[Just_]

Hello,

I recently purcahsed an Nvidia Shield and am having a strange issue streaming to it using Kodi. The stream works fine for a while, but eventually stops at a completely random time (usually between 5 and 30 minutes). The streaming is done over WiFi using SMB from a hard drive plugged into my router (a TP-Link Archer VR2800).

Debug log file is here.

Here's the really strange thing. I have another Nvidia Shield (an older 2017 model) and on that, Kodi works perfectly. Same version of Kodi, exact same settings as far as I can tell, streaming the exact same files from the exact same path. To me this rules out the router or the network as a possible cause.

At the point when Kodi is no longer able to buffer any more of the stream, the log file has this:

2023-01-12 22:42:58.252 T:16603   ERROR <general>: Read - Error( -1, 110, Connection timed out )
2023-01-12 22:42:58.252 T:16603 WARNING <general>: CFileCache:rocess - <smb://Archer_VR2800/volume(sda1)/filepath.avi> source read returned -1! Will retry

My advancedsettings.xml file originally looked like this:

<advancedsettings>
    <cache>
   <buffermode>1</buffermode>
   <memorysize>139460608</memorysize>
   <readfactor>20</readfactor>
   </cache>
<advancedsettings>

To attempt to fix this, I added this to the file (the debug log was from a run that includes this):

<samba>
    <clienttimeout>10</clienttimeout>
</samba>

But unfortunately that made no difference.

Any advice very much appreciated! Thanks in advance.

[andrzejls]

The streaming is done over WiFi using SMB from a hard drive plugged into my router (a TP-Link Archer VR2800).

Attach your HD to NVIDIA Shield.

[Klojum]

Debug log file is here.

Submitting a log file with a repository linked to video piracy (=orange-colored) will not benefit when asking for help on this forum.
Perhaps it's a leftover, but still, remove it from your Kodi setup, provide new log file, and we'll have another look.

[Dialatech2303]

I have the same issues with everything timing out when streaming over SMB.

Tried NFS tonight and that's working fine atm

[Just_]

Attach your HD to NVIDIA Shield.

I could of course do that, but I would really like to get SMB working. After all it works perfectly from the other Shield!
 

Submitting a log file with a repository linked to video piracy (=orange-colored) will not benefit when asking for help on this forum.
Perhaps it's a leftover, but still, remove it from your Kodi setup, provide new log file, and we'll have another look.

Fair enough! It's definitely a leftover in that I don't pirate anything - I use Kodi only to stream local media. I've now done an uninstall and reinstall of Kodi in the hope that that in itself will have a positive effect. If the problem occurs again, I'll definitely have a clean log file next time.

[Just_]

Hi all,

Happened to me again. This is off a clean install of Kodi. All I did was add the advancedsettings.xml file, but other than that it's Kodi straight out of the box. Still typically happening every few minutes.

Debug log file is here. All errors look like this:

2023-01-28 14:02:01.511 T:16158 error <general>: Read - Error( -1, 110, Connection timed out )
2023-01-28 14:02:01.512 T:16158 warning <general>: CFileCache:rocess - <smb://filepath.avi> source read returned -1! Will retry

To reiterate, Kodi on another Shield on the same network, streaming files from the same source, does not have this problem. Which gives me hope that maybe there's a fix for this in Kodi's settings somewhere. Any advice very much appreciated.

[Dangelus]

To reiterate, Kodi on another Shield on the same network, streaming files from the same source, does not have this problem. Which gives me hope that maybe there's a fix for this in Kodi's settings somewhere. Any advice very much appreciated.

Looking at this logically, you have ruled out the router and the network because your other Shield with the same Kodi and configuration does not have this issue. This makes sense.
By the same logic though it seems the only difference is your Shield hardware as you say both Kodi installations are identical. I am guessing you are using a newer 2019 model?

Do both Shields have the same OS version installed? There are slight differences in the Android TV OS between both models (likely features that are absent in the older model) as obviously there are hardware differences so it would be difficult to completely rule this out.

Have you checked the settings and configuration of both Shields (not Kodi settings) to check they are the same?

I would be looking in this area first. I have an original 2015 model and a 2019 model with identical Kodi installs and have not had this issue. Good luck.

[izprtxqkft]

i might add the addition the wireless signal quality may be suspect, if the difference is the 2 devices are in different locations each would receive it differently and have their own unique signal quality

[Dangelus]

i might add the addition the wireless signal quality may be suspect, if the difference is the 2 devices are in different locations each would receive it differently and have their own unique signal quality

Good point. Try switching the locations and see what happens @Just_

[Just_]

Thanks very much for the replies.

Firstly on the topic of wireless signal strength, I should have mentioned this but I've already ruled this out. The Shield that has the issue is now living in the exact same location that the older, working Shield lived for many years. The older, working Shield is now living in a room that is further away from the wireless router, but still has no issue.

The other thing I should point out is that when Kodi hits the error, I just restart playing the same video, and it always starts playing immediately. This to me likely (?) rules out hardware, as if the hardware (either Shield or router) were misbehaving, then why would just stopping and starting the video from within Kodi make a difference? I'm not 100% sure on this, but again it gives me hope that there's some advanced Kodi setting I can play with that might help.

Looking at this logically, you have ruled out the router and the network because your other Shield with the same Kodi and configuration does not have this issue. This makes sense.
By the same logic though it seems the only difference is your Shield hardware as you say both Kodi installations are identical. I am guessing you are using a newer 2019 model?

That was exactly my logic: that the network and router are ruled out. You're right, the Shield with the issue is the newer 2019 model (just purchased a few months ago). The Shield that does not have the problem is an older (2017 I think? Certainly it was purchased in 2017) model.  I thought all Nvidia did is improve the hardware (slightly) between the 2017 and 2019 models, and the 2019 model works perfectly for all other uses (e.g. I use it for YouTube a fair bit), so I don't think it's the hardware itself... but I guess it's not impossible?
 

Do both Shields have the same OS version installed? There are slight differences in the Android TV OS between both models (likely features that are absent in the older model) as obviously there are hardware differences so it would be difficult to completely rule this out.

Have you checked the settings and configuration of both Shields (not Kodi settings) to check they are the same?

I would be looking in this area first. I have an original 2015 model and a 2019 model with identical Kodi installs and have not had this issue. Good luck.

Great questions. I believe the settings and configuration of both Shields are identical, as I set up them up in the same way. But I've just gone to Device Preferences -> About on both Shields, and they seem to pretty much be identical. Both list a model number as P28971, Version as 11, Android security patch level as 5 April 2022, and Kernel version as 4.9.141-tegra. The only difference I could find was that the older Shield had a "Shield Android TV SW Version" of 9.1.0 while the newer one has a version of 9.1.1. I normaly install all updates but I guess I hadn't updated the older Shielld in a little while. I've just hit upgrade on the older Shield, so it'll be 9.1.1 shortly. Hopefully that doesn't mean it stops working! I'd be very surprised if it does.

[Klojum]

This might be totally unrelated, but wifi signals can become messed up for a bunch of reasons, including unsuspecting other wifi capable hardware.
See this "inspection video" by Linus' LTT and meet our "old friend" Sony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Paabqb7IxG4

[Just_]

This might be totally unrelated, but wifi signals can become messed up for a bunch of reasons, including unsuspecting other wifi capable hardware.
See this "inspection video" by Linus' LTT and meet our "old friend" Sony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Paabqb7IxG4

But once the "Connection timed out" errors start happening, they will contine to happen indefinitely until I stop and restart the video. When I restart the video, it starts playing immediately. Combined with the Shield's location (identical spot to the old one), to me this says that it's far more likely to be software than hardware.

[DenmanGuy]

This problem has been happening to me continuously for the past few weeks. It is NOT a WiFi issue. I am connecting via ethernet and it is happening, seemingly at random, but at least a few times each day. I even tried disconnecting the ethernet cable and using WiFi (my Kodi platform is a fire tv 4k max) and it does the same thing each time.  FYI, I have also tried:

• Reinstalling Kodi and rebuilding the database from scratch
  
• Resetting the fire tv 4k match stick to factory defaults and repeating everything
  

No change with SMB.

[Zuikkis]

Is the SMB share mounted through Kodi or globally through Shield settings? I have found it is more reliable to mount them directly in Shield. This also has the advantage that the drive is always visible in file managers etc.