[mythtv-users] BE 2 - Remote Frontends Sluggish on FF

Barry Martin barry3martin at gmail.com
Fri Nov 3 13:47:22 UTC 2017


Hi Folks!

Thanks for all the replies!  Taking me a bit to go through and set up 
what I need to test.  More of a physical set up than software: write on 
one computer, use another two as Backends, another for the Frontend 
looking at the BEs a couple feet away!  Other replies in later messages.


Reply to Mike Bibbings:
>>
>> (1) Found how to test the NIC speed:
>>
>> |||sudo ethtool enp4s0 | grep -i speed|==> Speed: 1000Mb/s
> For the NIC speed it only shows what it is capable of running at.

Makes sense; I was half-hoping it would show the connect speed (years 
ago did have a 10/100/1000 port which all of a sudden would only work 
when plugged in to a 10/100 device).


> You could try running iperf utility to see what transfer rate you are
> getting from a Frontend to each of your the backends, e.g.
>
> on backend in a terminal run iperf -s (if not installed install it with
> sudo apt install iperf) this sets up iperf? as a server.
>
> on frontend in a terminal run iperf -c <ip address of backend>? after a
> few seconds you should see something like
> mike at mike-GL62-7QF:~$ iperf -c 192.168.1.22
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Client connecting to 192.168.1.22, TCP port 5001
> TCP window size: 85.0 KByte (default)
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> [? 3] local 192.168.1.4 port 56566 connected with 192.168.1.22 port 5001
> [ ID] Interval?????? Transfer???? Bandwidth
> [? 3]? 0.0-10.0 sec?? 302 MBytes?? 252 Mbits/sec
>
> In this? case this is a result from my laptop? over wifi to a backend
> connected via gigabit to my router.

I get for WiFi:

    barry at T61:~$ iperf -c 192.168.0.4   <==  BE2, the sluggish one going
    through commercials
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    Client connecting to 192.168.0.4, TCP port 5001
    TCP window size: 85.0 KByte (default)
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    [  3] local 192.168.0.28 port 54444 connected with 192.168.0.4 port 5001
    [ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
    [  3]  0.0-10.1 sec  14.5 MBytes  12.1 Mbits/sec


and for wired (gigabyte port on T61):

    barry at T61:~$ iperf -c 192.168.0.4
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    Client connecting to 192.168.0.4, TCP port 5001
    TCP window size: 85.0 KByte (default)
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    [  3] local 192.168.0.37 port 52734 connected with 192.168.0.4 port 5001
    [ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
    [  3]  0.0-10.0 sec   113 MBytes  95.0 Mbits/sec

Hmmm: seems to be a significant difference in the transfer speed. All of 
the Frontends are wired and I'll continue the testing here with the 
laptop plugged in (on Ethernet) to eliminate RF issues.


OK, now the results for the other Backend, the one running properly:

WiFi:

        barry at T61:~$ iperf -c 192.168.0.13
        ------------------------------------------------------------
        Client connecting to 192.168.0.13, TCP port 5001
        TCP window size: 85.0 KByte (default)
        ------------------------------------------------------------
        [  3] local 192.168.0.28 port 50984 connected with 192.168.0.13
        port 5001
        [ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
        [  3]  0.0-10.1 sec  16.2 MBytes  13.5 Mbits/sec


Wired:

        barry at T61:~$ iperf -c 192.168.0.13
        ------------------------------------------------------------
        Client connecting to 192.168.0.13, TCP port 5001
        TCP window size:  357 KByte (default)
        ------------------------------------------------------------
        [  3] local 192.168.0.37 port 55136 connected with 192.168.0.13
        port 5001
        [ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
        [  3]  0.0-10.0 sec   114 MBytes  95.3 Mbits/sec


To me it looks like the two Backends are essentially the same, which I 
guess is good as eliminates the Backend and the connection as the 
problem.  (LIS, more interested in the wired -- WiFi is a different issue.)



> Note there is also a later version of iperf iperf3 just make sure you
> use the same one at both ends.
Followed your instructions and installed iperf (no 3).



> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2017 20:01:58 +0000
> From: Mark Perkins <perkins1724 at hotmail.com>
> To: Discussion about MythTV <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users]  BE 2 ? Remote Frontends Sluggish on FF
> Message-ID:
> 	<SLXP216MB01285F6B22D00B464840A12BB75F0 at SLXP216MB0128.KORP216.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM>
> 	
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> On 2 November 2017 5:43:42 am Barry Martin <barry3martin at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi Folks!
>>
>>
>> First, thanks for the assistance in the past; has resolved a lot of
>> issues. Hopefully can get this one resolved also, probably just
>> something simple I don?t understand while trying to do my own
>> troubleshooting.
>>
>>
>> Have two Backends ? separate IPs and passwords. Wanting to switch to the
>> ?new and improved? Backend with better specs and before the old
>> Backend?s motherboard fails. The old system is ?BE1? and the
>> new/replacement is ?BE2?. So when a (remote) Frontend looks at BE1 (old)
>> it plays nice, Fast Forward through commercials is snappy, all is well.
>> Same Frontend on BE2 (new), playback is fine but when hit FF it sits at
>> 3x for a second or two (same frame), then (say) 20 or 30x and the frame
>> is jump-pause-jump-pause ? probably takes two or three times as long to
>> get through commercials with the new system as the old, which has a lot
>> faster processor: BE2: AMD Athlon II X2 250 Processor ? dual core @
>> 3010.387 MHz, Mythbuntu 64 bit. Did the add ppa for 0.28/
>> update/upgrade/reboot steps this morning; didn?t help the FF
>> sluggishness problem.
>>
>>
>> On the System Information page with the BE Status:
>>
>>       Machine Status (@ BE2) (while two shows recoding):
>>
>>       RAM: 15 GB total, 5.8 GB used, 9.6 (or 62%) free.
>>
>>       Swap: 3.7 GB, 0 KB used, 3.7 GB (or 100%) free.
>>
>>
>> What may be a little odd is exit and look at System Monitor (at Desktop)
>> it?s graph barely indicates any RAM usage: around 1.0 GiB of 15.4 GiB.
>> Running SysMon, load mythfrontend via Terminal ? exit, so SysMon still
>> running. (Swap is 0 bytes at 3.7 GiB.) Both cores show I guess lowish
>> use: right now something is recording and both cores ?wobbling? about
>> 15-20% usage. (Later: Recording finished: now both cores idling 0 ? 4%.)
>>
>>
>> Both Backends connect to the LAN via the same switch, both are gigabyte
>> LANs. Have tested with four Frontends (one a Raspberry Pi 3 I?m working
>> on): BE1, no problem, nice and smooth; BE2, playback is fine but FF,
>> Rewind, and Commercial Rewind (title?) is jumpy/staccato and sluggish.
>>
>>
>> Miscellaneous thoughts:
>>
>>
>> (1) Found how to test the NIC speed:
>>
>> |||sudo ethtool ||enp4s0||| grep -i speed|    ==> Speed: 1000Mb/s
>>
>>
>> (2) Also found this webpage:
>> https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Troubleshooting:Prebuffering_pause ? uhhh,
>> no idea. Rather ask than screw something up.
>>
>>
>> (3) Also had tried turning off the Frontend portion on the Backend (BE2)
>> ? saw comments in the above webpage about a misconfiguration.
>>
>>
>> ...OK, enough of my trying to give you folks enough information to make
>> informed suggestions. TIA!
>>
>>
>> Barry
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ----------
> Post a log file from the frontend from startup through playing a file and doing the glitching skip / ff then exit.
>
> I assume that both BE are fixes/0.28? And that you are using the same mythfrontend install on the FE and just changing the config.xml file to swap which BE pointing to?
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 7
> Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2017 19:20:13 -0500
> From: Barry Martin <barry3martin at gmail.com>
> To: mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> Subject: [mythtv-users] BE 2 ? Remote Frontends Sluggish on FF
> Message-ID: <9f99e78a-d2c3-4836-5bf7-a55f955b1ce5 at gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed"
>
>
> Hi Folks!
>
> Follow-up to my earlier post; Machine Status is reporting an earlier
> issue which I didn't mention? (thought maybe the reboot would fix):
>
>   ??? ??? Uptime:??? 9:09:50??? ??? Load:? 0.38, 0.19, 0.07
>   ??? ??? RAM:??? ??? 15 GB total, 15 GB used, 195 MB (or 1.23%) free
>   ??? ??? Swap:??? ??? 3.7 GB total, 6.0 MB used, 3.7 GB (or 100%) free
>
> The 100% usage of the RAM won't go away once it hit sthis level, and I
> have no idea what causes.? (Suppose there's a log to look at -- will
> need to be activated and what to look for to post.)
>
> Not seeing any difference in how the FF/Rewind issue responds.
>
> Back at the Desktop System Monitor is reporting both cores at about 7 -
> 20% usage -- show is recording.
>   ??? ??? RAM:??? 1.1 GiB (6.9%) of 15.4 GiB
>   ??? ??? Swap:??? 7.4 MiB 0.2%) of 3.7 GiB
>
> (So if some Swap was used does that mean at one time something
> 'overflowed' by 16 GB of RAM??
>
> Thanks again.? As you can probably tell I have no idea what to look for!
>
> Barry
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 8
> Date: Thu, 2 Nov 2017 11:25:51 +1100
> From: Mike Holden <mikeholden99+mythtv at gmail.com>
> To: Discussion about MythTV <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users]  BE 2 ? Remote Frontends Sluggish on FF
> Message-ID:
> 	<CAKfgc2LzP6EDTpcKOjjhM2hnHEFeV6btraXbkJ5Ro-AO2mD3JA at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> On 2 November 2017 at 11:20, Barry Martin <barry3martin at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi Folks!
>>
>> Follow-up to my earlier post; Machine Status is reporting an earlier issue
>> which I didn't mention  (thought maybe the reboot would fix):
>>
>>          Uptime:    9:09:50        Load:  0.38, 0.19, 0.07
>>          RAM:        15 GB total, 15 GB used, 195 MB (or 1.23%) free
>>          Swap:        3.7 GB total, 6.0 MB used, 3.7 GB (or 100%) free
>>
>> The 100% usage of the RAM won't go away once it hit sthis level, and I
>> have no idea what causes.  (Suppose there's a log to look at -- will need
>> to be activated and what to look for to post.)
>>
> RAM will be used for disk cache if there is any free. Use "top" or "free"
> commands to get a bit more info on this.
>
> Nothing to worry about if this is the case, it's normal behaviour to speed
> up your machine
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 9
> Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2017 16:08:12 +1300
> From: Stephen Worthington <stephen_agent at jsw.gen.nz>
> To: Discussion about MythTV <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users]  BE 2 ? Remote Frontends Sluggish on FF
> Message-ID: <pd1lvc18fgg6jt8bkpa7c5m9np3lmf639r at 4ax.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> On Wed, 1 Nov 2017 14:01:44 -0500, you wrote:
>
>> Hi Folks!
>>
>>
>> First, thanks for the assistance in the past; has resolved a lot of
>> issues. Hopefully can get this one resolved also, probably just
>> something simple I don?t understand while trying to do my own
>> troubleshooting.
>>
>>
>> Have two Backends ? separate IPs and passwords. Wanting to switch to the
>> ?new and improved? Backend with better specs and before the old
>> Backend?s motherboard fails. The old system is ?BE1? and the
>> new/replacement is ?BE2?. So when a (remote) Frontend looks at BE1 (old)
>> it plays nice, Fast Forward through commercials is snappy, all is well.
>> Same Frontend on BE2 (new), playback is fine but when hit FF it sits at
>> 3x for a second or two (same frame), then (say) 20 or 30x and the frame
>> is jump-pause-jump-pause ? probably takes two or three times as long to
>> get through commercials with the new system as the old, which has a lot
>> faster processor: BE2: AMD Athlon II X2 250 Processor ? dual core @
>> 3010.387 MHz, Mythbuntu 64 bit. Did the add ppa for 0.28/
>> update/upgrade/reboot steps this morning; didn?t help the FF
>> sluggishness problem.
> Why on earth would you be using fast-forward to skip commercials? That
> is the old, slow way of doing it, inherited from VCRs.  Some STBs
> still only allow doing it that way, due to pressure from the
> advertisers.  But in MythTV you just use the skip forward with the
> arrow keys.  I have it set up so that I get 30 seconds skip on each
> right arrow or left arrow, but when I am already skipping forward on
> the right arrow, if I skip backwards on the left arrow it only skips
> 10 seconds back.  Using that, I can skip forwards as many times as I
> need to skip the commercials and see program again.  Then I skip back
> until I see commercials again and let it play from there.  All that is
> extremely rapid and easy compared to using fast forwarding.
>
> To get the 10 s back skip after forward skip, there is a setting
> somewhere - it might be the default now.  I can not remember exactly
> where it is.  If you set the option (v29) Setup > Video > Playback >
> Seeking > Smart fast forwarding, that might be it, but it does not
> look quite right.  And I also seem to have lost where the settings are
> for the skip sizes, but I believe 30 s is the default.
>
> There is also an option in mythfrontend to skip forwards and backwards
> by a specified number of minutes.  Just type the number of minutes (eg
> 4 or 5 for a commercial break) and the arrow key for the direction
> required.
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 10
> Date: Thu, 2 Nov 2017 15:01:01 +1100
> From: Mike Holden <mikeholden99+mythtv at gmail.com>
> To: stephen at jsw.gen.nz, Discussion about MythTV
> 	<mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users]  BE 2 ? Remote Frontends Sluggish on FF
> Message-ID:
> 	<CAKfgc2K-BNnV2_PiVE3MP0YVKsWd98gcQdGqvbRQv6mt4QzF=Q at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> On 2 November 2017 at 14:08, Stephen Worthington <stephen_agent at jsw.gen.nz>
> wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 1 Nov 2017 14:01:44 -0500, you wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Folks!
>>>
>>>
>>> First, thanks for the assistance in the past; has resolved a lot of
>>> issues. Hopefully can get this one resolved also, probably just
>>> something simple I don?t understand while trying to do my own
>>> troubleshooting.
>>>
>>>
>>> Have two Backends ? separate IPs and passwords. Wanting to switch to the
>>> ?new and improved? Backend with better specs and before the old
>>> Backend?s motherboard fails. The old system is ?BE1? and the
>>> new/replacement is ?BE2?. So when a (remote) Frontend looks at BE1 (old)
>>> it plays nice, Fast Forward through commercials is snappy, all is well.
>>> Same Frontend on BE2 (new), playback is fine but when hit FF it sits at
>>> 3x for a second or two (same frame), then (say) 20 or 30x and the frame
>>> is jump-pause-jump-pause ? probably takes two or three times as long to
>>> get through commercials with the new system as the old, which has a lot
>>> faster processor: BE2: AMD Athlon II X2 250 Processor ? dual core @
>>> 3010.387 MHz, Mythbuntu 64 bit. Did the add ppa for 0.28/
>>> update/upgrade/reboot steps this morning; didn?t help the FF
>>> sluggishness problem.
>> Why on earth would you be using fast-forward to skip commercials? That
>> is the old, slow way of doing it, inherited from VCRs.
>>
> True, but not really the point. FF/REW should still work, regardless of why
> it is being used.
>
> The other thought I had was whether there was an issue in the seektable?
> Check your database for crashed tables - plenty of tutorials and previous
> posts on this, so a Google exercise for you!
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