Zprocess transcode onMVP - "Transcoder died early"
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2008-06-02, 03:45 AM
Has anyone had any luck fixing this problem? Manual transcodings work perfectly, but I get the "Transcoder died early" error on the MVP. My logs look very similar to those posted previously in this thread.
I'm completely stuck at this point so any ideas would be great!
2008-06-02, 03:27 PM
rblumell Wrote:Has anyone had any luck fixing this problem? Manual transcodings work perfectly, but I get the "Transcoder died early" error on the MVP. My logs look very similar to those posted previously in this thread. Hey there! As mentioned before, on a normal system, there should be no problem getting a higher than realtime frames per second rate. How does the default ffmpeg work, not using ZProcess at all? I hinted before that I botched my system using a few network tweaks that were suggested on this forum from a (now banished) user. THese tweaks would not have affected ZProcess, but it shows how a tweak here and there can compromise a system. A complete resinstall fixed the botch and all was well... That said, I still lean heavily toward something competing with ZProcess. GB-PVR needs several programs and services to run, including an MVP session. When you view a non-mpeg, it calls ZProcess, which then calls either ffmpeg or mencoder, and the transcode starts. If those programs aren't free to breathe, they run slowly, and therefore the fps is down. It might all come down to CPU priority. Within ZProcess, I set GB-PVR Recoreding Service to high, Client to High, MVP server to high. (Remember to restart the recording service after you make the changes) Also within ZProcess, and the Transcode profile, I make sure the cpu priority is set to 'below normal'. There is an auto trottle that will make this cpu rofile float as needed... You might want to play with those settings. But remember that this all assumes that there aren't other 3rd party services running that are also competing...
Frank Z
[COLOR="Gray"] I used to ask 'why?' Now I just reinstall... [SIZE="1"]______________________________________________ Author: ZTools: ZProcess, MVPServerChecker; UltraXMLTV Enhancer, Renamer, Manager; [/SIZE] [/COLOR]
2008-06-03, 04:01 AM
Quote:How does the default ffmpeg work, not using ZProcess at all? I'm trying to get this running on an older machine that struggles with the default ffmpeg. The settings I have in the Transcode profile work well manually so I was hoping it would work with GBPVR. I'm sure you are right about it being a competition problem. Thanks for the suggetions, I'm going to keep on trying different settings and I'll report back if here if I have any luck.
2008-06-17, 09:46 PM
I too have this problem... If I use Mender as the transcoder, I will get a few seconds of the movie before it ends abruptly. Zprocess2.exe will terminate without running the actual transcoding if I were to use ffmpeg.
I change the ZProcess2.exe reference in the config.xml file to point to a Zprocess2.cmd instead. The content of the Zprocess2.cmd is as follows: [INDENT] "C:\Program Files\devnz\GBPVR\Third Party\ZTools\Zprocess2.exe" %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9 "C:\Program Files\devnz\GBPVR\Third Party\ZTools\RunTranscode.cmd"[/INDENT] Basically, I run the Zprocess2.exe with all the parameters and then "force" it to run the runTranscode.cmd. So far this works nicely, but the runtranscode.cmd doesn't get the interrupt signal from the GBPVR application when I press "stop" on the remote... Hopefully this is helpful to others who are trying to solve this puzzle. Chris
2008-06-17, 11:20 PM
Christopher Lee Wrote:I too have this problem... If I use Mender as the transcoder, I will get a few seconds of the movie before it ends abruptly. Zprocess2.exe will terminate without running the actual transcoding if I were to use ffmpeg. That's an interesting hack! It does explain that ZProcess is unable to watch the trancode it and cancel it when you stop viewing the movie THe runtranscode.cmd is generated each time Zprocess is called, and so this may not work if the aspect ratios inconsistent.
Frank Z
[COLOR="Gray"] I used to ask 'why?' Now I just reinstall... [SIZE="1"]______________________________________________ Author: ZTools: ZProcess, MVPServerChecker; UltraXMLTV Enhancer, Renamer, Manager; [/SIZE] [/COLOR]
2008-07-05, 10:01 PM
What I noticed is that zprocess did run but terminated shortly after it creates the runtranscode.cmd file. By running the runtranscode.cmd manually after the fact, I was able to get the decoding to take place and create the file before MVP times out looking for it.
What this is telling me is that whatever problem we have been having has nothing to do with MVP die waiting too early (the zprocess run and die right after it measure the aspect ratio and generate the .cmd file). Running the zprocess manually works fine as well. Chris
Hello!
I have the above mentioned problem also. I had GPBPVR 1.1.5 with ZProcess 2.0.72 and had no issues for a longer time, but in the past few days I had some problems with the Media Guide. I thought the upgrade will solve this problem so i did an upgrade to GBPVR 1.2.13 and ZProcess 2.0.247. Now when trying to play any video on my MVP only the first ~3 seconds is decoded then ZProcess exits, and in the logs I get this error: Quote:7/26/2008 1:31:24 PM : 'ZProcess starts'. The Frame Rates that ZProcess logs: Quote:*** FPS Log Started: 7/26/2008 1:31:25 PM When starting the ZProcess manually everything works fine, the decoding stops only when GBPVR starts ZProcess. The more interesting thing is that, when now I downgrade back to the older version of GBPVR and/or ZProcess i get the same problem. ZProcess decodes only a few sec, then exists without a reason. I have experimented, running the ZProcess manually, starting the encoding then closing ZProcess while ZTranscode still running in the background. The ZTranscode does not stop, it continues to run in the background, but getting into a loop and restarts the decoding after few seconds of decoding the video, until i manually close it. Log: Quote:7/26/2008 1:41:27 PM : *************************************** In the case, ZTranscode produces nearly the same log. I'm only speculating at this point, but i think the following is happening: When the MVP starts the video play, ZProcess starts normally, it generates the needed command files, calculates the dimensions, and starts the ZTranscode. But then for some strange reason it exists ZProcess and leaves the ZTranscode running for a few sec until ZT stops because it detects that there is no ZProcess running... When ZT exits with this error, something deletes the decoded (MVPSOMETHING.mpg) video file too from the recordings. (FFMpeg and the older version leaves the decoded video in the Recordings folder in a normal case...) Don't know what the problem is, does anybody have an idea what i can do to run ZProcess again ? Thanks.
2008-07-26, 09:06 PM
Fluxman Wrote:Hello! You have described the problem very well. Yes that's exactly how ZProcess works
It would appear that the latest versions of GB-PVR is cancelling ZProcess just as if you click 'Stop'. Though I have all the latest versions, and have pretty much version tested straight through develeopment. I can say that my own system is all up to date and everything works well. I did notice one bug that I think I was able to fix by running 'Remove ZProcess settings.bat' and then running ZProcess to reinitialize all defaults. I then tweak a couple fo settings like position, (no biggy) and everything works fine. I usually use MEncoder, but there is a newer version of FFmpeg that ships with GBPVR. I actually use the version of FFmpeg suggested on the wiki. THis has hapened enough that it might be time for sub to look at your logs. So can you snag your gbpvr mvp logs, zip and attach and we'll have sub look. BTW, ZProcess and Ztranscode share the same log file...
Frank Z
[COLOR="Gray"] I used to ask 'why?' Now I just reinstall... [SIZE="1"]______________________________________________ Author: ZTools: ZProcess, MVPServerChecker; UltraXMLTV Enhancer, Renamer, Manager; [/SIZE] [/COLOR]
2008-07-28, 03:38 AM
Hi!
Thank you for your answer! Yesterday I've continued investigate the problem further, and I think I've found it! First I've downgraded back to the 1.1.5 and ZProcess 2.0.47 (the old, working config) but the problem remained. After that I was suspected that the problem is nor in the ZProcess, or at the GBPVR. I read through all the logs, and even tried the Sysinternal's Process monitor to see what happens before ZProcess dies. Nothing. Then I've got an idea to look at the properties of the GB-PVR Recording Service, and there I've found my problem. When upgraded to 1.2.13, I don't know why, but the installer (?) has revoked the permission from the GBPVR Service to interact with the desktop. Normally this is not a problem, but the ZProcess does lot of things on the desktop so it needs that permission to work. However because GBPVR's Service called it didn't have a permission to do it, so the windows killed the process immediately. I gave back the permission to the GBPVR, and everything returned to normal! Now ZProcess runs again flawlessly! 
2008-07-28, 05:23 AM
Fluxman Wrote:Hi! Thanks. Yes, I write most of my stuff to run in a desktop session. That all makes very good sense...
Frank Z
[COLOR="Gray"] I used to ask 'why?' Now I just reinstall... [SIZE="1"]______________________________________________ Author: ZTools: ZProcess, MVPServerChecker; UltraXMLTV Enhancer, Renamer, Manager; [/SIZE] [/COLOR] |
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