Network Performance NFS vs SMB (Samba)

[n2vwz]

Hi-Jack has reported in his review that "NFS is listed as a feature, but not currently supported".

Syabas reports in another thread on this forum that NFS is alive and well. http://www.networkedmediatank.com/viewto...hlight=nfs

What is the present status of NFS on the Popcornhour A-100? If it is not presently available, when will it become available?

Historically, Sigma Chipsets have always had performance issues with SMB file transfer portocol, but not so with NFS. The SMP8635 does not appear to be an exception if Hi-Jacks network performance tests are accurate.

DVICO, in their TIVX products warns users not to use SMB protocol because of these performance issues, and encourages users to use NFS protocol instead.

Where does Syabas and Popcornhour stand on this issue?

[Hubert]

Bump, I want to stream 720p H.264 MKVs from my Mac OS X and Linux machines and would prefer using NFS rather than Samba also.

If streaming works well I don't intend to install a HD at all. Would be very interested to find out the current status, and if it's not in the first version of the firmware (despite being listed as a feature...) then what's the ETA?

[Syabas]

We tested with TS, which gives best bitrate performance due to
the demux is done in hardware, also no dependencies on software
demux by CPU.

SMB: ~19Mbps
NFS: ~33Mbps
HTTP: ~42Mbps (same clip peaks at 47Mbps)
USB HDD: ~42Mbps
USB DVDROM (8x): ~42Mbps
Internal HDD: ~42Mbps

Note that NFS client is working, just not the NFS server, which will be
enabled in coming weeks.

We're still tweaking on SMB/NFS performance, as it's just release 2~3 weeks
back.

[Eric]

glad that folks at syabas is working on it...

[omnium]

Syabas Wrote:..Note that NFS client is working, just not the NFS server, which will be enabled in coming weeks...

[Hubert]

Got my box today and I can't figure out how to add NFS or SMB shares.

The Web Services screen in the quick start guide has an option 06 "Samba Client", that is not there on my box (is this because I have not installed a HD?...)

I also can't find any examples for how to add an NFS server.

Streaming from myihome (Mac version) works great, however I also want to stream from my Linux server...

http://www.syabas.com/solution_myihome.html claims Linux and FreeBSD support but http://www.networkedmediatank.com/download/myihome.html only offers Mac and Windows versions for download.

I have upgraded to 01-13-071101-13-POP-402-000 Firmware via USB key.

[Flausch]

Hubert Wrote:...however I also want to stream from my Linux server...

Me too! :cry:

[Woziak]

Hubert Wrote:...Streaming from myihome (Mac version) works great, however I also want to stream from my Linux server...

Try WizD, it's great!

http://wizd.sf.net

[Hubert]

I had a look at that earlier but looks like it requires Apache and MySQL... Sounds way overkill, all I want to do is share a directory.

For XBMC there was an extremely simple stream server called ccxstream which did the job perfectly...

But right now I'm wondering where is this promised NFS client support? It's certainly not documented anywhere...

[jp1]

Hubert Wrote:I had a look at that earlier but looks like it requires Apache and MySQL... Sounds way overkill, all I want to do is share a directory.

Seems you are wrong, from wizd web:

Code:

Overview

Wizd is serving all your media files (video, audio, photo...) to your networked player.

- automatically detected by your player
- browse faster than ever through your media
>>> - no aditionnal server required (Apache, PHP...) <<<
- low memory usage (less than 10 MB)
- fully customizable (skins and settings)
- read DVD-ISO backups and standard DVD backups
- bookmark feature for MPEG movies
- tumbnails mode to preview your pictures
- free and open-source :)

- optional : configuration tool for Windows

[Hubert]

You're right, I was confusing it with SwissCenter which uses Apache and MySQL.

WizD looks better but there is no AMD64 debian package available, and the sources don't compile - there's no configure script and I haven't had much success manually editing the Makefile...

So any ideas how to configure NFS or SMB servers, or what other HTTP based stream servers would work on Linux?

[ca197]

There was a section on connecting to SMB shares within Hi-Jacks Popcorn review. He mentions that its a little confusing and maybe the terminology should change. Anyways it can be found here:

http://www.mpcclub.com/modules.php?name=...=0&thold=0

Hope this helps

[Hubert]

ca197, thanks for pointing that out...

On page 6 there's a screenshot showing UPnP AV Server, myihome Server and then a small "network share" button.

I've never seen this screen... Maybe because I haven't installed a HD?

Does this mean you can't get to the network shares adding menu if you don't have a HD installed? That would seem like bad design or a bug.

It does look like you can manually enter smb:// URLs on another screen so I'll try that. No examples for NFS in the review or the documentation, guess I will try nfs:// ...

Syabas, any information about this? There is virtually no documentation about how to set up NFS anywhere.

[Woziak]

Another option...

http://mediatomb.cc/

[n2vwz]

Syabas Wrote:We tested with TS, which gives best bitrate performance due to
the demux is done in hardware, also no dependencies on software
demux by CPU.

SMB: ~19Mbps
NFS: ~33Mbps
HTTP: ~42Mbps (same clip peaks at 47Mbps)
USB HDD: ~42Mbps
USB DVDROM (8x): ~42Mbps
Internal HDD: ~42Mbps

Note that NFS client is working, just not the NFS server, which will be
enabled in coming weeks.

We're still tweaking on SMB/NFS performance, as it's just release 2~3 weeks
back.

Popcornhour or Syabas:

Back to the original question - Does the A-100 as shipped support NFS client?

If so, what are the NFS configuration instructions?

If not, When will NFS protocol be operational?