Pre-Transcoding question re: Blu-Ray ISO, Panasonic Viera ST60 DNLA

[milosz]

This is my first experience with Mezzmo, let me start off by saying I am INCREDIBLY impressed. The ease of use is nothing short of spectacular, especially compared with other ways of doing the sort of things Mezzmo does. BRILLIANT OVERALL DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION!!! And such a great price, too.

ANYWAY-

I've set up MEZZMO as a server on a Windows 7-64 box that I use as a home server (Intel Q9550 4core 2.8 GHz, 8 GB RAM, 5 TB RAID-5 ) on my gigabit Ethernet home LAN. (No wifi)

I copied some DVDs as ISO's and Mezzmo plays them A-OK via my Panasonic Viera ST60's DNLA client. Video, sound all just as expected.

I copied a few Blu-Ray to ISO and they play just fine on Android client (Galaxy Tab S 10.5) but on the Panasonic Viera ST60 I get great video but no audio. So I'm guessing I either need to change the format that Mezzmo is transcoding the audio to on-the-fly or I need to Pre-transcode the audio to some format that the Panasonic Viera ST60 understands. Hence my questions:

How can I tell what audio code format is being sent to my Panasonic Viera ST60 by Mezzmo for a given video ISO?
Is there a way to change the format that Mezzmo is transcoding to on-the-fly when sending to my Panasonic Viera ST60?
If I select pre-transcode, will this transcode the video as well as audio from the ISO? I don't want to lose ANY video quality- so I don't want to pre-transcode the video. I just want to transcode the audio into a format that the Panasonic Viera ST60 will be able to work with. Is there a way to pre-transcode ONLY the audio?
Any other suggestions for using Mezmo with the Panasonic Viera ST60?

Thanks

Bill
Chicago

[Paul]

Hi Bill,

Glad you like Mezzmo & thanks for your kind words. Your problem may be related to the device profile that is assigned to your TV. I suggest going to the Media Devices dialog in Mezzmo and editing your device. Change the device profile to 'Panasonic Viera (2013 Base models)' and see if that works better.

Some answers:


You can tell the audio codec being streamed in the video file in two ways - if the file is being transcoded by Mezzmo, go to the Transcoding pane and you will see the file listed there and what it is being transcoded to, and if the file is not being transcoded (i.e. is not listed in the Transcoding pane), then Mezzmo is just streaming the original file. You can see the original file's codecs by right-clicking on it in Mezzmo and clicking 'Get FFmpeg information'.
There's no simple way to change the format that Mezzmo transcodes on-the-fly. Typically another device profile should be chosen if that one does not work.
Pre-transcoding files will try to remux any compatible channels (codecs) in the file. Remuxing means copying the original channel into the transcoded file so its super fast and no loss of quality. Incompatible channels are transcoded into another format. In general, you will not notice any loss of quality when transcoding.

Let us know how you go with the device profile change. I think results should be better.

[milosz]

Device profile for my TV was already set to 'Panasonic Viera (2013 Base models)' - automatically set by Mezzmo when it discovered my TV at initial installation. This plays the Blu-Ray ISO smoothly, but without sound.

I tried 'Panasonic Viera (2013 Models)' - this would not play the Blu-Ray ISO, it just said "wait"
I tried 'Panasonic Viera 3D' and 'Panasonic Viera 3D (No DIVX)' and these played the Blu-Ray ISO WITH SOUND OK, but halted playback after about a minute.

[Paul]

Hi Bill,

Please post the FFmpeg information for the video. Right-click on the video and click 'Get FFmpeg Information'.

[milosz]

Hi Bill,

Please post the FFmpeg information for the video. Right-click on the video and click 'Get FFmpeg Information'.

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
[mpegts @ 0000000001b7f780] Failed to open codec in av_find_stream_info
[mpegts @ 0000000001b7f780] DTS discontinuity in stream 8: packet 4 with DTS 2987284, packet 5 with DTS 3413307
[mpegts @ 0000000001b7f780] DTS discontinuity in stream 11: packet 4 with DTS 2987283, packet 5 with DTS 3413308
[mpegts @ 0000000001b7f780] DTS discontinuity in stream 13: packet 4 with DTS 2987268, packet 5 with DTS 3413323
[mpegts @ 0000000001b7f780] DTS discontinuity in stream 10: packet 4 with DTS 2987255, packet 5 with DTS 3413336
[mpegts @ 0000000001b7f780] DTS discontinuity in stream 12: packet 4 with DTS 2987249, packet 5 with DTS 3413342
[mpegts @ 0000000001b7f780] Could not find codec parameters for stream 7 (Subtitle: hdmv_pgs_subtitle ([144][0][0][0] / 0x0090)): unspecified size
Consider increasing the value for the 'analyzeduration' and 'probesize' options
[mpegts @ 0000000001b7f780] Could not find codec parameters for stream 9 (Subtitle: hdmv_pgs_subtitle ([144][0][0][0] / 0x0090)): unspecified size
Consider increasing the value for the 'analyzeduration' and 'probesize' options
[mpegts @ 0000000001b7f780] Could not find codec parameters for stream 14 (Subtitle: hdmv_pgs_subtitle ([144][0][0][0] / 0x0090)): unspecified size
Consider increasing the value for the 'analyzeduration' and 'probesize' options
Input #0, mpegts, from 'pipe:':
Duration: N/A, start: 11.650667, bitrate: 1728 kb/s
Program 1
Stream #0:0[0x1011]: Video: vc1 (Advanced) (VC-1 / 0x312D4356), yuv420p(tv, bt709), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 90k tbn, 47.95 tbc
Stream #0:1[0x1100]: Audio: dts (DTS-HD MA) ([134][0][0][0] / 0x0086), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 768 kb/s
Stream #0:2[0x1101]: Audio: ac3 (AC-3 / 0x332D4341), 48000 Hz, mono, fltp, 192 kb/s
Stream #0:3[0x1102]: Audio: ac3 (AC-3 / 0x332D4341), 48000 Hz, mono, fltp, 192 kb/s
Stream #0:4[0x1103]: Audio: ac3 (AC-3 / 0x332D4341), 48000 Hz, mono, fltp, 192 kb/s
Stream #0:5[0x1104]: Audio: ac3 (AC-3 / 0x332D4341), 48000 Hz, mono, fltp, 192 kb/s
Stream #0:6[0x1105]: Audio: ac3 (AC-3 / 0x332D4341), 48000 Hz, mono, fltp, 192 kb/s
Stream #0:7[0x1200]: Subtitle: hdmv_pgs_subtitle ([144][0][0][0] / 0x0090)
Stream #0:8[0x1201]: Subtitle: hdmv_pgs_subtitle ([144][0][0][0] / 0x0090), 1920x1080
Stream #0:9[0x1202]: Subtitle: hdmv_pgs_subtitle ([144][0][0][0] / 0x0090)
Stream #0:10[0x1203]: Subtitle: hdmv_pgs_subtitle ([144][0][0][0] / 0x0090), 1920x1080
Stream #0:11[0x1204]: Subtitle: hdmv_pgs_subtitle ([144][0][0][0] / 0x0090), 1920x1080
Stream #0:12[0x1205]: Subtitle: hdmv_pgs_subtitle ([144][0][0][0] / 0x0090), 1920x1080
Stream #0:13[0x1206]: Subtitle: hdmv_pgs_subtitle ([144][0][0][0] / 0x0090), 1920x1080
Stream #0:14[0x1207]: Subtitle: hdmv_pgs_subtitle ([144][0][0][0] / 0x0090)
At least one output file must be specified

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


---> DB Level Info: 3, 3
---> Frame rate: 23.98
---> Aspect ratio: 16:9 PAR=1:1
---> Duration: 01:38:30
---> Pipe: #archive:f:\video\blu-ray iso\forbidden_planet.iso|BDMV\STREAM\00020.m2ts

[Paul]

The FFmpeg output hints that there may be encoding errors in the ripped ISO and that may explain why one of your devices is struggling to play the audio channel. Try pre-transcoding the video file and see if that fixes the problem. Right-click on the video in Mezzmo and click 'Pre-transcode Files'. On the Pre-transcode Files dialog, select your device and click 'Choose Formats'. On the Transcoding Formats dialog select the bolded format and select the 'Force full transcode of all channels' checkbox. Click OK and then select the 'Pre-transcode files even if they match the devices supported formats' checkbox. Click OK to start transcoding. Wait until transcoding has fully completed and then try streaming the video now to the device.

[milosz]

Pre-transcoding didn't help. Tried several device settings after the pre-transcoding had completed.

I'll try another Blu-Ray ISO, maybe there's something odd about FORBIDDEN PLANET Blu-Ray (although it plays just fine on my Samsung Galaxy S tablet)

[Paul]

OK - let us know how you go.