Why Does Movie Playback Stutter over LAN?

[mel2000]

Android TV Box (KitKat 4.4) connected to TV via HDMI.
TV box wirelessly connects to public directory of Win 10 desktop PC via LAN.
Movie located in PC public directory: MP4 (AVC/AAC), video=900 kbps, 1280x534, audio=128 kbps/48 kHz.

Movie stutters unacceptably during playback. No stuttering when wireless LAN streaming from my Win 10 laptop to my GS2 4.1.2 Android phone, although those movies are usually only 350 kbps, 480x270.

Does the Internet connection speed matter if the movie is being streamed over LAN? Is there a way to improve the playback speed over LAN? Thanks.

 

[dark_lord69]

"Does the Internet connection speed matter if the movie is being streamed over LAN?"
No, But the LAN speed needs to be fast and reliable enough to play the movie. (Typically this isn't an issue unless there's a problem with the network OR if is excessive traffic.)

"Is there a way to improve the playback speed over LAN?"
Like I said before, this shouldn't be an issue unless the network has issues or excessive traffic.

 

[boosted1g]

The fact that you can stream from device C to device D fine but not device A to B is pretty much irrelevent.

Either the desktop is having wifi connection/speed issues, the android box is having wifi connection/speed issues, or the android box is very low quality and is having difficulty with the playback.

Can you install any media (of similar quality) directly on the android box and see how well it plays it, if it stutters with local content then the android box itself is just too low end of hardware for the job.

 

[mel2000]

Thanks dark_lord69 and boosted1g for your prompt replies.

There is normally almost no traffic on our LAN. I'm the only one who occasionally uses it to copy files across computers or to stream video from my laptop to Android. File transfers appear to be reasonably zippy.

I have previously played movies on the Android TV box without playback issues when the video file is played directly from a USB stick or SD card port connected to the box. I use the Android VLC media player for playback.

I just played the same video file across our LAN to my Android phone and there was no playback stutter. The movie also plays without issue when I use a 30 ft HDMI cable to directly connect the PC to the TV. Can I assume the issue is with the Android TV box? The box is about 3-4 years old.
Rockchip Cortex A8 CPU
Mali400 Quad Core 3D GPU
1GB RAM
4GB Storage

 

[mel2000]

Solved: The stuttering problem wasn't so much with the TV box as with the app that was playing it. Instead of using VLC Player I installed the lightweight Soul Movie player (3.3 MB) which played the same video without stutter.