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NDI+H264 / stuttering issue

MartialMartial
edited April 13 in MAIN

Hello,

I am experiencing a stuttering / freeze when playing videos. Unfortunately it is quite random and unpredictable. Things can go well for several hours and suddenly starts lagging. All i can say is :

  • videos are H264
  • videos are quite high resolution like 10000 x 1080
  • latest Millumin v5
  • experienced the issue on macmini M1 and MacPro M2 Ultra under macOS Tahoe
  • Sending the video over the network via NDI
  • tried different locations in the building (source and destination)
  • Never had this issue several months ago with the exact same setup (macOS was upraded since though)

I tried to transcode to HAP once when the issue happened and it worked but as the issue is random i can't tell if this solved it or if i was lucky...

Anyone experiencing such an issue ?

Comments

  • MartialMartial

    PS :

    To solve the issue i just have to quit fullscreen mode and go back to fullscreen.

  • ectoplasmosisectoplasmosis

    Use ProRes for video playback; H.264 and HAP are poorly-optimised codecs on Apple Silicon.

    However, if you are using NDI for sending and receiving the video, the stuttering is likely due to network issues rather than playback.

  • MartialMartial

    hi thanks.

    I will have a look with your suggestions. But i am not sure the issue has to do with the network. Everything was working flawlessly 5 months ago with the exact same setup. My network is a 10G optimized for NDI. As for codecs i have always primarily used H264 and HAP / ProRes when needed.

    When Millumin freezes i had a look in the ressources monitor and everything (SSD, CPU, GPU, Network) was way below the limit as usual.

  • ectoplasmosisectoplasmosis

    Is the NDI stream freezing/stuttering, or is it the actual playback on the source machine? If it's the NDI stream, then you have a network issue.

    Regardless, as mentioned, H.264 and HAP are very poor choices of codec for Apple Silicon machines. Always use ProRes as best-practice.

  • MartialMartial

    No this is Millumin source freezing. Going fuulscreen back and forth fixes the issue until the next happen.

    Noted for codecs, i'll try to change my recommended setup.

  • m_theaterm_theater

    I had a similar problem

    fullscreen on second screen, then i changed the foreground application on the main screen (millumin) to notes. And after a while millumin startet to stutter.

    I guess it is a macos ressource optimisation, even when the fullscreen is activated.

  • MilluminMillumin

    Hello @Martial,

    I think using H264 codec for big resolution (such as 10000 x 1080) is not ideal. It takes a lot of resources to decode H264.

    Anyway, did you see the lags in Millumin's interface ?

    Could you share your project (just the .millumin file) ?

    Best. Philippe

  • MartialMartial

    Hey,

    Yes the lag is showing in Millumin.

    i can share a project next week but really it is really basic, only a video loaded on a layer and output to NDI, that's all

  • MartialMartial

    Hi,

    I just had the issue again this week-end.

    My setup is a Macpro M2 Ultra with Millumin as an NDI source and a macmini M2 Pro with Millumin as the destination. This time the source was doing well but the macmini destination started to stutter. Disabling fullscreen mode in the macmini and then back to fullscreen fixed the issue. Then 30 min later, the macmpro source started to stutter. Again Fullscreen mode OFF and ON fixed the issue. The macmini destination is only receiving the NDI feed for final process.

    Again, never had the issue when using Touchdesigner or Resolume.

    Also i have been using this setup for 7 years daily now and never had this issue even with an old Macpro Trashcan as the source and old Macpro 2012 as the destination back then.

    I understand H264 is not the optimized codec for playback so i will recommend Prores or at least H265 from now on, but this issue looks like an H264 or NDI overflow to me.

    thanks

  • MilluminMillumin

    Hello @Martial,

    You mentionned earlier that you converted your movies to HAP : when the problem happened this weekend, was it with H264 or HAP movies ?

    Could you share your project (just the .millumin file) ?

    Best. Philippe

    PS : for info, we recommend using ProRes on Apple Silicon machines (because it is hardware-accelarated and with great quality, better than H264, H265 or HAP)

  • MartialMartial

    Hello @Millumin

    I haven't had the chance to test HAP in the long run, it was just me trying to bypass a potential H264 issue. As the problem is quite random i can't confirm HAP was fixing the issue.

    This week-end was H264 though. But again, the issue happened on the macpro (player) and the macmini which is only receiving NDI.

    Please find attached a project file that caused a problem once.

  • MartialMartial

    PS : videos used in the attached project were H265

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