Easy way to manage buffer size, and optimal buffer size for Kodi on RPi B?

1st Official Post

    Hi again,

    I use LibreELEC 8.0.2 stable on a RPi B. Files are spread among 3 NAS using NFS protocol. Most of the time I play 1080p video files that can be pretty heavy, or 1080p streaming from Youtube or others.

    I'd like to know if there would be an easy way to manage buffer size so the playback doesn't stutter too much.

    Also, what would be an optimal setting for buffer size for all media so it fits entirely in RAM?

    • Official Post

    Wifi or ethernet cable? If you have cable, no buffering should be necessary.

    If the bitrate on your (local) videos is too high for the otherwise excellent RPi GPU, perhaps it's time to get a better htpc box.

    Cable. No video is stored on the RPi.

    Buffer appears necessary locally as on movie pause, the server hard drives go to sleep after a few minutes, but need time to resume. I just don't like the accelerated or image skipping frames during these few seconds. It reminds me of this pesky bug where a backgrounded video resumes playing while I try to launch another. The main server itself isn't to blame. It can push more than 60MBps from its external HDDs without effort, and I already saw a sustained 88MBps under different conditions. Aggressive standby is necessary because of the noise generated.

    The RPi has a good GPU, but still can't handle a 25GB/2 hours of movie over a network. I believe the limit is even lower. It's rather easy to reach its limit. Plus, only the playback is good, navigation in LibreELEC is slow. One must think in advance where he wants to click. I get it, the RPi B was a revolution when it first came out. Still, I can't see any justification to replace the RPi B. This box is rather expensive, and the RPi 3 is even more expensive! I still remember the price I paid 3 years ago for the RPi B: $50 before taxes and shipping, and it was a deal!

    Bitrate being variable, buffering larger amounts of data before playing would greatly help those files being played at the limit of what the RPi can do.

    And even over the Internet, one has to keep in mind the pipe is relatively small (50Mbps) and gets a lot of use besides Kodi. So, yeah, it can easily stutter on HD video. I think more aggressive buffering would help smooth everything,