Windows 10 vs Windows 11 for NextPVR

[three6zerocool]

I have been trying to resolve odd micro stutter when watching live TV.

My NextPVR environment has been running under Proxmox Windows 11 VM, and my recording location is my NAS.
My preferred client for playback is Kodi, and my preferred playback device is Fire TV Cube 3rd Gen.

I thought the random stutter might be caused by the performance of my NAS, so tried using a spare NVME drive as recording drive, and then postprocessing script to move the recordings to NAS, which has presented a new set of challenges.

Martin actually suggested that the NAS should be more than capable to recording up to 4 streams, and he was quite correct, and it recording to NVME has not resolved the odd micro stutter issue, which seems to occur when watching TV from STB channels inside Kodi.

I took his advice and started looking at network performance etc, and have not really found any issues.
(Completely messed up my network config while doing so, and had to reset all network adapters to get thigs working again)

I use TrueNAS, and found a an openSpeedTest that installs as server on the NAS, then clients connect it to it for tests.
It seems to indicate that the 2.5g connections from the clients are getting that speed, and writes to the NAS seem extremely fast.

The strange thing is that for the longest time, I was running under Windows 10, and never really encountered these issues until I migrated the system to Windows 11.

I wondered if Windows 10 is still the preferred OS for Windows running NextPVR?, or is it a case of either is fine.?

As I am running Windows VM, I have a fresh Windows 10 VM, so am going to install NextPVR from scratch, and make a comparison just for interest sake.

[sub]

I wondered if Windows 10 is still the preferred OS for Windows running NextPVR?, or is it a case of either is fine.?

Either should be fine. I've personally been using Win11 since it came out, and all the development of he software was done on Win11.

Of the things your mentioned there, I'd be most suspicious of the VM. If you got spare machine, I'd try a bare metal install to see if the issue goes away.

[gEd]

I don't know anything about Proxmox (lI've played with virtualbox now and then) but if the win10 VM ran fine, like sub, I'd suspect something not quite right with the win11 VM.
Maybe you configured some hosting settings for the win10 vm that enabled it to run faster?

the first result when I google "Proxmox performance windows 10" is :-
Windows 10 guest best practices

The top 3 results when I google "Proxmox performance windows 11" are :-

Windows 11 Virtual Machine very slow performance - Proxmox forum
Windows 11 Very Low Performance | Proxmox Support Forum
Sluggish performance in Win11 VM | Proxmox Support Forum

[three6zerocool]

Thanks for that feedback.

I did get the Windows-10 VM up and running with new install of NextPVR, and it seems to run well.
However was having issues with STB IR channel changing, and have not quite worked out the issues there.

I used to use the built in IR on the colossus card, but it would now and again fail to change channels.
I ended up using IR Server Suite after finding a 'how to' on the forums, and it seems to work really well, but I don't think I quite have the correct parameters set under Windows 10.

Yes, I have swapped back to Windows 11 too.

I can certainly test out a true bare metal install, as I have two NVME boot drives, on for Proxmox environment, and the other Windows 11.
(then inside Proxmox environment, I have VM's for Windows 10 and 11)

Don't know if I can configure the VM's to use the native hardware on the motherboard, instead of the  Virtio drivers.  I will look into that.
But I will indeed try Sub's suggestion of running bare metal install.

Again, I appreciate the feedback.
Thank you.

[three6zerocool]

Update:

I did bare metal install, and copied my NextPVR configuration over.
Did some test recordings,  and still get the odd micro-stutter when playing back.

The playback kinda just freezes for an instant, and mainly on scene where there is quite a lot of fast movement.

I think it maybe is the source, as it does not do the micro-stutter on DVB-T, only from STB via colossus 2 card.

It is good in a way, as it seems the Windows 11 VM runs as well as a bare metal install, which is kinda cool.

I notice if I import the encoder filter for the colossus 2 into graphedit, I can view some settings such as 'Gop B-Frames'
It is currently set to B Frames 3  and has choices if 1 2 3 and 4.

Would any of these settings have any effect as far as micro-stutter is concerned, or is a case of just problems with the source?
Typically I see the odd micro-stutter in things like WWE Wrestling from Sky, and some older shows like 'Dukes of Hazzard' and 'Knight Rider'

I also discovered that under Proxmox Windows VM it uses something called 'Virtio' Windows drivers. (they call it paravitualized drivers)
I discovered an update to the driver packages, so have upgraded them, and will see if anything different occurs.

I also have two colossus cards, so will mirror the STB channels, and try it out.
(in case it is some PCI slot conflict etc causing the stutter)

[mvallevand]

What client are you using and is it virtualized too?

For your stutter did you settle of 25 fps https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.ph...#pid583832 and if so is your STB outputting 25/50 and is your client outputting 25 fps to a 25 fps capable monitor.

Martin

[three6zerocool]

For clients, I am using Kodi running on Fire Cube 3rd gen, and UIdroid.

As I upgraded to Fire TV Cube, it does not have the strange interlace issue I reported in a previous thread.
As such, I was able to run the default config of NextPVR and not change the recording profile.
(which fixed playback on Firestick when the profile was increased from NextPVR default of 3.x to 4.x)

So, no, I did not use the scaler to reduce the frames, so would be at 50/60.

The entire scenario seems to caused when my original Colossus 1 card failed, and I upgraded to colossus 2.
It seems to have some quirks I did not envisage.

I found out the GOP settings in the Hauppauge Encoder on Colossus 2 is for keyframes, so in previous post, was wondering if changing to different values might help?
(default is GOP 3,  but has choices of 1-4)

It could just be the source, as sometimes I miss recording the particular show, and stream it instead via Sky, and see odd stutter in it too, like a glitch, but in the recorded version it seems to exhibit in a different way. (Freeze, stutter for an instant)

The other thing I changed on my STB, is that I re-enabled the native video output of the MySkyHDi box to 1080i, which I always used for years with the Colossus 1 card.
When I had to replace it with the Colossus 2, I had to change the video output to 720p.
Thats when you suggested increasing h264 profile to 4.x, which resulted in the firestick being able to handle the interlaced video correctly.

With the newer Fire TV Cube, it does not seem to have that issue, so am running NextPVR with an unaltered config file, and the STB at 1080i.

[mvallevand]

So the micro stutter is in Kodi or uidroid on a Fire Cube, why do you think there is a NextPVR issue?

Martin

[three6zerocool]

Well, after pondering your questions Martin, I now kind of think it is NOT a NextPVR issue, but more a source issue.

You have a knack of making one take notice of the unobvious.
You kind of remind me of Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional character 'Sherlock Holmes'
I guess support of a product is performing some detection to get to the truth of the matter.

I will do some detective work of my own and see what I can find.

Thank you yet again.

[three6zerocool]

Update:

Done a bit of testing.

As per Martin's question regarding FPS,  I was wrong regarding the FPS of recording made via the STB.
According to Mediainfo app, when I examine one of the recordings from STB, it reports 1080 at 25FPS.

Or if I change my STB's output to 720p,  Mediainfo then reports 720p at 50FPS