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Online transcoding (Mediabrowser) quality dips every second

PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 10:14 pm
by Nicopolous
Hi all,

I've had a search around but no luck finding an answer.

Firstly - really pleased with Serviio and I use it a LOT on my LAN and also to watch video remotely using Mediabrowser.

When I watch video remotely (i.e. over the internet, using transcoding to drop the quality down so my bandwidth at home accommodates the stream), I have a quality issue I've not been able to fix: The video will play OK for a bit, then after (approx) 20 seconds, the quality will drop significantly, so it appears VERY blocky. This only lasts for a fraction of a second, but happens every 1.5 seconds or so. Sometimes the video will go back to playing OK for 30-60 seconds, then go back to the oscillating quality again.

I've tried the following:

- Played using Mediabrowser over LAN to eliminate any possible bandwidth issues - problem remains
- Adjusted the maxVbitrate up and down in application-profiles.xml - problem remains
- Play in mediabrowser on "Original" quality (i.e. no transcoding) - plays perfectly
- Installed Serviio on another machine and played - exact same problem
- Tried playing H264 (BD rip) and MPEG-2 (DVD rip) files - same problem on both
- Tried AVI and MKV - same problem on both
- Played on Android (MX Player) through ServiiGo - same problem
- Played video on different PCs - same problem
- Updated ffmpeg to the latest version (64 bit) - no change
- Tried using Chrome and IE - same problem on both

I've monitored the CPU usage and it's always around 50%.

I'd really appreciate some help and I can't think of anything else to try!

Thanks :)

Re: Online transcoding (Mediabrowser) quality dips every sec

PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 5:45 am
by zip
does it happen for all files? when you look at the transcoded file in the temporary folder (rename .stf to .flv), does it show the issue in VLC when playing the file?

Re: Online transcoding (Mediabrowser) quality dips every sec

PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 9:55 am
by Nicopolous
Thanks for the reply Zip.

It happens on all files AVI and MKV (mpeg2 & H264) to name a few.

EDIT: Found the temp transcoded file - I will have a look and let you know.

Thanks very much.

Re: Online transcoding (Mediabrowser) quality dips every sec

PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 10:22 pm
by Nicopolous
Played the transcoded FLV file that was left in the temporary folder with VLC and the problem is still there.

I tried to upload a sample of the video but couldn't...I could upload elsewhere and post a link if you need it.

Let me know if you want anything else - I'd love to understand why this is happening!

Thanks again,

Nick

Re: Online transcoding (Mediabrowser) quality dips every sec

PostPosted: Thu Jan 16, 2014 8:25 am
by zip
Looks like a FFmpeg problem then, or the command used to transcode the file. But it looks like it's only you having this issue, so maybe some local env issue with FFmpeg?