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HalJordan

Member

Registered: 2010-11-17

Posts: 64

Netflix-desktop performance woes

I'm getting a weird video performance issue here. Sound seems normal, or at least no noticeable problem, but video is a second or two behind, and the frame rate is noticeably below par. It was working fine, the last time I remember trying it, until this past week or two. It's running of a raid of 2 ssds, when at work it's running off a dying spinner.

Kernel: x86_64 Linux 3.13.11-2-ck
Uptime: 1d 18h 23m
Packages: 1277
Shell: zsh 5.0.5
Resolution: 1920x1080
DE: KDE 4.13.0
WM: KWin
WM Theme: Aurorae
Icon Theme: gk4ico
CPU: AMD FX-4100 Quad-Core @ 3.6 GHz
GPU: GeForce GTX 560 // 1 GB vram, using proprietary drivers on a single 1080p monitor
RAM: 2178 MB / 15975 MB

I have roughly the same install on a core i5 at work, using Intel drivers and 3 1080p screens, and half the system memory, no issues at all. (I'll update this shortly once I get to work with it's info as well.)

local/wine-browser-installer 1-7
    Browser installer for wine-silverlight, shared between netflix-desktop and pipelight
local/wine-silverlight 1.7.16-1
    WINE patched with Microsoft Silverlight and Netflix compatibility.
local/netflix-desktop 0.8.5-6
    An automated script for viewing Netflix through Firefox and patched WINE
local/nvidia 337.12-1
    NVIDIA drivers for linux

Any ideas?

Inxsible

Forum Fellow

From: Chicago

Registered: 2008-06-09

Posts: 9,183

Re: Netflix-desktop performance woes

maybe netflix is throttled on your home network because your home ISP is not being paid by Netflix.

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MrElg

Member

Registered: 2013-08-04

Posts: 49

Re: Netflix-desktop performance woes

I'm running netflix through pipelight on an Asus EEE PC, and it goes flawless. So you shouldnt be worried that your hw specs arent good enough.
But I'm running Awesome WM, and it might be that the KDE libs are a bit more demanding. Have you monitored the cpu usage while streaming? Or tested with a less demandning DE/WM?

Could you try to start your browser from the terminal, and post the output, to see if any errors are displayed?

I have never experienced this problem before, but some of the streams from netflix have a terrible video/sound quality. Does this problem occur on all films?
With my knowledge with codecs, this sounds more like a problem with a codec on the particular movie on netflix, rather than a problem of streaming the data.

What is your network DL/UL speed? On slow networks it might help on performance to force netflix to use the lowest quality settings, as it then wont attempt to switch between the quality levels constantly during playing. But slow network speed usually is noticed because of artifacts, low resolution, switching between quality settings, and buffering. If you would have tested netflix on another device on the same network, it would have been possible to either confirm or rule out if this is the problem.

Last edited by MrElg (2014-05-06 09:53:47)