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Active: 673 users

Fix NASL (and J.TV) Lag issues

Forum Index > Tech Support
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1 2 3 4 5 6 Next All
Jotoco
Profile Joined October 2010
Brazil1342 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-05-23 06:25:12
April 13 2011 23:40 GMT
#1
EDIT: Lots of new problems arising... This is getting complicated. Anyone with problems, please read to the bottom, and post SS's and specs for me (and other's) try to help.


Hi there TL.

I'm coming here about 1 hour before our beloved NASL scheduled transmission to try to solve a problem that a decent amount of people seem to have. I didn't have it before with JTV, but since doing a little research it seems it can happen with pretty much any JTV stream.

EDIT: I will say it here to be clear, this issue has NOTHING to do with Hardware Specs, ISP, download throughput or, sometimes, even software. And they can be kinda random, I can't watch TSL because ustream lags too much, even on low quality, but I couldn't find a solution to that yet. But Justin.TV works fine and I'm trying to help people where I can.


The reason it LAGs, for many people (including me yesterday) was because the CHAT gets so full and has so many people messaging it can use a LOT of computer resources...

This coupled with the huge bitrate that the NASL videos are streamed in can put some modern PC's to full load. Or rather 1 core of a modern PC to full load.

The issue here seems to be that flash and most modern browsers are not particularly multi-core friendly, and thus a lot of computer resources go to waste.

Most people have problems when they watch like this:

[image loading]

I use Catz stream as the example because it is available right now.

EDIT: This is a screenshot of the state of my PC when I open the Fullscreen 480p NASL stream with the chat open behind it, no core realocation done. And yes, it LAGS like all hell.

[image loading]


To solve this we have some options:

Solution Number 1

- Don't open the chat at all.

It can be done by watching the stream from Team Liquid (see right hand bar), or directly here http://wellplayed.org/nasl

If you open through Justin.TV you will get the chat going.

Another, and the most obvious solution was pointed quickly by Mairu. I don't know how the most obvious things are left behind!

EDIT: I don't know if this stops downloading and processing chat or just hides it, bewaqrfe until furtgher tests

On April 14 2011 08:43 Mairu wrote:
[image loading]

VIOLA! No chat.


Solution Number 2

- Pop-up the stream

There is a button on the right-bottom side of the stream that does this. Doing this CAN automatically solve your problems (As the browser/Windows get smart and actually use 2+ Cores) or you may want to close the chat window behind it.

If you want to keep the chat window and this does not work for you, there is solution number 3.

Solution Number 3

- Change Core affinity in windows

This can be done both in windows XP and 7, and Linux/MAC too, I'm mostly sure, but I don't know how to answer to those two operation systems.

First do something every Windows user should know how to do Ctrl+Alt+Del. It will open the Task Manager. Alternatively right click the Task Bar in an empty spot and click Task Manager.

After that go to the Process bar, like this:

[image loading]

See that even though I'm watching it in 480p (and MUCH lower bitrate than NASL) and the chat is only mild it is eating 16% of a 3,2GHz Phenon II X3 processor.... Since this is only on 1 core it is actually 50% of that core.... See how can this can add up pretty quickly?

Well, next step should be right click that bad boy of a process and select "Core Affinity", it will open a small windows like this:

[image loading]

Uncheck lower number cores, because those are automatically assigned first. Leave it with the last or last couple of cores.

If you have multiple High Load process, you can separate then to different cores as well. Since in this case only 1 process is eating my Cores, I shoo it to the last core and I'm done with it.


This, I think, can solve 50%+ of the lag problems people got with the NASL stream yesterday.

If something here doesn't work for you, please leave a message in the thread and, if I can, I will help. I don't have anything to do with both NASL nor J.TV, I'm just trying to help people, since I had this problem yesterday and think more people need to know about this.

BONUS Solutions that are related

Problem:
On April 14 2011 08:45 Wasteweiser wrote:
Is there a way to keep the streaming player above other programs kinda like gom player? I'd like to raid and watch nasl (dont got dual monitors)


Solution:

On April 14 2011 08:48 jyareo wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 14 2011 08:45 Wasteweiser wrote:
Is there a way to keep the streaming player above other programs kinda like gom player? I'd like to raid and watch nasl (dont got dual monitors)

Try reading this article (has a link to a program you can use)



------------

Other Problems I have no solution to, yet

On April 14 2011 08:54 AwfulPlayer wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 14 2011 08:40 Jotoco wrote:
The reason it LAGs, for many people (including me yesterday) was because the CHAT gets so full and has so many people messaging it can use a LOT of computer resources...

no.

i always use tl links to streams, i never open chat. other popular streaming services are fine for me (own3d, ustream). justintv is lagging, not my pc because of lack of recources (12mb/s dl, i7-2600, 16Gb ram, ... lack of resources ?).

link to interresting thread explaining the issue.



Worth a try solution if nothing else works:

On April 14 2011 09:12 Baarn wrote:
You can also disable hardware acceleration in the flash menu and/or increase cache to improve performance. Just right click on the stream and go to settings to change those things.


On May 23 2011 13:30 hunts wrote:
Not sure if this helps, or if ti was a coincidence, but hopefully this might be helpfull to someone.

I was having bad lag issues with both the 1080p stream and the VODs. I haven't gotten to check stream yet (I'll try to check tomorow during the restream so I don't have to wiat til lwednesday to know) but I was trying to fix the lag with the VODs just now. I tried the things listed in the OP and they didn't really seem to work. But I then found above the core affinity, "set priority" And by changing priority from normal to high the lag suddenly went away. Not sure if this is helpfull at all, and like I said I will test this tomorow with the restream and get back on weather or not that fixed the stream as well. But it fixed the VOD lag, while nothing else seems to have before for me.



-----------------------------------

Anyone who still has problems:

Please, post your PC specs, software versions, browsers, flash plugin and anything else you can think of. I am thinking it may have something to do with specific ROUTERS or router configs, so post router make and model (be it Ethernet router, wifi router or modem-combo-thingy)

EDIT:

VERY IMPORTANT FOR ANYONE WITH PERSISTING PROBLEMS

Anyone who still has problems post a screen of you watching it FULL SCREEN with the following options open. Open Task Manager (explained earlier in the post) open the Performance tab and then the Resource Monitor, put it on the Network tab and put the Task Manager in the process tab. Like the screen below:

(There's no problem if Task + Resource Manager are on top of stream if you don't have dual-monitors.

[image loading]







Good night all, and Good Games!
Mairu
Profile Joined August 2010
United States222 Posts
April 13 2011 23:43 GMT
#2
[image loading]

VIOLA! No chat.
Jotoco
Profile Joined October 2010
Brazil1342 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-04-13 23:45:50
April 13 2011 23:44 GMT
#3
On April 14 2011 08:43 Mairu wrote:
[image loading]

VIOLA! No chat.


Lol... too true... editing first post!
Wasteweiser
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
Canada522 Posts
April 13 2011 23:45 GMT
#4
Is there a way to keep the streaming player above other programs kinda like gom player? I'd like to raid and watch nasl (dont got dual monitors)
Obitus.243
SokkeH
Profile Joined July 2010
Netherlands8 Posts
April 13 2011 23:46 GMT
#5
Great find if this works should help alot of people with the lag issues, as for chat i guess we can always use irc =)
Awesome
Jotoco
Profile Joined October 2010
Brazil1342 Posts
April 13 2011 23:47 GMT
#6
On April 14 2011 08:45 Wasteweiser wrote:
Is there a way to keep the streaming player above other programs kinda like gom player? I'd like to raid and watch nasl (dont got dual monitors)


I think, but am not sure, you need 3rd party programs to do that. If someone comes with a solution I will update the OP.
jyareo
Profile Joined September 2010
Japan3 Posts
April 13 2011 23:48 GMT
#7
On April 14 2011 08:45 Wasteweiser wrote:
Is there a way to keep the streaming player above other programs kinda like gom player? I'd like to raid and watch nasl (dont got dual monitors)

Try reading this article (has a link to a program you can use)
Wasteweiser
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
Canada522 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-04-13 23:51:07
April 13 2011 23:49 GMT
#8
Tyvm and thanks for helping people out on the lag issues!

Edit: jyareo you are a saint!
Obitus.243
Golgotha
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
Korea (South)8418 Posts
April 13 2011 23:51 GMT
#9
thanks for this!
AwfulPlayer
Profile Joined August 2010
249 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-04-13 23:56:38
April 13 2011 23:54 GMT
#10
On April 14 2011 08:40 Jotoco wrote:
The reason it LAGs, for many people (including me yesterday) was because the CHAT gets so full and has so many people messaging it can use a LOT of computer resources...

no.

i always use tl links to streams, i never open chat. other popular streaming services are fine for me (own3d, ustream). justintv is lagging, not my pc because of lack of recources (12mb/s dl, i7-2600, 16Gb ram, ... lack of resources ?).

link to interresting thread explaining the issue.

Hokay
Profile Joined May 2007
United States738 Posts
April 14 2011 00:00 GMT
#11
Hmm really? I have a crappy AMD 955 BE and none of it's cores are stressed when watching these type of popular streams. Also my macbook is a duo core and it has no performance problems too.
Jotoco
Profile Joined October 2010
Brazil1342 Posts
April 14 2011 00:01 GMT
#12
On April 14 2011 08:54 AwfulPlayer wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 14 2011 08:40 Jotoco wrote:
The reason it LAGs, for many people (including me yesterday) was because the CHAT gets so full and has so many people messaging it can use a LOT of computer resources...

no.

i always use tl links to streams, i never open chat. other popular streaming services are fine for me (own3d, ustream). justintv is lagging, not my pc because of lack of recources (12mb/s dl, i7-2600, 16Gb ram, ... lack of resources ?).

link to interresting thread explaining the issue.



Sorry to hear that there are other types of problems....

If I come across any solution I will update the OP.

Nevertheless, can I ask you to try the Solution number 3, even if your CPU load never actually gets too high? Just to be sure?

It sure solved my problem, even though it doesn't seem to be the same one...
Jotoco
Profile Joined October 2010
Brazil1342 Posts
April 14 2011 00:04 GMT
#13
On April 14 2011 09:00 Hokay wrote:
Hmm really? I have a crappy AMD 955 BE and none of it's cores are stressed when watching these type of popular streams. Also my macbook is a duo core and it has no performance problems too.



Don't know, mine is a Phenon II X720 BE(I think this is the name), and I had this problem, so, I don't know... Still worth a try for anyone having this problem.
andytb
Profile Joined September 2010
United Kingdom180 Posts
April 14 2011 00:04 GMT
#14
I'd love for Justin to have a link to open the stream in VLC, or their own player ala gom, as flash runs so badly in high resolution on my laptop!

Jotoco
Profile Joined October 2010
Brazil1342 Posts
April 14 2011 00:07 GMT
#15
On April 14 2011 09:04 andytb wrote:
I'd love for Justin to have a link to open the stream in VLC, or their own player ala gom, as flash runs so badly in high resolution on my laptop!



I'm sure it is possibly to watch it in another player... Or is it not? Anyway, any solution proposed goes back to the first post.
BluePabs
Profile Joined November 2010
United States317 Posts
April 14 2011 00:09 GMT
#16
Awesome post man. I was expecting just a rant about stream lag but this was an awesome read. Hopefully it gets spotlighted!
PhiliBiRD
Profile Joined November 2009
United States2643 Posts
April 14 2011 00:09 GMT
#17
after closing the chat yesterday it pretty much cleared up 95% of the lag issues i had while watching.

so i can agree that this is a good solution
Jampackedeon
Profile Joined November 2010
United States2053 Posts
April 14 2011 00:10 GMT
#18
Nifty post, helpful for folks who haven't figured out the burden chat puts on resources.
Baarn
Profile Joined April 2010
United States2702 Posts
April 14 2011 00:12 GMT
#19
You can also disable hardware acceleration in the flash menu and/or increase cache to improve performance. Just right click on the stream and go to settings to change those things.
There's no S in KT. :P
Jotoco
Profile Joined October 2010
Brazil1342 Posts
April 14 2011 00:17 GMT
#20
On April 14 2011 09:12 Baarn wrote:
You can also disable hardware acceleration in the flash menu and/or increase cache to improve performance. Just right click on the stream and go to settings to change those things.


Put on the first post.


Now I have to run!

See you guys in a couple of hours, good games to all.

Again, mods are welcome to edit the first post if anything comes up.
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