Stuttering and blocky MKVs Panny G20

Running Serviio 0.6.0.1

I have a MKV file which is contains a single DD 5.1 audio track, which is about 1:25:00 long. When I play it through my Sony BDP-S570 from a Windows 7 -64 Q6700 (not logged in) the whole file runs fine without issue.

However if I play the same file through my Pansonic TX-L37G20B TV after about 30-35 minutes it starts to stutter. If I pause it and start it again I get "Please Wait" then after a few seconds it starts to play again (but it has jumped back a couple of minutes). It then plays for a while before stuttering again.

I have added the (aBitrate="384") line. The only other thing I thought of is that my library refresh time was set to 30 minutes. I have upped it to 60 minutes (may be Serviio refreshing the library was interfering with the transcode of the MKV)?

My on-line feeds time is set to 24 hours (default). How often does it actually rescan the RSS feeds? Is it every 24 hours?

Is there anything else I can do?

ffmpeg output from the file in question:

  Code:

ffmpeg version N-31480-g8bc3a48, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Jul 14 2011 23:37:53 with gcc 4.4.2
  configuration: --enable-static --disable-shared --disable-ffplay --disable-ffs
erver --enable-memalign-hack --enable-libmp3lame --enable-librtmp --extra-libs='
-lrtmp -lpolarssl -lws2_32 -lwinmm' --arch=x86 --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enab
le-pthreads --target-os=mingw32 --cross-prefix=i686-mingw32- --pkg-config=pkg-co
nfig
  libavutil    51. 11. 0 / 51. 11. 0
  libavcodec   53.  8. 0 / 53.  8. 0
  libavformat  53.  6. 0 / 53.  6. 0
  libavdevice  53.  2. 0 / 53.  2. 0
  libavfilter   2. 25. 0 /  2. 25. 0
  libswscale    2.  0. 0 /  2.  0. 0
[matroska,webm @ 01778da0] Estimating duration from bitrate, this may be inaccur
ate
Input #0, matroska,webm, from 'C:\Users\Christopher Povey\Videos\TV\Terra.Nova.s
01\Terra.Nova.s01e01.720p.HDTV.mkv':
  Duration: 01:25:08.38, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 448 kb/s
    Stream #0.0: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1, s16, 448 kb/s (default)
    Stream #0.1(eng): Video: h264 (High), yuv420p, 1280x720, PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9, 2
3.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 1k tbn, 47.95 tbc
At least one output file must be specified

[Illico]

I have a MKV file which is contains a single DD 5.1 audio track, which is about 1:25:00 long.

Could you provide MediaInfo result to see h264 profile level.

When I play it through my Sony BDP-S570 from a Windows 7 -64 Q6700 (not logged in) the whole file runs fine without issue.

Check on log. This file is delivered in native format. No CPU load.

However if I play the same file through my Pansonic TX-L37G20B TV after about 30-35 minutes it starts to stutter.

Check on log, this file must be remuxed with ffmpeg into MPEGTS. CPU load.

If I pause it and start it again I get "Please Wait" then after a few seconds it starts to play again (but it has jumped back a couple of minutes). It then plays for a while before stuttering again.

It seems that, ffmpeg has not finished the remuxing process, and process is too slow.
--> Pause, wait a minutes (5mn), then Resume.

I have added the (aBitrate="384") line. The only other thing I thought of is that my library refresh time was set to 30 minutes. I have upped it to 60 minutes (may be Serviio refreshing the library was interfering with the transcode of the MKV)?
My on-line feeds time is set to 24 hours (default). How often does it actually rescan the RSS feeds? Is it every 24 hours?

Personnaly, library update is disabled by default and only manually enabled when I add new files.

I have a MKV file which is contains a single DD 5.1 audio track, which is about 1:25:00 long.

Could you provide MediaInfo result to see h264 profile level.

Output from MediaInfo:

  Code:

General
Unique ID                        : 0 (0x0)
Complete name                    : C:\Users\Christopher Povey\Videos\TV\Terra.Nova.s01\Terra.Nova.s01e01.720p.HDTV.mkv
Format                           : Matroska
Format version                   : Version 2
File size                        : 2.78 GiB
Duration                         : 1h 25mn
Overall bit rate                 : 4 679 Kbps
Encoded date                     : UTC 2010-02-22 21:41:29
Writing application              : no_variable_data
Writing library                  : no_variable_data

Video
ID                               : 2
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                   : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC           : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames        : 5 frames
Codec ID                         : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                         : 1h 25mn
Bit rate                         : 4 138 Kbps
Width                            : 1 280 pixels
Height                           : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16:9
Frame rate                       : 23.976 fps
Color space                      : YUV
Chroma subsampling               : 4:2:0
Bit depth                        : 8 bits
Scan type                        : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.187
Stream size                      : 2.46 GiB (88%)
Writing library                  : x264 core 116 r2074+5M 4c8a10f
Encoding settings                : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=8 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=50 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=19.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language                         : English

Audio
ID                               : 1
Format                           : AC-3
Format/Info                      : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension                   : CM (complete main)
Codec ID                         : A_AC3
Duration                         : 1h 25mn
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 448 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 6 channels
Channel positions                : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                        : 16 bits
Compression mode                 : Lossy
Stream size                      : 273 MiB (10%)


When I play it through my Sony BDP-S570 from a Windows 7 -64 Q6700 (not logged in) the whole file runs fine without issue

Check on log. This file is delivered in native format. No CPU load.

According to the config profile for Sony BD Player it is remuxed too "Sony BDP requests all formats except mpeg-ps and mpeg-ts in 32KB chunks which works badly over wifi, hence mkv files are remuxed to mpeg-ts by default in this profile."

I have added the (aBitrate="384") line. The only other thing I thought of is that my library refresh time was set to 30 minutes. I have upped it to 60 minutes (may be Serviio refreshing the library was interfering with the transcode of the MKV)?
My on-line feeds time is set to 24 hours (default). How often does it actually rescan the RSS feeds? Is it every 24 hours?

Personnaly, library update is disabled by default and only manually enabled when I add new files.

I'll give that a try...

I got the DivX non HD versions in the end as MKV files are un-watchable. Problem is they broke up too!

Looking at the processor loading it looked like Serviio was serving them as is. So I added the following line back in to the Panasonic Profile:

  Code:

         
<Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="mpeg2video" targetACodec="ac3">            
...
<Matches container="avi" vCodec="mpeg4" />
...


It then played them reasonably okay, with the odd stutter here and there. My PC was logged in though. Try again tomorrow with it logged out...

Have a look here and see if this helps - viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3928

Have a look here and see if this helps - viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3928

It's basically doing what I posted. transcoding all mp4 video into mpeg2video format.

The Panasonic TV is on my network via high speed Internet Over Power modules. I went to the company's website and downloaded some monitoring software. Over the course of a few minutes the speed was fluctuating from 85Mbits/sec to 20MBits/sec. Further investigation I located a firmware update for the modules (it did not detail what the firmware did though). So I applied it and reran the monitoring software. It stayed rock solid at 85Mbits/sec.

So I have removed the transcode line again from the profile and will give the files another go.

No it still crapped out on the files. A little more investigation and I discovered it is actually a problem I found before. The TV cannot play divx/xvid files that have been encoded with Transcode encoder.

Is is possible to specify the encoder in the profile? So if the avi Divx file is not encoded with Transcode then send to the TV as is, otherwise convert it to mpeg2video.

[zip]

Is is possible to specify the encoder in the profile? So if the avi Divx file is not encoded with Transcode then send to the TV as is, otherwise convert it to mpeg2video.

No

No it still crapped out on the files. A little more investigation and I discovered it is actually a problem I found before. The TV cannot play divx/xvid files that have been encoded with Transcode encoder.

Is is possible to specify the encoder in the profile? So if the avi Divx file is not encoded with Transcode then send to the TV as is, otherwise convert it to mpeg2video.

Had problems again tonight so I thought I'd do some investigations. The Panasonic TV is connected to my network via Devolo Highspeed Homeplugs (85Mb/s). When I ran their monitoring software on my laptop it found the pair and stated the speed as 85Mbps. I then connected the TV to Serviio and started the video I was having trouble with. As it was playing the speed dropped to 20Mbps. When the picture/sound started to stutter the plugs were registering a speed of 13Mbps!!! The second I stop the video the speed jumps back up to 85Mbps. I have no idea why! Though the tech has moved on a bit since I bought these plugs so I may invest in a set of 200Mbps ones to see if that improves things.

[Illico]

Be careful, on the paper a 85Mbps homeplugs is not a full 85Mbps. 85Mbps is the physical bitrate, but with protocol like UDP, the maximum bitrate is less.

I know that a 200Mbps LEA homeplug is limited to 90Mbps for UDP and 80Mbps for TCP protocol.
For a 85+ LEA homeplug, 25Mbps on UDP and 20Mbps for TCP.
And LEA have good result, but some other could be less 15Mbps, or 10Mbps not enough for HD movies (20Mbps/30Mbps).

For example:
200Mbps Physical bitrate
PLC physical throughput
UDP packets: ≤95 Mbits/s
TCP packets: ≤85 Mbits/s

Be careful, on the paper a 85Mbps homeplugs is not a full 85Mbps. 85Mbps is the physical bitrate, but with protocol like UDP, the maximum bitrate is less.

I know that a 200Mbps LEA homeplug is limited to 90Mbps for UDP and 80Mbps for TCP protocol.
For a 85+ LEA homeplug, 25Mbps on UDP and 20Mbps for TCP.
And LEA have good result, but some other could be less 15Mbps, or 10Mbps not enough for HD movies (20Mbps/30Mbps).

For example:
200Mbps Physical bitrate
PLC physical throughput
UDP packets: ≤95 Mbits/s
TCP packets: ≤85 Mbits/s

I suspect this is the problem. My Sony Blu-ray player is in the room next door to the PC so I fitted proper Ethernet wall sockets on each side of the wall and it is feed directly from the router. The Panasonic TV is down stairs and is feed off the two 85Mbps homeplugs. I have just ordered a pair of 500Mb AV homeplugs. I'll see if they improve matters...

Be careful, on the paper a 85Mbps homeplugs is not a full 85Mbps. 85Mbps is the physical bitrate, but with protocol like UDP, the maximum bitrate is less.

I know that a 200Mbps LEA homeplug is limited to 90Mbps for UDP and 80Mbps for TCP protocol.
For a 85+ LEA homeplug, 25Mbps on UDP and 20Mbps for TCP.
And LEA have good result, but some other could be less 15Mbps, or 10Mbps not enough for HD movies (20Mbps/30Mbps).

For example:
200Mbps Physical bitrate
PLC physical throughput
UDP packets: ≤95 Mbits/s
TCP packets: ≤85 Mbits/s

I suspect this is the problem. My Sony Blu-ray player is in the room next door to the PC so I fitted proper Ethernet wall sockets on each side of the wall and it is feed directly from the router. The Panasonic TV is down stairs and is feed off the two 85Mbps homeplugs. I have just ordered a pair of 500Mb AV homeplugs. I'll see if they improve matters...

Just as a follow up the 500Mb plugs work a treat. The only issue now is I have to remember to update the Panay's profile after each update to transcode all divx AVI files as it has issues with some of the encoders out there...