Jerky video over network, Please help.

L

lewiscooksey

Registered
Hi guys.

I have a brand new MacBook 2.2ghz.

I have a little problem with when i watch avi video (compressed with any codec) from either my Lacie ethernet mini nas 500gb, or my windows vista machine over the network the video will jump intermittently every 10-20 seconds. Ive tried using both qt and vlc but both have the same problem.

If i watch the same avi directly from the macbook hard drive it plays as it should, smoothly.

At first i thought it could have been because i was doing this over the wireless (54mpbs) so i tried a cat5 cable and the same problem happened.

I have also since upgraded to 4gb of crucial memory, and have tried replacing the original 1gb memory but the problem still happens.

If i use boot camp and winxp, with any media player, be it wmp, qt, or vlc they all work perfectly, on the wireless or the cable.

I think its got to be a network problem, any advice would be greatly appreciated, and if you need any more information let me know.

Cheers, Lewis
 
Lewis,

I have just installed my Lacie Etehrnet mini 500gb drive and am having all sorts of issues with it.

I have activated a job ticket with Lacie and am in the process of trailing different ways to interface with the drive.

I am using an imac connected via a Belkin gigabit switch with the supplied ethernet cable and another Cat 5e cable.

The fastest I could transfer files to the drive has been 7Mbytes / second. I am now trialling a USB connection via windows! Bizarre.

The drive sometimes 'hangs' whereby the drive goes into a looping pattern - I can hear the drive beeeing accessed for a few moments every 2 seconds. Access to the drive can sometimes still be possible with jerky file playback.

I am very keen to hear what Lacie suggest next week.

James
(new member)
 
Hi there mate, ive resolved the problems i was having now,

Just a heads up for you, use the afp over the smb, on the smb i was averaging around 4-5mbs but with the afp im averaging 10mbs. Not bad really, depends if your expecting massive improvements from the gigabit side. With the usb i was only managing the same of around 4mbs.

The issue with the video jumping is just with avi, but only if i play it in vlc or qt. If i play it in real player its fine, which is strange. Its i can play hd mkv video off the nas via the wireless, which i may add is 4 times the data rate of the avi and it plays with no problems, i guess there are just a few bugs with the drive, and people expect the nas drives to be as fast as usb, and there not.
 
Thanks for mentioning the AFP.

I was (randomly) using it. I found that the network icons in the finder would sometimes show me my share drive name with AFP after it, and sometimes not.

I considered switching off windows sharing in the admin section of the drive so that it would simply be AFP the whole time... but I haven't gone this way yet.

I was thinking about a comparison between 2 imacs vs the imac and the drive with the same data over gigabit LAN to compare the drive with something else.

Unfortunately, I have to get a job finished for work before I spent time playing around.

I tried downloading a software update from Lacie here:
http://www.lacie.com/download/drivers/LaCieUpdate_5.0.5_5.1.3_6.0.1.zip

But the file is encrypted! It needs a passphrase to open it in stuffit. Maybe you might have some luck. I like to document these things online in case some other poor bugger is also finding similar problems.

Even using AFP, the transfer rate is nowhere near as fast as it is to my other Lacie 250gb drive using FW400. (currently).

I will post an update as I experiment some more.

James
 
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