I watched my first ripped Blu-ray movie on SageTV

[Rob]

tmiranda, what version of sage and firmware are you running?

[Deacon Crusher]

Rob

I have the same question for tmiranda.

I was more or less at the point he was when I was running the Feb. public release firmware for the extender. Once I started upgrading to beta firmware to use my HD PVR I haven't been able to stream blu-ray rips without lots of hiccupping.

I've done everything. Swapped all network components (including server nic.)

checked cabling, compared on multiple extenders. Moved rips to server itself (on to 64k cluster sage ready hard drives.) Moved server and extender to fixed IPs.

rips are good, they work great on my various PCs. And as of last night I finally have a reliable method (for now) of ripping all disks (seemless branching disks and some others were giving me fits, but think I have a good toolset now.)

So, Tmiranda, are you running Feb firmware or have you moved to the may or June betas?

Thanks

[Rob]

That is interesting, I am still running the February firmware and was hoping to hear the new firmware would fix me up.

My rips are already on my server with 64K clusters it and the extenders all plug into the same NetGear 16 port gigabit switch. I have three extenders and they all behave the same, so I do not think it is Cat6 cables. I do not have a client to test Blu-Ray with, but all the HD material I capture OTA and thru the R5000 play fine on the extender, so I was hoping I don't have a hardware issue.

For the time being, I'm re-encoding the rips so that they play smoothly without any noticable quality loss, but I'd rather not spend the time it takes to re-encode.

[tmiranda]

I'm running the latest non-Beta firmware on the extender and the 6.4.3 beta Sage software.

My NAS (NASLite) runs linux (ext3) so no need to worry about cluster size.

Maybe I've just been lucky enough to get movies encoded at lower bitrates?

[Rob]

Looks like it is time to upgrade my server to 6.4.3 and see if that makes a difference, since that is the only difference in our sage software setup.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm still hoping this is something SageTV can smooth out.

[Deacon Crusher]

Rob, that should do it for you.

I've reverted to Feb. firmware with 6.4.3 and could play my blu-rays, then updated to new beta firmware and hiccups. revert to February and all is fine again. I have to have betas because of the hd-pvr. So, I'm stuck for now.

Tmiranda, would you mind doing that above test to confirm that our experience lines up. Do a firmware update to latest extender firmware. Test a blu-ray playback (will probably fail or rather hiccup/stutter pretty badly) let us know, then put yourself back to February and all will be well again.

Both of you guys please report back as I have an open troubleticket with Sage on this and if we could all say the same thing I think that would up their level of attention.

Thanks

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

Tmiranda, would you mind doing that above test to confirm that our experience lines up.

Yes, but it will have to wait for the weekend. I can try the following movies that I have right now:

- SWAT (MPEG2)
- National Treasure (H.264)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (VC1)
- Cars (H.264)
- Spiderman (H.264)
- Spiderman 3 (H.264)
- maybe Spiderman 2 (it's "in process" now)

As you can see I only have one VC1 rip. If anybody has a specific movie request I am sure I can obtain a "sample" to try out.

[Rob]

Well this is sounding like good news. I did not get time to upgrade the sage server last night, but will make time to do it tonight. I'll report findings tomorrow.

[Deacon Crusher]

Just replicated my own test.

running 6.4.4 on the server and using the latest public release software (Feb. version) I can playback the following ripped blu-rays.

Spidey 1,2 and 3, ratatouille and National Treasure 2 perfectly. National Treasure 1 isn't perfect but is pretty good. Fantastic Four is mpeg and has been fine all along (that's all the Blu-rays I currently own, Cloverfield is on the way.)

Reverting to the latest extender beta firmware so I can playback my hd-pvr recordings.

Very curious to here what your guys experience is.

Thanks

[Rob]

After upgrading the server to 6.4.3 (and still using the February firmware), I tried AVP2 and it has the same studder pattern as before. I did not think to try setting the read ahead property that is available in the beta. Maybe that would help. I'd like to try National Treasure 2 (since it works for both of you), and may get to this afternoon, but were leaving on vacation tonight for a week and may not get a chance to try it.

In the mean time I hop you have good luck determining a working setup. It seems so very close.

[Rob]

Ok, I got the chance to try National Treasure 2. It plays great using 6.4.3 on the server and the February firmware. AVP2 still studders routinely (didn't like that movie much anyway AVP1 was much better).

[Deacon Crusher]

Rob, if you can, please do the beta firmware update on the extender (takes about 12/15 minutes) then try national again and hopefully (for consistancies sake and reporting to TS) it won't work. Then since it sounds like you don't need that firmware you can go back to the Feb. firmware and be mostly happy.

Thanks

[Deacon Crusher]

tmiranda

did you get a chance to test the beta firmware for the extender and its effect on your playback of high bit rate rips??

thanks

[tmiranda]

Sorry, no. Real life is intervening. I will try to get to this but it is pretty low on my priority list right now.

[Deacon Crusher]

I hear you, real life shouldn't be allowed to get in the way of fun but it sure seems to.

Only reason I press at all is I'm worried that unless Sage gets that they've broken something they may release a new public firmware that makes this playback worse and then it will take longer to get that "fixed" back to the way it was.

thanks

[Deacon Crusher]

Just FYI, did my first VC1 rip (Cloverfield) and it doesn't play on either the Feb or current beta firmware.

Extreme blockiness and drop outs.

Looks like VC1 is a problem?? Tmiranda, noticed that you have a VC1 rip (Harry Potter) does that playback okay for you?

thanks

[tmiranda]

Yes, Harry Potter works fine. It passed the "Spouse and Daughter" test with flying colors. (Or should I say colours since it's Harry Potter? )

I'll see if I can find a sample of Cloverfield to try.

[killervette]

i couldnt get audio to work. does it matter what decoder im using on my client?

[Deacon Crusher]

This thread is mostly about watching blu-ray via the extender.

Watching on a full blown client is just a function of getting the right codecs installed I believe, but I don't do that. No client licenses, just extenders and placeshifter licenses.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I'll see if I can find a sample of Cloverfield to try.

I found Cloverfield with 1080p VC1 video and 5.1 audio in a .wmv container. The video played just fine, no stuttering or hiccups at all. There was no audio but that was to be expected.

This week I'll try converting the audio to AC3 and sticking it into a .mkv container to see if that makes any difference.

I'd also like to verify that the version I found has not been re-encoded to a lower bitrate. Deacon Crusher - How big should the file be?

Tom