Serviio

Gents,

Apologies for being a newbie on the subject.
On my quest to find a decent DLNA server I stumbled upon Serviio and so far it is by FAR the best thing I could find.
I always used Twonky (registered, paid user) but my main issue was always the transcoding part.
Once I got Serviio up and running and modified the profiles.xml file to handle my Panasonic Viera, I am almost where I want to be!
So far I can play anything but AVIs give me chopped/out-of-sync audio. Well the out-of-sync seems to be either fixed or much better since I upgraded the ffmpeg app (got it directly from their website and updated the one inside the Serviio package - I am running on OSX 10.7).
I know it is not a resource issue as the machine has 32GB RAM, 8 cores (dual Xeon) and SSD disks plus 2 Gigabit interfaces.
Files are actually stored on a QNAP 469 and everything is connected using 2 Gigabit interfaces to a Dell managed switch. I can easily hit 100 Mbytes/sec out of the QNAP.
If I use even a Windows Surface tablet over a wireless connection and browse directly to the AVIs, they do play perfectly.
So again, performance I am 100% sure is there.
FFMPEG is the latest executable available on their site.
Serviio is 1.1.
I even tried adding the aBitrate="192" on the profile. Made no difference.
As I said, great picture but the damn audio is no good. I tried multiple AVIs and the behaviour is the same no matter which one (that I can see where encoded with different options for the audio/video what leads me to say that is not the problem).

Any ideas what to do next?
So far Serviio is THA BOMB. Seriously. GREAT SOFTWARE.
I would donate at least $100 if I can get it going perfectly.

The only thing I was asking myself is if I run it on Windows instead of OSX (MacPro, 10.7). Would it run perfectly on Windows given the better support for AVIs on the OS? Or am I completely off here?

Cheers!

CR

Try this trick to dump the internals of a file that is having issues.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1123

Are you transcoding the file or just streaming it to your device?

Is it like a fast stuttering? I have seen sporadic fast stuttering issues with some xvid avi's usually this happens when I try to fast forward or rewind a file.

Thanks for the reply. Today I did some more testing with interesting results.
Connected to the exact same switch (that goes to a Powerline Ethernet adapter) I also have a Sony BluRay player that I got at Costco (BDP something 59). At first it could not play anything then I got Serviio and set the player to use the Sony Bravia 2012 TVs profile. So when I tested all the files today using the Sony, they all play PERFECTLY, no sync issues of any sort.
I assume then the issue is either on the Panasonic TV itself or the profile I am using for the TV.
What do you guys think?
The TV can play some AVIs fine but others the audio chops. The BluRay player can play anything now without any issues whatsoever!
I will post more info about files it plays ok and files it does not play properly.

Cheers!

CR

which profile are you currently using? have you tried both Panasonic Viera profiles?

All the out-of-the-box profiles would not handle AVI files with this model (a 60" 3D Plasma from Costco). I added to the profiles.xml another profile I found here on the forums. Once that was added, the TV was able to play AVIs but then I have this audio stuttering/chopping/delayed issue.

CR

would you mind posting that profile here so we can see how AVI's are being handled?

Here you have the Panasonic one I am using (the TV does not seem to handle the audio properly - chopped/out-of-sync for many files):

<Profile id="30" name="Panasonic Viera With AVI Support" extendsProfileId="1">
<ContentDirectoryMessageBuilder>org.serviio.upnp.service.contentdirectory.PacketVideoDLNAMessageBuilder</ContentDirectoryMessageBuilder>
<SubtitlesMimeType>text/srt</SubtitlesMimeType>
<Transcoding>
<!-- Transcode h264 videos with profile level > 4.1 to mpegts with ac3 audio -->
<Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="mpeg2video" targetACodec="ac3" maxVBitrate="20000">
<Matches container="mp4" vCodec="h264" profile="high" levelGreaterThan="4.2" />
<Matches container="mp4" vCodec="h264" profile="main" levelGreaterThan="4.2" />
<Matches container="matroska" vCodec="h264" profile="high" levelGreaterThan="4.2" />
<Matches container="matroska" vCodec="h264" profile="main" levelGreaterThan="4.2" />
</Video>
<!-- remux VORBIS/FLAC/LPCM in MKV/MP4 to AC3 -->
<Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetACodec="ac3">
<Matches container="matroska" vCodec="h264" aCodec="flac" />
<Matches container="matroska" vCodec="h264" aCodec="vorbis" />
<Matches container="matroska" vCodec="h264" aCodec="truehd" />
<Matches container="mp4" vCodec="h264" aCodec="lpcm"/>
<Matches container="mp4" vCodec="h264" aCodec="aac"/>
<Matches container="3gp" vCodec="h264" />
</Video>
<!-- Remux MPEG-TS with no transcoding -->
<Video targetContainer="mpegts">
<Matches container="mp4" vCodec="h264" />
<Matches container="matroska" vCodec="mpeg2video"/>
</Video>
<!-- Remux WTV files to MPEG-PS with no transcoding-->
<Video targetContainer="mpeg">
<Matches container="wtv" />
</Video>
<!-- unsupported codecs will be transcoded into mpeg-ts, mpeg2 video and ac3 audio -->
<Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="mpeg2video" maxVBitrate="17000" targetACodec="ac3" aBitrate="384" forceInheritance="true">
<Matches container="avi" />
<Matches container="mp4" vCodec="mjpeg" />
<Matches container="mp4" vCodec="mpeg4" />
<Matches container="mpeg" vCodec="mpeg1video" />
<Matches container="matroska" vCodec="mpeg4" />
<Matches container="asf" />
<Matches container="flv" />
<Matches container="ogg" />
<Matches container="3gp" />
</Video>
<!-- unsupported audio will be transcoded into lpcm audio -->
<Audio targetContainer="lpcm">
<Matches container="flac" />
<Matches container="ogg" />
<Matches container="asf" />
<Matches container="adts" />
</Audio>
</Transcoding>
</Profile>

This is the Sony profile I am using that works perfectly with the BluRay player:

<Profile id="sony2012us" name="Sony Bravia TV (2012) - US" extendsProfileId="sony2012">
<!-- 2012 models for US (without avi/divx)
- Still images: JPEG, MPO
- Music: MP3, linear PCM, WMA, MP4
- Video: AVCHD, MPEG2, MPEG1, MP4 (AVC), MP4 (MPEG4), WMV -->
<Transcoding>
<!-- Transcode DivX, AVI -->
<Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="mpeg2video" maxVBitrate="17000" targetACodec="ac3" aBitrate="384" forceInheritance="true">
<Matches container="avi" vCodec="mpeg4" />
<Matches container="avi" vCodec="msmpeg4" />
<Matches container="avi" vCodec="mjpeg" />
</Video>
</Transcoding>
</Profile>

I used the aBitrate and maxVBitrate from the Sony profile on the Panasonic one (as you can see) to see if it would help. Nope, same thing.
I am leading towards something on the TV itself... If it could be fixed by Serviio, that would be incredible! At least for now the BluRay player has been working flawlessly so I do have a working solution. But would be awesome if all devices could perform as well as the Sony one at this stage.

Doing an ffmpeg -i on one of the problematic files this is what I get:

Input #0, avi, from '/Volumes/Video/Movies/Lost In Translation.avi':
Metadata:
encoder : VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.2 (build 2542/release)
Duration: 01:37:30.04, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1999 kb/s
Stream #0:0: Video: mpeg4 (Advanced Simple Profile) (XVID / 0x44495658), yuv420p, 720x384 [SAR 1:1 DAR 15:8], 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 25 tbc
Stream #0:1: Audio: ac3 ([0] [0][0] / 0x2000), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), s16, 448 kb/s

Thanks guys!

CR

is it just the audio that is choppy? or is it the video also?

Audio only. Video seems to be just fine.

CR

No ideas anyone?

CR

Bump.