Android Miniclient and UK TV

[rickgillyon]

I'm trying out the Miniclient on a cheap Android box. It's working really well generally. Plays HD imported video better then the Windows clients, plays recorded SDTV just fine.

The problem is with recorded HDTV. I've tried stuff from C4 (see attached) and BBC. I get the picture just fine but no sound. I can select the audio stream, 2 available, but both are silent. I've tried both players and all 3 streaming modes.

Any ideas? Anything I can provide for debugging? Files are pretty big but I'm happy to upload to my FTP. Thanks.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by rickgillyon

I'm trying out the Miniclient on a cheap Android box. It's working really well generally. Plays HD imported video better then the Windows clients, plays recorded SDTV just fine.

The problem is with recorded HDTV. I've tried stuff from C4 (see attached) and BBC. I get the picture just fine but no sound. I can select the audio stream, 2 available, but both are silent. I've tried both players and all 3 streaming modes.

Any ideas? Anything I can provide for debugging? Files are pretty big but I'm happy to upload to my FTP. Thanks.

Are all the non working recordings HE-AAC audio?

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Are all the non working recordings HE-AAC audio?

Yes, all the freeview HD recordings I have are HE-AAC, MPEG2-PS H.264 1080i.

[rickgillyon]

I've put a small(ish) example file here for download, if someone is able to help...

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-...U5lci1JLXZsMTA

[rickgillyon]

No ideas? Is it likely just a limitation of the client or the box?

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by rickgillyon

No ideas? Is it likely just a limitation of the client or the box?

While I can see that there should be an audio track in that video, I only have a few programs that can play it back with the audio working.

The problem as I see it is that the file is an MPEG-PS file and that container doesn't support H.264 which the video definitely is. The container is also very confusing for FFmpeg to decipher. It was unable to use it to remux the file to MPEG-TS which is a much more appropriate container. Also, the fact that bit-rate of the audio in your screen shot from SageTV is unlikely is a good tell that something is not right. I was able to determine that it's 128Kbps after using VLC to remux the file to MPEG-TS with partial success.

What I would do is change the setting in Sage.properties for that capture device to capture using the MPEG-TS container instead of MPEG-PS. The line you're looking for will look like the line below. All you need to do is stop the SageTV service, then change the value from true to false, then start the SageTV service back up.

mmc/encoders/<id>/100/0/encode_digital_tv_as_program_stream=true

I don't know how this normally works in SageTV because I've never had it try to record H.264 content using any of it's built in capture device support, but ideally it should change container formats automatically if the codecs are incompatible instead of pushing on. Like I said though, I don't know if it was supposed to handle that or not.

[rickgillyon]

Wow, thanks for the effort there, that's cracked it.

I had no idea that the files were strange, as they have always played in our PC clients... Now they play everywhere.

Thanks again.