at 8.2MB
Remote Win7 Laptop WebGizmo
Server continued to upload file to completion.

I don't know what controls the buffer size on my phone, whether it be MC or Android but I suspect it is the phone since on a PC the buffer size was not limited.
8MB is a pretty small buffer when dealing with video.

[tmarnik]

Scolex, thanks for the info. That's interesting. I guess that means it comes down to the buffer settings on the device.

But that raises a couple more questions:

Why is the youtube app able to buffer video on my Maxx better than the Gizmos?

Do you have any idea where the buffer settings are in Win7? When I tried WebGizmo from my laptop when I was away a couple of weeks back, it was unwatchable no matter how long I paused it for. Also not the same behavior I get from youtube - it buffers.

Seems kinda weird.

[eapool]

I have the same issue as the original poster.  I am not seeing any buffering on my android with Gizmo or WebGizmo.  Using my laptop or work computer, webgizmo is not buffering either.  If there is some setting to configure the butter, I would love to find it and get this working.

In this post - http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=71905.0, Matt indicatest that the conversion settings for Gizmo are not configurable, so I don't think changing the conversion settings will help at all. 

Alex

[WinoOutWest]

I have the same issue as the original poster.  I am not seeing any buffering on my android with Gizmo or WebGizmo.  Using my laptop or work computer, webgizmo is not buffering either.  If there is some setting to configure the butter, I would love to find it and get this working.

Ditto for me - on his observations and desires (as stated above at least!) :-)

[Scolex]

I think I found the problem and it is related to the conversion.
I ran another test in that I let a video load in WebGizmo and then looked at the page source so I could download the file and here is what I found.
File                                                  res       bit rate      size
The Warrior Song.mp4(original)         1280x720    2139      56.7MB  (youtube 720HD)
The Warrior Song.flv(conversion)       711x400     2628      71.5MB

We Will Rock You.flv(original)            854x480     1230      18.7MB  (youtube 480)
We Will Rock You.flv(conversion)       712x400     2628      57.0MB

This conversion is not conducive to streaming IMHO, especially when you consider the lower resolution but higher bit rate and bigger size.

[Scolex]

To those that are not seeing a buffer it is there but there isn't a visual indicator for fill like youtube has.
I have done some work on the flash player and will look into adding a buffer indicator.

[Scolex]

Do you have any idea where the buffer settings are in Win7? When I tried WebGizmo from my laptop when I was away a couple of weeks back, it was unwatchable no matter how long I paused it for. Also not the same behavior I get from youtube - it buffers.

Seems kinda weird.

There aren't any buffer settings in Win7 that I know of.
For reference my test were done using Firefox and other browsers may have a different buffer behavior that would prevent a complete download. ?

[famu97]

I have the answer for you... Video streaming just doesn't work when outside of your home Wi-Fi network via Gizmo.  It doesn't matter if you're connecting Gizmo via Wi-Fi from another source outside the home or via 3G from cell phone. You get the same result of constant stuttering & buffering during playback.  The only time Gizmo video stream works is when I'm on my home Wi-Fi network.  I've asked this same question before and got now realy answer.  I've asked what is the optimal video playback settings are and what's the optimal video spec's need to be (e.g. 760kbps video/160kbps audio) and I go no answers either. I've tried many different conversion settings and I've even ripped video (mp4) optimized for my cell phone and it still stutters & buffers constantly when I stream video outside of my house via Gizmo. I'm reserved to the fact that gizmo video streaming outside of your home doesn't work. 

I want someone to prove me wrong.

[Scolex]

I want someone to prove me wrong.

The proof is above look at what the conversion for Gizmo does, it doesn't matter how the original is encoded the file sent will have those settings.
The Client Options in Options/Media Network have no influence on what gets served through the Web interfaces they are strictly for Library Server.
Unless you have a =>3Mb up connection at the server location and 3Mb down connection for the remote device it is going to stutter.
A rather small 8Mb buffer size on Gizmo doesn't help either as that is quite small for video.

Just as a comparison I have DVD rips that have been converted to MKV with MP4 h264 video and flac 6 audio encoding that are virtually identical to
the original in quality that have a lower bit rate than the profile that has been given to Gizmo

[struct]

Jim made passing reference to wanting to work on improved video conversion in another thread, so maybe we just have to be patient. 

At the moment I too can't use Gizmo and video away from home.  My ADSL2+ upload speed is simply too slow and the buffer on Gizmo appears to be way too small.  I did try WebGizmo and the buffer on the PC was much larger, but I can't escape the slow uploading speed, so there is an intolerable wait.

Some ability to tell the server the quality I want and a method to change the buffer would be fantastic.

Craig

[DrWhom]

bump - would really be ideal if we could customize the output quality on the player side.  For example, if I am on 3g and need to mind my caps, I would like a really low quality setting vs. home wifi. 

[Matt]

Media Center 18 will add MP4 / h.265 Gizmo streaming.

It looks great at 1MBit, and pretty good at 400KBit.

Early preview versions will begin to appear in a few weeks.

[lepa]

Great news, thanks Matt

[icanrule]

I haven't been able to get video to stream properly myself unless at home. I am using a galaxy nexus with 4.1.1 os. 

When i break out my laptop and connect to the library server when away from home it paused at the beginning. But if i pause it for a minute it never pauses again.  It doesn't seem like a bandwidth issue.

I've even tried to overclock my phone to 1.8ghz to see if it was a resources issue. No difference.

It is great to see this is happening to other people. I assumed it was just me.