DMS v2.0.1.0 Beta Still constant buffering

[JimS]

Hi, I know this has been addressed before but I was hoping it would be fixed in this latest update. If I'm watching almost any UHD movie, I get buffering almost every 2-3 minutes if I'm using trueHD or atmos audio. If I reduce the audio to dolby digital I have much less buffering and if I use PCM audio, almost no buffering. This has been happening for over 2 years and I've never seen a fix for this ,other than just using the lesser audio stream. Any advice would be appreciated. My system consist of:

TV: Sony XBR-70X850B
Receiver: Yamaha RX-A3060
NAS Server: Synology DS2411+
DMS: Updated to v2.0.1.0 Beta
Connection: Direct Ethernet
Connection: HDMI from DSM to Receiver->HDMI from Receiver to TV
Connection: Files from NAS via SMB (have never been able to get NFS to work on DMS...works elsewhere though).

I've been waiting for 2 years to be able to use this unit consistently...to be able to watch UHD movies from begin to end with interference. Maybe it's just me and there's something I've been doing wrong from the get go. Thanks again for any help. Peace, Jim

[intvfan]

I don't have a NAS, But I was wondering if you get this buffering from the internal drive on the DMS?
If so.... Maybe the DMS is under powered? That would be a bummer. I have not ripped any 4k content yet. But plan to soon.

[JimS]

Hi, Thanks for responding. I've not installed the internal drive this time around. I have over 400 UHD movies (that's all I want to use this unit for) and they're all on my nas. They are all full remuxes of my disks (using DVDFab) in mkv format. Over the last 2 years I've tried iso's also which seem to work worse. I gave up on the DMS about 8 months ago but when I saw the latest firmware update I decided to try again. I don't know whether there's something I've missed either with the DMS or my receiver, but bitstreaming high end audio doesn't seem to work well at all. If I simply plug the unit directly into my tv all is well as long as I'm satisfied with using my tv speakers in 2.0. Works okay with my receiver as long as audio stream is only pcm. Unless it's just me, I suspect you are correct in thinking the this DMS simply isn't powerful enough to handle UHD video and high end audio at the same time. I'm the first to admit that even though I play a lot with tweaking all the parts of my a/v system, I certainly don't know everything and am willing to learn. Thanks, Jim

[Komet]

Hello Jim,
console yourself, it's not up to you or your configuration. I have exactly the same problem and I think many others too. ISO's are even worse. You do not need to experiment, it will not help you, it is due to the DMS and will hopefully be patched up by an update !!!! The only remedy is to use an internal hard drive in the DMS and save your movies on it, then everything works. I am also very disappointed with the DMS and just connected it for testing purposes. I bought it because he can play ISO's with menu, but the movies are even worse. As a simple m2ts file it works. I have another cheaper mediaplayer where everything works out well. Also 4K / UHD movies via NAS.

[intvfan]

Thanks for responding Jim and Komet. If it works from the internal drive, that is hopeful. That suggests the processor is powerful enough to decode at these settings.
The problem is either network throughput or how it is caching the data from the NAS. Let's hope these are software issues.
We certainly cannot update the NIC or RAM... So Fingers Crossed! If that helps.... LOL

[Komet]

The DMS is powerful enough. As I said, other player, same NAS, same network technology. It works ...

[JimS]

The DMS is powerful enough. As I said, other player, same NAS, same network technology. It works ...

Hi Komet, Would it be illegal to hint at what other player you've got working? I've got Kodi working on my mini computer and it's working perfectly on all my 1080p movies set up with madVR. But the settings for 1080p really mess with the video of 2160p movies. The reason I chose the DMS was to separate the two. Just looking for something that works. Really hope DVDFab gets this worked out. Peace, Jim

[Komet]

Hello Jim,
I do not want to advertise here but rather help and share my experiences. I have a media player that looks similar to the DMS. There's Kodi verse 17 on it. You can also use a hard disk just like the DMS. I do not have that, because it is not necessary. Mediaplayer on the TV connect, ferig! NAS I have an old Qnap TS212. This is not the most powerful and yet all DVD`s, BluRay`s and 4K UHD movies work. Perfectly !!! and without any problems or bufferings in the best m2ts file. The posters (covers) are always right! I had great expectations at the DMS and was completely disappointed. Almost 4 weeks waiting and paid a lot of money. Now it is only for testing purposes to use, shame about the money !!!! Just as you have not thought about that the DMS shows me "unseen" movies and at least marked them and I know immediately which I have not seen. Especially with a movie server that advertises a large number of films to keep track and then not even me my "unseen" indicates! As well as he can play BD menus. Can he also ... but you start a movie from the BD menu, jerky and stumbled and sometimes only the movie shakes. That's really bad for DVD's. No fluid picture. DVDFab advertises that the MovieServer 4K UHD movies can play, but have kept quiet about the fact that he constantly makes "Buffering" over the network. Something like this is started, sold for a lot of money and not thought over. DVDFab should have known all this better what movie lovers really need. If they do not know ... who else? Here DVDFan urgently needs some improvement.

[JimS]

Hi Komet, Like you, I too have other options but I really want this to work because with my system, UHD video streaming looks beautifully with very minimal tweaking. Also, with this latest firmware (and this is for movies only...I record my TV shows on my Kodi unit) they've really improved the scraper. It's much faster and much more accurate than what I remember. Out of 408 imports, only 3 failed to scrape properly. 1 always has a problem because the title has like 12 words in the title and all scrapers get confused. 1 was Blade Runner 2049, and I'm sure it's the 2049 before the year that confuses it. And 1 confused "Wonder" with "Wonder Woman" both created in 2017. These were easily edited which also seemed to be easier than I remember. So I hope they begin focusing on the buffering more and the scraping less. Peace, Jim

[JimS]

Well, there is hope. Thanks for letting me know that an internal drive works as it should. I just tried 2 of my reference files on a 3TB WD drive and they were successful. That gives me hope that DVDFab's engineers can probably fix the buffering problems with NAS's if they put their minds to it. Peace, Jim

[lamster]

Internal drive works fine for UHD, I went down this road 18 months ago as I too with a very similar setup to you JimS get buffering issues from NAS with UHD (everything else works fine) Some movies seemed to be worse than others also, its been repored in many many previous threads, it was looked at being fixd in one of the early 1.x firmwares but seemed to vanish off the to do list and has never been mentioned again in the fix list, Maybe they know its an unfixable issue and they are hoping we all forget about it!!!!! who knows lol.

All I use the internal drive for is UHD, its the only way you will get them to play as intended until the problem gets looked into.

[JimS]

Hi lamster, I will keep on asking for a fix for this buffering issue. As mentioned earlier, I have too many UHD files to fit on a single drive. In my NAS I have three 12TB drives dedicated strictly for 4K. I have them all backed up on 6TB drives. Even if I did want to put one of the back up drives in, I'd have to know which files are on each disk and flipping one to another will surely mess up the library.

I suspect most people have this hooked up directly to their TVs or perhaps a 2 channel receiver and don't care about atmos, truehd etc. or don't use a NAS configuration. I chose to buy this for my 7.1 home theater system and although the pcm stream through my receiver is way better than my TV speakers, it's still no way close to the sound of the 7.1. If I only wanted to install this to a TV, the unit would be fine. Perhaps that's why DVDFab hasn't spent much effort in fixing this.

I've had this for almost 2 years now and it's mostly been an expensive toy that I bring out once every several months when a new firmware upgrade is announced. Trying to do anything through the NAS with wifi has been a joke since its inception, but I think if DVDFab put some effort into it, the ethernet issue with buffering could be fixed with firmware. As Komet mentioned earlier, since it works with the internal drive, that tells us that the unit itself is powerful enough to produce quality video and audio.

Sorry for the long response, but as you might be able to tell, this has been a bug of mine for quite awhile. Peace, Jim

[JimS]

Not sure what this exactly means. I think my email response from support is to keep putting these requests on the forum rather than emails and to look to the forum to see what support has been doing about the issue. Has there been a solution that I've missed? After that, it says if I have any other problems to contact them. I want to keep this issue alive so if someone can offer another point of view as to what this email is asking me to do, please let me know. Peace, Jim

.................................................. ..................................
Re: NAS buffering with UHD files(technical_support)


DVDFab - Vivian
Tue 9/17/2019 6:28 AM

Dear Customer,
Please keep post in forum about this issue see how it improved, the develop guys should reply there.

Any questions in future, please feel free to contact us.

Sincerely yours,

--
Vivian Wang


Customer Service Feedback

---

From:
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2019 16:42:47 -0400
Subject: NAS buffering with UHD files(technical_support)
Software you orderVDFab Movie Server[2.0.1.0]
Message:

Hi, I am writing to ask that the folks at DVDFab try to focus on the buffering problems with the Media Server when accessing UHD movies through a wired ethernet Synology NAS. As you've probably read on the forums, this has been an ongoing problem since the server's inception.

Movies play fine if I'm using my Yamaha RX-A3060 receiver without passthrough and in pcm only streaming. If I turn on the passthrough mode to access my atmos, trueHD or other high end streams, this Media Server buffers almost every 2-5 minutes making passthrough basically useless.

There are lots of folks in this same situation from what I've read in the forums. Could you tell me if DVDFab is aware and working on this? I own just about everything DVDFab makes and most things are pretty high caliber. This server seems to be the exception as it doesn't reach the goals that it claims. Looking forward to a fix for this situation. Thank you in advance. Peace, JimS

[lamster]

Jim, I have never see a post in any of the FW updates saying it has been fixed, but you deffo aint the first with this issue or to post about it.


Saying that you dont seem to see any of the development team repling to that many threads nowadays.....


We are still waiting for Android 7 to be implemented on the MS, Most of the competition out there seem to be using it when you look at those forums.

Thats a bit off topic from this thread, but you get the idea.


Maybe if we keep this thread at the top someone might see it lol

[lamster]

2.0.1.2 is out and still no mention of a fix for this