ReClocking Video Over a Network

[hyperX]

Hi All,

I'm having some trouble watching HD video on my HTPC over a network when using ReClock. Specifically, I get slow/jittery (and completely unwatchable) video.

This is not an issue if I play the file via the network and don't use ReClock or if I copy the file directly to the HTPC's hard drive and do use ReClock. It also only seems to be an issue with my highest-quality (ie: high bitrate) files (I have some 720p material that streams fine, but most of my 1080p stuff is what has an issue).

At first, I thought it must have something to do with my network--I was using a 100Mbps connection (could sustain 11MBps file transfers) and figured ReClock needed some extra bandwidth to do its thing. I bought a gigabit router to solve this issue. I can now copy a file from my file server over the network to my HTPC at about 60MBps (these are all wired connections btw). I still seem to have the same issue though. I would think that 60MBps would be more than enough throughput, yet it doesn't even seem like the extra bandwidth improved performance by even a little bit.

If anyone has any suggestions and/or thoughts about this issue I'd appreciate any feedback I can get. I was thinking that maybe I could confiure my router to open some of the ports or something, but wouldn't know where to begin with that. More information about the network I'm using is below...

D-Link DIR-825 Router
File Server: Windows XP - Athlon 64 3000 w/1GB RAM and Samsung Spinpoint F1 640GB HD
HTPC: Windows Vista - Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz w/2GB RAM and Seagate Barracuda 320GB HD
Various other PCs and Game Systems connected wired and wirelessly (none being used at time of testing).

TIA :)

[Klaus_1250]

I would start out by trying it out between two XP-systems. Vista had (might even still have) issues with playback of audio and network usage at the same time.

Also, which software is running on the Vista HTPC? Which AV/security do you use? And which playback software? Codecs?

[Qwakrz]

This is a Vista media schedualr problem

Vista has a very horrid habbit of limiting network performance when a video is playing. This effectivly makes your nice 100mbps network connection perform at about 20mbps when any video is working, does not matter if its the sender or reciever PC that is playing video it just throttles the network connection.

To get around this you MUST have SP1 installed in Vista and then you need to edit the registry to reduce the ammount of throttle that is applied to the network

The registry key is called NetworkThrottlingIndex and defaults to 10. I raised mine to 25 to smooth out the problems playing Blu-Ray / HD-DVD rips over a network. The value is (I think) packets per second so a higher number means more throughput. For more info and where the key is located see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948066

This problem does not present itself under XP as it does not throttle network performance when playing video.

[hyperX]

Qwakrz -- That worked! :clap:

At first I didn't think it worked but the registry changes didn't take effect until I restarted. I decided to turn multimedia throttling off completely (may turn it back on if I notice hindered performance).

Thank you so much for your help. Yay!

[Qwakrz]

I wouldn't turn it off totally as it can reduce stuttering if there is a spike in network traffic, however try what you have and see.

The reason I just over doubled mine is that I also use my HTPC as a file server so someone may request a file and this could overload the CPU with detriment to the video. If you PC just plays the file then you should be fine.

[midi]

Hi guys,

thanks, I had exactly the same problem, turning the feature off solved it. However, I really had to turn it off. Setting it to 25 did not suffice. Could try with 50 maybe ... :agree:

Bye,
Alex

[ashlar]

What are the applications that Vista recognizes as "programs playing media content"? I read the following pages:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948066
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms684247(VS.85).aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb614507.aspx

and could not find direct reference to real programs.
MPC-HC? Zoom? KMPlayer?

I give for granted Vista MCE, but for other programs?

I am under XP currently but sooner or later...

By the way, am I the only one that find this retarded, considering that Microsoft itself is selling WHS inviting people to stream content around the house?