Automatically choose to transcode

[srinir]

First of all, thank you for the best media server software for the PS3.

If a file does not play normally without transcoding, say an MKV file, would it be possible to automatically use MEncoder to transcode it. Instead of forcing the user to go into to #transcode# folder to play the file.

This could be controlled by a configuration option.

Is this feasible? If so, would anyone else like to see this feature implemented?

I am a Java developer and can help implement this - with help and guidance from the project lead.

Thanks & Regards
Srini

[Burrito]

Thats the default behaviour, at least for me!

[tawoody]

Hey gang. This is my first post and yes, this software is incredible. TVersity was nice too, but it would continually drop my wireless network connection when watching most of my movies. Anyways, about transcoding. I have played a couple of files from my non transcode folder and they either did not work right away or they dropped connection after a little while. Every time I play them from the transcode folder, however, they play perfect. So it does not appear that my original file is being transcoded automatically. Also, is there a way we can hide the transcode folder if we can get the original file to be transcoded automatically? All the extra folders listed is really the only downside of this software so far. I like my file browsing to be as uncluttered as possible.

Thanks again everyone who's put work into this software!

Woody

[Topguy]

The PMS does a very fine job at trying to detect how to handle many types of files, but it will probably never be perfect. There are just too many variations in video and audio codecs combined with different sub-title formats to ever be able to predict exactly what to do with each file. In addition the PS3 is a little picky so it might still refuse to play files which looks completely OK at a glance.

I also assume that PMS will not get a special message from the PS3 when it refuses to play a specific file, meaning that PMS can't tell the difference between you pressing "stop" and PS3 giving up, so I think it will be pretty hard to create an automatic fallback procedure.

[Burrito]

How about remuxing AVI files per default to circumvent incompatible muxing?
How about detecting clearly incompatible AVI files via a blacklist of features the PS3 doesn't support at the moment and transcode directly?

I think it would be possible to increase compatibility with a lot of files (especially talking about old AVIs here) right out of the box without having to go into the #transcode# folder which just is too technical/incomprehensible for some users.

[Zr0]

I think an option to manually set transcoding settings would be a good thing.

My wife loves the idea of being able to watch any movie I have on the hard drive of my pc, however she's not very technically minded. It's a bit of a drag (for her anyways) to find that a movie won't just stream straight up and then have to go to the transcode folder and find the movie, choose from one of the available options and then play the movie.

Like I said making it an option to hide the transcode folder and force a manually pre-set choice of transcoding would be great, it would allow us to streamline our setups for the way we prefer with no digging through folders. Only concern some might have is network utilization... but then again PMS does have a limiter in it already.

[Burrito]

The #transcode# folder could only be removed if there were no streaming and only transcoding used per default for all files.

This is very convenient but not my happy place from a geek point of view. It would be really cool if you could choose between the following PMS behaviors :

1. Always transcode anything always with default settings and go to #transcode# to select another subtitle for example.
2. Transcode anything that needs to be transcoded (including AVIs with known incompatibilities) but stream otherwise. Go to #transcode# for a last resort.

[Zr0]

The #transcode# folder could only be removed if there were no streaming and only transcoding used per default for all files.

This is very convenient but not my happy place from a geek point of view. It would be really cool if you could choose between the following PMS behaviors :

1. Always transcode anything always with default settings and go to #transcode# to select another subtitle for example.
2. Transcode anything that needs to be transcoded (including AVIs with known incompatibilities) but stream otherwise. Go to #transcode# for a last resort.

Yes it wouldn't make the inner geek very happy, but it would make the important wife very happy

Making it an option would be nice (for some of us)

[meskibob]

1. Always transcode anything always with default settings and go to #transcode# to select another subtitle for example.

This can be currently done by putting all of your media formats (containers) in the "Force transcode for following extensions..." text box in the common transcode settings. This will make the main list of files use the default (which ever one is at the top of the list) engine's primary settings[/quote]

2. Transcode anything that needs to be transcoded (including AVIs with known incompatibilities) but stream otherwise. Go to #transcode# for a last resort.

This is how the current system works except with the avi incompatibility. However, Shagrath has stated multiple times that there's no way to really know ahead of time that an avi will not be compatible.

[Zr0]

This can be currently done by putting all of your media formats (containers) in the "Force transcode for following extensions..." text box in the common transcode settings. This will make the main list of files use the default (which ever one is at the top of the list) engine's primary settings

Holy... I'm an idiot I suppose. I read your post and was thinking "I've never seen that option" and am sitting here looking for it... and then I realize that there's something past the bottom of the application window. Once I resized the PMS open window I saw that option <bangs head>

Thanks, I'll have to play around with that. Lack of a window scroll bar in a window always makes me think I'm seeing everything