4K Movies: slow SMB vs NFS

R

ruva

New member
I redently upgraded my Tv with a Qled 4k.
Switching to 4k from full hd was harder than expected:

I used to have my Synology NAS configured with samba shared folder, I know, that's bad and open a hole in my network...anyway, when I try to strem a movie, depending on the bitrate (I presume) the minx+kodi 18.6 frequently stop to buffer data

Yesterday I got rid of SMB and enable NFS permissions on all of my shared folder: Very big files, 4K HDR, with high bitrate played without any problem ! It was fantastic !
But... anytime I try to skip forward a little bit, or go back in the movie, kodi hangs, and it takes a loooong time to resume playback: to go forward 5 minutes it took 6 minutes of wait ! And when I tried to resume a movie paused at minute 45, it never started.....

Did I do something wrong ? do you have same issue ? What kind of shares do you use, SMB of NFS ?
 
Last edited:
Hi.
I use both protocols but for kodi i use NFS (Tested before with SMB) and i notice that is faster.
I also stream from NAS and large files.

I use kodi 18.7.

You can try this for now:
Restart minix and router.

The problem you have is not SMB or NFS (for me both protocols works well).
You some some configuration/network issue.

You also can try clean data and cache (attention your data and settings will be lost), maybe you have done many configurations and kodi is not working properly.

With a kodi clean install just share a folder and try again (without scan your whole library).
 
Last edited:
notrui said:
Hi.
I use both protocols but for kodi i use NFS (Tested before with SMB) and i notice that is faster.
I also stream from NAS and large files.

You can try this for now:
Restart minix and router.

The problem you have is not SMB or NFS (for me both protocols works well).
You some some configuration/network issue.

You also can try clean data and cache (attention your data and settings will be lost), maybe you have done many configurations and kodi is not working properly.

With a kodi clean install just share a folder and try again (without scan your whole library).
Click to expand...


Ok,
I'll stick with NFS.

Do you think that increasing cache size would do any good ?
You don't have my problem with NFS ? I mean, do you skip forward and back in a movie without issues ?
 
I dont´have any problem with NFS (and with SMB as i said before)

I bought a second NAS a time ago and i now use kodi with mySQL, kodi server (but i tested kodi without mysql and it works also well)

What you can do is review your setup.

Advanced setup: (check this)
https://www.smarthomebeginner.com/5-kodi-advanced-settings-i-always-use/
https://theminixforum.com/index.php?threads/any-knowledgeable-kodi-mysql-users-please.1274/

Note:
I use basic advancedsettings.xml without tweaks.

I also advice you this minix firmware: (unless you need a recent firmware)
https://theminixforum.com/index.php?threads/neo-u9-h-008fw.43/

Other thing you can do for mow:
Factory reset router (attention your settings will be lost).
 
Last edited:
ruva said:
I redently upgraded my Tv with a Qled 4k.
Switching to 4k from full hd was harder than expected:

I used to have my Synology NAS configured with samba shared folder, I know, that's bad and open a hole in my network...anyway, when I try to strem a movie, depending on the bitrate (I presume) the minx+kodi 18.6 frequently stop to buffer data

Yesterday I got rid of SMB and enable NFS permissions on all of my shared folder: Very big files, 4K HDR, with high bitrate played without any problem ! It was fantastic !
But... anytime I try to skip forward a little bit, or go back in the movie, kodi hangs, and it takes a loooong time to resume playback: to go forward 5 minutes it took 6 minutes of wait ! And when I tried to resume a movie paused at minute 45, it never started.....

Did I do something wrong ? do you have same issue ? What kind of shares do you use, SMB of NFS ?
Click to expand...

How fast is your network ? Do you use Ethernet or Wifi ?

Same as @notrui i use NFS on gigabit ethernet and no slowdown at all, even after a seek.
I never touched advancedsettings.xml
 
ruva said:
I redently upgraded my Tv with a Qled 4k.
Switching to 4k from full hd was harder than expected:

I used to have my Synology NAS configured with samba shared folder, I know, that's bad and open a hole in my network...anyway, when I try to strem a movie, depending on the bitrate (I presume) the minx+kodi 18.6 frequently stop to buffer data

Yesterday I got rid of SMB and enable NFS permissions on all of my shared folder: Very big files, 4K HDR, with high bitrate played without any problem ! It was fantastic !
But... anytime I try to skip forward a little bit, or go back in the movie, kodi hangs, and it takes a loooong time to resume playback: to go forward 5 minutes it took 6 minutes of wait ! And when I tried to resume a movie paused at minute 45, it never started.....

Did I do something wrong ? do you have same issue ? What kind of shares do you use, SMB of NFS ?
Click to expand...

SMB v1 is the problem when it comes to security issues, SMB v2 or v3 are perfectly fine to use.
 
Skynet said:
How fast is your network ? Do you use Ethernet or Wifi ?

Same as @notrui i use NFS on gigabit ethernet and no slowdown at all, even after a seek.
I never touched advancedsettings.xml
Click to expand...
I also use NFS with ethernet gigabit.

A few time ago i tested some advancedsettings.xml settings :
I tested and i modified my sql library settings (video database) and instead of the IP adress of the host (NAS) i changed to the host name of the NAS.
It is slower, much slower to acess kodi database, but it works. (Only advantage of this is if we change NAS ip adress and only work with host name).

I also changed other settings in the advancedsettings.xml and i did not noticed nothing faster.

My Conclusion:
We must have a good network setup in order to have a good kodi experience and other things like for example:
Copy files from client to NAS, stream videos from NAS, etc.
And stay with basic advancedsettings.xml
 
Last edited:
thank you guys for the help.

I'm going to test my network, since all of you use kodi+NFS/SMB v2 shares with no issues
I am the opposite of notrui....very basic network knowledge, I'm already scared to reset the router to factory defaults !

I only know I have static IP's and just a couple of switches, 1GB, around the house. And my Diskstation has two gigabit lan ports, so I made a bond (duplex? link aggregation?) to have a 2Gbps connection
 
ruva said:
I'm already scared to reset the router to factory defaults !
Click to expand...
If you are not comfortable with the router (or any other device) settings you can take pictures (with a mobile) and note the settings, before factory reset.
Then if you factory reset go to your notes and setup them again.

Note:
Do not trust on router Backup saving settings, it is better you do it yourself, step by step.
 
notrui said:
If you are not comfortable with the router (or any other device) settings you can take pictures (with a mobile) and note the settings, before factory reset.
Then if you factory reset go to your notes and setup them again.

Note:
Do not trust on router Backup saving settings, it is better you do it yourself, step by step.
Click to expand...
Before working on my router, I think I need assitance with my NAS. My diskstation (412+) seems slower in transfer large files:
I tried to copy a movie of 55GB more or less from my PC to the NAS: I get a speed of 53/54 MB/sec . I should be able to transfer at 80-90 MB/sec.....
I understand this is not the right place to seek information, and I think that this could be my bottleneck.
Could you please direct me to resources on the web to check and eventually fix my problem ?

thank you very much
 
ruva said:
Before working on my router, I think I need assitance with my NAS. My diskstation (412+) seems slower in transfer large files:
I tried to copy a movie of 55GB more or less from my PC to the NAS: I get a speed of 53/54 MB/sec . I should be able to transfer at 80-90 MB/sec.....
I understand this is not the right place to seek information, and I think that this could be my bottleneck.
Could you please direct me to resources on the web to check and eventually fix my problem ?

thank you very much
Click to expand...
Please go to google and search for synology forum.
There you will find help.
Yes it is important you have your Server (NAS) well configured but also your router and clients (minix devices, PC, etc).
Restart also your switches.
 
Last edited:
ruva said:
Before working on my router, I think I need assitance with my NAS. My diskstation (412+) seems slower in transfer large files:
I tried to copy a movie of 55GB more or less from my PC to the NAS: I get a speed of 53/54 MB/sec . I should be able to transfer at 80-90 MB/sec.....
I understand this is not the right place to seek information, and I think that this could be my bottleneck.
Could you please direct me to resources on the web to check and eventually fix my problem ?

thank you very much
Click to expand...

I have 4x Syno NAS all running the Disk Station software, (I also use NFS for Kodi BTW but the Win PC's are still just using SMB for routine data xfers etc.). My xfer speeds writing to any of the NAS are usually at or around 112 MB/s for any xfers under optimal conditions, (unless it's a large batch of very small files then yes, speeds obviously drop dramatically.) Sometimes speeds do drop down to 70 - 80 MB/s or even as low as 50 MB/s if the devices I'm actually using to carry out the data xfers are running additional processes. (All are also configured using BTRFS with SHR.)

My point is, sometimes if your PC is processing other apps/data/etc./blah, xfer speeds do sometimes drop down to 50 - 70 MB/s until your PC frees up resources again. (Was your PC busy processing other apps/data/etc. at the time of your test xfer?)

If it's an occasional thing I wouldn't worry about it, but if xfer speeds seem to be constantly capped at 55 MB/s then again yes, you've definitely got a bottleneck going on somewhere. (Cables, switches & device config (router, NAS, PC) are the usual suspects in most cases.)

You've mentioned using switches so I'm assuming you have quite a bit of cat 5e/cat 6 cabling running around your residence as well?

I know it's a bit of a pest moving certain devices around, but the fastest way you can troubleshoot this particular issue is to directly connect the NAS, PC used for moving data, & the U9-H directly to your router & then run your tests again if at all possible!!??? (How does the network in general or the individual devices themselves behave if you try this? Any immediate improvement or still the same reduced xfer speeds?)

If you immediately & consistently get full xfer speeds back from doing this it will give you some immediate possibles to look at for your potential bottleneck. (It'll potentially save you a hell of a lot of troubleshooting cabling or individual devices if doing it the other way around as well ;).)

Hope you can quickly determine a cause :). (It's usually something ridiculously simple so hopefully you won't need to spend too much time or money on the problem ;)!!)

Keep us in the loop if you wish :).
 
Last edited:
Well well...
thanks again for all of your advices, all precious. I have solved the problem of speed transfer and of playback of high bitrate movies (4k HDR)
I have to, and want to share with the community:

1 - playback stutter with high bitrate movies Hevc 4K HDR : I just created, actually a did a copy&paste, of the advancedsettings.xml
Just the one posted by @pusb87 . It dramatically helped in the playback of every kind of high bitrate files, even with jump ahead or back of the movie

2 - transfer speed: I searched through the web to find similar issues, and I happened to find many people to have the same problem, and then find a solution that worked out for me
Enable the SMB service, protocol 2 and 3. encryption mode disabled, opportunistic locking enabled
I disabled the NFS rules just to check out the new speeds, and now I find myself with 90/110 Mb/sec

I really appreciate the help from you guys, it's so good to ask for help and to receive so much information

(y)
 
ruva said:
Well well...
thanks again for all of your advices, all precious. I have solved the problem of speed transfer and of playback of high bitrate movies (4k HDR)
I have to, and want to share with the community:

1 - playback stutter with high bitrate movies Hevc 4K HDR : I just created, actually a did a copy&paste, of the advancedsettings.xml
Just the one posted by @pusb87 . It dramatically helped in the playback of every kind of high bitrate files, even with jump ahead or back of the movie

2 - transfer speed: I searched through the web to find similar issues, and I happened to find many people to have the same problem, and then find a solution that worked out for me
Enable the SMB service, protocol 2 and 3. encryption mode disabled, opportunistic locking enabled
I disabled the NFS rules just to check out the new speeds, and now I find myself with 90/110 Mb/sec

I really appreciate the help from you guys, it's so good to ask for help and to receive so much information

(y)
Click to expand...

Glad you're all sorted out :).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top