SageTV transcoding

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by jvl711

I was thinking of setting up a Patreon account for people to support what I am doing for SageTV. I think that might be easier than a Kickstarter. What do you think?

Josh

not sure what that is, but I’ll read up on it

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by wayner

What about even getting 1080i H.264 content to play in Placeshifter on a local LAN? I find that Placeshifter works ok for MPEG-2 1080i content, like from OTA, but not for H.264 1080i content that is encoded by my HD-PVRs.

I am mainly investigating Android Miniclient right now. I will keep the Placeshifter in the back of my mind if I have time to look at it.

Josh

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by jvl711

I am mainly investigating Android Miniclient right now. I will keep the Placeshifter in the back of my mind if I have time to look at it.

Josh

Slugger said he had looked at an iOS version, but that dealing with Apple made dealing with Google look like fun. So I guess an iOS Miniclient would never emerge from your future fun?

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

Slugger said he had looked at an iOS version, but that dealing with Apple made dealing with Google look like fun. So I guess an iOS Miniclient would never emerge from your future fun?

There are a few things at play here.

1. I am not a Mac user.
2. I am not very familiar with the languages if that comes into play

Stuckless did do some prof of concept work on an HTML5 version of the miniclient. I think that might be a good place to put our focus. Especially if we can figure out the how to better utilize the current transcoding code or upgrade the transcoding code. We need to be able to provide a video format that can be played in HTML5 video player I think. I am not that versed in this area.

Anyway, a miniclient in the browser would allow for a client that can run on most OSes.

Josh

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by jvl711

There are a few things at play here.

1. I am not a Mac user.
2. I am not very familiar with the languages if that comes into play

Stuckless did do some prof of concept work on an HTML5 version of the miniclient. I think that might be a good place to put our focus. Especially if we can figure out the how to better utilize the current transcoding code or upgrade the transcoding code. We need to be able to provide a video format that can be played in HTML5 video player I think. I am not that versed in this area.

Anyway, a miniclient in the browser would allow for a client that can run on most OSes.

Josh

oops, sorry, Stuckless. Okay, good info

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by jvl711

I was thinking of setting up a Patreon account for people to support what I am doing for SageTV. I think that might be easier than a Kickstarter. What do you think?

Josh

Josh, anything that you would like will be fine with any of us. In fact, if you decide to just keep going with Paypal I'm okay with that - I'll continue to contribute on an interval as a gift.

Just to be clear, I do not have any expectations for results, I just appreciate the time that you donate to the cause. Not too many of you guys left.

[VCRUser]

I've been following this thread, but am missing how this proposed project improves on the current Sage TV Miniclient Android apps? I think it would gather more support if that was elaborated on.

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by VCRUser

I've been following this thread, but am missing how this proposed project improves on the current Sage TV Miniclient Android apps? I think it would gather more support if that was elaborated on.

There are two different discussions going on here I think. First, the age of the FFmpeg library is very dated. It has not been udpated in a long time. It does not have support for a lot of newer codecs, for instance HEVC. The transcoder code is used when you want to convert a recording to a smaller size to save space, and it is also used when you want to placeshift live or stored videos when you do not have enough bandwidth to stream it. Newer version will probably also have some performance enhancements that we could take advantage of.

The second part comes with what I am currently working on. The Android Miniclient can transcode, but it does not have any settings to change the resolution or bitrate. In general sage only supports placeshifting in SD resolutions in MPEG-PS format. All of these items lend to a lackluster placeshifting experience. There is also a second benift to these changes. If we are able to transcode in higher qualities, I will be able to make changes to the Android Miniclient to tell sage when a format is not supported, and it will automatically transcode so that it will be viewable on the client. This should enable the miniclient to support a wider array of media on ExoPlayer. In my opinion this is nearly as big as HD placeshifting.

I know that was a lot of rambling. Let me know if that did not clear it up.

Thanks,
Josh

[KryptoNyte]

I was planning on using it primarily for remote viewing either on my Android phone or on a Fire TV 4k stick, but Josh makes a good point. Now that Sage can recognize new formats, even 4k, transcoding will allow most Android devices to watch either remotely or potentially even locally, which may not have been possible previously.

Even the HD300 wouldn't be able to do this locally.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

I was planning on using it primarily for remote viewing either on my Android phone or on a Fire TV 4k stick, but Josh makes a good point. Now that Sage can recognize new formats, even 4k, transcoding will allow most Android devices to watch either remotely or potentially even locally, which may not have been possible previously.

Even the HD300 wouldn't be able to do this locally.

I believe that the Android client can play HEVC files and/or 4K files. I could swear I read a thread here that someone was able to do this. I know for sure that you can play these on SageTV Client with the right codecs.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by jvl711

... If we are able to transcode in higher qualities, I will be able to make changes to the Android Miniclient to tell sage when a format is not supported, and it will automatically transcode so that it will be viewable on the client. This should enable the miniclient to support a wider array of media on ExoPlayer. In my opinion this is nearly as big as HD placeshifting.

Could this also be done for Extender clients - so if a file was HEVC and/or higher res than 1080p could you transcode to H.264 1080p so that HD300s and HD200s could play these newer file types?

[graywolf]

Originally Posted by wayner

Could this also be done for Extender clients - so if a file was HEVC and/or higher res than 1080p could you transcode to H.264 1080p so that HD300s and HD200s could play these newer file types?

Definitely would be great for the HDx00 community if you can

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by wayner

I believe that the Android client can play HEVC files and/or 4K files. I could swear I read a thread here that someone was able to do this. I know for sure that you can play these on SageTV Client with the right codecs.

You're probably right, Wayne, but I would imagine there are still a handful of older/generic Android devices that can't handle 4k and/or HEVC.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

You're probably right, Wayne, but I would imagine there are still a handful of older/generic Android devices that can't handle 4k and/or HEVC.

Probably, but those are getting fewer by the day. I think playing MPEG-2 is more of an issue with Android.

[KryptoNyte]

Yeah, that's true, Wayne. That's a good case for transcoding.

[jvl711]

Hi guys,

I wanted to give an update on what I have been able to achieve without updating the FFmpeg library in sage. And where I am at in my development.

I have added a bunch of setting to the SageTV Android client to enable higher quality transcoding to
- HD resolutions (1080, 720).
- ac3 audio.
- I have added settings so that you can choose match source resolution and source FPS when transcoding.
- I have added MKV container as an output option. This works MUCH better
- Probably a few other settings I am not thinking about

On the SageTV side I have added the code to accept all of these new settings from the client and pass the appropriate values to the SageTVTranscoder.

Initial testing has been extreemly promising. I hope to have something ready to share in a few weeks.

Josh

[tvmaster2]

Awesomesauce! Thank you!

[KryptoNyte]

Impressive. Going to be exciting to see a remote connection at 1080, maybe!

[jvl711]

Hi Guys,

For those that were interested in supporting the work that I have been doing, I created a Patreon account.

If you would like to support my work you can become a supporter here Patreon

I am hoping this will be a good place to communicate the work that I am doing.

Josh

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by jvl711

Hi guys,

I wanted to give an update on what I have been able to achieve without updating the FFmpeg library in sage. And where I am at in my development.

I have added a bunch of setting to the SageTV Android client to enable higher quality transcoding to
- HD resolutions (1080, 720).
- ac3 audio.
- I have added settings so that you can choose match source resolution and source FPS when transcoding.
- I have added MKV container as an output option. This works MUCH better
- Probably a few other settings I am not thinking about

On the SageTV side I have added the code to accept all of these new settings from the client and pass the appropriate values to the SageTVTranscoder.

Initial testing has been extreemly promising. I hope to have something ready to share in a few weeks.

Josh

What kind of bandwidth does the miniclient pull when viewing at transcoded 1080? What kind of processor usage on the server (and what kind of processor is it)?