High bitrate stuttering on gigabit + quad CPU

[MasZakrY]

On most movies there are no issues but when playing *some* 1080p movies it stutters under fast action scenes.

I am using version 1.60.0, q6600 CPU with full buffer, 4GB of ram, defragmented hard drives and an Intel CT gigabit card + gigabit switch. PS3 setup as gigabit as well with all MTU set at 1470.

When watching a 1080p DTS version of Cars, in the opening scene, the PS3 shows the bitrate going over 400mbps and it starts to stutter for a few seconds. Checking task manager, it shows the network utilization capping out at 12.5%. With 1.54.0 network usage would go to 25% but it would occasionally freeze video but keep playing the audio... I tried setting maximum bandwidth to "3000" just for fun but now the network usage caps out at 5% and the bitrate is a constant 50mbps. I'm wondering what is going on with this configuration and hoping somebody else has come across this issue! Nothing should be artificially limiting usage to exactly 12.5% that I can see.

To give back to the community, I've seen people complain about FLAC playback issues (corrupted data) after 1.51.0. The solution is to change your audio files engines settings to move "Mplayer audio" up above "FFmpeg audio".

[chocolateboy]

FAQ: How can I fix/reduce stuttering video playback?

[MasZakrY]

Thanks, I just set maximum bitrate to 512 and it is fine. Playing other HD movies I can see the network usage going to 30% with no hard ceiling via gigabit.

[overlord]

I've read through all the FAQ's and have done countless searches on here but I still haven't found an answer to this solution. I am running a quad Core Xeon with a gigabit connection to the PS3. PMS says I have a 512 mbps estimated connection. I have tried setting the max bandwidth to 512, 300, 200, 100. Everytime my bitrate in the movie jumps to over 200 mbps, I get an awful screech through the audio and my video starts to jump for a few seconds before it resumes normalcy when it drops below 200 mbps. I have tried setting the transcoding settings to great quality instead of lossless which makes a little difference in keeping majority of the movie under 200 mbps but it still stutters when you cross that threshold. Any suggestions as to what may be happening and what I can do to fix it perhaps?

[meskibob]

Have you checked your NIC driver as detailed in many of the threads linked in the FAQ post above?
What does your buffer status bar on the Status tab in PMS look like during stuttering?

[overlord]

Yessir, I have an Intel Gigabit NIC (didn't see anything that would cause a problem with them on the FAQ unless I hastily jumped over it). My current buffer size is 200MB and my buffer bar is usually full within 5 seconds of loading the video. I have watched the Network and CPU graphs on Resource Monitor and they track pretty much consistently, no sudden drops or spikes.