AVI or MP4 on HD100

[MrD]

Ok, I've been researched this for a couple of days and at the end of my. I have 3 HD100s none of which will play AVI or MP4 videos. Apparently they are supposed to. What happens is sage.PlaybackException after 10 seconds. Also the HD100 is borked after that. I have to hard cycle the HD100 to get it to work again -- every file type (DVD, HD-PVR) are broken until I hard cycle the HD100.

So -- is this supposed to work? One HD100 is set to 1080i, one is 720P, the other is 1080P. None of these play the files

Do I need to create custom resolutions on the HD100 for this to work? I am using the latest firmware and one of the players has the beta firmware on it.

AVI details

Video
ID                               : 0
Format                           : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile                   : Advanced Simple@L5
Format settings, BVOP            : Yes
Format settings, QPel            : No
Format settings, GMC             : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix          : Default (H.263)
Codec ID                         : XVID
Codec ID/Hint                    : XviD
Duration                         : 51mn 56s
Bit rate                         : 1 339 Kbps
Width                            : 624 pixels
Height                           : 352 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16:9
Frame rate                       : 23.976 fps
Resolution                       : 8 bits
Colorimetry                      : 4:2:0
Scan type                        : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.254
Stream size                      : 497 MiB (90%)
Writing library                  : XviD 1.2.0SMP (UTC 2006-01-08)

Audio
ID                               : 1
Format                           : MPEG Audio
Format version                   : Version 1
Format profile                   : Layer 3
Mode                             : Joint stereo
Format_Settings_ModeExtension    : MS Stereo
Codec ID                         : 55
Codec ID/Hint                    : MP3
Duration                         : 51mn 57s
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Bit rate                         : 131 Kbps
Nominal bit rate                 : 128 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Stream size                      : 48.7 MiB (9%)
Alignment                        : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration             : 24 ms (0.58 video frame)
Writing library                  : LAME3.96r
Encoding settings                : -m j -V 4 -q 3 -lowpass 17.5 --abr 128

MP4 details

Video
ID                               : 1
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                   : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC           : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames        : 8 frames
Codec ID                         : avc1
Codec ID/Info                    : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                         : 1h 48mn
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Bit rate                         : 1 755 Kbps
Maximum bit rate                 : 27.0 Mbps
Width                            : 1 280 pixels
Height                           : 544 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 2.35:1
Frame rate mode                  : Constant
Frame rate                       : 23.976 fps
Resolution                       : 8 bits
Colorimetry                      : 4:2:0
Scan type                        : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.105
Stream size                      : 1.32 GiB (88%)
Writing library                  : x264 core 80 r1376M 3feaec2
Encoding settings                : cabac=1 / ref=8 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=9 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.0:1.0 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-4 / threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / slices=4 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=4 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / wpredb=1 / wpredp=2 / keyint=24 / keyint_min=2 / scenecut=40 / rc_lookahead=24 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=1755 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=40000 / vbv_bufsize=30000 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date                     : UTC 2010-01-03 21:29:01
Tagged date                      : UTC 2010-01-04 07:13:30

Audio
ID                               : 2
Format                           : AAC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Audio Codec
Format version                   : Version 4
Format profile                   : LC
Format settings, SBR             : No
Codec ID                         : 40
Duration                         : 1h 48mn
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Bit rate                         : 245 Kbps
Maximum bit rate                 : 406 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 6 channels
Channel positions                : Front: L C R, Rear: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Stream size                      : 190 MiB (12%)
Encoded date                     : UTC 2010-01-04 07:13:24
Tagged date                      : UTC 2010-01-04 07:13:30

[MrD]

Also -- the files play without issue on a PC SageClient -- which I know is different.

[lobosrul]

Hmm, the only thing I can suggest is try and mux both files to mkv.

Use http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/ .

Also, 1750kbps is not even near enough bitrate for 720p video even using x264. Either downscale it or bump that up to 3500 minimum. Assuming you encoded those that is.

[RayGannon]

My HD100 also goes into the weeds when trying to play video encoded with XVID. Any XVID encoded .avi files I run into get transcode to DIVX and then play without trouble. Converting the .avi to a .mkv does not help in my experience. The two are just containers and the conversion programs usually just repack the XVID encoded stream into the new format rather than re-encoding it with some other CODEC.

I have not tried to play avi files using the AVC1 CODEC but that's what's in the Bluray rips that play without trouble on my HD100.

[MrD]

Originally Posted by RayGannon

My HD100 also goes into the weeds when trying to play video encoded with XVID. Any XVID encoded .avi files I run into get transcode to DIVX and then play without trouble. .

Do you use Sage to transcode or an external program?

I have done some avi -> mpeg2 via sage and that works. But it's very annoying to have to do this extra step.

[RayGannon]

Originally Posted by MrD

Do you use Sage to transcode or an external program?

I have not tried any transcoding with Sage directly. I picked up a copy of "Total Video Converter" several years ago and use that out of habit anytime I need a basic format change. The XVID to DIVX conversion is pretty quick but still an annoying extra step. I don't run across this situation too often though.

[MattHelm]

I just played back the following on my HD100:

Video
ID                               : 0
Format                           : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile                   : Advanced Simple@L5
Format settings, BVOP            : Yes
Format settings, QPel            : No
Format settings, GMC             : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix          : Custom
Codec ID                         : XVID
Codec ID/Hint                    : XviD
Duration                         : 22mn 11s
Bit rate                         : 965 Kbps
Width                            : 640 pixels
Height                           : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 4:3
Frame rate                       : 29.970 fps
Resolution                       : 8 bits
Colorimetry                      : 4:2:0
Scan type                        : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.105
Stream size                      : 153 MiB (88%)
Writing library                  : XviD 1.2.0.dev47 (UTC 2006-11-01)

That's, as far as I know, the only XVID I have. Wish I could help more. Oh, I think that's the latest beta for the HD100. The only VC1 files I have, I can't playback because of the audio. Need to get the audio fixed someday, but my main playback device is a PC, and it plays any audio back fine.

[MrD]

Thanks, I've been in contact with Sage on this and they have been very responsive.

Here is the bottom line -- there is no issue with my HD100s .

I brought up a clean instance on my linux server, moved the files over and pointed the HD100 at the linux server. The files played effortlessly.

So now there is something up on the XP machine -- there I have SageMC installed and SJQ.

Either the issue is something on the command line or a piece of hardware. I am leaning towards the on-board NIC. I updated the drivers that seemed to help -- but the files still locked up the HD100 when played from the HD100.

Anyone know what to look for in wireshark (ehtereal) from a broken packet perspective?

[MrD]

Small update this issue turned out to be a config parameter in the sage properties file. I might have changed the value at some point to an unsupported value, switching it back fixed things. Thanks to sage support for helping through this.

The config parameter is:

use_blocking_socket_for_mediaserver=true

the supported value is "true", I somehow set it to false.