mp4 files @50fps not found

[MikeL]

I have just updated to version 1.9 and am having problems with mp4 files in my library that are encoded at 50fps. They will appear, along with thumbnails, in my browser (running Windows 10 and Microsoft Edge) but when I attempt to play any of them I get a message saying "html5: Video file not found".
All other mp4 files (@25fps) play normally.

Any ideas?

Mike

[zip]

detailed log pls

[MikeL]

Log attached. Playback INFO entry starts at 15:40:55. All I see in my browser window is the starting frame with the play button in the centre and the error message "html5: video file not found".
I left the browser window open and at the approximate time when the video would have finished playing there is another log entry from the Playback Events Manager saying that playback had stopped at 100% so it would seem to think it had played successfully !

I tried playing the same video from my iPad Air running ios 11 and had the same behaviour and same pattern of log entries.

Hope this helps
Mike

[zip]

is it this file?

  Code:

Nadiya's British Food Adventure, Series 1, Home Counties.mp4

If yes, it's not being transcoded. So up to the html5 player in the browser to decode the file.

Can you post ffmpeg -i for the file?

[MikeL]

Here is the ffmpeg info

ffmpeg version 3.2.4 Copyright (c) 2000-2017 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 4.9.3 (GCC)
configuration: --enable-static --disable-shared --disable-ffplay --disable-ffserver --enable-memalign-hack --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libass --enable-librtmp --enable-fontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-zlib --enable-libx264 --enable-libspeex --extra-libs='-lrtmp -lpolarssl -lws2_32 -lwinmm -lexpat -lfreetype -lfribidi -lz' --arch=x86 --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-pthreads --target-os=mingw32 --cross-prefix=i686-w64-mingw32- --enable-gpl --pkg-config=pkg-config --bindir='/jenkins/workspace/FFmpeg - Win32/target'
libavutil 55. 34.101 / 55. 34.101
libavcodec 57. 64.101 / 57. 64.101
libavformat 57. 56.101 / 57. 56.101
libavdevice 57. 1.100 / 57. 1.100
libavfilter 6. 65.100 / 6. 65.100
libswscale 4. 2.100 / 4. 2.100
libswresample 2. 3.100 / 2. 3.100
libpostproc 54. 1.100 / 54. 1.100
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'x:/video.mp4':
Metadata:
major_brand : isom
minor_version : 512
compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
encoder : Lavf57.48.100
Duration: 00:29:13.00, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 4944 kb/s
Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p(tv, bt709), 1280x720 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 4811 kb/s, 50 fps, 50 tbr, 50k tbn, 100 tbc (default)
Metadata:
handler_name : VideoHandler
Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 125 kb/s (default)
Metadata:
handler_name : SoundHandler
At least one output file must be specified

[zip]

it it the video from my previous post?

[MikeL]

Yes - I just changed it's name so it was faster to enter on the ffmpeg command line

[zip]

If you drag this file to a web browser window (like Chrome), does it play? (using the built-in video player in Chrome)

Also, which browser are you trying?

The player in MediaBrowser should be able to play 50fps file.

[MikeL]

I only have Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer browsers on my system. If I just drag the file to either of them I'm asked if I want to open it or save it. If I say open then the default app for mp4 which is MPC-HC opens the file and plays it successfully.

If I change the default app for mp4 to Internet Explorer (it doesn't let me pick Edge) and drag it over this time when I press Open it just goes back to the same question (Open or Save).

I've tried logging in via MediaBrowser from an iPad Air (running ios 11) using Safari and it behaves the same way displaying the error message "html5: video file not found). Again if I leave the browser open then approx. 30 minutes later Serviio logs that the file finished playing.

I'm going to have my daughter try running MediaBrowser remotely on her Mac using Firefox and Chrome and see if either of those work. But it might be a few days till she can do it. I'll report back.

Sorry, but I don't want to have to install additional browsers at the moment

Mike

[MikeL]

Here are the results of my daughter's test on a Mac Book Pro:

Firefox: Took a bit to load, though I immediate saw an image. Started and ran fine for 55 seconds. Froze for about 10. Ran fine until 3:09, then froze again.
Chrome: Immediately started playing but froze every 5-10 seconds for the full 2:30 I watched. It would never stay frozen for more than ~5 seconds, but this was obviously a more irritating way to try to watch something than with Firefox's problems.
Safari: Never got a picture. Took maybe 20 seconds to start playing audio. Played audio fine for 30 seconds. Stopped for about 40 seconds. Played audio fine through ~3:30. Never got a picture, though.



Given that this was a remote test I'm guessing that if I was using FireFox or Chrome on a faster connection it would have worked.

Question: - if I set video delivery quality to medium or low would the file be dynamically transcoded to a lower quality to stream?

Question: - what is the streaming protocol that is used - is it RTMP?

[zip]

Quality would transcode to lower resolution / bitrate. You could try it.

Protocol is HTTP

[MikeL]

If I set quality to medium am I right in assuming that all files will be transcoded and not just the few higher quality files?

[zip]

Yes, all of them. It's mostly to be used for remote streaming if your uplink is not fast enough for the original bitrate.

[MikeL]

Yes, that's what I thought. Would be nice to be able to set the option at the file level since the majority of files play OK without transcoding. It was just those 50fps files that were an issue.

Interesting that even when I tried viewing one of those files (50fps) via Mediabrowser where the browser and serviio server are on the same system it still wouldn't work if quality is set to High but will work when quality was Medium

[MikeL]

@zip - can you further clarify the streaming protocols used. You replied in a different thread but I'm still confused.

If I have an mp4 file and have serviio set to stream at High quality then no transcoding takes place and the client (over http) makes GET requests to ask for large chunks of the source file incrementing the pointer of where it wants the data from on each successive GET. What is the name given to that kind of streaming protocol?

If I now set serviio to stream at medium quality and select the same file then the file is transcoded and produces a number of .ts files. The client requests each one of these ts files in sequence (again over http with GET requests). I thought that this latter approach is what is referred to as HLS.

Am I missing something?

[zip]

Original quality may or may not result in transcoding, depending if the original file is playable with html5 video tag. If it is, the browser just makes a GET or sequence of GET requests with different byte-range headers. It is sometimes referref to as pseudo-streaming, but basically it's just downloading the file.

Transcoded files are delivered in HLS format (ie a playlist m3u file and a set of .ts files). It's still just HTTP though... there are different levels of protocol (see ISO-OSI), so the HLS is the 7th level protocol, while HTTP is providing the actual transfer on a lower level.

[MikeL]

Just wanted to post an update on this. In the last week I have upgraded my Internet service and now have a 35-40Mbs upload (vs the 10Mbs upload previously). I had my daughter retry the test with Quality set to High and the 50fps files stream fine with Firefox and Chrome but still do not work with Safari. So the problem does seem to be with the HTML5 players in the other browsers.

Just to follow up on the transcoding question. I assume that when a mediabrowser client running in a remote browser connects with the mediabrowser server (Serviio) that there is an exchange of information about the client browser capabilities - what factors are taken into account in deciding whether a transcoding of the target video file is needed vs leaving it up to the client browser to perform adjustments like scaling up or scaling down the image?

Mike

[zip]

It's all manual, based on application-profiles.xml

It defines what formats are supported by the html5 browsers (generally) and transcodes the rest. And it also defines the qualities, that you can select in the player.

[MikeL]

Thanks