New HD100 Owner - Some Issues

[rubell]

realized i posted this in an MVP thread before, sorry...

i just hooked up my HD100 and am having some weird issues.

1. some large .mkv files (over 4GB) do not play audio
2. i tried playing a corpse bride mkv that seems to be the highest utilization on my HTPC and it plays all pixelated. the file is about 4.5GB. it plays fine over Placeshifter on my network. the cable going to the HD100 is Cat6 and everything is gigabit. plugged my laptop into it and i was getting a sustained 350mbps so bandwidth can't be the issue.

any thoughts?

for #2 i decided to look at network utilization on my server (WHS). its showing between 1% and 3% max so that's not the problem. i have 2gbs of RAM and 1GB is free. PF is sitting at about 817MB and constant. CPU usage is ranging from 5% to 30%, mostly in the 10-20 range.

i'm wondering if its the processor though. i do see 100% spikes and its only a 1.8Ghz Celeron.

[rubell]

ntkrnlpa.exe+0x7acd2 seems to be using a heck of a lot of processing power.
srv.sys+0x16602 as well.

would these have anything to do with sagetv?

[Motofreak75]

Are you using the firmware that came with the STX ? if so upgrade it like the little note say inside the box. use the beta firmware as it seems the best so far.

[rubell]

i did the beta update previously. i'm on the 8/4 software.

[Motofreak75]

what are the audio and video format used inside the mkv file then?

[rubell]

The ones with no sound:
V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
A_DTS

This probably makes sense since my TV is on the analog outputs of the HD100 and can't decode DTS. Does the HD100 not do the downmixing and output DTS as stereo?

The one that's all pixelated:
V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
A_AC3

The audio plays and the video plays, just the video has big pixel blocks whereever things move on the screen like its not refreshing it fast enough. also should note this is a 1080p file.

On another note, I've tried ones with A_AAC that work fine. Seems to only be A_DTS that won't play. The video part of Corpse Bride is still a mystery though.

[lobosrul]

Originally Posted by rubell

The ones with no sound:
V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
A_DTS

This probably makes sense since my TV is on the analog outputs of the HD100 and can't decode DTS. Does the HD100 not do the downmixing and output DTS as stereo?

The one that's all pixelated:
V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
A_AC3

The audio plays and the video plays, just the video has big pixel blocks whereever things move on the screen like its not refreshing it fast enough. also should note this is a 1080p file.

On another note, I've tried ones with A_AAC that work fine. Seems to only be A_DTS that won't play. The video part of Corpse Bride is still a mystery though.

Not it won't decode DTS. You have two choices for playing that back.

1) Buy an AV receiver and output the HD-100's audio thru optical or HDMI.
2) Convert the DTS track to AC3 (or another format). A program called eac3to can do that.

As for the other files, I couldn't say for sure. Are you on the latest beta firmware?

[rubell]

Originally Posted by lobosrul

Not it won't decode DTS. You have two choices for playing that back.

1) Buy an AV receiver and output the HD-100's audio thru optical or HDMI.
2) Convert the DTS track to AC3 (or another format). A program called eac3to can do that.

As for the other files, I couldn't say for sure. Are you on the latest beta firmware?

Makes sense, 1 issue resolved. Yes, I'm on the latest firmware. The 8/4/08 beta I believe. Weird thing is the video in question plays perfectly on Placeshifter from client PCs so it isn't a file problem. Maybe a codec problem on the HD100? But since it decodes at all I wouldn't be inclined to think that. Are there any other troubleshooting steps I could take?

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by rubell

Makes sense, 1 issue resolved. Yes, I'm on the latest firmware. The 8/4/08 beta I believe. Weird thing is the video in question plays perfectly on Placeshifter from client PCs so it isn't a file problem. Maybe a codec problem on the HD100? But since it decodes at all I wouldn't be inclined to think that. Are there any other troubleshooting steps I could take?

Drop the file into MediaInfo and see what options were used to encode it.

Also, you may just try remuxing the video using mkvmerge. If it's an anamorphic video make sure to include this option on the command-line:

--engage keep_bistream_ar_info

[rubell]

From Mediainfo...

General
Complete name : \\Whs\Videos\Corpse Bride\Corpse Bride.mkv
Format : Matroska
File size : 4.37 GiB
Duration : 1h 17mn
Overall bit rate : 8101 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2007-02-02 17:54:03
Writing application : mkvmerge v2.0.0 ('After The Rain Has Fallen') built on Jan 13 2007 19:58:56
Writing library : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.0

Video
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L5.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 8 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1h 17mn
Bit rate : 7321 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 7662 Kbps
Width : 1920 pixels
Height : 1040 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16/9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Original frame rate : 24.000 fps
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.160
Writing library : x264 core 54 svn-614
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:-3:-3 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=7 / brdo=1 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=2 / deadzone=22,11 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=3 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / bime=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40(pre) / rc=2pass / bitrate=7662 / ratetol=1.0 / rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30
Language : English

Audio
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 1h 17mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 448 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Rear: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Language : English

Text #1
Format : UTF-8
Codec ID : S_TEXT/UTF8
Codec ID/Info : UTF-8 Plain Text
Language : English

Text #2
Format : UTF-8
Codec ID : S_TEXT/UTF8
Codec ID/Info : UTF-8 Plain Text
Language : French

Text #3
Format : UTF-8
Codec ID : S_TEXT/UTF8
Codec ID/Info : UTF-8 Plain Text
Language : Spanish

[Taddeusz]

I don't see any reason why it shouldn't play. Of course I don't think any of my BD rips have that high of a bitrate but I have gotten a full VC-1 rip to play without issue so that really shouldn't be the problem.

Try remuxing it and see what happens.

[rubell]

Well after playing with this some more, still no luck. I tested the cable again with a 10/100 network connection and got about 75-85mbps. I remuxed and have the same problem.

Any other ideas? Could it be the display somehow? I highly doubt it, but I'm kind of running out of options. And since the movie plays fine in Placeshifter on a PC I'm very confused. Could it be that the HD100 doesn't downscale 1080p to anything? The display isn't 1080p but didn't think that could be the problem. My display is 720p so its 1360x768 but this video is 1920x1040.

I also have another movie that's 1920x800 and it plays fine though. It actually runs at 9.5mbps so that makes me totally confused. I guess the bandwidth isn't a problem.

[Motofreak75]

I''l bet its the movie.


I can play perfectly a 1080P movie thats AVC/DTS and has a average bitrate of 28.5mbits with peaks at 45.3mbits without issues (a few frame drops at the most)


Seeing that the original frame rate was 24fps and not 23.976 the its 1040 height and not 1080 etc.... Might be something that isn't right or correct for the stx to recognize and play correctly. your best bet is to strip down video and audio and put it together right. Also, because its so small, perhaps something wasn't done right ? all my BR rips are in the 20-35 gig range and not under ten gigs.

Moto