Perfomance issue with MKV and Sony BD-S370

Hi people,

I've got some strange performance issues trying to play HD MKVs with Serviio. Weird thing is when I am playing the file from the beginning, everything is ok, however if I use FastForward both video and audio start play in bursts, with about quarter of seconds pauses between bursts. Strangely but if I use pause, the movie starts to run fine for about 3 seconds, and then begin to brake again.
I have the quite an old computer (P4 2.4G with 2G RAM) running Mandriva Linux, however it seems to me not an issue of a CPU power, as according to top the processor is more or less idling (about 80% idle). Moreover, when I changed the profile to transcode the MKV to M2TS stream, the problem is gone, means the CPU even powerful enough to transcode it on the fly and even transcode DTS to DolbyDigital in this case.
Could somebody give me a hint how to hunt this unpleasant behavior? Unfortunately I cannot stay on the transcoding as the subtitles and multiple audio tracks are not supported in this case.

Thanks for the help in advance.

Its seems that all MKVs(ive only them with 264 streams) are not working with FF / RR and if you attempt to do so then you will get the behaviour you describe ( pause works fine).
The only solution for that is transoding to M2TS on the fly or using TSMUXER beforehand.

[tombert]

Similar issues with me ... moreover I'am pretty sure that it's the player not able to handle HD with high bitrate.

Similar issues with me ... moreover I'am pretty sure that it's the player not able to handle HD with high bitrate.

So you think this is the player issue? Too bad...

The sony itself will FF/RR MKV's from usb + disc np just not over the netork via dnla.

Transcoding on the fly to M2TS without losing any quality is really no big deal ( will be even better when the dts profile is done).

Having used it now myself for a while i can really say its an amazing machine - and i can understand why its become pretty much the most sought after player with DNLA abilities ( that and its wicked picture /sound quality / price)

The sony itself will FF/RR MKV's from usb + disc np just not over the netork via dnla.

Sounds a bit strange, what's the difference?

Transcoding on the fly to M2TS without losing any quality is really no big deal ( will be even better when the dts profile is done).

Not an option for me in many cases. It's not possible to select neither the audiotrack nor the subtitles track. E.g. in Avatar the na'avi speech goes with subtitles, so I just can't understand them. Unfortunately Serviio can't mix in the external subtitles either.

[tombert]

Sounds a bit strange, what's the difference?

The TV/Blu-Ray implements two completely different players - one for USB and the other for DLNA. ... thats mainly the reason why USB plays many more formats but DLNA doesn't.

Its seems that all MKVs(ive only them with 264 streams) are not working with FF / RR and if you attempt to do so then you will get the behaviour you describe ( pause works fine).
The only solution for that is transoding to M2TS on the fly or using TSMUXER beforehand.

Also "next chapter" also causes the same behavior, unless the bitrate is very modest (<1.5mbs perhaps). Hopefully it is a firmware bug in the player and not a deliberate feature.

Transcoding on the fly to M2TS works fine but I prefer using TSMUXER (GUI version) beforehand so that I can tailor the output for each MKV file I am working with.

for subtitles i tend to use an .srt file with the same name as the film - the sony plays them fine - its not needed to embedd the subtitle into the film itself

myfilm1.mkv
myfilm1.mkv.srt

will show subtitles np

Its seems that all MKVs(ive only them with 264 streams) are not working with FF / RR and if you attempt to do so then you will get the behaviour you describe ( pause works fine).
The only solution for that is transoding to M2TS on the fly or using TSMUXER beforehand.

Also "next chapter" also causes the same behavior, unless the bitrate is very modest (<1.5mbs perhaps). Hopefully it is a firmware bug in the player and not a deliberate feature.

Transcoding on the fly to M2TS works fine but I prefer using TSMUXER (GUI version) beforehand so that I can tailor the output for each MKV file I am working with.

I actually think theres some kind of capping going on ( just my observed opinion) with MKVs over DNLA - maybe sony themselves created this on MKV's as some sort of anti piracy measure.. who knows.
Looking at various log files it seems the sony just doesnt except more data thats needed when the bandwidth peaks out 25Mb/s + - this behavior is easy to see in task manager. Instead of nice spikes / peaks we see something that looks likes flat lining where the sony wont except more data.

for subtitles i tend to use an .srt file with the same name as the film - the sony plays them fine - its not needed to embedd the subtitle into the film itself

myfilm1.mkv
myfilm1.mkv.srt

will show subtitles np

Are you talking about USB or DNLA? Haven't tried yet to do this with Sony, but I am pretty sure it can do, as most decent players do. But here we hit the FAT32 limitation of 4G (or DVD limitation of 4,4G which is not much more).

I actually think theres some kind of capping going on ( just my observed opinion) with MKVs over DNLA - maybe sony themselves created this on MKV's as some sort of anti piracy measure.. who knows.
Looking at various log files it seems the sony just doesnt except more data thats needed when the bandwidth peaks out 25Mb/s + - this behavior is easy to see in task manager. Instead of nice spikes / peaks we see something that looks likes flat lining where the sony wont except more data.

I was thinking the same capping notion based upon what I was seeing in task manager also. Once FF etc is used the network bandwidth just flat-lines at about 2.5% on my 100Bt network. I can happily pull data off the server at high speed at the same time so the server is still working fine.

for subtitles i tend to use an .srt file with the same name as the film - the sony plays them fine - its not needed to embedd the subtitle into the film itself

myfilm1.mkv
myfilm1.mkv.srt

will show subtitles np

Are you talking about USB or DNLA? Haven't tried yet to do this with Sony, but I am pretty sure it can do, as most decent players do. But here we hit the FAT32 limitation of 4G (or DVD limitation of 4,4G which is not much more).

both (and bluray discs have 25-50 gb)

for subtitles i tend to use an .srt file with the same name as the film - the sony plays them fine - its not needed to embedd the subtitle into the film itself

myfilm1.mkv
myfilm1.mkv.srt

will show subtitles np

Are you talking about USB or DNLA? Haven't tried yet to do this with Sony, but I am pretty sure it can do, as most decent players do. But here we hit the FAT32 limitation of 4G (or DVD limitation of 4,4G which is not much more).

both (and bluray discs have 25-50 gb)

Then I assume it's for mkv only. As I tried with avi it doesn't work.
Back to the topic:
Thanks to everybody. I can clearly see now that it's the player issue, not the Serviio. I tried one of these matroska HDs on my Sony KDL-40W5500, both rewind and skip works fine.

How do I get serviio to transcode on the fly? I've triied a couple of changes to the profile, but with no success so far

[tombert]

In the serviio console you can enable it (I think is enabled per default). The files are transcoded only if the format is not supported by your TV - and this information is taken from the profile.

[patters]

For info - the Sony BDP profile included in Serviio 0.5 now remuxes all mkv files to m2ts by default so streaming is a lot easier over wifi. The only remaining issue is that FFMPEG can't seem to remux dts audio streams properly so they are transcoded to ac3 until that's fixed.

I'm using Serviio 0.5 with the profile setup as Sony BD Player (EU) and no matter what file I throw at it, it always stutters.

I've tried MKV via transcoding; M2TS converted outside of Serviio; Replacing DTS track with simple AAC 2 channel stereo. Nothing seems to work. File size is around 6-7GB. Network wise I'm running via PLC, so approx 85Mb/s is possible. (Same stuttering happens with wireless, direct cable connection is not possible.) Standard DVD rips play perfectly.

Any suggestions on what else I can try to get this running?

[patters]

@plushgraffiti Though I've never used homeplug networking devices, I'd bet money on that being your problem here. I have read about them with a view to buying and I think for some people they work very badly. Apparently the speed they quote is half-duplex so you need to divide it by 2 to start with. So if it says 85Mbps on the box it will be 42 really and that's best case scenario. Interference, bad earth continuity (adapters on different ring mains), using homeplugs in multiway extension leads, old domestic wiring - will all worsen that figure. For every few positive reviews there seems to be a horror story.

Just to test - can you move your computer to the room where the BDP is (plug it into the TV to save moving the monitor)? It's the only way to be sure.

Thanks for the reply. I'll try this out (hopefully today) and post back my findings.