MOV File audio/video stutters, out of sync.

Hello All,

I need some advice on playback of videos taken from my new camera. I recently bought a new DSLR that takes videos. The camera generates MOV files. I play them back on my Panasonic Plasma TV using a PlayStation 3 since the Panasonic TV is not DLNA capable.

When I play the MOV files, the audio stutters heavily and the video playback is uneven, often playing in slow-motion and sometimes normal and often jerky. The video is also way out of sync with the audio. When I plug my camera (or my laptop) directly to the TV using an HDMI cable, it plays back normal. When I go through Serviio/PS3, it's stutters as described above. I can play MP4 files with no issue.

I'm guessing that the problem may have to do with transcoding but I'm not sure how to tackle that.

I'm using Serviio 1.6 on Windows 10 Pro using hardwired LAN to all the devices.

Any suggestions?

[DenyAll]

Post MediaInfo details (see signature) for the .mov file.
Monitor your temp folder (the folder isted in Serviio Console, Delivery, Transcoding) while playing he .mov file - this will tell you if its being transcoded (an .stf file will appear)
Monitor your PC's CPU to see if its running at 100% during transcode.
After transcoding is finished does the stuttering disappear/get better?
I presume you are using the PS3 profile (in Serviio Console, Status)

Post MediaInfo details (see signature) for the .mov file.
Monitor your temp folder (the folder isted in Serviio Console, Delivery, Transcoding) while playing he .mov file - this will tell you if its being transcoded (an .stf file will appear)
Monitor your PC's CPU to see if its running at 100% during transcode.
After transcoding is finished does the stuttering disappear/get better?
I presume you are using the PS3 profile (in Serviio Console, Status)

Thanks for the reply. I AM using the PS3 profile in Serviio. I DO see an STF file in the serviio temp folder. MY CPU does NOT seem to be running at 100% during transcode, it's running about 60% (Intel i7, 3.4Ghz). I notice that the transcode file is quite large (350MB). Does the MOV file have to be transcoded every time it's played or does it happen only once?

Below is the info from the MediaInfo file. Thanks again for the reply.

  Code:

General
Complete name                            : D:\2016\Armenia 2016 SNDC\Videos\DSC_1300.MOV
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : QuickTime
Codec ID                                 : qt   2007.09 (qt  /niko)
File size                                : 240 MiB
Duration                                 : 43 s 594 ms
Overall bit rate                         : 46.1 Mb/s
Encoded date                             : UTC 2016-07-19 04:10:35
Tagged date                              : UTC 2016-07-19 04:10:35
NCDT                                     : NCTG

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4.2
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP                     : M=3, N=30
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 43 s 594 ms
Bit rate                                 : 44.5 Mb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 59.940 (60000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.358
Stream size                              : 231 MiB (96%)
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : UTC 2016-07-19 04:10:35
Tagged date                              : UTC 2016-07-19 04:10:35
Color range                              : Full
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709
colour_primaries_Original                : BT.709
transfer_characteristics_Original        : BT.470 System M
matrix_coefficients_Original             : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings, Endianness              : Little
Format settings, Sign                    : Signed
Codec ID                                 : sowt
Duration                                 : 43 s 594 ms
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Stream size                              : 7.98 MiB (3%)
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : UTC 2016-07-19 04:10:35
Tagged date                              : UTC 2016-07-19 04:10:35

Hello Everyone,

Well, I haven't made any progress on this issue. It seems that Windows 10 has a problem with MOV files in general. I downloaded VLC player and that smoothed out video playback on my PC but made no difference when streaming to Playstation 3.

I downloaded a video converting program (Free MP4 Video Converter) to try and convert the MOV files to MP4. I converted the MOV file to MP4 but when I try to play it on the Playstation I get an "unsupported file type" error. I tried converting to several different MP4 formats with several different codecs and none of them work.

I don't understand this issue since I have other MP4 files that play without issue. IS it the Platstation 3? Is it the profile? Is it the transcoding?

So frustrated!

[DenyAll]

My guess is that it is the transcoding. This file is being tagged as a High@L4.2 profile (and it's not really) which is forcing it to be transcoded by the PlayStation 3 profile.

Try the following as a test - set your profile for your PS3 to the "Generic DLNA Profile" in the Serviio Console, Status tab - make sure you press Save after changing. Restart the PC just to be sure.

If the file now plays - set the Profile back to the PS 3 Profile and then you can either:

• Change the file - use http://wiki.serviio.org/doku.php?id=avceditor to change the profile level in the header to level 4.1. I've never used this tool.... ; or
• Edit the PS3 profile in Serviio:
  
  • Edit the file profiles.xml file located in your Serviio/config folder using your favourite text editor (Notepad++ is good for this). Make a back up copy of this file before editing.
  • Locate the Playstation 3 Profile block
  • Insert:
    <H264LevelCheck>FILE_ATTRIBUTES</H264LevelCheck>
    in a new line just above the existing line containing:
    <Transcoding>
  • Save the file
  • Restart your PC
  • The above changes will tell Serviio to ignore the h264 level contained in the file header (4.2) and use the one calculated from the file attributes - which by my calculations is level 3.1 (see http://wiki.serviio.org/doku.php?id=get_h264_level). This will result in the file not being transcoded.

If the new file doesn't play, then my next guess is it's related to the bit rate - but one step at a time.

My guess is that it is the transcoding. This file is being tagged as a High@L4.2 profile (and it's not really) which is forcing it to be transcoded by the PlayStation 3 profile.

Try the following as a test - set your profile for your PS3 to the "Generic DLNA Profile" in the Serviio Console, Status tab - make sure you press Save after changing. Restart the PC just to be sure.

If the file now plays - set the Profile back to the PS 3 Profile and then you can either:

• Change the file - use http://wiki.serviio.org/doku.php?id=avceditor to change the profile level in the header to level 4.1. I've never used this tool.... ; or
• Edit the PS3 profile in Serviio:
  
  • Edit the file profiles.xml file located in your Serviio/config folder using your favourite text editor (Notepad++ is good for this). Make a back up copy of this file before editing.
  • Locate the Playstation 3 Profile block
  • Insert:
    <H264LevelCheck>FILE_ATTRIBUTES</H264LevelCheck>
    in a new line just above the existing line containing:
    <Transcoding>
  • Save the file
  • Restart your PC
  • The above changes will tell Serviio to ignore the h264 level contained in the file header (4.2) and use the one calculated from the file attributes - which by my calculations is level 3.1 (see http://wiki.serviio.org/doku.php?id=get_h264_level). This will result in the file not being transcoded.

If the new file doesn't play, then my next guess is it's related to the bit rate - but one step at a time.

Thanks for your advice. I really appreciate it. I tried changing the PS3 profile to Generic and the MOV files didn't play at all - "Unsupported file type".

After monkeying around with the Free MP4 converter, I found a setting that worked. Setting the codec to H264 Baseline seems to have done the trick. I can convert to MP4 and play the files without issue. Still, I'd rather not have to convert the files at all but at least I have a workable solution. The resulting MP4 file is a much smaller file size than the original MOV file which makes me wonder if I'm losing anything in the conversion.

How would I setup a custom transcoding to play the MOV files without converting the video files?

[DenyAll]

How would I setup a custom transcoding to play the MOV files without converting the video files?

I'm starting to think it is the bit rate - try editing the (original unmodified) PS3 profile and changing the first occurrence of this :

<Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="mpeg2video" targetACodec="ac3" aBitrate="384">

to

<Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="mpeg2video" maxVBitrate="17000" targetACodec="ac3" aBitrate="384">

This will limit the bit rate of the transcoded file. Restart your PC after editing.

Hello,

I have been away all weekend and just got back. I have tried to modify the PS3 profile and have had no luck. I tried to limit the bitrate to 17000, as suggested, and then tried reducing it to 10,000 an then down to 5,000 but it made no difference. I think I may borrow a friends Playstaytion 4 and see if it experiences the same problems on the PS4 as well.