Samsung PAL 16:9 scaling problems

[sickonede]

Dear support team,

thank you that you offer a trial version to test the software in advance. I got severe problems viewing DVB-C content recorded with my TV card at the correct aspect ratio through Samsung's Blu Ray Player BD-D6900 DLNA Media Player. First I used Samsung's All Share software without success. Now I tried Mezzmo, but until now it is also not working.


Here's the problem:

As I read in different other forums, Samsung ignores Europe customers and their devices can only playback files with their native pixel aspect ratio. In Europe most of the tv content is 16:9, but streamed and recorded as a 720x576 4:3 anamorphic image. All of my software media players (e.g. Windows Media Player, VLC, KMPlayer, Quicktime Player etc.) can read the aspect ratio flag correctly and playback these files in 16:9 (1024x576 pixels). My brand new Samsung Blu Ray Player however plays these files back in 4:3 720x576 native pixels. It seems that Samsung will not provide a firmware update that can do the job, even if it would be a minor thing to do.


Here's my setup:

Recording Device: PC with a KNC TV-Station DVB-C Tuner card
Recording Software: DVBViewer Pro records TV with 720x576 16:9 anamorphic mpeg-2 .ts streams (sometimes with 2 audio tracks)

DLNA Server: Win XP PC with Mezzmo
Playback Device:Samsung BD-D6900 3D Blu Ray Player
Viewing Device: Mitsubishi HC 1100 720p Beamer


Here's what I've tested:

Of course I tested all aspect ratio parameters on my BD-Player as well as on the beamer. The BD-Player has several ways to tune aspect ratio (Full / Original / stretch etc.), but it seems, that this parameters only affect the tv signal and not the media playback (media player) over wlan. In Mezzmo I tested 3 device profiles so far (Samsung BPD, Samsung BDP 3D and Samsung C) with no success.


Here's my question:

Is Mezzmo able to playback the files in the correct aspect ratio without transcoding? And if so, can yu send me a detailed "how to..."?


Here's the ffmpeg information of a sample file:

ffmpeg version N-33781-g35674a2, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
built on Oct 19 2011 10:31:16 with gcc 4.6.1
configuration: --enable-memalign-hack --arch=x86 --target-os=mingw32 --cross-prefix=i686-w64-mingw32- --enable-static --disable-shared --enable-zlib --disable-postproc --prefix=/media/ffmpeg --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libx264 --enable-gpl --extra-libs='-lx264 -lpthread' --enable-runtime-cpudetect --extra-cflags=-I/home/dennis/cc/include --extra-ldflags=-L/home/dennis/cc/lib --pkg-config=pkg-config
libavutil 51. 22. 0 / 51. 22. 0
libavcodec 53. 21. 0 / 53. 21. 0
libavformat 53. 16. 1 / 53. 16. 1
libavdevice 53. 4. 0 / 53. 4. 0
libavfilter 2. 44. 0 / 2. 44. 0
libswscale 2. 1. 0 / 2. 1. 0
[mpeg2video @ 0181A0E0] mpeg_decode_postinit() failure
Last message repeated 6 times
[mpegts @ 01812320] max_analyze_duration 5000000 reached at 5016000
[mpegts @ 01812320] PES packet size mismatch
Last message repeated 1 times
Input #0, mpegts, from 'I:\TV\09-04_20-14-07_SAT 1_Navy CIS.ts':
Duration: 02:06:11.82, start: 84046.253356, bitrate: 3941 kb/s
Program 17500
Stream #0:0[0xca]: Video: mpeg2video (Main) ([2][0][0][0] / 0x0002), yuv420p, 720x576 [SAR 64:45 DAR 16:9], 15000 kb/s, 26.09 fps, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 50 tbc
Stream #0:1[0xcb](deu): Audio: mp2 ([3][0][0][0] / 0x0003), 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 192 kb/s (clean effects)
Stream #0:2[0xcd](deu): Audio: ac3 ([6][0][0][0] / 0x0006), 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 384 kb/s (clean effects)
At least one output file must be specified


---> DB Level Info: 8, 4
---> Frame rate: 26,09
---> Aspect ratio: 16:9


Hope you can help me...

Thanks in advance,
sick

[Paul]

Here's my question:

Is Mezzmo able to playback the files in the correct aspect ratio without transcoding? And if so, can yu send me a detailed "how to..."?

The "Samsung C" device profile will pass such files through natively, but both "BDP" profiles will try to transcode them. If the file is passed through natively, then Mezzmo cannot do anything about the aspect ratio, since it's not touching the file and it's up to the device to sort it out. If the file is being transcoded, then yes, we can play around with some settings by manually modifying the device profile.

[Dillster]

sick,

I found I had the same issue with my Samsung B series TV...

I ended up using MC-TV Converter with a profile i modified to resize the wtv files and convert to an avi format that the sammy and my PS3 liked. The conversion takes place after the program was recorded You might want to try something like that.

[sickonede]

Thank you Dennis and Dillster for your quick reply.

I was hoping to avoid transcoding, because of 2 reasons:

1) I have a huge collection of .ts and .mpg files which are pal 720x576 16:9

2) Unfortunately my PC seems not strong enough to transcode in real time. I tried profile Samsung BDP 3D and Mezzmo started to transcode, but the stream was interrupted all few seconds and displayed "loading"...not fun to watch content like that.

I hoped that Mezzmo can tell the Samsung Player that we have anamorphic 16:9 aspect ratio without transcoding. This is not possible, right?

I thought that the Mezzmo profiles exactly do that and tell the player how to playback a file to ensure the playback has the correct aspect ratio.

Is it not possible to scale the video to the correct aspect without transcoding and send the scaled video to the Samsung Player. A software player (e.g. vlc) also doesn't have to transcode a video if there is a wrong aspect ratio detected.

The question is, if Mezzmo would deliver the video with the correct scaling, also the Samsung Player would display the video with the correct scaling?

If Mezzmo is not able to do that, do you know of another solution (without transcoding) to send the video to the player wit the correct aspect ratio (16:9 instead of 4:3)

[Paul]

I don't think you can change the aspect ratio by simply remuxing the file (e.g. keeping the video stream intact, but changing the container), but I haven't tried that. If you can send us one of your files to support (through a site like www.megaupload.com), I could try and see what I can come up with here.

The BDP will gather information from the file on how to display it, so without transcoding, I don't think we can tell the device to display it in a certain way. The file itself has to be "correct" and understood by the device. Software players (such as VLC) act differently, so we can't compare to that - the player in the firmware of the device is very limited in what it can do, compared to that.

[Dillster]

I think it's an issue with the Sammy firmware - it seems to like PAR 1:1 only - at least that's what I've found when converting WTVs for my Sammy TV.

[Broti]

I also have this issue with a Samsung B TV. It is definitly a firmware problem and Samsung will not fix it. I use a workaround that is based on a second bug in that firmware. This workaround works when playing movies from USB and it also works with Mezzmo via DLNA:
If you play two movies without stopping playback in between the firmware media player plays the second movie with the aspect ratio of the first one.
I have a little (native) 16:9 intro which is just 3 seconds long. I always put this intro in the playlist (or just a folder) before the anamorphic 4:3 movie. I start the player with the intro and after 3 seconds it skips to the anamorphic movie playing it in 16:9.
With Mezzmo this all works without any transcoding. (I also use an older XP machine so I have disabled transcoding for everything)
This solution is not that convenient but it works for me...

[Paul]

If you play two movies without stopping playback in between the firmware media player plays the second movie with the aspect ratio of the first one.
I have a little (native) 16:9 intro which is just 3 seconds long. I always put this intro in the playlist (or just a folder) before the anamorphic 4:3 movie. I start the player with the intro and after 3 seconds it skips to the anamorphic movie playing it in 16:9.

Nice trick, thanks for sharing that!

[lighttear]

Hi,
I have a Samsung BD-D6900 blu-ray player. I bought this player for its capability in reproducing multimedia files through DLNA and/or USB connected hard drive, but immediately discovered that this player, AS ALL OTHER SAMSUNG A/V PRODUCTS, does not reproduce correctly anamorphic videos ! Initially I thought because of a firmware bug, then I understood that this is intentionally wanted by those stupid engineers from Samsung ! The proof of stupitidy of Samsung is that an anamorphic video in mp4 container is instead correctly reproduced (that is PAR is no more 1:1) BUT mkv/mpg/ts/vob containers are NOT SUPPORTED for anamorphic videos.
This is a real idiocy since EVERY OTHER manufacturer (e.g LG, Panasonic etc) reproduces correctly anamorphic videos in every container.

Many thanks idiot engineers from Samsung !

L.