XVid over Placeshifter

[Mark SS]

I have a bunch of downloaded Xvid videos and have also started to encode the most watched DVDs using AutoGK. I spend alot of time working away from home so want to be able to watch these using Placeshifter.

Some files work, some fail with sage.playback error. All playback fine in SageTV on the server. Any thoughts on why some would be causing a problem?

Also, after a playback error the placeshifter returns to livetv but with full volume. Is this a known bug?

[mayamaniac]

In my experience with Xvid or Divx transcoding, the problem is probably audio codec related. The video is encoded using Xvid codec, but the audio could be a number of audio codecs. Smooth playback and good audio synchronizing in Placeshifter depends on what audio codec play nicely with FFMpeg transcoding. So check to see what audio codecs are used in the ones you have problems with.

[Mark SS]

Thanks for the pointer Maya. I've checked a working vs problem file and the audio appears to be identical in both. GSpot output is:

Audio Codec (e.g. "AC3"): 0x2000(AC3, Dolby Laboratories, Inc) AC3
Audio Codec Status (e.g. "Codec Is Installed"): Codec(s) are Installed
Audio Sample Rate (Hz): 48000
Audio Bitrate(kbps): 192
Audio Bitrate Type ("CBR" or "VBR"): CBR
Audio Channel Count (e.g. "2" for stereo): 2

I have a bunch of 'good' files that were encoded yesterday using AutoGK, using apparently the same settings today and new encodes don't! Doesn't appear to be any any debug logging possible on the Placeshifter client, will enable on server and see if anything is reported there.

[Mark SS]

Gets stranger this...

Used AutoGK to compress some movies recorded by Sage and they playback fine over placeshifter. I'm assuming there must be something 'wrong' with the Family Guy DVDs that means the Xvid can't be handled by the Sage transcoder.

Someone on the Doom9 forum told me had trouble trying to encode the 1st season with xvid files ending up near the same size as the source VOBs and I noticed the same. 3rd season encodes to the size I expected but with this issue of not playing back over placeshifter.

Are there any AutoGK style tools that will rip the VOBs to standard mpeg2 files and 'fix' them (Doom9 poster seemed to think they were badly interlaced) so I can then encode to Xvid?

[Mark SS]

And one more reply to myself, in case anyone has the same problem.

Uninstalled ffdshow from the laptop with Placeshifter that was having problems, now they all work fine! Will reinstall at a later date to see if it was a particular setting that was causing this or just having it installed.

[mayamaniac]

in AutoGK, if i remember correctly, you hit Ctrl+F10 or F12, and it brings up the advance options. There you can manually change various settings. Not sure if it helps with The Family Guy DVD, but might worth a try. The other app I've tried with some success is FlaskMpeg.

[Mark SS]

CTRL F9 is brings up the advanced options. Have been using cartoon mode which drops the size a good 10-20% extra but haven't tried the others yet. I believe there were options for IVTC which I might try.

I noticed that the problem DVDs are detected as interlaced by AutoGK while those that work fine report progressive.