Sony KDL-55HX850 & BDP-S590 - transcoding & DTS

**musicman** · 10-02-2012, 06:57 AM

Hi.

I own Sony BRAVIA KDL-55HX850 TV & Sony BDP-S590 blu-ray player.

Yesterday I downloaded Mezzmo because I couldn't get anything but PCM stereo over DLNA with Windows Media Player, no matter what device I used (TV or blu-ray).
Then I find Mezzmo with Google.
I managed to get Dolby Digital 5.1 with Mezzmo but the files I am trying to stream/watch are MKV with DTS 5.1 audio.

1. How can I get Mezzmo to stream movies with original (DTS) audio?
2. Why the files must be transcoded? Can't I just stream them without transcoding?
3. If I have to transcode the video files, why audio must be transcoded to AC3 (it's the same for TV or blu-ray - there is no DTS nor any other audio format to select, but only AC3 while selecting transcoding options)?
4. When I turn off transcoding, I don't see the files on my TV/blu-ray (the folders seem empty when browsing with TV/blu-ray). Why is that? The files have to be transcoded (question no. 2)?

I've tried this with a bunch of MKV files, but the problem is always the same no matter what MKV I select.

The audio receiver is connected with optical cable to TV/blu-ray and blu-ray is connected with HDMI to TV.
TV/blu-ray audio settings are properly configured (downmix is disabled).

P.S. I still have old audio receiver that only supports Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS but in a while I plan to upgrade to new audio receiver with all current audio formats (DTS-HD MA 7.1, Dolby TrueHD, etc.)

If this program would be able to stream files as they are (DTS/DTS-MA/Dolby TrueHD) I would most probably buy it, but for now I'm still evaluating.

Thank you in advance for your help!

**Paul** · 10-02-2012, 08:17 AM

If you tried streaming with transcoding turned off, then Mezzmo server will deliver the MKV file natively to your Sony BDP. And, if your Sony BDP refuses to play this MKV natively, then we know that Sony BDP's firmware is unable to decode & play this file. There's not much we can do except transcode it to a format that we know the Sony BDP will play. In this case, Mezzmo server transcodes your file's audio channel to AC3 since we know that your Sony BDP supports it.

**musicman** · 10-02-2012, 09:07 AM

If MKV files must be transcoded, is there a way to transcode only video and leave audio as is (DTS)?
It's little bit strange that Sony BDP wouldn't know how to handle anything except AC3 (via DLNA) and it supports all possible audio formats when playing blu-ray disc(s).

P.S. This is excerpt from BDP-S590 technical specifications:

Code:

Video File Formats
MPEG-4 AVC*1*2 - Extensions: ".mkv", ".mp4", ".m4v", ".m2ts", ".mts"
*1 The player does not play coded files such as DRM.
*2 The player may not play this file format on a DLNA server.

**Peter** · 10-02-2012, 11:48 AM

Mezzmo uses ffmpeg to transcode files for streaming to devices, ffmpeg does not remux (copy) DTS well at all so AC3 is used to provide better quality audio.

**JohnM** · 10-02-2012, 02:45 PM

You are bumping up against a limitation of the Sony BDP. They (Sony) made the decision to not support the good formats through DLNA. It was probably connected to their being a studio and they were worried about piracy.
I have let them know my opinion, but evidently it did not impress them. Here is a link to their directly supported formats in the US. http://www.kb.sony.com/selfservice/m...17936&fes=true

**steve12** · 10-02-2012, 05:00 PM

Change mkv in m2ts and the file plays good without transcoding with DTS in a Sony BDP!

Steve

**musicman** · 10-03-2012, 06:54 AM

Peter: Is there any chance Conceiva (or ffmpeg) could fix that in the near future?

steve12: When I turn off transcoding in Mezzmo, nothing works. MKV files cannot even be seen on TV (I only see empty folders). When I rename .MKV to .M2TS, I see the files and I can execute them, but I cannot play them (it appears that the playback started but I only get the video duration on info button and the screen is black). When I try to play the movies that I renamed from .MKV into .M2TS on my blu-ray player (no matter AC3 or DTS), I get an error message: "The file is corrupt or unsupported.".

Is there any way I could manually transcode the video to MPEG-2 TS / MPEG-2 PS and leave audio intacted, just to try?

**Paul** · 10-03-2012, 11:29 AM

FFmpeg recently released v1.0, so we'll re-check the DTS remux issue to see if they have fixed it. If they have, then we'll enable DTS transcoding/remuxing in the Sony BDP device profiles.

**musicman** · 10-04-2012, 03:45 AM

Thank you Paul!

BTW I've managed to stream video with DTS! I disabled transcoding and converted MKV to M2TS with tsMuxeR. After I did that M2TS file streamed great through Sony BDP-S590 blu-ray player. Unfortunatelly, streaming did not work with KDL-55HX850. I got video, but no audio.

Nevertheless, it would be great if you could implement transcoding with DTS so I could leave transcoding enabled.

Now, I have another problem.
I cannot get the subtitles stream with video. How can I setup Mezzmo to stream subtitles with video?
Does it work only when transcoding is enabled or it works regardless?

Thank you in advance!

P.S. I know steve12 told me to "change mkv in m2ts" but by "change" I though he meant "rename" and not "convert".

**Paul** · 10-04-2012, 08:01 AM

Thanks for the additional information, musicman. We'll also test it here with our Sony BDPs and Bravia TVs.

Regarding subtitles, the current version of Mezzmo (v2.7.1.0) streams external subtitle files (.SRT, .SUB, .SMI) to your DLNA devices. Many DLNA devices read these external subtitle files and display them. Unfortunately, some do not - including most (all?) Sony products. The only subtitling method that will work for Sony products is to "burn-in" the subtitles into the video during the transcoding step before streaming them to your Sony BDP or Bravia TV. Mezzmo v2.7.1.0 does not do this yet, but Mezzmo v3.0 will do it - we're completing this major new version right now. We're planning to release it in the next 1-2 months.