I recently installed ps3mediaserver on my ubuntu 9.10 server. I first tried the easy way with just apt-get installing, and it worked almost right out of the box. Some tweaking and trying to understand the pms.conf file, and I was happy. But there was one major feature missing. I could not play my h264 mkv files. I could not play anything in 720 and up without lag and jitter. Some movies are better than others, but they all have one thing in common: they all lag sooner or later, and when it starts it goes baaaaaaad.
After trying pretty much everything out there (nbcores =, threads=, skiploopfilter +++) without any difference I decided to compile my own ps3mediaserver, mplayer with ffmpeg-mp and h264. (of course uninstalled ffmpeg and similar I had installed with the easy way first). I had a look at several guides and decided this one - viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3437 - looked good. Followed this guide step by step, but it still didn't work. Removed everything but pms and h264 codec, and tried another guide for installing mplayer with ffmpeg-mt (http://tips4linux.com/make-mplayer-play ... -machines/) but that didn't help either. So I went back to the guide from jgl75 since that's the one working the best. Now I'm writing this thread, because I'm getting mighty frustrated....
Some of the background: I set up ubuntu server 9.10 about one month ago. I then had 2,5gb ram and a athlon 3500+ single core cpu. The gfx card won't matter (I presume?) so I won't even list it here. It's a server and is supposed to host files, download usenet and torrent and crunch numbers. After the mainboard on my htpc died I realized I could use the cpu from that one, plus some ram from my old BOXX workstation. I now have:
A8NE-FM mainboard
AMD Athlon 64 dual core 2,2 (each core, of course)
3,5gb ddr400 ram
gigabit ethernet
I've used htop to make sure that both cpu's are working, and I know for sure that all the ram is working. So there should be no problem with the hardware. And it should be able to handle 720p, right?
Here's my PMS.conf:
- Code: Select all
folders = /media/Barracuda2/Movies,/media/Barracuda2/Pictures,/media/Barracuda2$
thumbnail_seek_pos = 60
hidevideosettings = false
hide_extensions = false
hide_enginename = false
mencoder_sublangs = en,off;eng,off
autoloadsrt = false
mencoder_disablesubs = true
mencoder_ass = false
mencoder_yadif = true
mencoder_mt = true
nbcores = 2
As you can see I've tried using the mencoder_mt configuration, but that didn't do any difference. I also tried using nbcores = 2 (and 4,6,8 etc etc) but the only thing it does is creating more processes with mencoder that divides the 100% mencoder uses. I can see in htop that mencoder does not use more than one cpu, and that the other core is working the OS and the ps3mediaserver software. It does switch now and then from core to core, but mencoder is still only using one core with 100%. The other core has plenty of power left thats is untouched. I've tried adding "threads = 0 (and 2,4,6,8 etc) to the ffmpeg option in pms.conf, but that didn't do anything either.... frustrating, yeah....
There are no errors in the debug.log (something about wmv files, but that's probably because I haven't installed the ubuntu restricted codecs.... yet) so everything seems to be working fine. Everything but any dual core posibility.
So... any clever suggestions out there? If you want me to check some versions and note them here, just ask me and I'll do that. I can also mention that from the default settings of PMS I do need to disable the "Default h264 remux with mencoder" option on my ps3, or with the "mencoder_mux_compatible = false" option in the pms.conf to make mencoder play anything at all. If not the ps3 claims the data is corrupted. Tsmuxer, through the transcode options within each directory does not work either.
When movies start lagging it's usually above 40mb/s (I can see it with the display settings on the ps3 when playing).
I've also done some testings with the movie files from this website - http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/index.php/download/ - and I was actually able to play the h264 720p .mov file (although still using only one core), but the 1080p version was impossible. A lot of lagging, and the bandwidth showed around 200-300mb/s. Guess that 1080p clip is pretty massive, so I don't expect my hardware to be able to deal with that amount of data. But a 720p file it really should be able to stream...
So... any suggestions? Please! I'm dying here!
