[SOLVED] Panasonic TV won't play some MPEG files

I hope you can help me. I have put this in the Panasonic TV section but I guess the transcoding section might be just as relevant?

I have a Panasonic TX-L32D25 TV, it won't play .MPG files I have recorded with a product called DigiTV on my PC. DigiTV is a mediacenter type piece of software that records UK Digital Terrestial TV programs. (DVB-T) I am using Windows XP.

The Panasonic will play 'DVD authoring tool compatible' .MPG files but not the 'Original Broadcast Format' ones. DigiTV can record in either mode, but is unreliable when recording DVD authoring tool compatible files. The software has a utility that can convert or I can use Videoredo to convert, but I have over 1,000 files so this would be very time consuming indeed.

My father recommended Serviio to me as he uses it with a Sony TV to play similar files he has recorded with Media Portal. They are .ts files though.

I have installed Serviio on the media PC, it appears to work as the TV can see Serviio. However whichever of the profiles I use, it can't play the unconverted .MPG files.

I have attached below output from FFMPEG for a file that was recorded as 'Original Broadcast Format' (Airfix.mpg) and then converted to 'DVD authoring tool compatible' AirfixDVD.mpg.

ffmpeg -i airfix.mpg
ffmpeg version N-31480-g8bc3a48, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
built on Jul 14 2011 23:37:53 with gcc 4.4.2
configuration: --enable-static --disable-shared --disable-ffplay --disable-ffs
erver --enable-memalign-hack --enable-libmp3lame --enable-librtmp --extra-libs='
-lrtmp -lpolarssl -lws2_32 -lwinmm' --arch=x86 --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enab
le-pthreads --target-os=mingw32 --cross-prefix=i686-mingw32- --pkg-config=pkg-co
nfig
libavutil 51. 11. 0 / 51. 11. 0
libavcodec 53. 8. 0 / 53. 8. 0
libavformat 53. 6. 0 / 53. 6. 0
libavdevice 53. 2. 0 / 53. 2. 0
libavfilter 2. 25. 0 / 2. 25. 0
libswscale 2. 0. 0 / 2. 0. 0
[mpeg2video @ 036ab000] mpeg_decode_postinit() failure
Last message repeated 3 times
[mpeg @ 013b8c80] max_analyze_duration 5000000 reached at 5016000
Input #0, mpeg, from 'airfix.mpg':
Duration: 00:32:45.00, start: 47798.776400, bitrate: 3726 kb/s
Stream #0.0[0x1c0]: Audio: mp2, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 256 kb/s
Stream #0.1[0x1e0]: Video: mpeg2video (Main), yuv420p, 720x576 [PAR 64:45 DAR 16:9], 6500 kb/s, 25.43 fps, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 50 tbc
At least one output file must be specified

ffmpeg -i airfixdvd.mpg
ffmpeg version N-31480-g8bc3a48, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
built on Jul 14 2011 23:37:53 with gcc 4.4.2
configuration: --enable-static --disable-shared --disable-ffplay --disable-ffs
erver --enable-memalign-hack --enable-libmp3lame --enable-librtmp --extra-libs='
-lrtmp -lpolarssl -lws2_32 -lwinmm' --arch=x86 --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enab
le-pthreads --target-os=mingw32 --cross-prefix=i686-mingw32- --pkg-config=pkg-co
nfig
libavutil 51. 11. 0 / 51. 11. 0
libavcodec 53. 8. 0 / 53. 8. 0
libavformat 53. 6. 0 / 53. 6. 0
libavdevice 53. 2. 0 / 53. 2. 0
libavfilter 2. 25. 0 / 2. 25. 0
libswscale 2. 0. 0 / 2. 0. 0
[mpeg @ 016d8c80] max_analyze_duration 5000000 reached at 5000000
[NULL @ 011c1aa0] start time is not set in av_estimate_timings_from_pts
Input #0, mpeg, from 'airfixdvd.mpg':
Duration: 00:32:44.42, start: 0.200000, bitrate: 3933 kb/s
Stream #0.0[0x1e0]: Video: mpeg2video (Main), yuv420p, 720x576 [PAR 64:45 DAR 16:9], 8000 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 50 tbc
Stream #0.1[0x1c0]: Audio: mp2, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 256 kb/s
At least one output file must be specified

FFMPEG appears to have difficulties with the 'Original Broadcasting format' file, giving error messages.

MediaInfo

  Code:

General
Complete name                    : C:\Users\Richard\Airfix.mpg
Format                           : MPEG-PS
File size                        : 873 MiB
Duration                         : 32mn 45s
Overall bit rate                 : 3 726 Kbps

Video
ID                               : 224 (0xE0)
Format                           : MPEG Video
Format version                   : Version 2
Format profile                   : Main@Main
Format settings, BVOP            : Yes
Format settings, Matrix          : Custom
Format settings, GOP             : M=3, N=12
Duration                         : 32mn 44s
Bit rate                         : 3 396 Kbps
Maximum bit rate                 : 6 500 Kbps
Width                            : 720 pixels
Height                           : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16:9
Active Format Description        : Letterbox 16:9 image, with alternative 14:9 center
Frame rate                       : 25.000 fps
Standard                         : PAL
Color space                      : YUV
Chroma subsampling               : 4:2:0
Bit depth                        : 8 bits
Scan type                        : Interlaced
Scan order                       : Top Field First
Compression mode                 : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.328
Stream size                      : 795 MiB (91%)

Audio
ID                               : 192 (0xC0)
Format                           : MPEG Audio
Format version                   : Version 1
Format profile                   : Layer 2
Duration                         : 32mn 45s
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 256 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode                 : Lossy
Delay relative to video          : -204ms
Stream size                      : 60.0 MiB (7%)

  Code:

General
Complete name                    : C:\Users\Richard\AirfixDVD.mpg
Format                           : MPEG-PS
File size                        : 921 MiB
Duration                         : 32mn 44s
Overall bit rate mode            : Variable
Overall bit rate                 : 3 933 Kbps

Video
ID                               : 224 (0xE0)
Format                           : MPEG Video
Format version                   : Version 2
Format profile                   : Main@Main
Format settings, BVOP            : Yes
Format settings, Matrix          : Custom
Format settings, GOP             : M=3, N=12
Duration                         : 32mn 44s
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Bit rate                         : 3 599 Kbps
Maximum bit rate                 : 8 000 Kbps
Width                            : 720 pixels
Height                           : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16:9
Active Format Description        : Letterbox 16:9 image, with alternative 14:9 center
Frame rate                       : 25.000 fps
Standard                         : PAL
Color space                      : YUV
Chroma subsampling               : 4:2:0
Bit depth                        : 8 bits
Scan type                        : Interlaced
Scan order                       : Top Field First
Compression mode                 : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.347
Stream size                      : 843 MiB (92%)

Audio
ID                               : 192 (0xC0)
Format                           : MPEG Audio
Format version                   : Version 1
Format profile                   : Layer 2
Duration                         : 32mn 44s
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 256 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode                 : Lossy
Stream size                      : 60.0 MiB (7%)

As well as the TV not being able to play these files, Mediaplayer on the PC won't play them. But Power DVD will play both types.

I am confused as to what I will need to do to get the TV to play these via Serviio, will I need to do some form of transcoding? I'm sure the two types of MPEG files are very similar looking at the above information. The DVD format appears to be variable rate, but the broadcasting format appears to be fixed? But I am at a loss as to what I actually need to do.

I'd be grateful for any pointers.

[zip]

Try adding this to the Viera profile (to the top of transcoding block). Note that this will transcode all mpeg files now, even those not produced by your software.

  Code:

<Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="mpeg2video" targetACodec="ac3" forceVTranscoding="true">
        <Matches container="mpeg" vCodec="mpeg2video" aCodec="mp2"/>
</Video>

Thanks zip, that worked a treat! Well, once I'd corrected my botched attempt at editing the XML.

Thanks again.