Ghent wrote:Hi,
I got responds from the Philips support team with the detailed codec restriction for NetTVs:
Your Philips LCD –TV (40PFL9704) supports to play back the following multimedia file formats:
- Code: Select all
MP3
WMA v2 bis v9.2
Diashowdateien (.alb)
JPEG-Standbilder
MPEG1
MPEG2
MPEG4
AVI
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
MPEG-Program-Stream PAL
WMV9/VC1
For each of these formats there exist limitations regarding the codec used. These are the following:
AVI:
MPEG4 SP
MPEG4 ASP with V-BOP
MPEG4 ASP with V-BOP and 4 motion vectors
Average maximum bitrate 4000kbps
Maximum 40500 macroblocks per second
Video buffer size 384k Bytes
MPEG Layer 2/3
Sample Rate: 16kHz to 48kHz
Maximum bitrate CBR & VBR, 8-384kbps
AC3
Maximum bitrate 32 - 640 kbps
H.264/MPEG4 AVC:
Base profile, less than 3Mbit/s up to L2 (CIF)
Standard profile, 10Mbit/s up to L4 (HD)
Audio: AAC-LC, HE AAC
MPEG2 (PAL):
MP@ML Video up to D1 resolution
Refresh rate 25Hz
Display Aspect Ratio 4:3 and 16:9
Maximum bitrate 1.5Mbps
MPEG Layer 2
Sample rate 16kHz to 48kHz
Maximum bitrate CBR & VBR, 8-384 kbps
LPCM
Maximum bitrate 1.536 Mbps
AC3
Maximum bitrate 32 - 640 kbps
MPEG2 (NTSC):
MP@ML Video bis zu D1 Auflösung
Bildwiederholrate 29.97Hz
Display Aspect Ratio 4:3 and 16:9
Maximum bitrate 1.5Mbps
MPEG Layer 2
Sample rate 16kHz to 48kHz
Maximum bitrate CBR & VBR, 8-384 kbps
LPCM
Maximum bitrate 1.536 Mbps
AC3
Maximum bitrate 32 - 640 kbps
WMV/VC1:
Simple profile, up to 384kbits with low and medium level
Main profile, up to 10Mbit/s with low and medium level
Advanced profile, up to 10Mbit/s with Level L0 and L1
Non standard profile, less than 10Mbit/s
I have no idea how this will help me since I just want to use a DLNA Server and watch HD-Material (mostly H.264/MPEG4 AVC) on my TV.
But maybe some Codec Gurus will find these details helpful or it may help to configure PS3 Server for NetTV in the next version.
Best regards,
Ghent
on a quick first read of this data its odd, they mix codecs with containers and dont state what container works with what codecs that they tryed and confirmed as working BUT
it tells me that they are using a subset of the real full AVC/H.264 with lots of restrictions, lower than the xbox360 even....
for your basic need/want that being directly streaming and playing HD AVC on the Philips LCD –TV (40PFL9704)
it tells me you Can officially play AVC/H.264 content, at UPTO 10Mbit/s bitrates ,
but Not something thats Encoded at 'High Profile' or a higher level than 'level4.0'
so a x264 Encoded 1080P Encoded with
x264 --profile main --crf 24 --bitrate 10000 --level 4.0 -o outputfile.mp4 input
might work but changing or removing the --profile High would probably not work as 'High' is the default and they dont say it can play 'high profile'..
you may be lucky and it will work for lower bitrate encoded stuff unofficially , you would have to try it and report back.
you would have to test several options but start here as a guess work for potential working options now.
and remember that --bitrate 10000 is there as a max bitrate they say it can play, you only need it in the line if you know the original content your encoding is above the 10Mbit/s limit they say it can play, IF the original video isnt at, or above that 10Mbit/s ,then dont use that option,
and you will probably get a good clear auto picked appropriate bitrate for the content well below the max as the befault anyway...
working?
x264 --profile main --crf 24 --bitrate 10000 --level 4.0 -o outputfile.mp4 input
Not working?
x264 --profile
high --crf 24 --bitrate 10000 --level 4.0 -o outputfile.mp4 input
x264 --profile main --crf 24 --bitrate
11000 --level 4.0 -o outputfile.mp4 input
x264 --profile main --crf 24 --bitrate 10000 --
level 4.1 -o outputfile.mp4 input
x264 --profile
high --crf 24 --bitrate 5000 --level 4.0 -o outputfile.mp4 input
x264 --profile
high --crf 24 --bitrate 5000 --
level 4.1 -o outputfile.mp4 input
x264 --crf 24 --bitrate 10000 --level 4.0 -o outputfile.mp4 input
that last one is a trick question, you think i might work as the first one does (we assume it does anyway on your device)
but remember that default x264 encoder is to use --profile
high if you dont state the --profile level
encode , test and move to your tryed and tested as working for playback device if they do.....
we should have a sticky tryed and tested list made up for people to search and take the guessing out of all this...theres a rinkle though, they do not state what containers you can use.....for a perfectly playable valid video codec and audio codec...
good video codec + good audio codec + bad container = non native playback... and so realtime transcoding is required to something the device Can finally play Natively , you dont want to transcode if you can help it..., as that takes time and CPU power...
and the realtime transcode may, in fact most likely will loose detail...from the SD/HD AVC original source,
all for the lack of the right native container they didnt/dont see fit to add to their DLNA devices firmware, write them and tell them
they MUST put mp4, mkv and
high profile, level 4.1 in their next firmware update ASAP
.TS ('Transport Stream') is Also a Very important container Option to have Now and in the near future too, so also ask for that wereever you can,
remember thats H@L4.1 or HP@L4.1 short hand for Your reference later, as you WILL see it written like that elsewere..
remember, all digital content at its most basic will have
at least a video codec, an audio codec, And a container that these go into....and then get processed by the playback device natively.
the fact they do Not state a use of .Mp4 or .mkv, or .ts container above, but do mention .avi
means they may not natively support anything but
AVC.avi and thats bad but usable...
assuming the working x264 --profile main --crf 24 --bitrate 10000 --level 4.0 -o outputfile.mp4 input
is right,and the mp4 container plays natively fine without PS3MS needing to transcode it then you know mp4 containers a good for your TV or whatever
however if it wont play without transcoding then use for instance AVIDemux
http://avidemux.razorbyte.com.au/binari ... 20Log.htmlto take this perfectly good main profile, upto 10Mbit/s, level4.0 AVC.
mp4 and use video copy,audio copy and just change the mp4 container for avi.
it will take a few seconds to re-write the A/V into the new avi container and you will then probably know its then working...
sadly x264 does not write it's encodes into avi containers directly, so that's why you use another 3rd party app's such as AVIDemux, or one of the other GUI based apps, but you will probably end up using AVIDemux or another GUI as x264 doesn not yet do anything but video, it wont directly do audio and currently does whatever.mp4 whatever.mkv and raw container work,it will be doing native whatever.flv now in beta, and soon whatever.TS though so keep and eye on it and the updated GUI's thats why the GUIs exist so use them until later for your offline re-encoding so PS3ms doesnt have to do it in realtime for you...
it would OC be nice if some day PS3MS got a new
https://localhost:whatever GUI webpage of its own and let you select already found content and transcode that clicked selection to a given Video + Audio + container offline background Transcoding to a higher standard too, rather than only use the good realtime transcoding on the fly today, perhaps someone can write a Patch and add it to a new version one day ?
this could be a good thing for making both many small preset 1 minute test chips from your given found content for any new or even old in case you didnt know it could play that better quality combination DLNA device to use as a test of its capabilitys, can DLNA device play test clip1 whateever the Audi/video/container data it used 'Yes/No' and store that info for uploading to these pages or a set
http://pastebin.com/ for manual notification for a script to auto parse, as well as generic full re-encodes OC , lots of techy things open up, but probably not for this post LOL...so back to it.
oc now we have to know at least one one container and one audio codec the tv likes for that matchs the quality AVC
so also try encoding a AVC,AAC,.MP4 SD and HD 720P file.
assuming the tv also plays AAC sterio only audio codecs fine unofficially, that still means AAC,AAC,.AVI might be a problem for PS3MS to use
as im not sure its transcoder back ends can be set to output that AVC,AAC,.AVI for anything you dont want to pre-process offline
and just transcode and play as a one off.....
hope thats not to hard to follow for new people to the content streaming/playing users reading....
remember, thats at least a video codec +audio+container it all sits inside, and passes to the playback device to natively play.