SageTV Client stutters with h.264 mkv playback

[valnar]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Sort of off-topic, but I'm curious why the preference for MKV's when using with sage? What feature in the MKV format are you guys prefering over just using an mpg or avi container (which, apparently, has little to know problems it seems)?

OK, I'll take this one guys.

There are a lot of problems and limitations of the MPG and AVI formats/containers. They don't support subtitles properly, limited on audio compatibility, chapters, etc. MKV files support everything, so if your original source video happens to be MPEG-2, VC-1, H.264 or whatever, plus any audio format, you can always use Mastroka.

See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...tainer_formats

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Sort of off-topic, but I'm curious why the preference for MKV's when using with sage? What feature in the MKV format are you guys prefering over just using an mpg or avi container (which, apparently, has little to know problems it seems)?

AVI is not well suited for H.264 video. I personally have had trouble with H.264 in an AVI container. When I first started converting my DVD's I was going to an AVI because I want the original AC3 or DTS audio. You can do that with AVI or MKV but not MP4 (officially, although there are hacks). I didn't trust MKV at the time because it wasn't very well supported. But what made me change is when I started messing around with tweaking my H.264 encoding. What I ended up getting on my HD100 was either a black screen or juddery video. I put the very same video in an MKV container and all of a sudden it plays fine. You wouldn't think that the container would make such a difference but apparently it can.

Now, one of the reasons I prefer MKV is that it supports chapters. While MP4 supports chapters it doesn't support AC3 or DTS audio. And AFAIK, this can't be done directly with a transport stream. While it can be done with a Blu-ray m2ts those files don't play in Sage. I know Sage doesn't currently support MKV chapters or subtitles but according to them it is going to be in a future release. Just keeping my fingers crossed.

If a better supported container comes along in the future I know enough about video encoding and containers now to be able to remux any of my files into another container without the need for re-encoding. So it doesn't currently bother me that MKV is so poorly supported. It's supported enough that I can at least play the videos without issue. The other stuff should come later.

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Sort of off-topic, but I'm curious why the preference for MKV's when using with sage? What feature in the MKV format are you guys prefering over just using an mpg or avi container (which, apparently, has little to know problems it seems)?

I guess mkv is popular and supports what the other posters mentioned above.

My best experience in sagetv is with .ts files either mpeg2 or h.264 video.

Smooth non-problematic video.

Is there a tool which converts mkv to .ts out there?

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Sort of off-topic, but I'm curious why the preference for MKV's when using with sage? What feature in the MKV format are you guys prefering over just using an mpg or avi container (which, apparently, has little to know problems it seems)?

I guess mkv is popular and supports what the other posters mentioned above.

My best experience in sagetv is with .ts files either mpeg2 or h.264 video.

Smooth non-problematic video.

If there is a tool that converts mkv to .ts in a single action I would be more than happy to convert mine?

[Taddeusz]

I've been playing around with ts files a little bit. The only thing I find lacking in MKV is that interlaced H.264 doesn't get detected properly by SageTV. And that may just be a SageTV thing. I haven't had as much time recently to figure that part out. Plus unibrain seems to have locked down the firewall on my home machine so I've been unable to remote into it the last couple days.

But no, I haven't found a utility that converts an MKV straight to a ts. With help from Sage support we determined that Tsmuxer does not create a proper header and I figured out that I needed to run the files through tsremux in order for them to work properly with SageTV and in particular the HD100.

Honestly, I would be happy with using a ts file if it weren't for the lack of chapters. I suppose it wouldn't be a huge deal since I don't have them now anyway.

Right now subtitles are more of a concern to me as I've been having to burn them into the video. Can subtitles in a ts file be displayed by SageTV using the add-on? And is there any way to specify subtitles in a ts to be displayed automatically rather than having to manually select it? I'd rather not burn the subtitles into the video if at all possible but the lack of MKV subtitles in SageTV makes it necessary.

[Taddeusz]

The only thing I don't like about MKV specifically is that it has no support for HD subtitle streams. Only VOBSUB and SRT style subs. No support for PGS (Presentation Graphics Stream).

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

The only thing I don't like about MKV specifically is that it has no support for HD subtitle streams. Only VOBSUB and SRT style subs. No support for PGS (Presentation Graphics Stream).

I never got VOBSUB to work reliably with SageTV.

As of a year or so though, there is the excellent closed caption stvi which supports smi subtitles.

I convert all my srt files to smi and have finally found a reliable solution for external subtitles in SageTV.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by Lucas

I never got VOBSUB to work reliably with SageTV.

As of a year or so though, there is the excellent closed caption stvi which supports smi subtitles.

I convert all my srt files to smi and have finally found a reliable solution for external subtitles in SageTV.

Those type of subtitles just aren't the same as the original stream on the disc. Particularly when dealing with colors. The colors in the original subtitles wer chosen for a reason. And compared to the PGS subtitles off Blu-ray. I want everything in one file. I don't want to have a bunch of little files floating around. It's more elegant to have everything contained in a single file rather than having clutter. Less wasted space as well.