Various playback issues on two different players

Hello,

In an effort to centralize my media I have disabled Twonky media server (which never worked in the first place) and installed the trial Mezzmo 2.2 version on my WHS.

The problems I have encountered I hope, are user error. This would be amazing it if worked!

I have added a avi to the video folder on my WHS. The sony 470 can't play anything but mpeg4's so I'm assuming it has to transcode it on the fly. I can find mezzmo and the video, it loads, but upon playing it ends abruptly, goes back to the beginning and plays again, only this time a bit longer, then stops and goes back to the beginning. You can pause, FF and RW.

Next, the samsung. Same scenario as above, load the video, only this time you can only pause but are unable to FF or RW the video. A few minutes in the video just stops.

My setup is as follows:
Windows Home Server 1.8ghz 2gb ram with 8 TB of storage
Wired gigabit ethernet through house
Sony BDP s470 (wired ethernet)
Samsung BD-C5500 (wired ethernet)


Now I'm not sure if there's some setting I haven't looked at or a conflict with the video folder on WHS as I have to manually drag/drop videos through the Remote Desktop Control interface on my WHS.

Ultimately I would LOVE it if the software allows you to pause, stop, FF, RW video from your WHS in either mpeg4, avi, etc. So far it's been an absolute waste of my time to convert with handbrake on my mac and then drag/drop on a usb stick to watch it in the theater room.

I'm hoping for some good feedback and tips cause if it can work, you'll have another happy customer! (God I hate Twonky)

Hello,

It depends on lots of factors, but let's start with your video specs - can you please post FFmpeg information on one of those videos? Please check our recommended (and minimum) CPU specs for transcoding here: http://www.conceiva.com/products/mezzmo/default.asp . If you can play files further and further on each try, then I guess transcoding is too slow for smooth playback (and a 1.8 Ghz single-core CPU is not suited well for transcoding - you'd need a minimum of a dual-core for smooth playback).

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: 47.95 (13500000/281531) -> 23.98 (24000/1001)
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '\\Hpserver\Videos\Red.Dawn1.mp4':
Metadata:
major_brand : mp42
minor_version : 0
compatible_brands: mp42isomavc1
creation_time : 2011-04-03 22:14:15
encoder : HandBrake 0.9.4 2009112300
Duration: 01:53:56.53, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 893 kb/s
Stream #0.0(und): Video: h264 (Main), yuv420p, 512x288 [PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 724 kb/s, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 90k tbn, 47.95 tbc
Metadata:
creation_time : 2011-04-03 22:14:15
Stream #0.1(und): Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 164 kb/s
Metadata:
creation_time : 2011-04-03 22:14:15
At least one output file must be specified


---> DB Level Info: 21

################################################## ################################################## ################################################## ###########

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 (10000000/417083)
Input #0, avi, from '\\Hpserver\Videos\Red.Dawn2.avi':
Metadata:
encoder : AVI-Mux GUI 1.17.8, Aug 30 2008 12:36:58
JUNK :
Duration: 01:53:56.57, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 855 kb/s
Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 512x288 [PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 23.98 tbr, 23.98 tbn, 23.98 tbc
Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 117 kb/s
At least one output file must be specified


---> DB Level Info: -99

Thanks for the file info. Those files don't look too bad, but they may be just on the border in regards to transcoding speed or it may be something else altogether. Can you please turn on logging (see this thread: http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread...nostic-logging) then try playing one or two files and once they fail to play properly, stop the server and send the logs to support (at) conceiva (dot) com and we'll take a closer look.