1.30.1 not playing .m4v

[mechy]

I've been using PMS for a while now, but I've never been able to get a version that does everything correctly! I'm using 1.21.0 by zaxtron (for Mac) which plays pretty much everything including mkv's with various subtitle formats, but that version's never been able to play DTS properly, so I decided to try 1.30.1. That works great, but now this latest version doesn't play some of my standard def .m4v files that I encoded from Handbrake of various DVD's that I have. It starts playing the video at about 2x the speed, and no sound. Note that I encoded these movies with either AC3 or AAC 2-channel or both so that I can play them on Apple devices. Also, some MKV files that I've been able to play on 1.21.0 is no longer playing at all! Urggh! I'm including the media info for on of the files that doesn't play properly under 1.30.1:

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General
Complete name                    : /Volumes/*.m4v
Format                           : MPEG-4
Format profile                   : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID                         : mp42
File size                        : 1.24 GiB
Duration                         : 2h 28mn
Overall bit rate                 : 1 195 Kbps
Encoded date                     : UTC 2011-04-02 19:22:23
Tagged date                      : UTC 2011-04-02 20:04:43
Writing application              : HandBrake 0.9.5 2011010300

Video
ID                               : 1
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                   : Main@L3.0
Format settings, CABAC           : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames        : 4 frames
Codec ID                         : avc1
Codec ID/Info                    : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                         : 2h 28mn
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Bit rate                         : 550 Kbps
Width                            : 712 pixels
Height                           : 290 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 2.2:1
Original display aspect ratio    : 2.2:1
Frame rate mode                  : Variable
Frame rate                       : 23.976 fps
Minimum frame rate               : 8.563 fps
Maximum frame rate               : 29.970 fps
Color space                      : YUV
Chroma subsampling               : 4:2:0
Bit depth                        : 8 bits
Scan type                        : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.111
Stream size                      : 585 MiB (46%)
Writing library                  : x264 core 112
Encoding settings                : cabac=1 / ref=2 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x1:0x111 / me=hex / subme=6 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=0 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=0 / 8x8dct=0 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=2 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=0 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=20.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=3 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date                     : UTC 2011-04-02 19:22:23
Tagged date                      : UTC 2011-04-02 20:04:43
Material_Duration                : 8919902
Material_StreamSize              : 613881900
Material_FrameCount              : 213899
Color primaries                  : BT.601-6 525, BT.1358 525, BT.1700 NTSC, SMPTE 170M
Transfer characteristics         : BT.709-5, BT.1361
Matrix coefficients              : BT.601-6 525, BT.1358 525, BT.1700 NTSC, SMPTE 170M

Audio
ID                               : 2
Format                           : AC-3
Format/Info                      : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension                   : CM (complete main)
Codec ID                         : ac-3
Duration                         : 2h 28mn
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 640 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 6 channels
Channel positions                : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                        : 16 bits
Compression mode                 : Lossy
Stream size                      : 681 MiB (54%)
Language                         : English
Encoded date                     : UTC 2011-04-02 19:22:23
Tagged date                      : UTC 2011-04-02 20:04:42
Material_Duration                : 8919808
Material_StreamSize              : 713584640

Text
ID                               : 3
Format                           : Apple text
Codec ID                         : text
Duration                         : 2h 28mn
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 1 bps
Stream size                      : 768 Bytes (0%)
Encoded date                     : UTC 2011-04-02 19:22:23
Tagged date                      : UTC 2011-04-02 20:04:43
Material_Duration                : 8919902
Material_StreamSize              : 768



One other observation: These files that do not play have the [MEncoder] tag next to the file name, whereas before under 1.21 it didn't. Why?

[jonesy16]

I can't get 1.30.1 to stream .m4v files to my Xbox 360 from my Mac. Mencoder aborts. I had to go back to version 1.25.1 which works perfectly (since I don't need DTS support).

[tin]

I'll add my voice to this, as well. With 1.30.1 I couldn't play any mp4 video files on my xbox 360 through my mac. Thanks to Jonesy16's tip, I installed 1.25.1 and can now play mp4 files normally.

EDIT: 1.25.1 doesn't play my MKVs that have subtitles. I'm trying 1.21.0, right now.

EDIT2: 1.21.0 plays everything but it's really slow at building a buffer and can't maintain one when I watch an HD file. Here's to hoping that the M4V/MP4 issue gets sorted so I can use 1.30.1, again.

[Raptor399]

From what I read there are may be several issues concerning playback:

1) In 1.21.0, the .m4v files were streamed to the Xbox, not transcoded (as indicated by the lack of "[Mencoder]" behind the name). The problem is that 1.21.0 is a zaxtron build and I have no idea about the patches it contains.
2) The revision of the OS X version of mencoder changed
3) PMS code changed

To find the error, we need to try and single out where it resides.

I have no Xbox, so I cannot test this myself and need you guys to test something for me. Feel free to extend the tests to the zaxtron build if you think that helps.

First some preparation; download the following to your Download folder (please use the filenames I suggest):
- pms-macosx-1.30.1.dmg
- pms-macosx-1.25.1.dmg
- XBOX360-1.30.1.conf
- zaxtron's XBOX360.conf (save as XBOX360-zaxtron.conf)
- mencoder-33952 (latest revision from PMS trunk)
- mencoder-33606 (from PMS 1.25.1)

Open a Terminal and execute the following commands:

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PMS="/Applications/PS3\ Media\ Server.app/Contents/Resources/Java/"
chmod +x ~/Downloads/mencoder-33952
chmod +x ~/Downloads/mencoder-33606


With the downloads in place and the Terminal prepared, we can now start our mencoder tests:

- Install PMS from "pms-macosx-1.30.1.dmg".
- Verify that .m4v playback is broken for PMS 1.30.1 / mencoder 33685
- Quit PMS.
- Execute the following command to replace mencoder with the newest version:

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cp ~/Downloads/mencoder-33952 $PMS/osx/mencoder

- Start PMS again and verify .m4v playback for PMS 1.30.1 / mencoder 33952
- Quit PMS
- Execute the following command to replace mencoder with the 1.25.1 version:

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cp ~/Downloads/mencoder-1.25.1 $PMS/osx/mencoder

- Start PMS again and verify .m4v playback for PMS 1.30.1 / mencoder 33606
- Quit PMS
- Execute the following command to replace the renderer configuration for the Xbox:

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cp ~/Downloads/XBOX360-zaxtron.conf $PMS/renderers/XBOX360.conf

- Start PMS again and verify .m4v playback for PMS 1.30.1 / zaxtron renderer.conf. Especially: do .m4v files have "[Mencoder]" behind their name?
- Quit PMS

Now, switch PMS version and do these tests again:

- Install PMS from "pms-macosx-1.25.1.dmg".
- Verify that .m4v playback is broken for PMS 1.25.1 / mencoder 33606
- Quit PMS.
- Execute the following command to replace mencoder with the newest version:

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cp ~/Downloads/mencoder-33952 $PMS/osx/mencoder

- Start PMS again and verify .m4v playback for PMS 1.25.1 / mencoder 33952
- Quit PMS

There are many more combinations possible, but you probably get the gist.

It is interesting to know which combination has which effects. It would help the bug hunt tremendously.
Thank you for your feedback!

(Disclaimer: everything above was typed from the top of my head and is untested! )