Bravia 2010 MKV Stuttering

On the whole my EX503 does quite well with 1080p MKV files but there's one in particular that it can't handle. In high-FX scenes with a large proportion of high detail CGI the video and audio stutters. The 5.1 light on my amp flashes on/off as it's stuttering so it seems like something is struggling to keep up.

My setup:

  Code:

Sony 46EX403, optical link to DA2400ES, network wired to Gigabit wireless router.
Servio on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS server - ESXi VM, 1GB RAM, 4x 3Ghz CPU cores.  Server uses 300Mbps 5Ghz link to wireless router.  Excellent signal, no other devices on 5Ghz network or other networks on this band.

I've monitored network traffic on 5Ghz while playing this and other 1080p MKV files but the network doesn't seem to break a sweat. Neither does the serviio server - CPU and memory usage stats show no signs of a need for additional RAM or CPU.

This only leaves me to believe that the decoder in the TV can't keep up with the video bitrate in particular scenes?

File info:

  Code:

root@serviio:/media/mothership.files/Media/Video/Movies/The Movie# ffmpeg -i The.Movie.1080p.x264.mkv                   ffmpeg version 0.9, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Mar 19 2012 19:44:14 with gcc 4.6.1
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-version3 --enable-x11grab --enable-libvpx --enable-librtmp --enable-libxvid
  libavutil    51. 32. 0 / 51. 32. 0
  libavcodec   53. 42. 0 / 53. 42. 0
  libavformat  53. 24. 0 / 53. 24. 0
  libavdevice  53.  4. 0 / 53.  4. 0
  libavfilter   2. 53. 0 /  2. 53. 0
  libswscale    2.  1. 0 /  2.  1. 0
  libpostproc  51.  2. 0 / 51.  2. 0

Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 47.95 (48000/1001) -> 48.00 (48/1)
Input #0, matroska,webm, from 'The.Movie.1080p.x264.mkv':
  Duration: 02:22:54.90, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 14760 kb/s
    Chapter #0.0: start 0.000000, end 482.315000
    Metadata:
      title           : 01. Chapter 1
    Stream #0:0(eng): Video: h264 (High), yuv420p, 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 23.98 fps, 48 tbr, 1k tbn, 47.95 tbc (default)
    Stream #0:1: Audio: dts (DTS), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), s16, 1536 kb/s (default)
    Stream #0:2(eng): Subtitle: text (default) (forced)
    Metadata:
      title           : foreign
    Stream #0:3(eng): Subtitle: text
    Stream #0:4(eng): Subtitle: text
    Metadata:
      title           : sdh
    Stream #0:5(bul): Subtitle: text
    Stream #0:6(dan): Subtitle: text
    Stream #0:7(est): Subtitle: text
    Stream #0:8(fin): Subtitle: text
    Stream #0:9(ice): Subtitle: text
    Stream #0:10(lav): Subtitle: text
    Stream #0:11(lit): Subtitle: text
    Stream #0:12(nor): Subtitle: text
    Stream #0:13(rus): Subtitle: text
    Stream #0:14(rus): Subtitle: text
    Metadata:
      title           : foreign
    Stream #0:15(swe): Subtitle: text
    Stream #0:16(ukr): Subtitle: text
    Stream #0:17(ukr): Subtitle: text
    Metadata:
      title           : foreign


Browsing through the video in VLC on a couple of the problem scenes I noticed Input bitrate numbers like 33696kb/s and 40000kb/s but I don't know whether that's considered high or normal?

I'm a bit of a newcomer to Serviio and have browsed the forums a little looking for similar issues but most seem to come down to network issues which I can't see here. How can I get around this problem? Assuming it is the bitrate I'm guessing that I need to set the Bravia profile to limit the maximum somehow? Are there specific logs I should check during/after playback?

Any pointers appreciated.

JBF

Player controls also freeze while stuttering.

Network:






The CPU is used a bit at first but seems to settle down once the video gets going. I checked the running processes and there's no ffmpeg so I guess it's not needing to transcode?

[Illico]

Could you check the video bitrate with that windows tool ?
http://wiki.serviio.org/doku.php?id=vbitrate

Bitrate > 20-25Mbps could interfere the device buffer.In this case, you have to transcode to lower bitrate.

I'm guessing I change the Bravia 2010 profile to:

  Code:

 <Profile id="sony2010" name="Sony Bravia TV (2010)" extendsProfileId="sony2011">
      <!-- 2010 models
         - Still images: JPEG
         - Music: MP3, linear PCM
         - Video: AVCHD, MPEG2 (not playable in some cases) -->
                <Detection>
                        <UPnPSearch>
                                <FriendlyName>BRAVIA KDL-\d{2}[EHLNPB]X\d[01]\d.*</FriendlyName>
                        </UPnPSearch>
                </Detection>
                <Transcoding>
                        <!-- Remux h264 video + AC3/AAC audio to MPEG-TS stream with transcoding -->
                        <Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="mpeg2video" maxVBitrate="24000" targetACodec="ac3" aBitrate="384" forceInheritance="true">
                                <Matches container="mp4" vCodec="h264" aCodec="aac" />
                                <Matches container="mp4" vCodec="h264" aCodec="ac3" />
                                <Matches container="3gp" vCodec="h264" aCodec="aac" />
                                <Matches container="3gp" vCodec="h264" aCodec="ac3" />
                        </Video>
                        <!-- Transcode MPEG1, VC-1, DivX, AVI, MP4, WMV -->
                        <Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="mpeg2video" maxVBitrate="17000" targetACodec="ac3" aBitrate="384" DAR="16:9" forceInheritance="true">
                                <Matches container="mpegvideo" />
                                <Matches container="mpegts" vCodec="vc1" />
                                <Matches container="avi" vCodec="mpeg4" />
                                <Matches container="avi" vCodec="msmpeg4" />
                                <Matches container="avi" vCodec="mjpeg" />
                                <Matches container="mp4" />
                                <Matches container="asf" />
                                <Matches container="3gp" />
                        </Video>
                        <!-- Transcode WMA -->
                        <Audio targetContainer="lpcm" forceInheritance="true">
                                <!-- To allow "pause" then "resume" functions and album art for TVs that support it - transcode to mp3 instead -->
                                <Matches container="asf" />
                        </Audio>
                </Transcoding>
        </Profile>


Seems a shame to force the videos that don't need transcoding, will I lose quality on those? Can I apply different profiles based on folder or something like that?

[Illico]

Its a very high video bitrate, so one solution is to force video transcoding.
Suggest to create a Custom sony profile that only transcode mkv/h264 media.

  Code:

   <Profile id="sony2010custom" name="Sony Bravia TV (2010) - MKV*" extendsProfileId="sony2010">
      <Transcoding>
         <!-- Transcode MKV/h264 -->
         <Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="mpeg2video" maxVBitrate="17000" targetACodec="ac3" aBitrate="384" forceInheritance="true">
            <Matches container="matroska" vCodec="h264" />
         </Video>
      </Transcoding>
   </Profile>

Seems a shame to force the videos that don't need transcoding, will I lose quality on those?

A shame yes, but we don't have a reliable video bitrate information from ffmpeg, so we could not distinguish files that need to be transcoded...

Can I apply different profiles based on folder or something like that?

No, only manually. Select "Sony Bravia TV (2010) - MKV*" when stuttering are present...

Ok thanks, I'll experiment with maxVBitrate to see how far I can push it.

Hi, I've same problem.

My configuration in:

  Code:

Sony Bravia  40NX700 wired connected to 1GB switch
Server HP Microserver - Athlon 1,5Ghz - 4 GB RAM
Linux CentOS 6.3 - Serviio 1.0.1

When I try to view a file MKV 12GB it stutts every 5-10 minutes. CPU 10% average and network in normal.

Any ideas?
Thanks in advance !!!

[Xmantium]

I have the same with my Bravia 2010 TV. Its the TV that cant handle the load, worst case the TV simply restarts when it stutters badly
All my 720p MKVs plays fine without any issues

Theres another Serviio user who said the 2011 and future model works fine with 1080p which suggests it has a superior processor