Slowness and loading issues with local files

[Randall_Lind]

I have Boxee on my laptop I plan to build a HTPC or maybe buy a Acer or another type. Here my problem I have some movies on my desktop server and I set up boxee to see them.

When Boxee plays them my mouse becomes really slow and the video is choppy at first. Then it plays normal but ever 2 mins or so I get Loading..... Loading.... I don't understand what I am doing wrong.

I have an Acer 5315 laptop with a Intel T1400 1.73 ghz wireless N or lan doesn't matter 40mb Internet connection.

I had it working before but now it is pretty much useless when playing back local video. Any ideas on how to fix this?

[Prospero424]

Well, that single-core 1.7Ghz processor is really not up to the Boxee minimum recommended specs. It may work, but you're going to continue having problems like this.

Try to uninstall anything nonessential that may be running in the background, make sure your software is up to date, and don't use sleep mode (this can cause performance problems on borderline hardware with Boxee).

Other than that, your only recourse is faster hardware.

[DFKT]

Well, that single-core 1.7Ghz processor is really not up to the Boxee minimum recommended specs. It may work, but you're going to continue having problems like this.

Try to uninstall anything nonessential that may be running in the background, make sure your software is up to date, and don't use sleep mode (this can cause performance problems on borderline hardware with Boxee).

Other than that, your only recourse is faster hardware.

Sorry, but your reply is of no use whatsoever... I have Boxee/XBMC/MediaPortal running on a P4 3.0 GHz which hauls a bit more than half of that T1400 proc in standard benchmarks. So you just cannot be sure that it's a hardware problem at the moment.

There's just too little information in the topic start:
1) what kind of movies is he trying to play
2) what OS is he running
3) are there any additional codecs installed, how are they configured (can they get in the way of Boxee)
4) how much RAM memory is available
5) what kind of videocard
etc. etc.

All information needed to properly address the problem.

[Randall_Lind]

It a dual core Intel Celeron btw not single. I have 2gb of ram and an Intel Mobile 965 Express card.

I am running Windows 7 and trying to watch 720p movies example The A-Team 2010

I have 40bit internet and use Wireless N (hard wire same issue)

Desktop is an ASUS A7n8X AthlonXP 2400+ (2ghz) with 2gb of ram. I have a FX5200 256mb AGP card.

I put some movies and TV shows on Laptop and Boxee plays fine. So I am thinking there something wrong with my network. I have a Cable modem Motorola SBG658050

[Prospero424]

Ah, GOD I hate Intel's stupid naming schemes. I thought he was talking about the Core Solo T1400, not the Celeron T1400. The Celeron is dual-core and is much faster. The Core Solo would have been exactly as I described it above.

What do you mean when you say you "had it working"? What changed? Were you able to play this same movie before on this same computer but now you can't, or is it different movies you're having problems with?

Like you said, I think it's a network problem since local files play okay. Since you've tried both wired Ethernet and WiFi with the same results, the first place I would look for troubleshooting would be the computer hosting the files.

[Randall_Lind]

What change was I upgraded from 20mbit Internet to 40mbit. Only thing I can think of that change and I went from G to N and the new cable modem/router only does WPA-PSK tkip-aes or AES only

Before the 40mbit upgrade I was using WEP secuirty which isn't an option now. I get 39,4mbit on laptop or about 4.?mb downloading a file. I am smoking and also I have UPnP enable.

I have AES secuirty only on Wireless because I am beta testing one of those Google CR-48 ChromeOS netbooks and it doesn't like anything else it is slow on everything else.

[Prospero424]

Your Internet speeds shouldn't come into play here because we're talking about playing files across your internal network. What is something we need to know is if you got a new router when you upgraded your Internet connection.

Also, are BOTH machines connected by wired Ethernet, or only one of them? If you can try it with them both wired, and it plays fine, we'll know where to look for troubleshooting.

No, using AES encryption for WiFi is definitely something you want to do. TKIP is both slower (because it's not accelerated in hardware by the router) and far less secure (it has a well-known vulnerability that cannot be patched). WPA2 with AES is the way to go for both security and performance.

Also, some people have reported that the steps listed in this thread vastly improve performance when streaming from a Windows machine over a network.

[Randall_Lind]

AES is the only option I have tkip doesn't connect. I also just upgraded my wifi card. I got a Atheros 9280 N card and lastest drivers. thankd for the links and all the help.

I had a Netgear 300 N usb adapter it would work great until it overheat then I loss internet until it unplug and reinserted. Reason I upgraded my wifi card got tired of doing that.

[Randall_Lind]

Really not a loading issue the ticks me off. My mouse is slow as hell which make the video and boxee slow when I try to move it. This happens when playing from server and the fix didn't do anything.

No issues when streaming online or playing local files on laptop.

[Prospero424]

Is the interface always slow, even after a fresh reboot?

The only time I experience slowness like that is on resume from sleep. So I just stopped using sleep mode. Heh.