Raid6... 1080p Video... Going Nuts... !

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rmp459

Weaksauce
Joined
Nov 16, 2010
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Built a recent file server...

-Using an older p35 desktop motherboard,
-8 gigs of ddr2,
-q9550,
-onboard nic (hyperv) + dual intel desktop nics teamed (file server),
-HP smart array p400 controller w/ Battery & 512mb ram running 6x Seagate ES 2TB drives (Raid6)
-2x 500gb in raid1 for OS via Intel ICH9


I have configured everything possibly in the HP Array Config Utility and with HD Tune I am getting Read/Write similar to that of a single drive... which I am okay with.. I dont expect this controller to be lightning fast... I used it because I got it for free and its supposedly known for stability.

I can write/read to and from the array from my current raid0 OS drives at 95-115MB/s, which makes me think its not networking or drive related...

BUT!

For some strange reason, I cannot stream 1080p video from one machine to another. 480p/720p both seem to work well enough, but 1080p regardless of the bitrate files that I have available to me (most range from 4 gigs to 15 gigs), will not stream. It just starts for a few seconds and then stutters from there on.

Isnt playing a video file considered a sequential read? why in the world is it having so much trouble? I mean were talking about a bit over 2MB/s for streaming for the largest files... how is this not working...
 
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Have you attempted to remove the network teaming aspect and try again? Are you ABLE to sustain a LARGE file transfer via FTP to rule out the other protocol?
 
Yea I have tried both with and without the teaming, and with each of the 3 nics...

I can sustain write/read to and from a raid0 array on my desktop pc at 100MB/s or more in both directions... Cat6 and gigabit switch seems to be holding up their end...

Some 1080 files seem to work... some dont... its random and these files work when copied to other pcs and locally
 
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"streaming" video can mean different things. what software is running on both ends of the stream? is the server doing transcoding of the video first? is it just a shared file on the server and the stream target does the transcoding (i would assume this one, since you mentioned only using 2MB/sec)? is this target a PC, TV, media player, game console? what OS is on each?

for example- streaming a 1080p movie file over DLNA to a playstation takes 50-150mbits/sec, but that is transcoded on the server and sent raw over the network. the filesize of a 1080p blueray is usually around ~10GB per hour. /60 = ~165MB per min /60 = 2.75MB per second if you are looking at file size alone.

your server should be able to handle that, which makes me think the target is having the problems either cacheing or transcoding.
 
I agree with Ghost above, I would look at your playing device. Also consider the protocol you are using to stream and if the system you are streaming to is full 1Gbps and not connecting at 10Mbps half duplex. If you can move data to the player at 100Mbps + then it's not the network but could be the protocol or player having playback issues.

For my protocol experience, I can "file copy" from one box to another at the full 1Gbps but when I turn on NFS or software ISCSI protocols I can barely reach 25Mbps. Sometimes it's the device serving the protocol and sometimes it's the device not able to utilize the protocol properly.


Let us know if you figure it out.
 
Ok perhaps streaming was the wrong phrase... I am not transcoding of any sort... I am just playing a file off of a network share via Windows.

That math above is exactly what I got, but for some reason my WD live box and my desktop PC's cannot maintain a buffer with these files...

The array as 128k stripe size, array accelerator and all cache settings that I could find in the configuration utility set to on.

I get about 100/100MB/s up/down with basic windows explorer copy/paste to and from folders. It has to be something on the array in not being able to access small amounts of data over a period of time or something.

EDIT:

Changed the stripe from 64k to 128k and the sectors/track from 32 to 63. Put the transforming priority for initialization to High so it would keep initializing regardless of requested i/o and so far the media is streaming perfectly on my Desktop PC... Still not working on my WD Media Live box, but I have a feeling that is firmware related and not a array issue (I see alot of people on their forums complaining of 1080 mkv/m2ts/etc). Going to plug in a local HDD to the WD media box and fire up another workstation to continue testing and see if I can confirm these changes.
 
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most 1080p movies are encoded in MPEG4 / h.264. according to the WD Media Live player specifications, it says the device plays those files at up to 720p resoloution. theres your problem.
 
As most responders have said I would say the likely culprit is the method of playback. A reason that some would work and others wouldn't would be how they are encoded. h/x264 has to be encoded in a very specific manner in order to accommodate playback via DXVA, if those requirements aren't met it can significantly increase the processing load required to render the video. Even a poorly performing 100mbit network should be able to supply the data at the necessary rate (anywhere from 8mbps to 14mbps).
 
pyrodex said:
Should have gotten a PopCorn Hour :)
Click to expand...

Are they any good? Whats the best way to rig things up with one of these... I really just might return this WD Live since most of what I download these days are 720p




Thanks again all, somehow I missed that spec on the WD unit and after testing further with my HTPC and my desktop, it seems I am no longer having the problem. I think the large stripe and array changes did help because im playing them back while raid initialization is going at high priority and its still like seeking 10 gig files instantly...
 
ghost6303 said:
most 1080p movies are encoded in MPEG4 / h.264. according to the WD Media Live player specifications, it says the device plays those files at up to 720p resoloution. theres your problem.
Click to expand...

I don't know what you are talking about. My WDTV Live plays 1080P h.264 as well as raw uncompressed Blu-ray without a hiccup over 100mbit from my ZFS server.
 
i am talking about what western digital published in their specifications. i do not own one of these, so i cant tell you what it actually does, if different.

they say it will play *some* H.264 at 1080p (MP@L4.1 and HP@4.1) .

H.264 BP@L3 will not play at 1080p, so say the specifications.
 
rmp459 said:
Are they any good? Whats the best way to rig things up with one of these... I really just might return this WD Live since most of what I download these days are 720p




Thanks again all, somehow I missed that spec on the WD unit and after testing further with my HTPC and my desktop, it seems I am no longer having the problem. I think the large stripe and array changes did help because im playing them back while raid initialization is going at high priority and its still like seeking 10 gig files instantly...
Click to expand...

I personally love mine! I have an A-110 and since it bitstreams the HD Codecs (TrueHD and DTS-MA) it does a good job of playing almost anything possible. The only complaint I have is that storing media on the device TAKES forever but when you stream the media it is good. I personally stream .m2ts 1080p files with HD codecs over the network via SMB on my storage system via a 100MB hard link cable.

I am waiting on the next level model from the C-200 which is the latest and greatest for the use of the Sigma's lastest chipset since I already have a good working A-110 model without issues.
 
NobleX13 said:
I don't know what you are talking about. My WDTV Live plays 1080P h.264 as well as raw uncompressed Blu-ray without a hiccup over 100mbit from my ZFS server.
Click to expand...

Htpc = good
Desktop = good
WD Live = STUTTER fest.

File is
H264 AVC (High@L4.1)

It does says Container profile = Unknown@4.1 if that affects anything...

Bitrate = 6247kbps on the video stream...


Its strange... it will play the file off my current NAS box which is literally just a few single hard drives... but not off my new file server running raid6.
Other files seem to be working off the array now thought... I have no idea...
 
Just thought id put some input here.

Are you running vista?

I remember a while back I had a similar issue. I could copy a file across the network at about 60MB/s no problem with no media playing
But if I had music playing it would drop to under 1MB/s

Same applies if I was streaming a movie, windows limited the bandwidth on the network because media was playing. If you google around this there are hundreds of issues like this.

I now run windows 7 with all the latest updates and no problems
 
File server is Windows 2008 R2
All workstations are Windows 7 x64 Ultimate

I seem to recall something similar happening to me with Vista... Im gonna have to wait til i get home to work on this more.. can only do so much remotely .
 
Do you have flow control enabled for the NIC's? This will allow a smooth transfer between 100mb NIC's and gigabit NICs.
 
danman said:
Do you have flow control enabled for the NIC's? This will allow a smooth transfer between 100mb NIC's and gigabit NICs.
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This.

Also, the machines that are receiving the files, what software are they using?

MPC-HC is great for 1080p content, but if you are using VLC, that can make even a fast computer with gigabit go to a crawl.
 
I just helped a friend with a similar issue. God was it annoying. He has a WDTV live and steaming to it would start out perfect but after a minute or so would go crazy choppy. However network performance was fine and steaming to other devices was fine. After about 3 hours and swapping cables, switches, external hard drives, and all sorts of other garbage it turned out to be the NIC driver on the server, try using the ones made for your NIC, NOT the ones windows automatically installs.

Basically its some sort of NIC driver issue
 
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Well he has a dual port Intel NIC teamed so the Proset drives are installed. I'd say it's flow control or one of the off load settings mucking things up. I saw this with my Xbox in MCE mode.
 
Red Falcon said:
This.

Also, the machines that are receiving the files, what software are they using?

MPC-HC is great for 1080p content, but if you are using VLC, that can make even a fast computer with gigabit go to a crawl.
Click to expand...

mpc-hc and its still stuttering... however...

greengolftee87 said:
I just helped a friend with a similar issue. God was it annoying. He has a WDTV live and steaming to it would start out perfect but after a minute or so would go crazy choppy. However network performance was fine and steaming to other devices was fine. After about 3 hours and swapping cables, switches, external hard drives, and all sorts of other garbage it turned out to be the NIC driver on the server, try using the ones made for your NIC, NOT the ones windows automatically installs.

Basically its some sort of NIC driver issue
Click to expand...

Something makes me think that I allowed Server 2008 R2 to just install intel drivers from Windows Update after I plugged them in.... i installed the OS with just the onboard realtek nic...

danman said:
Well he has a dual port Intel NIC teamed so the Proset drives are installed. I'd say it's flow control or one of the off load settings mucking things up. I saw this with my Xbox in MCE mode.
Click to expand...

Actually I have two individual PCI-E 1x Intel Desktop Nics... I might not have been clear before.
I have a pair of these: http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/adapters/gigabit-ct/gigabit-ct-overview.htm

Ill try new intel drivers when I get home before and see if I can find Flow control... I couldnt find it anywhere using what I have right now..

I dont understand how I can write/read to the array at over 100MB/s but I cannot for the life of me stream a movie to a desktop without it stuttering... If these intel drivers dont cut it Ill probably just splurge and get a areca controller or something for a small fortune.
 
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One thing to note is that in windows it does consume some CPU usage to perform higher network transfers, therefore since you are using the CPU for the RAID also it could be enough usage at 1080p to drive the CPU up enough to cause the stutter over the network.
 
since people are suggesting a network config problem- what swtiching gear are you running? is teaming correctly set up on both sides?

i know some of the cheaper intel desktop-class NICs do not suport teaming, the 82574L LAN controler chip supposedly does support it, but it may or may not be implimented on the card. for instance, the cheapest single port, intel NIC on newegg that supports teaming is $80. none of the ~$30 cards support it. i had assumed you had a dual port card, like everyone else, which almost always support teaming.
 
Teaming wont even be used when it is just 1 server and 1 client. All traffic will be from 1 NIC.
 
pyrodex said:
One thing to note is that in windows it does consume some CPU usage to perform higher network transfers, therefore since you are using the CPU for the RAID also it could be enough usage at 1080p to drive the CPU up enough to cause the stutter over the network.
Click to expand...

Only Raid1 OS drives... the Raid6 is a dedicated controller

ghost6303 said:
since people are suggesting a network config problem- what swtiching gear are you running? is teaming correctly set up on both sides?

i know some of the cheaper intel desktop-class NICs do not suport teaming, the 82574L LAN controler chip supposedly does support it, but it may or may not be implimented on the card. for instance, the cheapest single port, intel NIC on newegg that supports teaming is $80. none of the ~$30 cards support it. i had assumed you had a dual port card, like everyone else, which almost always support teaming.
Click to expand...

Intel Desktop CT adapters... I dunno the drivers that I let auto install had teaming.

danman said:
Teaming wont even be used when it is just 1 server and 1 client. All traffic will be from 1 NIC.
Click to expand...

I have like 4-5 devices that could potentially be watching movies/tv/music off of this server... which is why Im trying...


Thanks for all the input guys... ill try to tackle it again tonight.
 
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