4K video on QNAP 2.53d

[devbias]

I’ve had my qnap TS2.53 for approx a year and I have enjoyed storing & watching my ripped blu ray .mkv files without any issue over my network.
Recently I got a gopro10 and thought it would just be as easy as the blu ray .mkv files to store on the qnap and stream to my main TV whenever I wanted to view my GoPro footage in the same way I have with my blu ray files.
Not A Chance, the GoPro files buffer like crazy. The files are mp4 and with a bit of research the buffering maybe down to the high bit rate?
Is there a solution to this so that I can stream my crystal clear 4k footage from my NAS ?
Ive also tried the HD Station on the TS2.53 into my Arcam AVR450 as this connects directly via HDMI and my qnap lives next to my amp so not an issue connecting.
However different issues, HD video station reports high bit rate and cannot transcode on the fly.
HD Player plays but with no sound.
The files play perfectly on a USB pen drive into the TV so no problem with my TV dealing with them.

Anyone had this issue and found a way to get the GoPro files to work on a NAS without buffering over a network ?

 

[Sloppy Bob]

Is the network wired or wireless.

If wireless the solution is you need a higher transfer speed so it's either a wired network or try powerlines or Mesh.

 

[mickevh]

If you want to explore the (nominal) bit rates of your files, then there are free tools like MediaInfo that will tell you all that you want to know.

Unless you are using a real time transcoding App on your NAS (like Plex) then the NAS in and of itself won't affect (or even "care") about the image and sound quality - to a NAS it's all just "files." If you are missing a sound channel (for example) then it's more likely a compatibility problem in that the playback device lacks the support (eg CODEC's) to render out the file you are "playing." To fix that, you either need to fix or replace the errant playback device, record the files in a format the device can render, or convert the files with something like Handbrake.

I concur with Bob - high bit rate could be a real problem if you are using Wi-Fi. For fast, reliable data networking, it is best to use wired ethernet, preferably 1000mbps (AKA "gigabit") if at all possible.

 

[oneman]

If you having to transcode then looks like the playback device can't handle the file format natively.

MP4 is just a container, you need to check which codec is uses, as Mick suggests something like Mediainfo will tell you codec information and resolution, bit rates, etc.

And how are you connected between playback device and NAS, wired, wireless, homeplug or something else ?

 

[devbias]

It’s a wired network and I would prefer to get the files to stream this way rather than explore the other issue of no sound on HD Station via HDMI. I just tried this as an alternative solution.

For clarification. The GoPro files play with sound over network but buffer badly whereas .mkv movie rips play without issue.

I will park the no sound issue on HD Station so not to get the 2 issues confused.

 

[oneman]

Having a look at GoPro website, you are going to need 1Gb network between device and NAS as files at high res are 100mbps bitrate, Its the 6th column, 60mb for standard res, 100mb for high res. This is higher than blu ray which typically encoded at around 60 to 70mb and thus works OK on 100mb.

Are you using 100mb or 1Gb network at the moment ?

GoPro Support

community.gopro.com

 

[oneman]

Also check the network speed on your TV, its unlikely to support 1Gb so you will need an external streaming box that supports 1Gb like an Android box.

 

[mickevh]

Similar to .MP4, .MKV is a "container" format that can wrap itself around pretty much anything. Thusly, the ability to play back an MKV successfully or not is dependent on the what's inside it. My BD rips are typically of the order of some 10's of mbps. Whereas, if you wrapped you gopro footage into MKV, if the network pathway isn't up to the required capacity (with a good bit of headroom to spare to cope with "other" network traffic), it's still going to be an issue.

There's some good suggestions from others. You might care to evaluate each "hop" in network the pathway from source to sink and see what have. If it's gigabit all the way, then it's probably not a networking issue, but if there's a 100mbps "hop" somewhere, it could be an issue for high rate stuff.

One way to check the NAS has the "grunt" to serve up the file fast enough is to compare how long it takes to copy a file off your NAS versus the run time of the media. (Copying wil go as fast as possible.) By way of example, let's say I've got an hour long clip, I store it on my NAS, then copy that file off the NAS to (say) a Windows PC (ideally with the shortest, (fewest hops,) fastest network pathway between source and sink.) If it takes (say) 30 or less minutes to copy the file, then it's a good indication the NAS is up to serving the file in a timely enough fashion and the network is conveying adequately quickly. If the "copy" time starts to approach the "playback" time, then we can be more suspicious the NAS or the network cannot cope.

 

[devbias]

NAS & TV both directly into a 8 port gigabyte switch so not much info structure. Will have to check the cables are cat6 though.
Any links or instructions on how to test my network capacity and headroom as I’ve never done this before. I can plug a laptop into the same 8 port gigabyte switch.

 

[mickevh]

NAS & TV both directly into a 8 port gigabyte switch so not much info structure. Will have to check the cables are cat6 though.
Any links or instructions on how to test my network capacity and headroom as I’ve never done this before. I can plug a laptop into the same 8 port gigabyte switch.

"Gigabyte" is a brand name - mostly mother boards ISTR, but I think they may have dabbled in ethenet switches and NICs at one time. "Gigabit" is (one of) the available ethernet Link Rates (1000mbps.) So if you have a box with"Gigabyte" written on it, I'd just take a second look to ensure it really is a gigabit switch. Post the make/model number if you like, someone here will probably check.

Don't stress out too much about the "cat" f the cables. As long as they are cat5e or higher, correctly terminated, genuine UTP (and not CCA - Copper Clad Aluminium AKA "junk,") then they should be good for 10/100/1000 ethenet up to 100m unless you did a spectacularly bad job of installing it. Ethetnet works at fixed rates, it doesn't get "faster/slower" because you give it higher/lower "cat" cables.

Generally the best way to check Link Rates (ever erroneously called "speed") is to check things like indicator lamps (on things like switches) - sometimes they use colour changes to indicate link rate - and/or what user interfaces of "active" kit reports. If, for example, your NAS reports it's NIC's link rate is 1000mbps (or whatever) then you can be very confident that cable lobe really is running at 1000mbps.

To perform and end to end throughout test, there's a couple of free tools available. It's kind of like running an Internet "speed test" except that you host the test server locally instead of out on the Internet. So doing means you take all the internet over the test pathway and can engineer it all yourself. My favourite is one called NetIO, but there's another called iPerf which I see a lot of people use. I don't doubt there will be others these days.

These are software products, so you need a couple of suitable devices to run them on such as a pair of Windows/Linux computers (the tools are often cross platform.) To use, you'd set up a computer at one end of the pathway under test, run the tool up in "server" mode, then use a second device and the other end of the test pathways a run the tool in "client" mode. Of course, that means you need to have a couple of suitable devices available (laptops are ideal) which not everyone does.

I' don't doubt there are similar things that run on phones and tablets - the trouble with that is you're introducing some "Wi-Fi" hops in the pathway which complicates the test path and how to interpret the result (due to the way Wi-Fi works.) If we can complete any such testing "wires only" along any patchway, we get much more useful results.

Such tests, just like Internet speed tests, do not test the "speed" (as in Link Rate) of anything - what they do is send a measured amount of data, time it, and generate a statistical average (bit like the average speed a cars trip computer reports versus the actual velocity read on the speedo.) It's a useful indicator, but it's the sort of thing we use to make "ball park" assessments rather than precise measurements. The "useful" thing about such tests is that they don't utilise the hard disk drives in the source and sink devices which removes a level of complication, however modern kit is so fast these days that even a simple "copy a file and time it on a watch" test is likely to be able to generate enough traffic to saturate even a gigabit link.

 

[oneman]

NAS & TV both directly into a 8 port gigabyte switch so not much info structure. Will have to check the cables are cat6 though.
Any links or instructions on how to test my network capacity and headroom as I’ve never done this before. I can plug a laptop into the same 8 port gigabyte switch.

What make and model is the TV. My set is a 3 year old fairly high end Samsung and its only 100mb port. Everything you have said that it works via USB, that NAS, switch and cabling are up to scratch points to the speed limitation in Ethernet port on the TV.

If the router or WAP is next to the TV and both support 5Ghz then it might be worth trying WiFi as it bypassed the Ethernet port and potentially may get > 100mb

As Mick says ideally you want to run a speed test from your TV to the NAS but unless you have suitable app on your TV that can test against a file share or Plex or something on your NAS. Which app are you using on your TV for playing back the files ?

If you internet connection > 100mb then its worth running a speed test from something like Netflix or Amazon Prime on your TV, at least if will should the TV is capable > 100mb.