beginner problems wiimc over smb

[SpealgeParp]

I just started using wiimc today, I configured it to look in my file server (over wifi) and it seems to be configured correctly cause I’m seeing the files and I can even start them in the player.
I only tested video files.

When I’m running a video file it’s running great, good quality screen, good audio, everything is in sink. But it always goes wrong. video stops audio continues, everything stops strange artefacts on screen with weird noises, allot of the times a video won’t start at all (just strange lockups). Another time that same file will play normally.

I haven’t been able to watch one file (30+ minutes) without having a lockup.

Is this still a work in progress, am I doing something wrong? I’m using the latest version (1.0.9)

[cadbusca]

Hi, WIIMC is quite stable now and plays almost all files correctly without glitches, so you should not be having these problems.

Try copying a movie to your sd card and see if it plays ok from there. If so it would indicate that you have a network problem. Wireless LAN’s communicate on 2.4 ghz and can be interfered with by wireless phones and other routers in your neighborhood. You can use the free Insidder program to see the wireless router activity near you and then change the channel if there are routers competing for the one you are using.

[SpealgeParp]

Thanks very much for the info. I ran a video file from the sd card: no lockups.
I changed the channel to a channel that wasn’t used by other access points around. The signal is strong. It did not resolve the issue.
Now I did some experimenting and I am not sure yet (need more testing) but it seems that the wii has a bad wifi reception when it’s under the tv. I moved the wii away from the tv and no lockups so far.
Does this make sense? If it does, that’s too bad, I had the wii sitting on a shelf with the tv on a movable table…

[cadbusca]

It’s more likely a router dead spot rather than the TV. Try moving the router closer to the wii if possible.

[SpealgeParp]

I think the problem still isn’t gone (i got three lockups), there still seem to be problems with the wii separated from the tv.
The router and the wii are now only seperated about 2.5 meters with only a couch blocking them. All other wireless devices are working properly over fairly larger distances (much larger than the wii).
Don’t know what to do…

[cadbusca]

I don’t have any other ideas. My WII sits on top of my projection TV and talks to my router in the basement about 25 feet away without any problems. Once its connected it never disconnects and movies play fine. Are you sure there aren’t ant other wireless devices like channel extender, baby monitors or wireless phones that could be doing it?

[Sw0rdiX]

Welcome to my world.

As of yet I’ve not been able to pinpoint what exactly has been the cause of WiiMCs glitching. Done the whole channel check, nobody in my area is on the same one I am (a lot of channel 1 users around here, I put that down to them not bothering to change their router set-up after they receive one from their ISP, which works out great from me), restarted everything, used multiple clean/fresh installs of Wiimc itself, all the recommendations posted around, yet I still suffer from it every now and then.
Never quite understood how my old crappy laptop I used to use for media streaming would run flawlessly via WMC, all be it with a blurry, interlaced picture output, yet WiiMC in the same position can not do the same. I’m just going to assume it’s down to the way WiiMC handles wireless in comparison to PCs/Windows/WMC and isn’t as keen on interruptions or such.

Whoop, I would give reverting back to 1.0.7 a try and see if that works any better for you as it did me.

@jhb50 wrote:

Are you sure there aren’t ant other wireless devices like channel extender, baby monitors or wireless phones that could be doing it?

Hmm, this I will have to look into. I have a wireless phone in the same room as the Wii and TV. Next time I try I’ll turn off the phone and unit, see if that shows any positive results.
Though if it does, I’m again wondering why only the Wii gets affected like this, my laptop and squeezebox seem fine streaming videos/music with the phone on.
Oh well, I know one day this will be fixed/resolved, but until then I’ll keep sacrificing a PSP in an attempt to appease the Wii before each movie watching session in the hope that it will be glitch free.

[rodries]

Also keep in mind no two Wiis are the same. My original launch day Wii had terrible Wifi (I kept losing the Shop Channel connection, if I could get it working at all). After that Wii was replaced, I haven’t had an issue since.

[SpealgeParp]

This wii is brand new. You’d expect stuff like that to be ironed out by now…

[dude22]

I am having nothing but problems playing SMB videos over wireless as well. I have one of the new Black Wiis. Running System menu 4.3U Improved (September update)

WiiMC constantly freezes while playing video. MP3s work flawlessly . The video becomes garbled and usually a high pitch squeal accompanies it sometimes within minutes, sometimes an hour into a movie. I am able to play directly from SD card and USB drive fine.

My router is a WRT54G running DD-WRT On Channel 11. I have the Wii’s IP address statically assigned in the router using MAC addressing. The only other wireless router I can detect is operating on channel 1. Signal quality of connection as shown VIA the routers Interface is 98% to 100%
Router load average is staying steady around 25%.

I’ve tried running WiiMC from the Homebrew Channel and from the WiiMC channel. Using a USB Thumb Drive as the Scratch area as well as an SD card with no noticeable improvement.

Is there anything else I can attempt here? Or am I going to have to move my PC back into the living room and Hook the DVI output into the TV again?

Love the whole look and feel of WiiMC. Hope I can get it working flawless as it should.

[cadbusca]

My only suggestion would be to set up MPLAYERCE SMB and see if you have the same problems, and try the WII OPERA Browser to see how it works. Your WIIMC setup sounds fine and similar to mine which works flawlessly so I’m guessing you have a bad Wireless card in the WII.

[dude22]

Mplayer SMB seems to be working seamlessly without any issues. I’m testing my second video with it now, Watched one that was <700M and this one is 1.4GB and it hasn't froze yet. Both videos were consistently freezing in WiiMC.
Mplayer OSD shows cache(74%) m1(0.15) m2(31.28) Not sure what m1/m2 are used for. Cache drops to 73% for a second every so often but no lower.

What IOS is WiiMC using? I’m running r592 of Mplayer CE, and I noticed that it is still using IOS 202. Is there a way to force WiiMC to use IOS202 to test if a change in IOS is causing this issue?

[cadbusca]

Try using the version posted here and post your results. http://www.wiimc.org/tracker/index.php?do=details&task_id=227

[dude22]

Ok, the beta version seems to have fixed my issue, although I did just have a freeze up, but I think it was coincidental just because I went to push home just as a video was ending and ended up freezing to a black screen, no garbled video, no high pitched buzz. I was able to watch nearly 4 hours of video over SMB without a single freeze during playback, and the beta version seems to have corrected my issue. Thank you.

[cadbusca]

OK. That would imply that the fix will be in the next release. Use the beta at your own risk and don’t report any problems using it.

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