PMServ - PS3 Media Server Linux Distribution

[Joksi]

I have played around with it a little bit more, it seems default quality setting for Mencoder is keyint=1:vqscale=1:vqmin=2 (best), when I changed it to keyint=1:vqscale=1:vqmin=1 (lossless) it sure couldnt keep up (bitrates showing in PS3 around 200Mbps up and down). Too bad, but maybe I hoped for too much
It would be interesting hearing from some other how HD transcoding works with one core on this lean system setup, and what quality settings you use!

The important question is if there is a noticeable difference in video quality between best and lossless settings?
Good to know before i decide leaving my Windows setup for this standalone system... cause it seems that would be required to use best settings instead of lossless and hope for the best

I also tried activating gigabit on my network card, for some unknown reason Linux wont auto-negotiate on 1Gbps (does in Win Vista) but 100Mbps, but I cant get it to work.
Appreciate help on this one...

[Joksi]

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9051

[trobbins]

To answer some questions some have here about how well
it works on slower machines.

After the problems I had here... viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5991&hilit=opensuse&start=50#p38052
I set up an older dual core 2.6gHz celeron with only 512megs of ram.
I always download 720p versions of shows when available. I have a 1year old
ps3 and a 52" HD flat screen. I left all the mencoder setting at their defaults and
the picture quality is great. I had initially ran this on the live cd for a while
before permanently installing it. I did notice a slower performance using the
live cd vs installed. I believe it's because more memory is required for a live
cd.

[Joksi]

720p on default Mencoder settings on your rig should not be any problems at all, well, maybe for the RAM memory then.
I have 4GB on mine so I should not have that issue. Although i don't see any visual difference exactly with Mencoder default settings and maximum quality settings with 1080p, so maybe I'm just pushing it in vain and should settle with default settings

[fifoo]

sorry for being a noob guys..

but I just did a standalone install from live CD. when trying to login using root/toor it fails. only the account I created while installation works, that has no admin rights.

Can someone please help?

#### please ignore..... figured it out ####

[Joksi]

I have now experimented some time with my standalone Pentium D 3Ghz server with PMServ.
I cannot get 1080p to play smoothly at all, it stutters a lot, and that confuses me because when I run "top" on the server i get approx the following values during transcoding:

top - 08:31:41 up 15 min, 1 user, load average: 0.23, 0.22, 0.15
Tasks: 93 total, 2 running, 91 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 58.3%us, 0.5%sy, 0.0%ni, 41.2%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 2045036k total, 1264648k used, 780388k free, 7788k buffers
Swap: 2095100k total, 0k used, 2095100k free, 670456k cached

Even so, it stutters almost all the time!
I have tried with both keyint=1:vqscale=1:vqmin=1 and keyint=1:vqscale=1:vqmin=2 but it doens't make any noticeable difference in the stuttering.
When wathing the info on the PS3 it starts out at about 50 Mbps and sometimes goes up to over 100 Mbps, although it stutters both on 50Mbps and 100Mbps bitrate.
I have even tried limiting the bandwith at 50 or 80Mbps, it seems to respect it kind of well but still no difference, it stutters!
I have tried both 400Mb and 600Mb buffer, no difference then either.

I'm trying with both 100Mbps connection between the servern and PS3 and 1Gbps.

Any ideas? I would understand if it stutters and the "top" command showed me maybe 95-100% CPU utilization when it starts to stutter, but the thing is it doesnt, it maybe reaches up to at most 80%... Also bandwitdh should not be of any problems when connecting at 1Gbps.

[Joksi]

I would really appreciate if anyone could give me any hint here... before I go mad and throw away the server in the trashcan

[vyrticul]

@Joksi, my brain is a little fried right now, but the Pentium D is a dual core processor. PMServ doesn't have a multithreaded version of mencoder (hopefully one day) so each process will be stuck to one core. Unless you have multiple instances of mencoder going at the same time mencoder by itself won't be able to get your CPU up to 100%.

Although, after a long hiatus I did finally get back to work and got a 64-bit version out the door. Should try it out and see if it can boost your performance up just enough to stream 1080P smoothly.

Code: Select all

version 0.3.0 (02/20/2011)
  [+] 64-bit version.
  [+] Can now start the FlexGet WebUI as a daemon using `service flexget start`. The webUI is experimental right now but it's there when it becomes stable :)
  [*] ps3mediaserver-update has been improved.
  [*] Restarting or stopping PS3 Media Server will also stop mencoder processes.
  [*] Removed workaround for making sure PS3 Media Server restarts, not needed anymore with newer versions.
  [*] ps3mediaserver-editconf more consistently restarts PS3 Media Server when changes are made.
  [*] transmission-editconf more consistently reloads Transmission when changes are made.
  [*] flexget-setup and flexget-update now install the latest FlexGet and dependencies from PyPI.
  [*] Fixed problem using the transmission plugin in newer versions of FlexGet.
  [*] flexget-editfeeds will now always refresh your feeds.
  [*] Tab-completion works in a lot more places. (services, with sudo, etc.)
  [*] Updated to PS3 Media Server 1.21 r507.
  [*] Updated to Transmission 2.13.
  [*] Updated to SABnzbd 0.5.6.
  [*] Updated to pmsencoder 1.4.0.


[Joksi]

I will try it out! But this is still not using dual cores, only 64-bit?
I have another question too, is there anyway to see the buffer in PS3MS?

[Joksi]

I have tried it now, burnt a new CD and run the live installer again with the 64-bit.
I cannot notice any big difference, still I cannot seem to transcode the test movie I'm trying with even though I change from lossless to best quality. It works for a littlw while when I let it buffer, but soon starts stutter again. It would be interesting to see how the buffer is holding up, but cannot seem to find a way to show the amount in the buffer at a certain moment. Doesnt make any big difference if on 100Mbps or 1Gbps either.