Sony BDP S470 Video Quality

Hi,

I've searched the forums and read up a lot on the issue of playing MKV files over DLNA to Sony Bluray players. I currently have an S470 with the latest firmware, connected wirelessly to a Wireless N router, and a Synology NAS running Serviio.

Having read through the information that Zip and Patters have added here, I understand that the Sony stutters on MKV H264 playback because it reads the information in 32kb blocks, so when the information in a particular scene gets detailed, it can't cope. I have been muxing my stuff using mkvmerge. The MKV files can fast forward and rewind nicely, but every so often with heavy changes in the scene (e.g. water, lot's of fighting), it starts to stutter.

I've tried the Serviio transcoding, which completely removed the stuttering (brilliant!), but now trying to fast forward or rewind is a nightmare, because it shows stills of around 1 image per 15 seconds. When you then press play, it takes a while for the video to catch up with the audio. I think Patters explained that this is because in the first few minutes, it takes a while for the transcoding to catch up.

My next solution was to use TSMuxer to remux the MKV to M2TS so no transcoding is necessary from the server. I've tried various things (forcing the framerate, setting the level to 4.1 from 3, turning off the picture timing info, and the SPS/PPS functionality, and all of them in different combinations), but I still can't get the fast forward or rewind to work as nicely as it does in MKV format.

I seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place: no stutter on the video, but I can't fast forward; or stutter on the video, but I can fast forward.

Has anyone got any ideas on where I'm going wrong?

Many thanks for any help!

[NX3]

I've tried the Serviio transcoding, which completely removed the stuttering (brilliant!), but now trying to fast forward or rewind is a nightmare, because it shows stills of around 1 image per 15 seconds. When you then press play, it takes a while for the video to catch up with the audio. I think Patters explained that this is because in the first few minutes, it takes a while for the transcoding to catch up.

No easy answer. Serviio helps you get to your solution but your limited by the Synology box not being fast enough or powerful enough to do what you want. No quick fix for that ! I looked ay Synology NAS, very good but due to that last of grunt I decided to build my own. Cheap case, atom intel motherboard, 2tb HDD and run ubuntu, very simple, very cheap and plenty of power when needed.

I don't think it's the Synology that's at fault: MKV's fast forward without any problem, but stutter; and whether Serviio transcodes or an M2TS is delivered directly without transcoding, it won't fast forward smoothly.

The stutter seems to be down to the Sony BluRay player. But I don't know why I can't get an M2TS to fast forward smoothly. Am I supposed to transcode with particular settings in order to get a smooth fast forward/rewind? Maybe I should try M2TS straight off a USB stick and see what happens.

Argh! Stuck an M2TS on a USB stick, and it both plays and fast-forwards smoothly. My conclusion (which may be erroneous) is either:
It can stream in larger chunks (M2TS), resulting in a smooth playback, but can't send it fast enough to do a decent fast-forward
or:
It can stream in smaller chunks (MKV), resulting in stuttery playback, but sends it fast enough to fast-forward.

Hi,

I have a s370 and I occasionally come across this problem. I have mine connected with an ethernet cable.

I re-encode the file using freemake (great program) using the MKV preset. H.264 video, AAC audio, Leave everything else set as "Original" or "Auto". This solves any stuttering and seek problems. Not sure how it fixes it. I guess it just corrects any issues with the original mkv encoding?

The only real issue I have is MP4 files over 1gb. I get the stuttering problem on those if I pause or try and use seek and it doesnt go away unless I power off the player. I re-encode them but for some reason it takes freemake freaking ages to do it and the file size increases by 30%....For now I just steer clear of mp4's.

I've searched the forums and read up a lot on the issue of playing MKV files over DLNA to Sony Bluray players. I currently have an S470 with the latest firmware, connected wirelessly to a Wireless N router, and a Synology NAS running Serviio.

Have you tried connecting your S470 via ethernet to see if there is an improvement? High bitrate files are known to stutter over wireless. I use cat5e to 2 x renderers (S370 & S480) + a gigabit switch upstream. My server is an intel atom n280 netbook, 1gb ram+ WD elements 2tb connected. High bitrate MKV files play smoothly but FF/REW is very stubborn. Samsung BR players seem to get around this by FF/REW using the tools option. Sony BR players don't appear to do this. I just watch a high resolution movie knowing its pointless trying to find chapters, but atleast I can pause, and the Sony's play from where you last stopped the movie.
You would think the same internal processing used for disc/usb playback, is utilised for network streaming Its not clear if its all down to file cluster sizes, or just poor renderer processing. This is something I would love to know, although at CES 2012 its reported that some manufacturers are incorporating dual-core processors to their 2012 TV's to cope with streaming.

Link for cheap 5 port gigabit switch for anyone interested here...http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Gigabit ... B000N99BBC

Thanks guys. I've got Freemake downloaded, so I'll run a test file and see if it makes any difference. I'd love to run it wired, but that means significant rework on the house (which I've just had done) or taking a cable along the outside of the house (which is possible, I suppose!)

Update:

I've just run some tests using Toy Story 2 as the basis:
1. Freemake: 1 Pass encoding, limited to 1GB
2. Freemake: 2 Pass encoding, limited to 1GB
3. Freemake: 1 Pass encoding, no limit on size
4. Video .NET: 2 Pass encoding, limited to 1000 bitrate
5. Video .NET: 1 Pass encoding, no limit

Results on a 40 inch LCD tv passing through Sony BDP-S570:
1. No stutter, but quality degradation noticeable
2. Stutter, but quality acceptable
3. Stutter, but quality acceptable
4. Stutter, but quality acceptable
5. Stutter, but quality acceptable

As Freemake implements variable bit rate, and Video .NET tends towards a static bit rate, it looks like it's the wireless connection at fault, since I've got a copy of Avatar which plays seamlessly - the difference being that this is only at around 500 bit rate for the video with a total bit rate of around 1000 (+448 for the sound).

As a result, I've ordered a couple of powerline 500 adapters and a managed switch to see if that will make any difference.

More tests:

Remuxing the MKVs to MPG (but retaining the H264 and AAC/DTS encoding) resolved the stutter, but now the fast forward and rewind are rubbish. It looks like the Sony just has a very bad implementation of support for MKV, since the bit rate hasn't changed between MKV and MPG (in fact the MPG has a higher overhead).

I also went and bought some powerline plugs, which haven't made any difference, but at least I can plug more of my kit in which doesn't have wifi. Not sure it was worth what I spent on it though

[patters]

The picture scanning is pretty ropey over DLNA - I think that's just down to the player implementation. What I find is if A/V sync is out after jumping to a point in the movie, or if it won't forward past a certain point, it usually sorts itself out if you pause, wait, and unpause. Sometimes it freezes up during very fast forward scanning and you sometimes need to rewind a bit to persuade it to play again. It's not great, but it's certainly usable.

As for starting a movie and quickly trying to jump further in (like say if you want to continue a film you had previously half watched) - you'll need to start the movie, pause, leave it for a few minutes (depending on how far you need to jump), to give the remuxing a head start, then fast forward to your desired point. I think on balance a 2hr movie takes several minutes to fully remux.

Hi patters, thanks for your thoughts...

I wasn't actually remuxing with Serviio, just serving it straight up. I've been trying various methods to get decent playback, and all of them have drawbacks. In the end, I've currently settled for playing MPG through my Humax which, although it means I have to manually force the aspect, at least lets me fast forward and rewind with minimal fuss and doesn't stutter.

In the end, it comes down to the fact that the DLNA servers are all up to scratch, but the clients are all dodgy to one degree or another. It's a shame that DLNA doesn't specify the formats that it must support as encodings/containers.