placeshifting h264 content in/on placeshifter, with and without transcoding

[Deacon Crusher]

Just got my hauppauge hd pvr.

Setting it up tonight and one big question is what do I need to install on pcs running placeshifter to be able to playback the h264 files without transcoding?

This is mostly for my wife's and my PCs sitting at home on the network.

I assume remote placeshifter connections will get transcoding done at the server and those clients will just play it back fine without any additional codecs or what have you installed on the client?

Assumption correct?

thanks

[gplasky]

Placeshifter is a self contained client that doesn't require any codecs to be added.

Gerry

[Deacon Crusher]

May be self contained, but currently doesn't contain what it needs to playback either live timeshifted hd pvr or recorded hd pvr shows.

Or at least that's how it appears to me. Anyone know if this will get addressed, soon?

Thanks

[Brent]

Not sure honestly. What CPU do you have in your server? What CPU and videocard do you have in your placeshifter client PC? What's the internet speed of the connection between your placeshifter client PC and the server?

I would think all of the above things would factor in to your ability to view in placeshifter

[Deacon Crusher]

Quad core phehom 9850 in server. 8600Gt video card.

Quad core intel 6600 (I think) in client I'm testing with. 8800GT video card.

Local lan (gig) connection.

The idea is at home my wife and I both like to watch TV on our PCs while working, and this has been the last piece I've been waiting for to have all the channels on our PCs.

Thanks

[Brent]

Hmm. Looks like a pretty powerful setup all around. So placeshifter isn't working for the HD-PVR files?

[Deacon Crusher]

Nope, black screen at this point when trying.

[Slipshod]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

Nope, black screen at this point when trying.

Yeah, doesn't work for me with H.264 HD from the R5000HD either. I still have my SD in MPEG2 though, so it's not totally useless for me.

[wado1971]

Placeshifting is also the last piece of the puzzle for me (server & client are good). I've had the same results posted above. My screen goes black and the timeline doesn't budge.

Although, I just mucked around with the streaming settings - changed to "Manually specify the encoding parameters for streaming:" and got some life to one of my HD-PVR recordings. It's an SD recording from the HD-PVR and it plays back slow motion blobs.

My current manual settings are:
1,090 / CIF (352x240/288) / 30fps / 10 / check / 56)

Does anyone know how to set this up for the HD-PVR recordings?? - I'm totally lost but seems like the "Without decoding" & "Use SageTV's Dy..." doesn't function properly.

[wado1971]

Update: I tried every manual setting and all I can get is slow motion video on both the SD & HD recordings from the HD-PVR.

It's good looking PQ for slow motion but it might take about 18 hrs to watch a single recording.... I'll start watching right away and let everyone know if I see any pixilation
Maybe the next beta!?

[Slipshod]

Originally Posted by wado1971

Update: I tried every manual setting and all I can get is slow motion video on both the SD & HD recordings from the HD-PVR.

What's the CPU utilization like on your server, and what kind of CPU is it? If it's multi-core is one of the cores pegged?

Cheers,
Slipshod

[wado1971]

Originally Posted by Slipshod

What's the CPU utilization like on your server, and what kind of CPU is it? If it's multi-core is one of the cores pegged?

Cheers,
Slipshod

The server is a Quad6600. The quick answer is 25%(1 core - sometimes 2 cores show activity). Does this mean a single core is pegged? Is PS limited to a single core? Even if so, this does not explain the slow-mo playback of the SD recording from the PVR using 10-20% (although if starts off @ 25% for a few seconds).

My baseline file is an .mpg file recorded with a pvr-150 "DVD Std Play" quality.
PS_setting=Auto_Streaming, serverCPU=0-1%, Results=normal
PS_setting=Manual, serverCPU=4-10% (single core shows usage), Results=normal

HD-.ts file is recorded with the HD-PVR at "Great" quality.
PS_setting=Auto_Streaming, serverCPU=0-1%, Results=black screen with no timeline
PS_setting=Manual(with the previously listed "random" settings), serverCPU=26%(two cores show activity), Results=Slow-mo playback with some pausing/resuming and the timeline displays and also Slo-mo's

SD-.ts file is recorded with the HD-PVR at "Great" quality.
PS_setting=Auto_Streaming, serverCPU=0-1%, Results=black screen with timeline running normal speed
PS_setting=Manual(with the previously listed "random" settings), serverCPU=10-20%(two cores show activity & starts with 25% for a few seconds), Results=Consistent Slow-mo playback (no pause/resume) - timeline displays and also Slo-mo's

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by wado1971

The server is a Quad6600. The quick answer is 25%(1 core - sometimes 2 cores show activity). Does this mean a single core is pegged? Is PS limited to a single core? Even if so, this does not explain the slow-mo playback of the SD recording from the PVR using 10-20% (although if starts off @ 25% for a few seconds).

My baseline file is an .mpg file recorded with a pvr-150 "DVD Std Play" quality.
PS_setting=Auto_Streaming, serverCPU=0-1%, Results=normal
PS_setting=Manual, serverCPU=4-10% (single core shows usage), Results=normal

HD-.ts file is recorded with the HD-PVR at "Great" quality.
PS_setting=Auto_Streaming, serverCPU=0-1%, Results=black screen with no timeline
PS_setting=Manual(with the previously listed "random" settings), serverCPU=26%(two cores show activity), Results=Slow-mo playback with some pausing/resuming and the timeline displays and also Slo-mo's

SD-.ts file is recorded with the HD-PVR at "Great" quality.
PS_setting=Auto_Streaming, serverCPU=0-1%, Results=black screen with timeline running normal speed
PS_setting=Manual(with the previously listed "random" settings), serverCPU=10-20%(two cores show activity & starts with 25% for a few seconds), Results=Consistent Slow-mo playback (no pause/resume) - timeline displays and also Slo-mo's

The Transcoder is single threaded. If you are seeing 25% usage, then the thread that is running the transcoder is maxing out the core it is running on. I'm assuming at this point that even a Core 2 Processor at 2.4ghz is not powerful enough to transcode (maybe with the next beta some tweaks will occur with the transcoder to make this work).

[Slipshod]

Originally Posted by wado1971

Although, I just mucked around with the streaming settings - changed to "Manually specify the encoding parameters for streaming:" and got some life to one of my HD-PVR recordings. It's an SD recording from the HD-PVR and it plays back slow motion blobs.

My current manual settings are:
1,090 / CIF (352x240/288) / 30fps / 10 / check / 56)

Does anyone know how to set this up for the HD-PVR recordings?? - I'm totally lost but seems like the "Without decoding" & "Use SageTV's Dy..." doesn't function properly.

Awesome. Thanks for the tip - Now I have R5000 HD recordings working locally through placeshifter, though it does get pretty darn high on CPU utilization for one of the cores. It almost (but not quite) peaks at max CPU on one core for a while, then settles down some. Video looks pretty good at 384Kbps as well.

[jprine01]

I have R5000's and most my channels are h.264.. Placeshifter is pretty much useless for me, i've been trying to save up for another HD extender and something like a slingbox to stream stuff over the internet.