Serviio

I've ripped DVDs and Blu-rays to my PC. I have Serviio 1.2.1. When I stream the DVDs through the blu-ray player that play fine. However, when I stream any of the Blu-Rays it's extremely chopping and freezes. It doesn't matter what format they are mp4, m4v, or mkv. Also doesn't matter if it's compressed or not.

I'm getting frustrated trying to figure out why the stream of the blu-rays is so bad.

Thanks.

Have a read of http://www.serviio.org/component/conten ... ?id=21#q12

In this case my guess would be that the higher bit rate (or the h264 profile level) of the bluray rips is not supported, either by your server (only really applicable if you are transcoding the file, which you should avoid if possible by ripping to a file type natively supported by your player), your network (forget streaming HD over wireless-G for example) or your bluray player (just because it supports it from the blueray disc natively, doesn't guarantee it will via DLNA).

Post MediaInfo details of a file that misbehaves, and also details of what renderer profile you are using in Serviio, what network connectivity options you have (ethernet cable, wireless G/N/AC) and what your CPU on your PC is doing when streaming the movie (what % usage is it sitting at).

I've attached the file info from the media info.

Player is a Sony BDP-S370. Profile serviio is using is Sony BDP-Sx70/SMP-N100 (2010). I've also attempted to use all of the Sony BD profiles to no avail.

This is my router: http://www.netgear.com/home/products/wi ... r2000.aspx

In an effort to rule out networking I connected the blu-ray player via wired to the router as well as moved the PC net to the router and connected via wire. It still acted the same way. However, if I copy the movie to a USB stick, I can play the movie just fine.

I have a dual core processor with both processors being assigned for use in Serviio Console. While attempting to play the movie my CPU runs between 20% and 35%. Majority of that cpu usage is from the ffmpeg.exe process.

The blu-ray player supposed supports mp4 natively.

The Sony BDP-Sx70/SMP-N100 (2010) profile remuxes mp4's and mkv's to a mpeg2 container. There are some notes in the profile that suggest this is necessary to stop stuttering, but lets try without.

What happens if you don't transcode (remux) - try either turning transcoding off (in console, Delivery tab) or using the Generic profile. Remember to press save

I turned transcoding off and it was still choppy. Again, non-blu-ray movies still play fine without transcoding, but blu-ray movies severely stutter. I've removed wireless as a problem (hard wired both the PC and blu-ray). I've removed the movie as the problem (can play movie from usb stick fine). Blu-Rays aren't just choppy on the blu-ray player. Movie is also chopping streaming on the XBox as well.

I've narrowed it to either the router itself, the PC, or the Serviio software. I may try a different DLNA software just to make sure that isn't the issue.

Hello, I've had this problem with all my Sony Bluray players. I rip all blurays to mkv's using makemkv. I don't re-encode them. In my experimenting I found out that any mkv's that have over 15000 bitrate will stutter streamed over DLNA to sony players, no matter what you do. For instance, if you re-encoded one of those with handbrake and dropped the bitrate down to like 10000 it'll play no problems. That's why dvd's work, because typically they don't have bitrates over 8000, as most dvd players in the past would have problems with that.

In the end, I enabled transcoding and fixed it by modifying the profile.xml.

I don't have the code in front of me right now, but basically I found the entry for the Sony's I had and found the piece that tells serviio to transcode certain file types, and added an entry for mkv's there. I also modified the heading to add a max bitrate command with 10000 maximum. Unfortunately that means I'm re-encoded everything that's an mkv file and streamed, but because 90% of my files are high bitrate (15000 or higher) direct bluray remux's, it's essential to get the sony players to play without stuttering. I don't notice the quality drop on our 40-ish inch tv's, so it's not a big deal really. My serviio box is a quad core amd and handles the load just fine.

I hope this helps you out. I can post the exact code if you need it, just let me know.

Oh, I've also read that this is a limitation that Sony has built into it's firmware for DLNA streaming. It of course doesn't exist playing from USB or from a disc, just crummy firmware that limits the network connection. Why Sony would do this? I'd love to know. It makes them look bad. I've heard from friends that Samsung players stream awesome with very little issues. Too bad they don't have all the apps that Sony does, or I'd switch in a heartbeat!

It would be great if you just copy and pasted your code for the profile.xml file.

I'm encoding most of mine to MP4 because the Xbox doesn't really like the mkv and won't play it, though it will play the mp4 files. I'm using Handbrake to convert the mkv to an mp4 and compress.

Also, where in handbrake would you set the bitrate?

Thanks so much for the help.

You can limit the bit rate for all mp4's and mkv's by changing your Sony BDP-Sx70/SMP-N100 (2010) profile

Change <Video targetContainer="mpegts" forceInheritance="true">
to
<Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="mpeg2video" maxVBitrate="10000" targetACodec="ac3" aBitrate="320" forceVTranscoding="true" forceInheritance="true">

Remember to restart your PC after changing profiles.xml.

This is less than elegant - it will transcode all mp4's, mkv's (and avi's and flv's) with h264 video, even lower bit rate ones (can refine the profile later if need be, use it to test for now - you will see your CPU usage peak out as your PC transcodes the video - this may cause stuttering itself). The better solution is to use handbrake to permanently re-encode the video less that 10Mbps as suggested by akajester. I'm no expert on this, but I think you add vbv-maxrate=10000:vbv-bufsize=10000 to the command parameters in the Advanced tab in Handbrake to achieve this.

Here's a link to my profiles.xml file.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/349 ... ofiles.xml

Yes, it's like the sledgehammer fix. Everything mkv is encoded. Until you can figure out a way to distinguish between the same file types but different bitrates, and I couldn't figure out how to do that. And no way after going through the trouble of making bit perfect copies of bluray movies will I re-encode it into trash, just so my sony can play it natively. boo!

I used the profile you provided, but it's still choppy. I guess I'll try re-encoding them at a lower bit rate.

make sure you select the Sony BDP-Sx70/SMP-N100 (2010) profile. Also on the transcoding tab I unchecked the option that gives you a better quality video, and kept the audio stream untouched. I also update ffmpeg with the latest 64-bit version.

Question, have you tried the built in profile for the Sony Sx90 2012? I tried it last night and about 90% of my bluray remuxes played perfectly without any transcoding! And even the really high bitrate ones played well! The only ones that didn't play gave the unsupported file error. When I check them out they're all vc-1 video. To be honest I'm almost thinking of leaving it as is. It was pretty amazing to see almost everything play with about 2% cpu usage! BTW, I'm using the BDP-S590.

When I switch my S370 to the SX90 profile, then I get "no playable file" messages. No movies show up at all. When I switch it back to the S370 profile, all the movies come back. Again, I can play normal DVDs just fine, but playing Blu Rays just freezes up.

How do I "update ffmpeg with the latest 64-bit version?"

If your running the Windows version it will come with an up to date supported version of ffmpeg when you install it.