Switch to tsMuxer not working for Bravia5500 renderer

[raven-au]

Hi all,

I'm using PS3 Media Server 1.11.369 running on a relatively low end machine so I'm keen to not transcode unless I really have to.

It is serving video to a Sony KDL-40W5500, a PS3 and an XBox360 (although I haven't spent much time on this so this post is not about it) to the renderers over a wireless network. So far the video files I want to stream are avi (DX50/MP3) and mkv (H.264/AC3 and H.264/DTS) and play well, except for the H.264/DTS (1080p) when sent to he PS3, since the wireless is not capable of handling the volume, but I'll fix that later with hardware.

The first problem I have is with the mencoder engine option "Switch to tsMuxer when H264 video is PS3 compatible" when mencoder it is set as the priority in the "Video File Engines".

This works fine for the PS3 and the videos are delivered without being transcoded.
But when trying to play an mkv on the KDL-40W5500 the screen goes blank and no video is displayed. Going into the transcode folder and selecting the tsMuxer engine works fine as does setting tsMuxer as the priority engine.

The other problem I'm seeing is with avi videos.
To save the trouble of going into the #TRANSCODE# folder on the KDL-40W5500 I would like to tell PS3MS to transcode the avi videos for this renderer by setting TranscodeExtensions=avi in renderers/Bravia5500.conf, which works fine for the KDL-40W5500 but causes the avi videos to always be transcoded using mencoder on the PS3 when they don't need to be.

Can anyone tell me if this should work the way I expect or if I'm misunderstanding how it should work.
Ian

[raven-au]

The first problem I have is with the mencoder engine option "Switch to tsMuxer when H264 video is PS3 compatible" when mencoder it is set as the priority in the "Video File Engines".

This works fine for the PS3 and the videos are delivered without being transcoded.
But when trying to play an mkv on the KDL-40W5500 the screen goes blank and no video is displayed. Going into the transcode folder and selecting the tsMuxer engine works fine as does setting tsMuxer as the priority engine.

I've been looking into this for a while now and I can't see any reason why this happens.
I can't see anything in the code that might cause this different behaviour between the two cases.

Can someone familiar with the code offer some thoughts as to what might be going wrong and hopefully some suggestions as to what would be worth checking for please?

[shagrath]

The first problem I have is with the mencoder engine option "Switch to tsMuxer when H264 video is PS3 compatible" when mencoder it is set as the priority in the "Video File Engines".

This works fine for the PS3 and the videos are delivered without being transcoded.
But when trying to play an mkv on the KDL-40W5500 the screen goes blank and no video is displayed. Going into the transcode folder and selecting the tsMuxer engine works fine as does setting tsMuxer as the priority engine.

The decoding/muxing process is the same in both cases. But after looking at the code, maybe your video is a matroska one with a framerate of 29.97 (ntsc) ?
The tsmuxer switch from mencoder is disabled in this case.

The other problem I'm seeing is with avi videos.
To save the trouble of going into the #TRANSCODE# folder on the KDL-40W5500 I would like to tell PS3MS to transcode the avi videos for this renderer by setting TranscodeExtensions=avi in renderers/Bravia5500.conf, which works fine for the KDL-40W5500 but causes the avi videos to always be transcoded using mencoder on the PS3 when they don't need to be.

Can anyone tell me if this should work the way I expect or if I'm misunderstanding how it should work.
Ian

Well, this is one of the current weakness of the server. Multi renderer support with simultaneous usage is buggy right now (for example with 2 ps3s, or this particular configuration). Some changes are needed to support different folder trees for each connected renderer (it's not the case right now, hence common behavior at video launch between different renderer)

[raven-au]

The first problem I have is with the mencoder engine option "Switch to tsMuxer when H264 video is PS3 compatible" when mencoder it is set as the priority in the "Video File Engines".

This works fine for the PS3 and the videos are delivered without being transcoded.
But when trying to play an mkv on the KDL-40W5500 the screen goes blank and no video is displayed. Going into the transcode folder and selecting the tsMuxer engine works fine as does setting tsMuxer as the priority engine.

The decoding/muxing process is the same in both cases. But after looking at the code, maybe your video is a matroska one with a framerate of 29.97 (ntsc) ?
The tsmuxer switch from mencoder is disabled in this case.

OK, I didn't notice that in the code.
It may be the case that all the Matroska videos I've tried with have that frame rate, I'll check.

Funny thing now is that, having pre-muxed my mkv videos to .m2ts videos with tsMuxerGUI and set Mencoder as the priority transcode engine, expecting my other (avis and wmvs) videos to then be listed, but they aren't. I was sure I saw the default transcode videos listed above the #TRANSCODE# folder before. Am I wrong about that as well?

The other problem I'm seeing is with avi videos.
To save the trouble of going into the #TRANSCODE# folder on the KDL-40W5500 I would like to tell PS3MS to transcode the avi videos for this renderer by setting TranscodeExtensions=avi in renderers/Bravia5500.conf, which works fine for the KDL-40W5500 but causes the avi videos to always be transcoded using mencoder on the PS3 when they don't need to be.

Can anyone tell me if this should work the way I expect or if I'm misunderstanding how it should work.
Ian

Well, this is one of the current weakness of the server. Multi renderer support with simultaneous usage is buggy right now (for example with 2 ps3s, or this particular configuration). Some changes are needed to support different folder trees for each connected renderer (it's not the case right now, hence common behavior at video launch between different renderer)

Indeed yes, after looking around, I saw that in a comment near the top of PMS.java and realized it's quite a significant task.

[tmknight]

Sorry to jack your post, but how were you able (what settings, file versions, etc) to get tsmuxer to work on your KDL-40W5500? I have a kdl40w5100 and can only manage sound with tsmuxer. I'm hoping tsumxer is the key to me being able to smoothly play 1080p .m2ts files (mencoder isn't cutting it).

Cheers!

[raven-au]

Sorry to jack your post, but how were you able (what settings, file versions, etc) to get tsmuxer to work on your KDL-40W5500? I have a kdl40w5100 and can only manage sound with tsmuxer. I'm hoping tsumxer is the key to me being able to smoothly play 1080p .m2ts files (mencoder isn't cutting it).

I don't understand what your asking?
What is your situation?

Clearly the TV is being recognized.
Have you muxed one of your videos manually to a transport stream?
What are the video and audio types contained in it?
Do you have TsMuxer set as the priority video engine for video display in PS3MS?

Ian

[tmknight]

I cannot play any video type with tsmuxer, however I'm most interested in playing 1080p .m2ts file types, mencoder is not able to smoothly stream these for me. I do not have tsmuxer set as default, instead opting to choose my transcoder via #transcoder# menu. Seems you are able to get tsmuxer to play both audio and video on your Bravia, hoping you could share your pms.conf and render.conf settings that are working for you. An example of a file to be played:

Code: Select all

Video
ID                               : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID                          : 1 (0x1)
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                   : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC           : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames        : 3 frames
Duration                         : 1h 36mn
Bit rate                         : 5 070 Kbps
Nominal bit rate                 : 4 965 Kbps
Width                            : 1 920 pixels
Height                           : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16:9
Frame rate                       : 23.976 fps
Resolution                       : 8 bits
Colorimetry                      : 4:2:0
Scan type                        : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.102
Stream size                      : 3.40 GiB (85%)
Writing library                  : x264 core 68 r1195M 5d75a9b
Encoding settings                : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=7 / psy_rd=1.0:0.0 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=3 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / rc=2pass / bitrate=4965 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=25000 / vbv_bufsize=25000 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=1:1.00

Audio
ID                               : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID                          : 1 (0x1)
Format                           : AC-3
Format/Info                      : Audio Coding 3
Duration                         : 1h 36mn
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 640 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 6 channels
Channel positions                : Front: L C R, Surround: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Stream size                      : 440 MiB (11%)

My current renderer.conf:

Code: Select all

# ps3mediaserver renderer profile for Sony Bravia 5100 series
# Refer to PS3.conf for help

RendererName=Sony Bravia 5100 Series
RendererIcon=bravia.png
UserAgentSearch=notusedhere
UserAgentAdditionalHeader=X-AV-Client-Info
UserAgentAdditionalHeaderSearch=BRAVIA KDL.+5[0-9]{3}
Video=true
Audio=true
Image=true
SeekByTime=true
#TranscodeVideo=MPEGAC3
TranscodeVideo=MPEGTSAC3
TranscodeAudio=PCM
DefaultVBVBufSize=true
MuxH264ToMpegTS=true
MuxDTSToMpeg=false
WrapDTSIntoPCM=false
MuxLPCMToMpeg=false
MaxVideoBitrateMbps=0
MaxVideoWidth=0
MaxVideoHeight=0
H264Level41Limited=true
MimeTypesChanges=audio/wav=audio/L16|audio/ac3=audio/L16|video/mp4=video/mpeg
TranscodeExtensions=m2ts,mkv,ts,tp,iso,wmv,wma,mp4,mov,avi,mp3
StreamExtensions=
DLNAProfileChanges=MPEG_PS_PAL=MPEG_PS_NTSC|MPEG_TS_SD_EU=MPEG_TS_SD_NA|MPEG_TS_SD_EU_ISO=MPEG_TS_SD_NA_ISO


My current pms.conf:

Code: Select all

thumbnails = true
mencoder_ass = true
network_interface = eth3
hidevideosettings = true
folders = D:\\Downloads
maxvideobuffer = 600
mencoder_mux_compatible = false
mencoder_mt = true


PC:

Code: Select all

AMD 64x2 4800+
4GB RAM
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

Cheers!

[raven-au]

I cannot play any video type with tsmuxer

Oh, bummer.

My current renderer.conf:

I use the 369 beta and this is not the default profile included in it.

Code: Select all

MimeTypesChanges=audio/wav=audio/L16|audio/ac3=audio/L16|video/mp4=video/mpeg

I don't have audio/ac3=audio/L16 but I doubt that is a problem.

Code: Select all

TranscodeExtensions=m2ts,mkv,ts,tp,iso,wmv,wma,mp4,mov,avi,mp3
StreamExtensions=
DLNAProfileChanges=MPEG_PS_PAL=MPEG_PS_NTSC|MPEG_TS_SD_EU=MPEG_TS_SD_NA|MPEG_TS_SD_EU_ISO=MPEG_TS_SD_NA_ISO


Don't think you want to tell PS3MS to transcode all these extensions.
Especially not m2ts,mkv,ts and maybe others, you want PS3MS to mux these things.

Not sure what the differences might be between using build 369 and a release build but I also don't need DLNA profile changes.

The default renderer config I'm using has:

Code: Select all

TranscodeExtensions=
StreamExtensions=

My current pms.conf:

Don't really think think changes here will make a difference since you manually select from the #TRANSCODE# folder.

Ian