Xbox Extender choppy only on gigabit network

[Jer739]

This will not help, that is how my network has always been setup. Everything plays fine on MCE PC's but not from XBOX. Plays fine on devices like the WD TV Live also. Everything connected to the same switch. Any other suggestions to get movies to play on the 360? Mine skips frames making movie watching embarrassing, so for now I have my HTPC and HDMI extenders setup instead of going through the 360.

[foxwood]

This will not help, that is how my network has always been setup. Everything plays fine on MCE PC's but not from XBOX. Plays fine on devices like the WD TV Live also. Everything connected to the same switch. Any other suggestions to get movies to play on the 360? Mine skips frames making movie watching embarrassing, so for now I have my HTPC and HDMI extenders setup instead of going through the 360.

What format are your movies in?

[Jer739]

DVD ISO

[foxwood]

Do you have any recorded TV files in .wtv format? How do they play?

[Jer739]

Don't have any.

[foxwood]

You mentioned that you were using MyMovies transcoding. Are you seeing this problem on the XBox when you're using MyMovies, or when you're using the "native" Media Center Movies library?

[foxwood]

Don't have any.

What about the sample Video clips that come with Windows Media Center?

[Jer739]

Guess I never thought to try those - can try tonight, but how is this supposed to solve the DVD ISO playback problem?

[foxwood]

Guess I never thought to try those - can try tonight, but how is this supposed to solve the DVD ISO playback problem?

I'm trying to understand what the problem actually is. If it only affects DVDs, and other media plays OK, then it may not be a network problem at all, it may have somethhing to do with how the DVDs are being handled. (At least in Win7, DVDs don't need to be transcoded, so I'm confused about why you originally asked about fixing Transcoding issues).

[Jer739]

My "server" is running vista. So your saying if I run Windows 7 instead the DVD's in MyMovies will run on the 360 without needing to be transcoded?

[foxwood]

I honestly can't remember how Vista handled DVDs.

DVD's contain MPEG2 data. The XBox is perfectly capable of handling MPEG2 data without transcoding.

[foxwood]

You also haven't clarified whether you see the same problem if you switch the NIC on your PC to 100Mbps - this thread is supposed to be about dealing with Choppy video that wasn't choppy until the network was upgraded to gigabit.

[Jer739]

Thanks for your time, we have already established that the network is not the problem. There is no need to respond further.

[barnabas1969]

Thanks for your time, we have already established that the network is not the problem. There is no need to respond further.

How have we established that? Just because your PC and extenders are connected to a network switch does not eliminate the network as a possible cause. Many network switches don't have a sufficient buffer and/or cannot process packets fast enough. This is especially true when receiving data on a gigabit link (your PC), and then passing it on to a 100 megabit link (your extender).

Foxwood's suggestion won't cost you any money, and only takes a few minutes to test. Why not just take the advice of people who have experience with this kind of thing instead of being combative?

[Jer739]

Because based on the responses and suggestions - I know now that my experience with networking far outweighs any advice given in this forum.

[foxwood]

Because based on the responses and suggestions - I know now that my experience with networking far outweighs any advice given in this forum.

If your experience with networking is that good, why are you asking for help in a thread about a networking issue? (The treas title is "Xbox Extender choppy only on gigabit network").

I'm genuinely interested in helping you resolve this issue, but it's a bit confusing when you jump into a thread that was about changed behaviour when upgrading from 100Mbps networking to Gigabit networking, and start asking questions about transcoding issues. I'm simply trying to narrow down the possibilities - your networking experience doesn't actually help there, because when you "know better", you're inclined to jump to conclusions. Most of the time, those jumps will work out, but when you're jumping to conclusions in an area that you're asking for help in, jumping to the wrong conclusion isn't only wasting your time, it's also wasting other peoples time.

[Jer739]

Because 360 is choppy on both gigabit and 10/100 networks. Through switches or routers with built in switches. DVD movies sent to 360 through MyMovies are transcoded before 360 will play them. Change your NIC and settings all you want. Buy a new switch, go to gigabit, and has anyone actually solved this issue? I can play multiple movies at the same time through MCE PC's, WD TV Live devices, etc. But ONE instance of a movie playing through 360 skips frames left and right. Bandwidth on a 100 network with 3 movies playing is ~30mbps on devices that work. Bandwidth on 360 is within that range also - ~10-15mbps, but yet it is choppy. Going to gigabit when I am using 10% of my bandwidth now is going to solve what? Moving from a router with built in switch to a separate switch is going to act differently? Maybe if you had a $1,500 SonicWall or something that actually did packet filtering on the local side instead of the packets going through the WAN port - like any of your retail routers. I simply feel that I have already wasted enough time on this issue, on to the rest of my life. I don't dedicate my days posting to forums all day. Sorry if I insulted or wasted anyone's time.