Mezzmo not transcoding on the fly

I have just downloaded Mezzmo and have been using it with my Toshiba 37RV753. All is well except that Mezzmo doesn't seem to be transcoding on the fly. When I first used Mezzmo it found all my video files without problem and the TV was able to find Mezzmo and all of video files. However, although the files showed their running time I was not able to open them, just a long pause and then a Media Playback Error message. When I looked at my PC I found that ffmpeg was still running and when this stopped I found that I was then able to open and view the files from the TV. It would seem that these video files can only be viewed after they have been transcoded and not on the fly. Is this to be expected or perhaps I have set something incorrectly.

A second issue is that 1280x720 files fill the screen but 624x352 files are only half size. When I have played the same files from a USB stick (on a different TV) they have been full screen, is there some way of controlling this?

It's possible that the transcoding speed is not fast enough for smooth playback and that's why files are not playing right away. If you turn on diagnostic logging (see this thread: http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread...nostic-logging) then try to play a file you haven't tried yet and get it to transcode, we can take a look at the log and see what speed transcoding is going at.

Regarding the size - are there any zoom controls on the TV's remote? Sometimes zoom is set to "original size" (for example, not sure what it's called on your TV) and that could cause such display. If that doesn't help or isn't the cause, please let me know and we'll investigate this further.

Thanks Dennis, I have sent a log file to your support email address. For those following this post I have reduced the bandwidth to 11Mbps and the video bit rate to the minium setting but the file fully transcodes before the TV is able to diaplay it. Also of note is that the transcoded file is twice the size of the original. On the display size issue I do have zoom but on full zoom the movie is still displayed about half screen size.

Just out of curiosity - is your file located on an NTFS, or a FAT32 filesystem? Locally (on the PC) or externally (USB drive or NAS)?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RMerlin

Just out of curiosity - is your file located on an NTFS, or a FAT32 filesystem? Locally (on the PC) or externally (USB drive or NAS)?

---

Its a hard drive on the PC

I have a similar problem. I can begin to watch the movies immediately after starting the transcoding but, usually, it'll only last for a few seconds (probably the part that has been transcoded while the rest is missing). The result is that I have to play the file way before so that when I want to watch it it'll be fully transcoded and won't stop in the middle and I can use the skip functions (which are also disabled while the file is not fully transcoded). This is a huge limitation but one that I can understand...

The next version of Mezzmo might help you with that, as it will use an improved version of ffmpeg that will take better advantage of multicore CPUs. What CPU do you have?

I have a Core 2 Duo E6750 (2 cores, 2.66GHz) and 2GB of 800MHz DDR2

While not very recent, this CPU should still be pretty decent for transcoding. The updated version of ffmpeg will help a bit by making use of both cores. If you want to try yourself with a ffmpeg version that supports multiple cores, replace your ffmpeg.exe file (in the Mezzmo installation folder) with one taken from this website: http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.org/autobuilds/ .

If you still can't transcode fast enough, try reducing the transcode quality. Start Mezzmo, then go to "Media Servers -> Media DEvices". Select your device, and click on "Edit", and go to the Performance tab. Try reducing the Video bitrate, and see what happens when trying a file that was not transcoded yet.

Thanks for the advice. I'll try it as soon as I arrive home. Do you foresee any possible issue/configuration needed or do I simply paste the file on top of the other?

Make a backup of your existing ffmpeg.exe (just in case), then copy the new one in the folder.

Mezzmo profiles are usually set to use up to four threads, so you shouldn't need to reconfigure anything. Just try transcoding a file, then check with task manager if both your cores are used at nearly 100%.

OK, back to square one. Mezzmo is now capable of transcoding any type of media and reads SRT subtitles perfectly. The new issue now is that it seems to stop transcoding and doesn't resume or continue transcoding in the background...(I even unticked the "use low priority CPU while transcoding partially completed files"). I've played a movie. As expected, it stopped a few minutes later due to uncompleted transcoding. I went to dinner but left the PC on and Mezzmo pumped up expecting to let it transcode the file so I could watch it later on. The result was that when I tried to play the video (4 hours later), It stopped at exactly the same spot! It seems that, for some reason, it stopped transcoding and didn't resume.

It's also possible that transcoding failed at that spot - can you please turn on logging, try to play that file and once it stops playing, stop the server and send the logs in to support (at) conceiva (dot) com, as I could then see whether transcoding failed or it's something else.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by McKhan

OK, back to square one. Mezzmo is now capable of transcoding any type of media and reads SRT subtitles perfectly. The new issue now is that it seems to stop transcoding and doesn't resume or continue transcoding in the background...(I even unticked the "use low priority CPU while transcoding partially completed files"). I've played a movie. As expected, it stopped a few minutes later due to uncompleted transcoding. I went to dinner but left the PC on and Mezzmo pumped up expecting to let it transcode the file so I could watch it later on. The result was that when I tried to play the video (4 hours later), It stopped at exactly the same spot! It seems that, for some reason, it stopped transcoding and didn't resume.

---

I have been using the new version for a week now and for me at least it has worked flawlessly. Perhaps there is something wrong with the particular file you are transcoding, have you tried a different one?

Logs sent to support e-mail. Please take a look at them and let me know.

Thanks

Thanks - I'll get back to you via e-mail.