Specify a Capture Card for Placeshifting?

[Skiier__Dude]

Does anyone know whether there is a way to specify a specific capture card for Placeshifting a live TV feed? I have given up trying to get my HD-PVR'd content working over the Internet and have found that content from the PVR-150 is perfectly acceptable on my laptop. Problem is, my EPG lineup from my 2xHD-PVRs and my PVR-150 are the same so if I select a channel to stream, it could come from any one of the 3 devices. I'd like to be able to specify which capture device to use -- anyone know of an easy way to make this sort of thing happen?

[Fuzzy]

There is no specific feature that allows you to set a certain encoder as preferred for livetv. It will use it's normal merit system as with anything else. The only thing you could possibly do is to set the PVR-150 as higher merit than the HD-PVRs, but then it would prefer it for just about everything.

The ideal solution would be to upgrade your server's horsepower to be able to handle the hd-pvr transcoding.

[Skiier__Dude]

I'm not convinced that not being able to Placeshift HD-PVR content is a transcoding issue. Seems to be more of an upstream bandwidth issue in my case. My ISP limits me to 1Mbps and I usually get something less than that when I do a test a SpeedTest.net.

I've tried the Placeshifting option where I turned Transcoding off, and the playback was the same -- if I pause the content for a couple of minutes and let the client build up a buffer, it will play back for about double the time that I pause before it stutters (e.g. pause for 2 minutes, plays back for 4).

The MPEG files are substantially smaller and seem to stream much cleaner. Works better if I pause the video for a minute or two -- but if I do that, it can play for almost an entire episode. Seems to tell me that its more of a function of my server sending packets out, than crunching them -- but might be both...

[GKusnick]

If it's a bandwidth issue, use Placeshifter's Settings dialog to specify a lower bitrate.

If it's a CPU issue, that should be evident from looking at Task Manager's CPU meter while transcoding is in progress.

[Skiier__Dude]

Has anyone solved the ability to use multiple-cores for transcoding yet? I've got a pretty decent dual-core server that pegs out at 50% utilization while transcoding (which means 1 core is running at 100% while the other is doing very little).

[Fuzzy]

Also, as I mentioned in another thread of yours, the bandwidth shouldn't matter, as there is no difference in the WAN side. SageTranscoder should still be decoding the original, regardless of format, rescaling to SD, and re-encoding to MPEG2 for the placeshifter client. The original source shouldn't matter.

I think there are also some issues with H.264 interlaced files and placeshifter's transcoding. You could try locking the HD-PVR to 720P and see if that makes a difference.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Skiier__Dude

Has anyone solved the ability to use multiple-cores for transcoding yet? I've got a pretty decent dual-core server that pegs out at 50% utilization while transcoding (which means 1 core is running at 100% while the other is doing very little).

I think ffmpeg (which is what sage's transcoder is based on) does have a multithreaded branch, but it has not been integrates with sage. It'd be up to Sage to make this so.

[Skiier__Dude]

Sitting here at work and did a quick experiment.

On the Placeshifter client, I turned Transcoding off in the settings menu.

HD content actually streams very well today and the bandwidth meter on the client ranges between 300kbps and bursts to about 1.5Mbps.

SD content streams the same and has similar bandwidth requirements.

I have logged into my Sage server remotely and certainly see a big difference in CPU use. SageTranscoder.exe sits at between 45-55% utilization with the HD video and less than 20% with the SD video -- with the Transcoding setting turned off.

Does the Transcoder setting not work over the WAN?

[Fuzzy]

The transcoder ONLY works over WAN. If placeshifter detects that it is accessing the server locally, then it will not transcode at all, and only stream the original file directly. If your SageTranscoder is running 45-55% (50%) then your CPU is saturated, and would explain the hiccups.

[Skiier__Dude]

Right, understand that it works over the WAN, but why does it not turn off when I tell the client to stream without Transcoding?