[mythtv-users] Playback Video Stutters & Audio Quits on one Frontend

[jam]

> On 5 Aug 2020, at 8:09 am, Craig Huff <huffcslists at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I'm stumped and need help.  I've been trying to understand why some video files work fine and others give me grief.  If I play a "bad" file on my BE/FE, it plays just fine.  If I play the same file on the remote FE, it will play ok for a second or two, but then the audio quits and the video will stutter like it's in slow motion.  If I play a "good" file, it works just fine anywhere.
> 
> A "bad" file is one of my older recordings that has a file type description of:
>           "MPEG sequence, v2, program multiplex"
> (using the 'file' command in an xterm).
> A "good" file is one of the newer ones with a description of:
>           "MPEG transport stream data".
> 
> The BE/FE is based on an ASRock Z77 Extreme4 motherboard with an Intel Core i3-3250 CPU @ 3.50GHz, integrated HD Graphics 2500 and 16GB of RAM.  The video connection is DVI-D.
> 
> The remote FE is based on an ASRock A785GM-LE motherboard with an AMD Phenom II X4 965 CPU @3.4GHz, Nvidia GT710 PCI-E 2.0 Graphics adapter, and 4GB of RAM.  The video connection is HDMI (with 5.1 Audio via the HDMI cable).
> 
> The ethernet connection is 1GB/second rated, not tested.
> 
> I fiddled around with various audio options and the pre-defined VDPAU profiles (made things worse! -- audio would drop out faster) vs. the High Quality profile.  I tried tweaking processor settings with cpufrequtils and only managed to get it running so hot it would freeze up until I forced it to shutdown and waited for it to cool off again.
> 
> Short of transcoding the problem files to a format that works, or getting completely new hardware for the remote FE, I'd appreciate any suggestions for what I might have missed to try and get this to work.
> 
> I'd also appreciate any advice on how to transcode the files into a format that will not cause this problem, preferably using Handbrake, Avidemux, and/or ffmpeg.

I’d be very interested too!
One of my FE is a wireless laptop. Most movies play just fine (including HD), but every now and then is a movie that is always stuttery

James