Playlist based on codec

[hsbrown2]

All my video files are .mkv, but a few of them have the video using the VC-1 codec inside the container.

I have a few Android TVs with Kodi and/or the Mezzmo app, and VC-1 doesn't play on these. They don't appear to transcode either, presumably due to the container being supported, just not the codec inside.

I tried to puzzle out creating a smart playlist that contains only those files which do not use the VC-1 codec, but I cannot find the codec as a choice of property for the playlist.

Short of remuxing the video into H.264 or something, does anyone have a sneaky way to just not serve these to the devices in question?

TIA
hsbrown2

[Peter]

You could use the Kodi device profile and turn on transcoding and add diagnostic text to the title to show it will be transcoded http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki/doku.php?...ions_logging&s[]=diagnostic#add_text_to_title_when_a_file_requires _transcoding

[jbinkley60]

If you don't want to transcode them then you could add the codec text to the title and add a parameter like title does not contain vc1 to the smart playlist. If you aren't sure which files have VC-1 encoding you can export the streamdetails table in Kodi.

I could look into adding another settings tab in the Mezzmo Kodi addon where you can select which codecs to display regardless of playlist. If you disable a codec those files wouldn't be displayed as you browse the Mezzmo server. That way you wouldn't have to write a smart playlist or make any media title changes, just select which codecs to display in Kodi for that instance of Kodi. Obviously this would only work for Kodi whereas the smart playlist would work for all devices accessing the playlist


Thanks,

Jeff

[hsbrown2]

Transcoding is neither here nor there. Mezzmo doesn't appear to transcode any MKV (aka Matroska) if the device profile (in this case Kodi) says the device supports MKV regardless of the codec needed for the underlying video. There are <format>..</format> sections for h264, mpeg2video, and mpeg4 in the <avcontainer id="matroska".. section of the .prf. I sort of assumed that Mezzmo would transcode anything that didn't use one of those codecs, but it doesn't seem to. Attempting to play one on an offending device, even though transcoding is turned on for the device, shows nothing is transcoding, and the video doesn't play correctly. They do play fine on an Nvidia Shield, but not on other androidtv devices that can't decode VC-1.

I know ffmpeg *can* remux VC-1 on the server (I've tested it), but Mezzmo doesn't seem to want to do anything with it. I can see Mezzmo recognizes the codec if I us DB Browser and execute the SQL "SELECT * FROM MGOFile WHERE VideoCodec LIKE 'vc1'" and I feel like adding a <format> section to the .prf (or creating a custom one for these specific devices) under the avcontainer section for id-"matroska" might allow me to force those video formats to transcode, but I have no idea what that might look like, or if I'm even going down the right path.

Make sense?

[Peter]

Transcoding may be disabled globally in Transcoding Settings.

[jbinkley60]

You can prestranscode the VC-1 files for the specific devices which cannot play them on the Mezzmo server and even if global transcoding for that device is disabled it will play properly. I do this for my Roku devices and control which files are pretranscoded so I retain tight control on transcoding. Mezzmo will play the pretranscoded files vs. the original file when they are played on the device where pretranscoding was done. I checked for the Kodi profile and MKV with h264 is a preferred transcoding format you can specify when pretranscoding.


Thanks,

Jeff

[ftanner]

All my video files are .mkv, but a few of them have the video using the VC-1 codec inside the container.

I have a few Android TVs with Kodi and/or the Mezzmo app, and VC-1 doesn't play on these. They don't appear to transcode either, presumably due to the container being supported, just not the codec inside.

I tried to puzzle out creating a smart playlist that contains only those files which do not use the VC-1 codec, but I cannot find the codec as a choice of property for the playlist.

Short of remuxing the video into H.264 or something, does anyone have a sneaky way to just not serve these to the devices in question?

TIA
hsbrown2

I believe that the Rocktek G2 supports VC-1, but they're not cheap.

[ftanner]

Transcoding is neither here nor there. Mezzmo doesn't appear to transcode any MKV (aka Matroska) if the device profile (in this case Kodi) says the device supports MKV regardless of the codec needed for the underlying video. There are <format>..</format> sections for h264, mpeg2video, and mpeg4 in the <avcontainer id="matroska".. section of the .prf. I sort of assumed that Mezzmo would transcode anything that didn't use one of those codecs, but it doesn't seem to. Attempting to play one on an offending device, even though transcoding is turned on for the device, shows nothing is transcoding, and the video doesn't play correctly. They do play fine on an Nvidia Shield, but not on other androidtv devices that can't decode VC-1.

I know ffmpeg *can* remux VC-1 on the server (I've tested it), but Mezzmo doesn't seem to want to do anything with it. I can see Mezzmo recognizes the codec if I us DB Browser and execute the SQL "SELECT * FROM MGOFile WHERE VideoCodec LIKE 'vc1'" and I feel like adding a <format> section to the .prf (or creating a custom one for these specific devices) under the avcontainer section for id-"matroska" might allow me to force those video formats to transcode, but I have no idea what that might look like, or if I'm even going down the right path.

Make sense?

I had issues with MKV files in the past, so I have gotten into the habit of transcoding them into MP4 files using Handbrake to avoid said issues.

[jbinkley60]

I believe that the Rocktek G2 supports VC-1, but they're not cheap.

All of my endpoints support VC-1 with no issues. Those include Intel NUC, Intel N100, Raspberry Pi 4 & 5, Vero 4K+ and Vero Vs. I suspect the Android platforms may be the ones which have issues. I also went through my library and re-encoded all VC-1 files to h.264. I keep a couple around for testing. About 8 years ago I decided to standardize my library on a few formats to avoid the need for transcoding or compatibility issues. FYI, the Intel N100 is my newest endpoint client. I am very impressed with it and it is relatively cheap.


Thanks,

Jeff

[ftanner]

All of my endpoints support VC-1 with no issues. Those include Intel NUC, Intel N100, Raspberry Pi 4 & 5, Vero 4K+ and Vero Vs. I suspect the Android platforms may be the ones which have issues. I also went through my library and re-encoded all VC-1 files to h,264. I keep a coup,e around for testing. About 8 years ago I decided to standardize my library on a few formats to avoid the need for transcoding or compatibility issues. FYI, the Intel N100 is my newest endpoint client. I am very impressed with it and it is relatively cheap.


Thanks,

Jeff

I would love to switch over to Raspberry Pis, running Android. The only problem is that Android for the Pi doesn't support HDR in any form, unless something changed within the last couple of months.