Playback issue with Mezzmo transcoding

[Paul]

See this post for their location: http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread...ofiles-located

You'll want to edit LogitechRevue.prf (using Notepad) and change:

                <transcoding enabled="1" minimumstreamingsize="6000000" waitmsbeforestreaming="4000" contentlength="5" understandsdlnaprofileid="0" />

to:

                <transcoding enabled="1" minimumstreamingsize="200000000" waitmsbeforestreaming="25000" contentlength="5" understandsdlnaprofileid="0" />

This will tell Mezzmo to wait until the transcoded file is at least 200 MBs or for 25 seconds, whichever happens first and then it'll try to send the file through. See if that helps. You can try increasing those values and see if the device will still work.

Please let me know how that goes.

[pgoelz]

I tried it this morning but I had limited time to play and something broke. In fairness, I think it might have broken last night during other experimentation, but transcoding seems to be broken. I noticed before I changed the profile that checking or unchecking the "disable transcoding" box did not seem to affect whether or not Mezzmo created files in the transcoding folder (it created them whether or not it served them up to the Revue). This morning after changing the profile, the Revue was unable to play files that should have been transcoded.

I ended up uninstalling and reinstalling and that seems to have restored normal transcoding functionality (with the stock profile) but the library seems to be confused with references to the previous install library. This evening I'll try cleaning up the library and modifying the profile again.

But it brings up a question.... when I modify and re-save the profile, when is it active? Immediately? After server stop/start? After program restart? Or after reboot? And can I create a new profile under a different name (like for example "Logitech Revue-modified") and have the program find it? I tried that and it didn't show up but I didn't have time to experiment with restarts and reboots.

Paul

[pgoelz]

OK, after messing around with it this evening I can report a certain amount of success. After the reinstall and a total re-do of the library, I modified the profile for the Revue. It seems to play my shorter transcoded files mostly OK. If the shorter files start, they play correctly. Trouble is that the transcoding takes too long and videos more than maybe a minute long have not finished transcoding by the time that the file reaches the 200MB or 25 second limit. These files do not play correctly. I could increase the parameters but transcoding 200MB takes a while and the 25 second max delay is excessive and not practical.

We talked about simply remuxing since as far as I know, the Revue supports h.264, just not the MTS container (I was wrong originally.... my camera files are MTS, not MKV). Is this possible by modifying the profile further? Hopefully it would speed the "transcode" up a bit?

Paul

[Paul]

Please post FFmpeg information (using Mezzmo's "Get FFmpeg Information") and I'll see if they can be remuxed. Also, did you change anything else in the profile or only what I posted above?

You can have another profile file, but it needs a unique <guid> in it for Mezzmo to pick it up. Device profile changes are picked up after a server restart (if you want the new profile to appear in Mezzmo, then you also need to restart the GUI).

[pgoelz]

Took a moment to figure out how to "get ffmpeg information

Here tiz..... this is a typical MTS file I need to be able to play. The ffdshow version is as distributed with Mezzmo.

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

ffmpeg version N-32348-g6dbac85, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
built on Sep 6 2011 16:03:56 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-ffplay --prefix=/media/windows/ffmpeg --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libx264 --enable-gpl --extra-libs='-lx264 -lpthread' --enable-runtime-cpudetect --pkg-config=pkg-config
libavutil 51. 16. 0 / 51. 16. 0
libavcodec 53. 13. 0 / 53. 13. 0
libavformat 53. 11. 0 / 53. 11. 0
libavdevice 53. 3. 0 / 53. 3. 0
libavfilter 2. 37. 0 / 2. 37. 0
libswscale 2. 1. 0 / 2. 1. 0
libpostproc 51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0
[mpegts @ 015c83a0] Continuity Check Failed

Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 59.94 (60000/1001) -> 59.94 (60000/1001)
Last message repeated 1 times
Input #0, mpegts, from 'U:\Raw video\Buckley 2011\00000.mts':
Duration: 00:00:31.04, start: 0.766967, bitrate: 16114 kb/s
Program 1
Stream #0.0[0x1011]: Video: h264 (High) (HDMV / 0x564D4448), yuv420p, 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 59.96 fps, 59.94 tbr, 90k tbn, 59.94 tbc
Stream #0.1[0x1100]: Audio: ac3 (AC-3 / 0x332D4341), 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 256 kb/s
At least one output file must be specified


---> DB Level Info: 40, 100
---> Frame rate: 59.96
---> Aspect ratio: 16:9

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

Any issue with the "stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 59.94 " message? I have seen some references to this issue during my readings lately but I have not actually researched it. Could this be why the Revue (which is supposed to support MTS files per some sources) won't play mine?

EDIT: Got it re: the GUID. I can now switch profiles. Thanks.

Paul

[Paul]

At the moment the device profile for the Revue doesn't have MTS files, because we found that none of the ones we tested actually play. I know that Logitech says it supports it, but a quick Google shows that perhaps that's not the case at the moment.

[pgoelz]

Yeah, I read the same Googles Just hoping is all. There is an update (supposedly) coming that is suspected of adding some additional file support. I'm not holding my breath, especially after they started blowing the Revues out at $99. Hence trying to get a functional and practical transcoding thing going.

Paul

[Paul]

We bought ours at the old price just a couple of days before the reduction Once the update is out, we'll re-test it and see if it opens up any new formats. Is there any information on when it's coming out?

[pgoelz]

Supposedly the HC update is end of September. But it has been impending for some time and I am a bit worried that with the huge price reduction, the Revue is not on the front burner at Logitech any more.

A shame.... it is basically a nice product. But it suffers from the same problems that a lot of current products do.... it just isn't finished and ready for prime time. If I had bought it for the original $299 price, I would have returned it. As it is, for $99 it has some functionality. I love the keyboard and how it and the Revue integrate with our Tivo (or any other cable box). Having the web on the TV is nice, and it plays some of my media. Just not the files I really want to play.

So I'm waiting eagerly but I'm not holding my breath

Paul

[pgoelz]

OK, I decided that Mezzmo is not a perfect solution for the Revue.... but it is as close as I have gotten and I'll take your word that transcoding does not work perfectly because of a limitation in the Revue. So I registered it. Thanks for the support. It is greatly appreciated.

I still wonder about the transcoding issue though.... you say that the issue is that the file size is not known until transcoding finishes. What would happen if you simply guestimated the file size and got it wrong? Would playback end when the actual served file reached the reported size? What if you always over reported the file size?

I'm also having trouble making sense of the library. I have my audio, video and photo files already organized in folders and subfolders. If I move these folders around in the library, they don't always show up in the same place when the library is viewed in the revue or in Windows Media Player. Where should entire folders be placed when added to the library?

Paul