Trouble streaming .mkv to Panasonic Viera ST60

[kristofke]

Hello,

I use Mezzmo for a little while now and I never had any problems to stream the videofiles I have to my TV, but recently I am having difficulty to stream MKV-files with embedded subtitles.
At first my TV will say it cannot read the file(s) but after a while it will show the timebar and have some sound, but with a white screen or very heavy stutter and lock up after a few seconds. Most of the times it just closes the media server window.
Mezzmo uses the 2013 models for Viera profile and I have tried the other profiles as well, but with no succes.

I've included the FFmpeg information of one of the files in this post.

I hope I have provided enough information :p

Regards,

Kristof


FFmpeg:

ffmpeg version N-59793-g7a8318f Copyright (c) 2000-2014 the FFmpeg developers
built on Jan 16 2014 16:51:32 with gcc 4.8.2 (GCC)
configuration: --enable-memalign-hack --arch=x86_64 --target-os=mingw32 --cross-prefix=x86_64-w64-mingw32- --enable-static --disable-shared --enable-zlib --disable-postproc --prefix=/home/peter/ffmpeg/build/gpl64 --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libx264 --enable-gpl --extra-libs='-lx264 -lpthread' --enable-runtime-cpudetect --extra-cflags=-I/home/peter/cc32/include --extra-ldflags=-L/home/peter/cc64/lib --pkg-config=pkg-config --disable-w32threads --enable-libvpx --enable-libvorbis
libavutil 52. 62.100 / 52. 62.100
libavcodec 55. 48.101 / 55. 48.101
libavformat 55. 23.103 / 55. 23.103
libavdevice 55. 5.102 / 55. 5.102
libavfilter 4. 1.100 / 4. 1.100
libswscale 2. 5.101 / 2. 5.101
libswresample 0. 17.104 / 0. 17.104
Input #0, matroska,webm, from 'D:\Video\<FileName>.mkv':
Metadata:
encoder : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1
creation_time : 2009-07-19 20:20:35
Duration: 00:24:29.70, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1909 kb/s
Chapter #0.0: start 0.000000, end 90.200000
Metadata:
title : Opening
Chapter #0.1: start 90.200000, end 1347.000000
Metadata:
title : <FileName>
Chapter #0.2: start 1347.000000, end 1436.900000
Metadata:
title : Ending
Chapter #0.3: start 1436.900000, end 1469.704000
Metadata:
title : Preview
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)
Metadata:
title : <FileName>
Stream #0:1(jpn): Audio: vorbis, 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp (default)
Metadata:
title : 2.0 Vorbis
Stream #0:2(eng): Subtitle: ssa (default)
Metadata:
title : ASS
Stream #0:3(eng): Subtitle: subrip
Metadata:
title : SRT
Codec 0x18000 is not in the full list.
Stream #0:4: Attachment: unknown_codec
Metadata:
filename : Wunderlich-Medium.otf
mimetype : application/x-truetype-font
Codec 0x18000 is not in the full list.
Stream #0:5: Attachment: unknown_codec
Metadata:
filename : Calligraphic-810-BT.ttf
mimetype : application/x-truetype-font
At least one output file must be specified

<MEZZMO>: Child process ended with code: 109, ExitCode=1


---> DB Level Info: 50, 100
---> Frame rate: 23,98
---> Aspect ratio: 16:9 PAR=1:1
---> Duration: 00:24:29

[TimC]

My guess - I stress a guess - is that the audio codec (vorbis) cannot be transcoded as maybe you've not got a vorbis codec installed.

[Paul]

TimC: Just to clarify - Mezzmo does not use any codecs or codec packs on your computer, so there's nothing to install. Mezzmo is self-contained regarding its format support and uses FFmpeg for audio/video transcoding.

Kristofke:

Mezzmo is transcoding your MKV file for your TV since the Panasonic Viera TV (2013 models) device profile states that this specific MKV format is not supported. When you try to stream this file on your TV, go back to Mezzmo and check the Transcoding pane. You should see you file listed there. If it is marked in red, then it tells you that on-the-fly transcoding is too slow for real time playback and that's why you are getting heavy stuttering or stopping. To solve this, you should pre-transcode the video and then try streaming it. To pre-transcode the video, see this FAQ - http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread.php/6025-Tutorial-Pre-transcoding-Files. After pre-transcoding has completed, try streaming it again and let us know how you go.

[TimC]

TimC: Just to clarify - Mezzmo does not use any codecs or codec packs on your computer, so there's nothing to install. Mezzmo is self-contained regarding its format support and uses FFmpeg for audio/video transcoding.

Hi Paul

I knew Mezzmo used FFmpeg but didn't know that FFmpeg was self contained as such, thought it required installed codecs. So thanks for enlightening me.

[kristofke]

Thank you Paul for your reply.

I have done what you suggested and it seems that mezzmo has changed the device profile to the '2013 base model' profile. When I select a video file it starts transcoding @ 65 - 72 fps, witch seems fast enough because there is no red text in the transcoding pane. But the file still won't stream to my tv; I just get a black screen.

I will try pre-transcoding next and hope this will resolve my issue :)


Thanks again,

Kristof

[akimba]

yeah I Pre-Transcode all my files for my Pana TV and they all play perfect now, no stuttering ;-)

[kristofke]

yeah I Pre-Transcode all my files for my Pana TV and they all play perfect now, no stuttering ;-)

Alright, and may I ask wich profile and transcoder setting you use on mezzmo for your Pana tv? I have discovered that when I want to pre-transcode a file, the recommended setting is mpegts, h264, and mp3. But when mezzmo starts to transcode on-the-fly for that same file, it uses totally different settings: matroska, h264, mp3 and embed.en (wich I assume means embedding english subtitles).


*EDIT*
OK, pre-transcoding the file with the settings mezzmo uses to trancode on-the-fly works. But I don't get why the file won't play when mezzmo is transcoding automatically; it transcodes at 60-70 fps and all I get is a black screen. Maybe it's just too slow. What is a "recommended" transcoding speed when streaming live? (I know the speed is dependent of your computer, but it's just so I can be prepared in the future :) )

[Paul]

If your transcoding speed is faster than the FPS (frames per second) of the video, then you are transcoding fast enough for real-time playback. Most movies are 25-30 fps, so anything over 30 fps is usually fast enough for real-time playback.

Transcoding on-the-fly, Mezzmo chooses to transcode (re-mux) to MKV. Your TV's firmware seems to struggle to read MKVs when they are transcoding on-the-fly. One possible reason for this is that your TV's firmware may be looking for the MKV's index, which tells you about the video and audio channels within the MKV. This index is only written as the last step of transcoding so that could explain the TV's problems.

We can tweak the device profile to stop this happening. Email us at support [at] conceiva [dot] com and we'll provide an updated device profile to try.