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trainerj59
03-19-2011, 10:14 PM
Hi are there any plans to develop an Android app for Mezzmo?

Paul
03-21-2011, 08:45 AM
Not at the moment. Do you mean a client or a server?

pcockerell
04-09-2011, 01:26 PM
I think a Mezzmo client a la PlayOn Android app would be great. I never have any luck getting DLNA to stream on my various Motorola Android devices, even with various other media players installed. But with the PlayOn app I can stream anything from their server.

An alternative would be a Mezzmo Android profile that conforms to the very limited codecs that Android guarantees.

And lastly, I think the ability to add and customize our own profiles would be great. Tversity lets you do this, but is let down by its limited format support.

Right now I'm trialing both Mezzmo and PlayOn (I already have Tversity Pro but its transcoding seems to be broken on Win7) and at the moment PlayOn is definitely winning on the "just works" front, for my Android devices, anyway.

Thanks for reading!
Pete

RMerlin
04-10-2011, 02:30 PM
I've started spending more time here the past few days trying to get a good DLNA solution on Android due to my recent acquisition of a Motorola Xoom tablet (Android 3.0 device). So far it's kinda quirky indeed. The best DLNA client I found so far for Android was Twonky, and it only works on my 2.3 phone - no 3.0 support sadly.

What makes things difficult is that on Android DLNA clients tend to rely on a third party player to improve the list of supported codecs. And those players don't all have the same codec support. For example. Moboplayer will play a LOT of formats under Android because it's based on ffmpeg code.

So, the problem lies in the fact that even if Mezzmo can identify the DLNA client used on your Android device, it still wouldn't know what codecs are supported because it has no idea what media player is used. Means Mezzmo will need to have Android profiles that are manually selected by the user based on the device (determines codecs as well as screen size), the DLNA client (determines native codecs and protocol peculiarities) AND the media player program (determines actual codec support).

My personal suggestion there would be to create four generic Android profiles:

- Android Phone - Basic
- Android Phone - Extended (would assume an ffmpeg-based player)
- Android Tablet - Basic
- Android Tablet - Extended (would assume an ffmpeg-based player)

If you'd rather keep it to two profiles, then maybe make the Phone one assume basic codec support only, and the Tablet profile assume ffmpeg-based playback.

If you want to look more closely at what would be supported for the Extended profile, here are some of the most popular video players:

- Moboplayer (http://www.moboplayer.com/moboplayer_en.html) my choice so far on my tablet
- Rockplayer (http://www.rockplayer.com/index_en.html)
- Vitalplayer (http://www.appbrain.com/app/vitalplayer/com.dgo.VitalPlayer)

pcockerell
04-11-2011, 03:50 AM
@RMerlin

The best Ive found so far for Android is PlayOn. They transcode everything to flash and have a dedicated player (though you can still use the server as a general DLNA server for other devices). The resolution is a bit low for tablets and looks scaled up on the Xoom, but the advantage is that it's the only way to watch Netflix on an Android device so far (they have a bunch of specialized "channels" in addition to streaming your own media). Another drawback is the lack of seeking in videos because of the transcoding, but I still think it's better than TVersity, albeit a it more expensive (though serving just your own media is in the free edition).

Cheers,
Pete

Paul
04-11-2011, 09:02 AM
Thank you for the links and information - we'll be improving our mobile device support and they'll come in handy when testing.

RMerlin
04-11-2011, 12:16 PM
Now that I got PlugPlayer running on my Xoom I'll start experimenting with this a bit. If you need someone to try out device profiles just let me know.

Paul
04-11-2011, 12:54 PM
Thanks! Please do let us know how your testing goes and what formats are playable natively - we can then create a new profile.

RMerlin
04-12-2011, 11:51 AM
I tested with a couple of mixed file formats tonight. Tests were done using Plugplayer as the DLNA client, and Moboplayer as the video player. I tested Rockplayer on a few files, and results were always much worse - from stuttering to plain video artifacts.

Test #1: Star Trek: Video ok (not 100% smooth, my fault as I botched the framerate when I ripped it), Audio is odd garbled noise. Probably because it's 5.1.



FFmpeg version git-c3897d7, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
built on Feb 28 2011 10:03:54 with gcc 4.4.2
configuration: --enable-memalign-hack --arch=x86 --target-os=mingw32 --cross-prefix=i686-mingw32- --enable-static --disable-shared --enable-zlib --disable-ffprobe --disable-ffplay --prefix=/media/windows/ffmpeg --extra-cflags=-U__STRICT_ANSI__ --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libx264 --enable-gpl --extra-libs='-lx264 -lpthread' --enable-runtime-cpudetect
libavutil 50. 39. 0 / 50. 39. 0
libavcodec 52.113. 2 / 52.113. 2
libavformat 52.102. 0 / 52.102. 0
libavdevice 52. 2. 3 / 52. 2. 3
libavfilter 1. 76. 0 / 1. 76. 0
libswscale 0. 12. 0 / 0. 12. 0

Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 59.94 (2997/50) -> 29.97 (30000/1001)
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'F:\Video\Movies\Science Fiction\Star Trek\StarTrek.mp4':
Metadata:
major_brand : isom
minor_version : 1
compatible_brands: isomavc1
creation_time : 2010-01-03 18:44:42
Duration: 02:06:49.13, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1191 kb/s
Stream #0.0(und): Video: h264 (Main), yuv420p, 720x480 [PAR 32:27 DAR 16:9], 999 kb/s, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 30k tbn, 59.94 tbc
Metadata:
creation_time : 2010-01-03 18:44:42
Stream #0.1(und): Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, 5.1, s16, 188 kb/s
Metadata:
creation_time : 2010-01-03 18:45:20
At least one output file must be specified


---> DB Level Info: 41



Test #2: Avatar: Video ok (smooth as silk, looks gorgeous on the Xoom), audio ok. Not sure how, but it renders the 5.1 AC3 without complaints on the stereo speakers.



FFmpeg version git-c3897d7, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
built on Feb 28 2011 10:03:54 with gcc 4.4.2
configuration: --enable-memalign-hack --arch=x86 --target-os=mingw32 --cross-prefix=i686-mingw32- --enable-static --disable-shared --enable-zlib --disable-ffprobe --disable-ffplay --prefix=/media/windows/ffmpeg --extra-cflags=-U__STRICT_ANSI__ --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libx264 --enable-gpl --extra-libs='-lx264 -lpthread' --enable-runtime-cpudetect
libavutil 50. 39. 0 / 50. 39. 0
libavcodec 52.113. 2 / 52.113. 2
libavformat 52.102. 0 / 52.102. 0
libavdevice 52. 2. 3 / 52. 2. 3
libavfilter 1. 76. 0 / 1. 76. 0
libswscale 0. 12. 0 / 0. 12. 0

Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 23.98 (65535/2733) -> 23.98 (24000/1001)
Input #0, avi, from 'F:\Video\Movies\Science Fiction\Avatar.avi':
Metadata:
encoder : VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.2 (build 2540/release)
Duration: 02:41:42.06, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 2167 kb/s
Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 720x400 [PAR 1:1 DAR 9:5], 23.98 tbr, 23.98 tbn, 23.98 tbc
Stream #0.1: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1, s16, 448 kb/s
At least one output file must be specified


---> DB Level Info: 0



Test #3: A non-encrypted VOB: Transcoded by Mezzmo. Video seemed a bit choppy, audio was out of sync. Eventually the audio entirely died out, but video playback continued.




FFmpeg version git-c3897d7, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
built on Feb 28 2011 10:03:54 with gcc 4.4.2
configuration: --enable-memalign-hack --arch=x86 --target-os=mingw32 --cross-prefix=i686-mingw32- --enable-static --disable-shared --enable-zlib --disable-ffprobe --disable-ffplay --prefix=/media/windows/ffmpeg --extra-cflags=-U__STRICT_ANSI__ --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libx264 --enable-gpl --extra-libs='-lx264 -lpthread' --enable-runtime-cpudetect
libavutil 50. 39. 0 / 50. 39. 0
libavcodec 52.113. 2 / 52.113. 2
libavformat 52.102. 0 / 52.102. 0
libavdevice 52. 2. 3 / 52. 2. 3
libavfilter 1. 76. 0 / 1. 76. 0
libswscale 0. 12. 0 / 0. 12. 0
[mpeg @ 013acf80] max_analyze_duration reached
Input #0, mpeg, from 'F:\Video\Live\Music\Epica-DVD\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.vob':
Duration: 00:19:55.20, start: 0.280000, bitrate: 7187 kb/s
Stream #0.0[0x1e0]: Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 720x576 [PAR 64:45 DAR 16:9], 7010 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 50 tbc
Stream #0.1[0x1c0]: Audio: mp2, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 192 kb/s
At least one output file must be specified


---> DB Level Info: 8



Test #4: Avatar 720P trailer: Got transcoded. Video a bit choppy, audio got out of sync after a while.



FFmpeg version git-c3897d7, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
built on Feb 28 2011 10:03:54 with gcc 4.4.2
configuration: --enable-memalign-hack --arch=x86 --target-os=mingw32 --cross-prefix=i686-mingw32- --enable-static --disable-shared --enable-zlib --disable-ffprobe --disable-ffplay --prefix=/media/windows/ffmpeg --extra-cflags=-U__STRICT_ANSI__ --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libx264 --enable-gpl --extra-libs='-lx264 -lpthread' --enable-runtime-cpudetect
libavutil 50. 39. 0 / 50. 39. 0
libavcodec 52.113. 2 / 52.113. 2
libavformat 52.102. 0 / 52.102. 0
libavdevice 52. 2. 3 / 52. 2. 3
libavfilter 1. 76. 0 / 1. 76. 0
libswscale 0. 12. 0 / 0. 12. 0

Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 47954.00 (47954/1) -> 23.98 (23977/1000)
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'F:\Video\Movie Trailers\Avatar_720p.mov':
Metadata:
major_brand : qt
minor_version : 537199360
compatible_brands: qt
creation_time : 2009-10-26 22:45:37
Duration: 00:03:31.08, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 11107 kb/s
Stream #0.0(eng): Video: h264 (Main), yuv420p, 1280x720, 9539 kb/s, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 23977 tbn, 47954 tbc
Metadata:
creation_time : 2009-10-26 22:45:37
Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: pcm_s16le, 48000 Hz, 2 channels, s16, 1536 kb/s
Metadata:
creation_time : 2009-10-26 22:45:37
At least one output file must be specified


---> DB Level Info: 31




Conclusion: I think the transcoding settings are a bit too rough performance-wise. Transcoding might need to be toned down (either using a simpler H264 profile, or reverting to MPEG-4 or MPEG2?)

BTW: "Turn off transcoding for all connected devices" - files were still being transcoded. Same if I disable "Transcode incompatible media files" in the device profile.

BTW2: The Plugplayer author pushed an update tonight that fixes device detection on the Xoom.

RMerlin
04-12-2011, 12:57 PM
Some additional info from Motorola (Xoom-specific, but probably applies to all those new nVidia Tegra-based tablets coming to market over the next few months): https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/63258/kw/video/p/7901%2C7906%2C

Paul
04-12-2011, 04:00 PM
Thank you for the tests and feedback - we'll process this once a new Mezzmo update is released and we'll work on a new profile then. Please send a message to support, if you haven't already, for a new profile (so that I know to send it to you once it's ready).