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[dhdezzo]

While playing videos jriver will periodically freeze for a few seconds and then resume or sometimes go back to the theatre view menu. When it pauses the system is somewhat unresponsive but you can hit the down arrow on the remote and see how much time is left. Sometimes you can ffwd or rewind and then it comes back to life. It has done this with AVI and MP4 videos of various resolution, etc.

I am running a lenova i3 laptop intel HD4000 video card running windows 8.1. My media is stored on a QNAP accessed through the LAN. The video output is HDMI to a 720p TV. Audio is a USB DAC.

I cannot be sure, but it seems to have started after upgrading from Windows 8.0 to 8.1. I primarily listen to music and haven't tested videos that much but it seems to be happening more frequent now and I don't recall it happening when I was running Windows 8.0 (but I could be wrong).

I've attached the log.

[connersw]

Is video mode set to Red October HQ or Red October Standard?

With your set up, you will probably need to run in Standard or lower the madVR scaling algorithms. 

[JimH]

Did you check with QNAP to see if there are any problems known with Win 8.1?

[glynor]

Issues like that (frozen playback that either resumes or stops and returns you to the previous view) are almost always caused by data delivery failures.  In other words, it can't read from "disk" (which, in your case, is the network share).

I'd check for:

1. QNAP issues and firmware updates with Windows 8/8.1 (as Jim suggested).
2. General network issues.  You didn't specifically mention if you were using a Wireless or Wired network connection.  Wireless, of course, can be very difficult to diagnose and issues can be transient (caused by things as weird as "when you run your blender, it dies").  Stress test your network: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/lanwan-basics/31220-how-fast-is-your-network-five-ways-to-measure-network-speed
3. Bad cabling if you have a wired network.  These issues can be transient (I've had it personally, more than once).
4. Driver issues on the PC.  This is particularly likely if you're using onboard LAN ports made by Realtek and other "cheap" brands.  Check for driver updates from the maker of your laptop, not just Windows updates ones which provide only basic functionality.
3. Disk trouble on the QNAP appliance.  If it has any verification tools to check for disk trouble, run them.

[dhdezzo]

I am running RO Standard. The HQ did not work well and the screen was flickering. I run a 26" 720p TV so video isn't the primary function of my HTPC so the standard mode is sufficient.

I am running a wired network with a 1 gigabit router (airport extreme) although the laptop is only 100 megabit (which should still be sufficient). I might test wireless just to see if it changes and then I can be sure it's the wires. My wireless might not be sufficient for HD video so it might be a moot experiment.

It does seem like the information is lagging on it's journey to the PC and thus causing freezing. I've been targetting the network during my search (NAS to the PC) but I only know enough to be dangerous. Luckily I have a friend that is a networking guru if my next attempt is not sucessful. I don't think it's settings or anything in JRiver.

I was checking the QNAP for issues and the firmware is up to date and it claimed the disks were healthy but I'll look at running more diagnostics if it has more. It's all new equipment and works perfectly with my home computer so I doubt that's the problem but I can't strike it off the list with 100% certainty yet.

I'm running a cheaper laptop and I seem to recall seeing the word Realtek in numerous places when poking around. I will search for driver updates from the manufacturer especially for the LAN port and see how that works. That might explain why it seems like the upgrade to Win 8.1 is causing my grief if they have slightly different drivers compared to 8.0.

Thanks for your help. I'll let you know how it goes.

[dhdezzo]

It certainly was a network issue.

I switched to wireless and it worked fine. Then I switched out the router and hooked back up to ethernet and it's still working fine.

Thanks guys.