[MPlayer-users] hd video playback problems over wireless network

[h9wzuy45tm at snkmail.com]

I have problems with stuttering and video/audio desync when playing
videos over wireless network (macbook that is 1m away from airport
express), when I don't have the same problems on the wired network. By
playing video, I mean that I have an mkv or avi file exported via CIFS
from a NAS running samba.

I've done what I know of in terms of tuning the macbook (eg. setting
net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack), but I'd be pleased to try any suggestions.

I've also done what I know of in terms of tuning mplayer (ie. setting
-cache 16384)

I've observed during playback that I'm reading at ~ 660KB/s, and I
believe that the limited throughput is linked to the problem.

Yet, I'm pretty sure that the wireless network has more than
sufficient capacity.
ie. cat /Volumes/share/path/to/file.mkv > /dev/null yields in excess
of 2 MB/s network throughput.

So, I tried to investigate what bottlenecks might exist in how mplayer
reads the file, as opposed to how cat would read the file. Using sudo
dtruss -n mplayer, I get a constant stream of something like the
following:

24741/0x628e3: read(0x3,
"<d5)\272\246]\322,K\215\355\266\003^\377<}yo.\206\246\244\t\236\371'\303\0026\351i\303\027\270n#\345a\266\311\256\003f\302\207$\233\203\270qE\374\244\333\206#R\"\214\tp\307\273_,\230\\\322\204+\326\020\177\326\177\222\241Z\250\371.\364\257\200\264\266L\275\177\024T\250\354q8\372\361W\253\320\255k;\333\217#\270\312\240\265\032\375\267\251\004\214{\340\v7@\365\234M\236\035zz\016%^~\310\022\263\3044\304\342\t\265y5R\227qD\233\316\032vX\247\271.:\"\322\251\232\035v\311\340\242A\003\376\020\273\204\360\235\324\274+\373C;\313\374\001\0044\256\262\260\204/\212:i\305\340\254\217g\336\343<\210\017\240v\210:\260\323\004w\252\372\370\26602\331Y\017)bO\032\221\273{m\274\350v\215\221\321\221@\2152\366\0",
0x800) = 2048 0
24741/0x628e3: read(0x3,
"\023\344\313!\3465#\003\301\315:3\374D4\235\247\230npf\t\304\261ef(\3044\fD\326\363\327($\\\262-\374-\216*e\332b8\n\025\244S4\313\243\342\026\246\266\363\306\306+\310\021\233\262\317\026\343\tD^r:\223\341u\257
\035\371\245\0041\246\322%Z\3504n\344#\"uAT\352q\374\a;w#\212L\224\373\217,\326\201\242\2017\006\21688\024B9v\350\177&\346\345\205$2}3iA\213\025\335\361\373\0220W\214Y\001\306Z\220\272\261\227\001\030\366\215w\244\333\001\fsLQ&\357F\025\r\0347bP%\226a5\002\265\0",
0x800) = 2048 0