Panasonic Viera and Serviio

[zip]

try this profile:

  Code:

<Profile id="11" name="Panasonic Viera" extendsProfileId="1">     
      <Transcoding>
         <!-- Remux all h264 video to MPEG-TS stream -->
         <Video targetContainer="mpegts">
            <Matches container="avi" vCodec="h264" />
            <Matches container="mp4" vCodec="h264" />
            <Matches container="matroska" vCodec="h264" />
         </Video>
      </Transcoding>
   </Profile>

[Illico]

If this is the answer to my problem, I don't know what I can do next. Can resolution of a file be changed during transcoding?

Ok, could you confirm that your TV is limited to 720x576 Mpeg2ts resolution?
You can transcode locally with ffmpeg in another resolution (-s option):
For example take your c:\movie\Tennis.mpg file
Stream #0.1[0x202]: Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 1440x1080 [PAR 4:3 DAR 16:9] , 90000 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 50 tbc
Stream #0.2[0x2a0](eng): Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 448 kb/s
Stream #0.3[0x241](eng): Subtitle: 0x0006
And transcode with this command line:
ffmpeg.exe -i c:\movie\Tennis.mpg -y -vcodec mpeg2video -sameq -s 720x576 -r 25 -g 15 -copyts -acodec copy -f mpegts c:\movie\Tennis_720x576.mpg

Does have anyone Transcoding profile for Panasonic TX-P42G20E ?In the latest Serviio isn't any.I tried all profiles but it doesn´t play MKV videos.

[zip]

try the one I posted few posts above

[Summers]

Thanks Guys.
Will try your suggestions & get back to you.
Ta
Summers

try the one I posted few posts above

So I tried that profile and some of MKV-s I can play now with no problem, but I don´t know why not all of them.Some of them it can´t read or some of them are stutter or it showes that the file isn´t supported.And is there an option to choose the audio track ?

Hi
I have Panasonic TX-P42G20E to, I tried implementate the lines you give on post, but then if I edit eml file with notepad servio even don't won't to start. What I do it wrong. If you sucesesfully added the lines in the profiles.xml please add on the web or send me, or tell me what I do it wrong.
I will be very happy I could watch the mkv to.
Thanks
Sasko

[Illico]

...I tried implementate the lines you give on post, ...servio even don't won't to start.

This is probably a syntax error on your xml file, check the log file or post your entire xml file, will check.

[Summers]

I have been able to do some trial of suggestions.
Unfortunately the Panasonic profile Zip provided on Jan 7 did not make any changes to what I am experiencing.
I tried the command supplied by Illico with some success.

Illico said
You can transcode locally with ffmpeg in another resolution : (-s option)
ffmpeg.exe -i c:\movie\Tennis.mpg -y -vcodec mpeg2video -sameq -s 720x576 -r 25 -g 15 -copyts -acodec copy -f mpegts c:\movie\Tennis_720x576.mpg.

Using this command all the files which the Panasonic TV previously said "File cannot be read", now can be read. The picture and sound are presented but in bursts - ie stuttering. A break thru, excellent.

As I have a Standard Definition created file, which works & I can see what attributes it has, by running the ffmpeg.exe -i command on it, I know at least an MPEG2 format file which the Panasonic TV will play. (as I mentioned before such files have that max resolution of 720x576, the key to some success).
I have followed the tact of using ffmpeg.exe try and convert my problem files & hopefully determine what a Panasonic TV will accept.
My files also have ac3 audio and the SD that works has mp2 so I added translation commands for that too:
ffmpeg.exe -i c:\movie\Tennis.mpg -y -vcodec mpeg2video -sameq -s 720x576 -r 25 -g 15 -copyts -acodec mp2 -f mpegts c:\movie\Tennis_720x576_mp2.mpg
With the above conversion I have been able to get some files to play perfectly. Others I am still working to find out what will get them to play without the stuttering. I intend to create a table of my results so I can analyse and maybe come up with some conclusions.
My latest attempt has been to try to match the bit rate (6310 kb/s) of the file which plays without any transcoding. I left out the -sameq option seems to deliver a better result. It appears to work on my highest resolution file, but is a little flakey so I have to do more testing of options (works first time if everything has been rebooted, but gets the stutters when relayed after other operations)
ffmpeg.exe -i c:\movie\Tennis.mpg -y -vcodec mpeg2video -s 720x576 -b 6310000 -r 25 -g 15 -copyts -acodec mp2 -f mpegts c:\movie\Tennis_720x576_mp2_6310.mpg
Lengthy explaination, but I thought I'd tell of my success and that I am still working to identify a resolution.
Summers

PS. I rang Panasonic, all they could tell me was to look at page 52 of my manual, which as I said before state: Video MPEG-2 (PS format and TS format). Big help!

[zip]

I intend to create a table of my results so I can analyse and maybe come up with some conclusions.

Perfect!

[Summers]

I am having some success with converting my MPEG2 files so they are playable by converting them to MP2 and forcing a bit rate of 192kb/s ie using:
-acodec mp2 -ab 192000
Still more trials to go though.

Just wondering if the command syntax for changing Video bit rate to 6310kb/s is correct in my above post ie
ffmpeg.exe -i c:\movie\Tennis.mpg -y -vcodec mpeg2video -s 720x576 -b 6310000 . . .
I ask because it doesn't seem to matter what value I put after the "-b", as long as it is large enough, the command runs but it seems to make no change to the bit rate of the video in the resultant file.

On a note to be tackled later, if I attempt to play one file which stutters, I have to reboot my PC to have files which would have played come good again. Stopping & starting the server with the bat commands is not enough. As I say I'll cross that when I have the answer to getting all files to play.

Summers
(Fine. Mostly sunny. Max 30C)

[Summers]

OK, so the best results I can get is by running my MPEG2 files through ffmpeg.exe creating an output file of acodec = mp2. (Even if they are already showing as having mp2 audio)
ffmpeg.exe -i c:\movie\Tennis.mpg -y -vcodec copy -copyts -acodec mp2 -f mpegts c:\movie\Tennis_mp2.mpg

Serviio valid enumerated values for acodec are [mp3, ac3, aac, wmav2, pcm_s16le]

I can run this ffmpeg command on all my files, but I would like to set up transcoding via changing the profile.xml. Any idea how I can set up a profile to pick up my mpg files and convert the audio to mp2?

The final amount of stuttering mentioned in my previous post was resolved by using an ethernet cable rather than wireless connection. Happy to detail further if anyone else is experiencing the jitters.

Regards,
Summers

[zip]

mp2 will be possible in 0.5, but if the file already has mp2 audio, it'd just be copied

[Summers]

Excellent! In version 0.5.
I still have some mpeg files coming off my recorder which I can't play, but the number are much fewer than those which will play. Also since the last bit of minor stuttering has now been ironed out by removing a wireless component, I am very happy.
The ability to modify the profile to personally suit the type of files I have is something which I find great about Serviio. Getting to this point I have tried many othere media servers and Serviio has proven to be the best.
Also the helpful information on this forum and by contributors has been excellent.
Thanks heaps,
Summers

Serviio is excellent!
Love the powerful customisation.

Summers, mind sharing your profile.xml please?

[Summers]

My profile is nothing special at the moment. My file is currently much the same as zip posted before (http://forum.serviio.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=555&start=29), with one addition.
I had an issue with some of my avi files so I had a section to fix that.
My other issue was my MPEG2 files which I am recording from free to air TV, which I will await version 0.5 to add mp2 conversion to my profile.
So the extra I have/will add to my profile will be tailored specifically for the files I have and therefore may not be of much use for the files you have.

  Code:

   <Profile id="11" name="Panasonic TV" extendsProfileId="1">
      <Detection>
         <X-AV-Client-Info>.*VIERA.*</X-AV-Client-Info>
      </Detection>

            <Transcoding>
                  <!-- Remux all h264 video to MPEG-TS stream -->
                  <Video targetContainer="mpegts">
                     <Matches container="avi" vCodec="h264" />
                     <Matches container="mp4" vCodec="h264" />
                     <Matches container="matroska" vCodec="h264" />
                 </Video>
                  <!-- Remux all avi s to MPEG-TS stream - added by Summers -->
                     <Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="mpeg2video" >
                     <Matches container="avi" />
         </Video>     
      </Transcoding>
   </Profile>

I would suggest you trial the profile provided earlier on this thread by zip (as per link above) as your best starting point.

Also I might state that I found I had to set Audio channels to "Downmix to stereo" under the Transcoding Tab to achieve the best results for my MPEG2 files.

Note also, one of my main or underlying problems I had in trying to resolve my issues was caused by using wireless networking.
Summers

Thanks Summers and zip.

It seems the settings given by zip is working fine for now.

Just little nuisance with fast-forward and sync problems with certain files.
Sometimes it would crash and cant forward the video, which means having to watch from the beginning :-/

But it's fine for about 50% files so not too bad

I'm rather fresh user of serviio, mostly because of some bugs in older version (0.4.2) which made difficult to use it in comfortable way on OpenSuse. But since there was some info about new features in 0.5 version (especially Panasonic Viera profile and serviio-console bug resolution) I was waiting for this patiently. For last couple of days I was testing new release and noticed two main problems.

The first one I resolved on my own. There was an issue while playing matroska container with DTS audio. It wasn't possible to start any movies with that kind of track on my Panasonic Viera TX-P42V20. I've checked logs from ffmpeg playing that movies and reanalyzed profiles.xml configuration file, then borrowed some lines from Sony BDP profile and it started to work eventually.
I used this lines to enforce dts->ac3 conversion and put into <Transcoding> part before the original one:
<Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetACodec="ac3">
<Matches container="matroska" vCodec="h264" aCodec="dca" />
</Video>

The second issue is that subtitles work only with divx files, there wasn't any text while watching mkv files. Is it some limitation or there is some other requirement beside the same filename ?

[zip]

Not sure if the subtitles not showing is a limitation of the player... maybe it looks for subs in the container itself. You could check the detailed log to see if the Tv requests the subtitles resource.

In fact there is no request for subtitle resource while playing matroska container. I uploaded logs containing both behaviours : mkv without subtitles and proper avi file working.