Sony PS3 - .mkv issue

[beeke01]

Hello,

I am currently evaluating Mezzmo and I am very close to purchasing it, however I have one problem that I have been unable to resolve, and two minor annoyance. But first about my environment, I have the following 4 devices that I am interested to stream to:

Sony Google TV
Samsung Blu-Ray Home Theater System HT-D6500W
Sony PS3 (I believe first generation model)
iPad

There is quite a bit of trial and error in configuring device profiles for each device, and strangely enough the "Sony Google TV" profile was the only one to work successfully for all of the files that I am looking to support (.ts, .mkv, .avi, and most importantly .wtv) on the Sony Google TV and the Samsung HT system. All file formats are working well for the Sony PS3 except for the following .mkv file:


ffmpeg version N-33781-g35674a2, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
built on Oct 19 2011 10:31:16 with gcc 4.6.1
configuration: --enable-memalign-hack --arch=x86 --target-os=mingw32 --cross-prefix=i686-w64-mingw32- --enable-static --disable-shared --enable-zlib --disable-postproc --prefix=/media/ffmpeg --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libx264 --enable-gpl --extra-libs='-lx264 -lpthread' --enable-runtime-cpudetect --extra-cflags=-I/home/dennis/cc/include --extra-ldflags=-L/home/dennis/cc/lib --pkg-config=pkg-config
libavutil 51. 22. 0 / 51. 22. 0
libavcodec 53. 21. 0 / 53. 21. 0
libavformat 53. 16. 1 / 53. 16. 1
libavdevice 53. 4. 0 / 53. 4. 0
libavfilter 2. 44. 0 / 2. 44. 0
libswscale 2. 1. 0 / 2. 1. 0
Input #0, matroska,webm, from 'REDACTED.mkv':
Duration: 00:43:14.67, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 4092 kb/s
Stream #0:0(eng): Video: h264 (High), yuv420p, 1280x720, SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 1k tbn, 47.95 tbc (default)
Stream #0:1: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 384 kb/s (default)
At least one output file must be specified


---> DB Level Info: 41, 100
---> Frame rate: 23.98
---> Aspect ratio: 16:9

Smaller .mkv test files seem to work on the PS3, but that particular file is unplayable to the point that my PS3 locks up and I have to forcibly shut it down. If I set the device profile to Sony PS3 (Compatible) the .mkv and .avi will play, however .ts fails (Data Corruption error) and .wtv fails (Format unsupported error).

So it seems to me that .mkv and possibly .avi need the profile of Sony PS3 (Compatible) in order to transcode properly, however setting this profile breaks support for .ts and .wtv files. I tried to find a way to customize the transcoding but I didn't see any configuration, xml, or other files that allowed for tweaking the transcoding settings ourselves (which would be great for advanced users, but probably give away too many "trade secrets".

If I can solve this main issue I would very likely purchase Mezzmo.

The two minor annoyances, which I can live with/workaround for now are:

1) iPad support doesn't have a native app, using the 3rd party apps seem to work for small files, but big files end up causing the 3rd party app to timeout and cause ffmpeg to go crazy and stay running at a ridiculously high in the background for a very long time (I assume trying to transcode, but I don't see much progress when reviewing the transcoding directory, so not sure it is really doing anything). Stopping all trancode jobs doesn't bring CPU usage back down, need to actually kill ffmpeg.

2) On the Samsung HTS I cannot "fast forward" or "reverse" video, while on the Sony Google TV and PS3 I can "FF" and "R". This will be annoying for recorded ota broadcasts as I won't be able to "FF" through commercials, but I have options to explore to eliminate commercials if it becomes a major problem.

Any assistance with the main problem and/or annoyances would be great!

Thanks
Kevin

[beeke01]

So after reading more deeply in the sticky posts, I found the device profiles and I was able to manually modify a profile to "more or less" work. It still doesn't seem optimal as first time reading some short .mkv and .wtv files there was a bit of "frame stutter", but playing through the files again seemed to work ok. The concern I have though is how this will work with larger files.

I would very much still be interested in an "official" recommendation from support if possible. But seeing as though I feel a solution is very probable I will be ordering a license.

[Paul]

Hello Kevin,

Can you please tell me which device profile exactly you've modified and what you changed for the PS3?

Also, what sort of CPU do you have - just wondering whether the initial stuttering is because transcoding is not fast enough for real-time playback.

On the iPad it seems that players mentioned here: http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread.php/2076-Reccomendations-for-ipad2-DLNA-app work well, perhaps give those a try? Which one are you using now?

Samsung devices do not allow FF/REW - you can only skip. Is that what you meant? If so, it may be disabled by the device for transcoded files while transcoding is taking place as well. We do plan to try and improve this in future versions as much as we can, but in the end, it'll still be up to the device's firmware whether to enable this or not.

[beeke01]

Dennis,

First, I started with the initial "Sony Google TV" profile which had most formats working properly, then I copied the "<device></device>" section of the SonyPlayStation3Safe.prf so that it essentially replaced this profile. Finally I added the following <avcontainer> which I pulled from the PS3Safe profile:


<avcontainer id="mpeg" name="mpeg_h264" encode="1" dlnaprofile="MPEG_PS_PAL" mimetype="video/mpeg" baseline="0" format="vob" supportschunked="1" preferredtranscoded="1" level="30">
<video>
<!-- this is PS3 specific - don't copy it anywhere else! -->
<format id="h264" encode="1" codec="libx264" preferredtranscoded="1" forcecodec="1">
<copyts>0</copyts>
<samequality>0</samequality>
<bitrate>5000000</bitrate>
<maxbitrate>10000000</maxbitrate>
<muxrate>8000000</muxrate>
</format>
</video>
<audio>
<format id="ac3" encode="1" codec="ac3" preferredtranscoded="1">
<channels>2</channels>
<channels>6</channels>
<bitrate>640000</bitrate>
<maxbitrate>640000</maxbitrate>
<minbitrate>64000</minbitrate>
<samplingrate>48000</samplingrate>
</format>
</audio>
<audio>
<format id="aac" encode="0">
</format>
</audio>
<ffmpegadditional>-threads 0 -pix_fmt yuv420p -copyinkf -coder 1 -flags +loop -fflags +genpts -cmp +chroma -me_method hex -subq 7 -me_range 16 -g 25 -keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -b_strategy 2 -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -directpred 1 -flags2 +fastpskip+bpyramid+mixed_refs-dct8x8+wpred+aud+ivlc+mbtree -partitions -parti8x8-parti4x4-partp8x8-partp4x4-partb8x8 -crf 22 -bf 1 -refs 2 -bidir_refine 1 -deblockalpha 0 -deblockbeta 0 -bsf h264_mp4toannexb</ffmpegadditional>
</avcontainer>

At that point I stopped and restarted the server and confirmed that the appropriate profile was set to the device and validated the solution. I am currently testing on a Intel Core i7 920, though mezzmo will eventually be on a Core i3 2105 (once the parts arrive tomorrow), which has quite a bit less power.

As far as the iPad goes I tried every tested software listed on your page of certified devices including media:connect which did work the best, however even with that said I still had the same problem with transcoding, it simply would cause the app to timeout and I would be left with a ffmpeg process that was running very high for a very long time. Even if I didn't attempt to stream any other videos and let the ffmpeg complete the transcode, it still wouldn't successfully run the .mkv, .ts, or .avi files. I decided to just use AirPlay as it generally worked right away (though it did have a problem transcoding .ts files on the fly, they needed to be manually converted instead).

I figured the Samsung issue was a problem with the player, hopefully they will enable this in future firmware as it would be very helpful.

Thanks!

[Paul]

Kevin,

Ok, I'll need to see what's going on in more detail. Can you please enable logging (see this thread: http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread.php/419-FAQ-How-to-turn-on-diagnostic-logging) then try playing one of the failing files. Once it fails, stop the server and send in the logs to support. Also, please attach the device profile you created.

[beeke01]

Thank you for your response. I have sent an email with the logs attached.

[Paul]

Thanks for the logs - I'll get back to you via e-mail once I go through them.