A/V stuttering when streaming to PS3 ["FIX" INSIDE]

[PurpleSkunk]

Hello there,

first of all: yeah, I know, it's my first post, but I'm following this forum since a while now. Happy to be here!

So: I recently had an issue on Mac OSX Lion 10.7 with PMS 1.30.1, where some files would stutter when streaming to my PS3, mainly XviD files it seems. The files usually played well, but with some lag every 3 or 4 minutes or so. The lag was visible on both audio and video, lasted about 10 seconds, but didn't trigger an A/V desynchronization afterwards. After playing all day with different PMS options (yeah, I'm in holidays currently ), I had this idea : compile the latest SVN version of PMS, to see if it would solve my problem.

Guess what? It did. I produced a DMG file named pms-macosx-1.31.0.dmg, coming from the latest revision as of tonight (yeah, it's 9:30 PM here in France). So I thought it would be a nice idea to share this file with other Mac OSX Lion users who could potentially encounter this issue too.

Of course, please note that I can't guarantee anything, it solved my issue, which maybe was specific to my system. But I think it is worth a try if you have similar problems...

Have a nice evening.

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SVN RELEASES
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2011-08-05: SVN Revision 780 (MU link) -- Changes are from r778 (Mainly new MEncoder/MPlayer version)
2011-08-04: SVN Revision 777 (MU link)


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"BLEEDING-EDGE" BUILDS (PMS SVN builds with updated internal tools from their respective SVNs)
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2011-08-07 (increased max heap size)

Snow Leopard 10.6 SDK: i386 x86_64 (MU links)
Lion 10.7 SDK: i386 x86_64 (MU links)

2011-08-06 (no changes)

Snow Leopard 10.6 SDK: i386 x86_64 (MU links)
Lion 10.7 SDK: i386 x86_64 (MU links)

[Raptor399]

Thank you, nice of you to make it available to others.

I worry about the stuttering, though.
For me it has happened consistently from the oldest version of PMS that you can download up to (and including) this latest version that you built. As far as I can recall nothing has been committed over the last months to fix stuttering.

[PurpleSkunk]

Yeah, it's worrying me too, because it happens more and more often, build after build. It started with 1.25.1 for me, or maybe the build before I think, but this issue was very rare back then. It really started to bother me with 1.30.1 and Mac OSX Lion, I don't know whichever brought the issue.

Another thing: I would like to moderate my first post enthusiasm a little bit. It seems that 1.31.0-SVN strongly reduced stuttering for me, most of my files which were stuttering before aren't now, but still, a few of them continue to bring the issue. However, the rate is much less frequent, about every 15-20 minutes or so. Anyway, I think I can confirm one fact for sure (again, concerning my personal situation): it affects only files using XviD codec, and not all of them.

Another thing: it seems that going to the #--TRANSCODE--# directory and launching the [MEncoder] version of a file works every time. Maybe something to investigate in the future? I know it's not an optimal solution, but for now it will do the trick.

PS: no problem for the file, it's natural mate!

[tin]

Hi I just tested this out and it fixed the issue I had with my XBOX 360 not being able to play M4V/MP4 files with 1.30.1, but I noticed one problem with your beta version, namely the buffer size is not working. I set it to 400 MB by default, but in the beta you provided the buffer is around 50 MB maximum regardless of what I set in the transcoder options. Is there a way to fix this? Also, it seems like the buffer gets drained while the video is playing and doesn't go back up unless I pause the video and wait for it to fill up again, which doesn't last long so I have to repeat the process.

Regardless, it was nice of you to put this together.

[PurpleSkunk]

Hello tin, to be honest, buffer *display* never worked for me since 1.20.409, but I think the parameters you provide works. What makes you think that the buffer size isn't? Regardless, does this version work well for you? I'm not at all into PMS code, all I've done was "compiling" (wasn't hard at all), but I know Java coding for sure as it is my favorite programming language, so I'll certainly take a look at it in the near future.

[Raptor399]

Hello tin, to be honest, buffer *display* never worked for me since 1.20.409, but I think the parameters you provide works. What makes you think that the buffer size isn't? Regardless, does this version work well for you?

There have been no real changes to the way PMS buffers. Yes, there have been changes in the recent past to the code, but all it does is prevent PMS from crashing. So, in old days you would have had broken playback, and now PMS tries to keep the transcoding process alive and make due with what memory there is. This will be visible as the movie skipping bit and the buffer size varying wildly.

[PurpleSkunk]

Right, this makes real sense. Thank you for your answer Raptor399. BTW, do you think it would be useful if I provided daily-ish builds following the interesting SVN revisions in the OP? I noticed that mplayer/mencoder have been updated in revision 778. Mine was 777, and we are at 780 now. Will do at least one for the new mplayer/mencoder.

[chrisd411]

Thanks so much for this build, Purpleskunk. It's fixed the stuttering issues I was having too!

[tin]

Hello tin, to be honest, buffer *display* never worked for me since 1.20.409, but I think the parameters you provide works. What makes you think that the buffer size isn't? Regardless, does this version work well for you? I'm not at all into PMS code, all I've done was "compiling" (wasn't hard at all), but I know Java coding for sure as it is my favorite programming language, so I'll certainly take a look at it in the near future.

Hello PurpleSkunk, I believe that the buffer is limited to 50 MBs because when I stream a file the transcoding buffer status bar (on the status tab) will only go up to 50 MB and then stop. In all the earlier versions, as long as the video wasn't playing while building a buffer, the buffer would go to whatever maximum was set in the transcode option (or very close to it) before it stopped.

I'm surprised no one else has noticed this. Perhaps, it's because of a specific file format I used or that I'm using an XBOX 360? If you guys have an HD (720p) rip AVI container file that uses MP4 encoding or really any HD file, could you try streaming to see if the buffer gets past 50 MB?

[PurpleSkunk]

Hey tin, yeah maybe I'll give it a shot this week-end if I have enough time, I'm in the middle of a relocation for my girlfriend's office so I've much to do currently!