Transcoded Media Files

[Alfiegerner]

I should point out that I'm by no means a video expert so I may be way off the mark in with my guess work so far.

We would need a bigger sample to see if this is really the problem. Do you have any more videos that you can test?

My initial thoughts were that as my system was PAL that this glitch was being caused by the transcoding profile forcing 25 fps.

My transcoding profiles look like this (note the r -25):

media_server/transcode_quality/DVD=-f dvd -b 4000 -s 720x576 -acodec mp2 -r 25 -ab 128 -ar 48000 -ac 2
media_server/transcode_quality/DVD6Ch=-f dvd -b 4000 -s 720x576 -acodec ac3 -r 25 -ab 384 -ar 48000 -ac 6
media_server/transcode_quality/DVDAudioOnly=-f dvd -vcodec copy -acodec mp2 -ab 384 -ar 48000 -ac 2
media_server/transcode_quality/SVCD=-f dvd -b 2000 -g 3 -bf 0 -acodec mp2 -ab 128 -ar 48000 -ac 2 -s 352x288 -r 25
media_server/transcode_quality/SVCD6Ch=-f dvd -b 2000 -g 3 -bf 0 -acodec ac3 -ab 384 -ar 48000 -ac 6 -s 352x288 -r 25

In your case your transcoding profiles enforce a framerate of 29.97. The file you are having the issue with is pre telicine 24 so this may be the culprit.

We really need more samples to see if FPS is causing this slight halting. A video expert would not go amiss either.

[deliverer]

I tested with three more movies I have. test1 worked while test2 and test3 had stutter problems. I attached a screen shot from gsport for each.

[Alfiegerner]

So far all the files that exhibit the stuttering are 23.976 fps. I'm not sure why they are and the 25 fps video does not though.

I will try on some of my file this weekend to see if I can spot a pattern.

In the mean time I think it would be an excellent idea to make a bug report and to Sage support and give them your screenshots from GSpot.

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by deliverer

As far as samples go...I can play the latest Cranky Geeks(http://www.crankygeeks.com) MPEG4 format just fine. What is a good program to strip a portion of one of the XVID videos I'm having issues with? Some simples hopefully...

You can use VirtualModDub to cut AVI files. Or you can download samples files here: http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~fhoesli/video/index.php

I played all divx/xvid files on my MVP and no stutter problems.

[deliverer]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

You can use VirtualModDub to cut AVI files. Or you can download samples files here: http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~fhoesli/video/index.php

I played all divx/xvid files on my MVP and no stutter problems.

I downloaded all four files from their site. All showed frame rate of 25/s with GSpot. Maybe the two that appeared to stutter were do the panning?

These two played fine.

Feature-Test-DivX.Certified-Only.('20th').avi (6246kb)
Feature-Test-Xvid.2BVOP.('Enya').avi

These appeared to stutter

Feature-Test-DivX.2BVOP-GMC.('Private-Beach').avi
Feature-Test-Xvid.2BVOP-GMC.('Perfect-Day').avi

[deliverer]

Support replied. Basically it doesn't support NTSC frame rates. They say the file will need to be converted first....

[Alfiegerner]

Booger. That's pretty odd though, you would have thought supporting NTSC frame rates was fairly standard.

[BFisher]

weird that it works 99% of the time for me, but on random shows (on different channels) it doesn't...

[deliverer]

So here is the question...How do I convert cheaply and efficiently?

[davephan]

You can cut AVI files with VirtualDub (a free program). Make sure you set VirtualDub, "Video" defaults to "Full Processing Mode" instead of "Direct Stream Copy".

The difference is huge. A Xvid AVI clip that is 4 minutes, 38 seconds is 7,056 megs with "Full Processing Mode" and 69 megs with "Direct Stream Copy".

Select under Audio->Direct Stream Copy.
Select also under Video->Direct Stream Copy.
Select the first part by(see image below):
1. Drag the bar to the start
2. Select Start
3. Drag the bar to the end
4. Select End

Last save the the new clip with File->Save as AVI. It will only take some few minutes to cut the DivX/AVI. I find that VirtualDub does work to edit Xvid AVI files, but the edit points are as precise as VideoReDo or TMPGEnc.

Dave

[deliverer]

So the next question would be is the HD media extender coming out going to have the same issues. I emailed support and will find out. For me, if it would have the same issue, I would purchase a PC vs the extender for that reason.

Deliverer

[mayamaniac]

I wouldn't call it an issue since I have very little problems with Divx/Xvid files with the current MVP Extender. I don't have the stutter problems. Once a while, I get audio sync problems, but that's rare.

The HD Extender supports h.264, which to my knowledge is a variant of Mpeg4, that includes Divx and Xvid. So hopefully, the HD Extender will be able to play all the Mpeg4 variants without transcoding, just like a PC client would.

[Rex411]

Deliverer, Did you get the answer you were looking for? I have the exact same issue with my MVPs and playing ripped DVD files. I create Xvid AVIs with AutoGK using the 1.4GB option and when i watch them through the MVP the quality is sub-par... very pixilated. When I watch them directly on the sage PC they look fine. My TV recordings are at 2.4GB/hr and they look fine through the MVP. I have my MVP conversion quality set to Standard because when I set it to High the AVI Xvid files playback stutters to an un-watchable level.
I have a Compaq d510 PC with just the on-board video card(but use 2 Hauppauge 350 cards for the decoding), 512MB ram and 2ghz processor. I am new to sage enough to not know how to use all the command line stuff. I am running sage version 6.0.19 and Java 1.6.

Any additional information on the solution would be helpful.

[Rex411]

So after more forum reading I found that Sage can play the ripped VOB files, although not in a row, so I tried one through the MVP and it was as clear as the DVD. Incredible picture quality. Granted the size of the VOBs is 5x that of the Dvix AVI, but its a start at an answer. Its all about the transcoding to Mpeg1 by the MVP that is causing the quality loss. Again any help is appreciated.

[Rex411]

Last round of research led me to all the Freeware necessary to take either a downloaded .RAR set of files or ripped DVD into a compressed single .VOB. Although its not a 700MB AVI, its still under 2gb for a full movie and it looks and sounds great on the MVP. With the DVD, I use Ripit4me to create the original sized VOBs. The open IfoEdit in case there are subtitles or other language files that need to be removed to keep space down. Next a run though with DVD Shrink 3.2 to compress down to 50ish% on the VOB size with removal of the movies extras. Finally combine all VOBs with JoinVOBFiles to create a single VOB that I open with through Sage's Play Other File option.

For the .RAR files start with opening all the files in WinRAR to uncompress into the VOB files then follow the process above.

Sounds like alot of work and I am sure that everyone is doing my process 100x smarter, but until I learn something different this is working for me.