SOLVED - PMS 1.50.1 ignoring TranscodeExtensions

[calebc2099]

I've traced the cause of the problem back to the PMS.conf parameter:

usecache = true

When usecache was set to true, The TrancodeExtentions parameter contained in the per-renderer configuration file (Toshiba.conf) was ignored for all video files in the same directory as the first video file played. However, the TranscodeExtensions parameter was honored when browsing to another directory and playing a second video file (as long as the other directory is not a sub-directory of the directory containing the first video file played).

When I set the usecache to false, transcoding on a per-render basis worked exactly as expected.

***************** ORIGINAL POST *****************

A bit of background - I recently bought one of the "new" Toshiba TL515 series televisions and it seems to be unable to display any mp4s that have a display aspect ratio of 2.35:1 (1920x816 DAR=2.35:1, PAR=1:1, SAR=1:1) - It doesn't display black bars at the top and bottom, instead it stretches the image horizontally. My PS3 displays the same mp4s correctly.

In my PMS.conf file I have:
mencoder_decode = -vf softskip,expand=::::1:16/9
forcetranscode =
notranscode =

I don't want to Force transcoding for all renderers. I only want to transcode mp4 files for the Toshiba TV so I created a really simple Toshiba.conf file with the following parameters:

RendererName=Toshiba TV
RendererIcon=toshiba.png
UserAgentSearch=BRCM DTV
Video=true
Audio=true
Image=true
MediaInfo=false
TranscodeExtensions=m4v,mp4


***************** RANT *****************

Now for a little rant about my "new" Toshiba TL515 which I recently bought directly from Toshiba yet it has a manufacturing date of May 2011. I bought it so that I could use it as a stand alone renderer. It was a bad decision because I've found that the TL515 is not capable of properly rendering many of the mp4 videos on my media server without using a transcoded stream from PMS. It's great that PMS can transcode video but it would be far better if the TL515 could render the videos correctly in the first place. I have a PS3, a WDTV, AcePlayer for iPad & iPhone - They can all play the mp4s natively at the correct aspect ratio without transcoding so I'm surprised that the Toshiba TL515 can not.

The Toshiba TL515 doesn't know what to do with anamorphic videos. It seems to only be able to properly render videos that have either a native 4:3 aspect ratio eg: width=512 pixels, height=384 pixels or native 16:9 aspect ratio eg: width=640 pixels, height=360 pixels.

Other dislikes about the Toshiba TL515:
- Overpriced compared to a non-DLNA compatible TV
- It takes a long time to start after pressing the power button.
- It has stopped responding on a number of occasions and I've been forced to restart it by unplugging the power cable.
- The remote is gimmicky.
- The last firmware update was October 2011.

[ExSport]

Post the debug.log
Anyway new PMS versions supports MEncoder settings applied on renderer level so you can add borders only for toshiba renderer but not for PS3.
It seems like your new conf file is not used when you are streaming files to Toshiba TV. Forcing extensions for transcoding should work...

[calebc2099]

The Toshiba.conf file is being loaded and the renderer is being recognized but the parameter TranscodeExtensions=m4v,mp4 is being ignored.

Here are some excerpts from the debug.log file:

[main] INFO 02:42:13.217 Starting PS3 Media Server 1.50.1
[main] INFO 02:42:13.220 by shagrath / 2008-2012
[main] INFO 02:42:13.221 http://ps3mediaserver.org
[main] INFO 02:42:13.221 http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver
[main] INFO 02:42:13.221 http://ps3mediaserver.blogspot.com
[main] INFO 02:42:13.221
[main] INFO 02:42:13.221 Java: 1.6.0_31-Sun Microsystems Inc.
[main] INFO 02:42:13.221 OS: Linux i386 2.6.38.8-pclos3.bfs
[main] INFO 02:42:13.221 Encoding: UTF-8
[main] INFO 02:42:13.221 Working directory: /usr/lib/ps3mediaserver
.
.
[main] INFO 02:42:13.527 Loading MediaInfo library
[main] INFO 02:42:13.726 Loaded MediaInfoLib - v0.7.53
[main] INFO 02:42:13.771 Loading renderer configurations from /usr/lib/ps3mediaserver/renderers
.
.
[main] INFO 02:42:13.826 Loading configuration file: PS3.conf
.
.
[main] INFO 02:42:13.907 Loading configuration file: Toshiba.conf
.
.
[New I/O server worker #1-2] INFO 02:42:37.445 Media renderer was not recognized. Possible identifying HTTP headers: User-Agent: DLNADOC/1.50
[New I/O server worker #1-1] INFO 02:42:38.566 Media renderer was not recognized. Possible identifying HTTP headers: User-Agent: DLNADOC/1.50
[New I/O server worker #1-2] INFO 02:42:38.593 Media renderer was not recognized. Possible identifying HTTP headers: User-Agent: DLNADOC/1.50
[New I/O server worker #1-1] INFO 02:42:38.645 Media renderer was not recognized. Possible identifying HTTP headers: User-Agent: DLNADOC/1.50
[New I/O server worker #1-2] INFO 02:42:49.185 Media renderer was not recognized. Possible identifying HTTP headers: User-Agent: DLNADOC/1.50
[pool-15-thread-1] INFO 02:42:49.206 Checking ip:192.168.100.250 for Toshiba TV
[pool-15-thread-1] INFO 02:42:50.958 Renderer Toshiba TV found on this address: 192.168.100.250
[New I/O server worker #1-2] DEBUG 02:42:50.963 Using size-limiting stream (102516 bytes)
[pool-15-thread-1] DEBUG 02:42:50.966 Starting ping -c 3 -s 64000 192.168.100.250
[pool-15-thread-1] DEBUG 02:42:50.981 Unix process ID (ping): 12891
[New I/O server worker #1-1] DEBUG 02:42:51.348 Using size-limiting stream (44977228 bytes)
[Thread-14] DEBUG 02:42:52.966 Stopping Unix process 12891: ping
[pool-15-thread-1] INFO 02:42:52.968 Address /192.168.100.250 has an estimated network speed of: 33 Mb/s
.
.

[calebc2099]

I finally figured out what is happening and have been able to reproduce this bug. The Toshiba TV renderer is unrecognized while browsing through my Video directory structure because it doesn't send any identification string that can be used to identify the renderer until I try to play a video file. Once I've selected a video file, the renderer is detected but the first video file I try to play does not get transcoded.

This is the important bit:
- If, after I've tried to play the first video, I browse to a different directory and try to play another video, the video is transcoded.
- If I browse back to the directory (or any subdirectory of that directory) where I tried to play the first video file none of the videos in that directory or any subdirectories will be transcoded.
- If I make a copy of the directory where I tried to play the first video file and call it, for example, X and then browse to directory X, the copy of the first video file that I tried to play will be transcoded.