Sony BDP MKV Playback Crippled After Recent Updates

[Aaron407]

I hate to say it, but the recent updates have absolutely crippled playback on my Sony BDP-S370. I believe it was after updating to 2.6.5 (maybe earlier) that things fell apart. With 2.5, I was able to effectively play mkv files on the player using the Sony BDP NTSC profile. Now, even with the update to 2.6.7, playback often won't start and the player says it's an unsupported format. Other times the player completely locks up and reboots, something that never happened before the recent string of updates. Other times it will start playing, but it starts getting extremely choppy in video and audio after awhile (particularly if I fast forward part of the file), even when it's only streaming. If I pause for a few seconds then resume, it will play smoothly for a few seconds, then get choppy again. I have rebooted every network device I have, cleared all of the Mezzmo devices, turned on detection only by IP, tried all different Sony player profiles, etc. Things are still working terribly. Some files that are h.264 MKV's are now being detected as DivX files on the player (presumably due to how Mezzmo is handling the files).

As an example, this file is being detected as DivX when using the Sony BDP NTSC profile:

---------------------------------------------------
ffmpeg version N-40693-gc457a29 Copyright (c) 2000-2012 the FFmpeg developers
built on May 15 2012 12:57:14 with gcc 4.6.2
configuration: --enable-memalign-hack --arch=x86 --target-os=mingw32 --cross-prefix=i686-w64-mingw32- --enable-static --disable-shared --enable-zlib --disable-postproc --prefix=/home/peter/ffmpeg/build/gpl --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libx264 --enable-gpl --extra-libs='-lx264 -lpthread' --enable-runtime-cpudetect --extra-cflags=-I/home/peter/cc/include --extra-ldflags=-L/home/peter/cc/lib --pkg-config=pkg-config --disable-w32threads
libavutil 51. 51.100 / 51. 51.100
libavcodec 54. 21.101 / 54. 21.101
libavformat 54. 5.100 / 54. 5.100
libavdevice 53. 4.100 / 53. 4.100
libavfilter 2. 73.100 / 2. 73.100
libswscale 2. 1.100 / 2. 1.100
libswresample 0. 11.100 / 0. 11.100
Input #0, matroska,webm, from 'F:\Misc\Newsgroup Downloads\TV\Game of Thrones\Season 02\Game of Thrones - S02E02 - The Night Lands.mkv':
Metadata:
creation_time : 2012-04-11 09:59:21
Duration: 00:55:59.85, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 6384 kb/s
Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (High), yuv420p, 1280x714, SAR 1:1 DAR 640:357, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 1k tbn, 47.95 tbc (default)
Metadata:
title : HBO Feed
Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 384 kb/s (default)
Metadata:
title : Audiotrack
At least one output file must be specified


---> DB Level Info: 41, 100
---> Frame rate: 23.98
---> Aspect ratio: 640:357


---------------------------------------------------


At this point I'm just going to revert back to 2.5 and cross my fingers, but hopefully this is something that can be addressed. Normally I would be happy to take some logs of what's happening, but I have a kid that will be born anytime now and I need to get functionality back to the BDP before a glut of company arrives.

Am I the only one who has had this issue? There was another nasty issue I notices as well where a new device called "Mezzmo" popped into the device list, called up the same static IP address as the BDP, but carried the MAC address of the media server computer itself. I had high hopes after fixing that issue that things would work again, but not dice...

EDIT: Can you tell me where I can find v2.5.0 to reinstall?

[jeffreybc55]

Mezzmo 2.6.3 http://www.conceiva.com/downloads/2630_mezzmo-setup.exe

Mezzmo 2.6.4 http://www.conceiva.com/downloads/2640_mezzmo-setup.exe

Mezzmo 2.6.5 http://www.conceiva.com/downloads/2650_mezzmo-setup.exe

[Paul]

Sorry for your troubles. We did have a few device detection and device profile issues with v2.6.x (and you have noted some of them in your post) and these have been fixed in the latest version, Mezzmo v2.6.7. It sounds like your Mezzmo environment is suffering from these issues.

I would recommend you do the following:
1. Install Mezzmo v2.6.7
2. Go to the Media Devices dialog and turn off "Use only IP addresses". Also, delete all devices from the device list. Restart your Mezzmo server and your device should be re-listed. Make sure your Sony BDP is using the 'Sony BDP, HT, SMP' device profile.
3. Try streaming some files to your Sony BDP and, if any files have a problem playing, then make a note of them. In Mezzmo, right-click on the problem file and click 'Get FFmpeg Information'. Send us this information and describe the problem playing the file (stuttering, doesn't play, etc.) Also send us a set of logs when you try to stream one of the problem files.

(You will see Mezzmo listed in your Media Devices dialog, so don't be alarmed. Also, you will see your MKVs listed as DivX on your Sony BDP)

[Aaron407]

Hi Paul,

I actually went through all of the steps you listed before posting, but the problem still remains. In terms of MKVs listed as DivX, it's not consistent with the new version. I have some that show up as .m2ts and others as DivX, when, to my knowledge, there is no discernable difference in the packaged streams. Also, with all of the previous versions (2.5.0 and previous), all MKV files were showing up as .m2ts. I temporarily replaced the new Sony BDP NTSC profile with an older one from 2.5.0 and, although the files wouldn't play back likely due to changes to the executable, all MKV files were again being picked up as .m2ts rather than DivX.

A few other things to note:

1) I haven't yet rolled back to 2.5.0. I'll see if I can grab a log of the stuttering, but I might not have a chance.
2) The files that won't play properly in MKV containers have no playback issues if they're repacked as a .vob file through mkv2vob. Once repacked, they show up as .m2ts rather than DivX as well. This tells me that there's likely an issue with the way Mezzmo is identifying the embedded MKV streams and remuxing them.
3) The FFMPEG info for one of the offending files is shown in the first post of the thread.
4) Mezzmo showing in the device dialog is something new to me. I won't worry about it, but it did cause some concern that there may be an IP address conflict since it was showing up with the same IP address as the BDP, but the MAC address of the computer.

[ScanRite]

Aaron407: Do the MKV files play without transcoding to your 370? I've never gotten them to work on mine. I keep everything in .M2TS format.

[Aaron407]

I've never gotten mkv's to work without "transcoding" on my 370. However, with Mezzmo, it's not really transcoding, just remuxing the audio and video streams into a compatible container. Previously it was always detected as an m2ts remuxed container, now it shows as DivX for whatever reason.

[Paul]

ScanRite & Aaron407: Sony BDP players are quite strange with their DLNA format support and what they can play. After much testing and tweaking, we found that Sony BDP players can play MKV files natively if they are tricked into thinking the file is a DivX file. So the Sony BDP, HT, SMP device profile does stream your MKV files natively to your Sony BDP but it tells your Sony BDP they are DivX files. That's why you now see "DivX" as the file type for many of your MKV files in your fie listings on your Sony BDP (but actually the MKV is being streamed natively). You may still see the MPEG-TS file type for some of your MKV files. This occurs when the MKV file does not fit within the MKV attributes (bitrate, level, channels, codecs, etc.) as defined in the Sony BDP, HT, SMP device profile. In these cases, the MKV file will be remuxed or transcoded into MPEG-TS.

Aaron407: Can you provide us an MKV that does not play? Choose the smallest in file size & put it on a filesharing site like dropbox or rapidshare & send us the download link. We'll test it here with our Sony BDP. It may be that our DivX trick is not universal across all Sony BDP models.

[Aaron407]

In terms of files that don't play, it's not consistent. Some of the files will be reported to be corrupt (or freeze up the player completely) when trying one time, then they'll start playing the next time I try them. The other problem, relating to the "glitchy" playback, really seems to happen most after fast forwarding one of the mkv's. However, I will note that the only files that really seemed problematic were the ones that are now being reported as DivX. I believe the other ones that were still seen as m2ts were ok.

Would it be possible to provide a semi-reverted profile that causes all of the mkv's to be picked up as m2ts again? I could give that a shot and see if any of the problems still exist.

[Paul]

Hi Aaron407,

It definitely seems that your Sony BDP model has troubles playing MKVs natively. So, we'll create a non-native-MKV variant of the Sony BDP, HT, SMP device profile for you and all other users so that you do not get these MKV playback problems. We'll include this in the next version of Mezzmo for all users. You can contact us now at support [at] conceiva [dot] com for the device profile so you can get back up and running.

[Aaron407]

Thanks Paul. Out of curiosity, is there a reason to use Sony BDP HT SMP profile over the Sony BDP NTSC one? I always had good results with the BDP NTSC variant and I'm worried that the other one might be more general and conservative in transcoding.

[Paul]

Hi Aaron407,

We're trying to amalgamate all the Sony BDP, Sony HT and Sony SMP device profiles together so they are less confusing for users and easier to maintain for us. So, we'd like you to continue to use the Sony BDP, HT, SMP device profile. If there are any issues with it (like the MKV problem), then it tells us that we have to tweak it slightly. Contact us and we'll send our the new device profile for testing.