Ethernet and Wifi speeds

[stana]

Hi everyone.
Just new to Droidbox having had an EnyM8 previously. I found that the M8 with custom firmware had better Ethernet and WiFi speeds than the T8 I have just purchased.
I am on Virgin 100mb broadband and according to Ookla I get 25mb on Ethernet and 32mb WiFi with the T8.
I get 80 to 90mb Ethernet and 56 Mb WiFi with the M8.
I thought I was upgading when I purchased the T8 but I seemed to have downgraded.
Is there any way to tweak the firmware to give better speeds, as the custom firmware devs seemed to have done it in their firmwares.
I came to Droidbox as it is supposed to be the best box with the best support.
I hope you can sort this out as it could be a great box.
Regards
Stana

 

[ChrisM]

It may be that the chips used for WiFi and Ethernet are different between the two models, or as you said, the firmware has been tweaked.
Out of interest, which add-on sources do you stream from that reach as high as 25Mbit? I've not come across any above 9Mbit most of the time, with a lot averaging more like 6/7Mbit. Or do you tend to copy a lot of files internally on your LAN?
I'll put a request in to the coders that they concentrate on WiFi/Ethernet speeds with the next T8 firmware update.

 

[stana]

It may be that the chips used for WiFi and Ethernet are different between the two models, or as you said, the firmware has been tweaked.
Out of interest, which add-on sources do you stream from that reach as high as 25Mbit? I've not come across any above 9Mbit most of the time, with a lot averaging more like 6/7Mbit. Or do you tend to copy a lot of files internally on your LAN?
I'll put a request in to the coders that they concentrate on WiFi/Ethernet speeds with the next T8 firmware update.

Thank you for your quick response and appreciate the support. At the moment I am getting a lot of buffering on HD sources and thought it may be down to the Ethernet speed. I have not come across internet speeds being slower when wired before.
It seems to be working a bit better on WiFi. Just thought I would share my experience with other boxes and firmware.
This T8 box is by far better than the M8 from eny.
Another thing I have noticed is that while watching a film I get a flicker every so often as though it goes out of horizontal sync for a split second. I am using a LG TV with hdmi 1.4.
Best regards
Stana

 

[ChrisM]

Can you let me know an exact example of HD videos where buffering occurs. I can try it on my T8 as well as my PC - if buffering occurs on both, we'll know it is the server hosting the file. We can then look into tweaking a setting that makes XBMC attempt to buffer in a different way. As an example, XBMC>Media Portal>Genesis>TV Shows>Search>Made up TV show name>Season 5>Episode 4>180Uploads example episode details HD 1.4Gb
With regard to tearing, can you head to XBMC>System>Videos>Playback>click the bottom left so Settings level shows advanced, then select the Playback entry>Adjust display refresh rate to match video (enable) (assuming it is present).
If that doesn't help, try changing the refresh rate in Android itself (you can keep it at the same resolution still). Open up the list of all installed Apps>Settings. If you see a colourful interface, head to the display or screen tab, turn off auto-HDMI mode selection if necessary, then click below that, and swap from 60Hz to 50Hz, or vice versa (depending on current mode). Confirm you want to keep the changes made.

 

[stana]

I will try what you suggest and get back to you.
Thanks.
Stana

 

[stana]

Just tried what you suggested. Sources seem ok now. I still get the horizontal sync problem and it's not limited to xbmc. It happens on the desktop too. Also I tried setting the display to 4k in the display settings and it will not stay stable. My TV is a 4k LG smart TV so should be able to handle the signal. I had no trouble with my old eny m8box. Has any other user had trouble with the 4k settings.

 

[ChrisM]

I know AmLogic have released a patch for Samsung 4K TVs, I'm not sure whether that would help with LG TVs as well, but AFAIK it is only for issues with 4K resolutions. Can you see if the tearing happens if the DroidBOX is plugged into a different TV? Maybe there is a setting in the LG's menu we can find.

 

[stana]

Sorry I don't have another tv to plug the box into. I have looked at the tv settings but there is no setting for the resolution.
I have also tried all of the hdmi sockets on the tv but still the same results.
At 1080p 50htz it only happens about every 5 mins for a split second but at 4k 24 htz, 25htz and 30htz the picture is very unstable.
I can live with it at 1080p but if 4k starts to come out I won't be able to take advantage of it. I have tried 4k demos straight to the tv by HDD
with no problems so I know it's not the TV.
As I said earlier the M8 box is ok at all frequencies. The only reason I bought the T8 is that the M8 was crashing on me all the time and would not come out of sleep mode.

 

[ChrisM]

OK, keep an eye on this area of the forum, we'll post up a thread when the AmLogic patch has been incorporated into a new firmware, and we can see if it helps with TVs other than Samsung.

 

[stana]

Cheers SilentlyScreaming.
Thanks for all your help.