VLC setting

[smacrae]

Hi Martin,

Just wondering if you might be able to help with the following....

I have XBMC installed on a Jailbroken Apple TV with X-NEWA working...all is great apart from on channels that are HD...so I decided to enable VLC with 720 etc. settings....trouble is VLC seems to just default everything to less than 480 as the quality is very dodgy....I've tried all different settings and the audio and video doesn't change...it all works and I see the VLC (32bit) starts up on the server and all streams....I've checked in the settings.xml in the Userdata folder and the changes I'm making in the settings are reflected in this file but it just seems to be ignored by VLC...

Any ideas?

Thanks
-SM

[mvallevand]

I just tried here and 720p and 1080i look ok What does the video output in XBMC give you? Shown here is mine from a 1080i mpeg2 source which looks right too.

The web.log command line seems right too.

Code:

2014-07-12 08:56:12.949    [INFO][37]    Args= -I http "http://localhost:8866/live?channel=997" :sout=#transcode{vcodec=h264{qp-max=6,cabac=no-cabac,loopfilter=nf,analyse=none,adapt=none,me=dia,subme=1,chroma-me=none,merange=1,},vb=1200,2width=720,height=480,acodec=mp4a,ab=128,channels=2}:standard{access=http,mux=ts,dst=:7648} vlc://quit

Martin

[smacrae]

I've got my set on Video: 720, Bit Rate: LAN, Audio: 256 and the output is a poor quality 480P....

The source is 720P if I play with NextPVR on a machine that is capable of directly playing such a file...(if I set it as PVR/Native etc. then 720P is what is outputted...of course on a ATV2 it buffers and spits all over the place)

See attached screenshot from my Mac that I also trying this from that has the identical issue...

Update

I had my settings as noted above on 720, LAN, 256 but the web.log outputs the following:

2013-02-14 19:09:02.952 [INFO][3] Args= -I http "http://localhost:8866/live?channel=7" out=#transcode{vcodec=h264{bframes=0,qp=,qp-max=6,cabac=no-cabac,loopfilter=nf,analyse=none,adapt=none,me=dia,subme=1,chroma-me=none,merange=1,},vb=128,width=320,height=213,acodec=mp3,ab=32,channels=2}tandard{access=http,mux=ts,dst=:7648} vlc://quit

Looking at this output I can see why the quality is so crappy....the settings in X-NEWA seem to be ignored on box my MAC and my ATV2....I've checked that when I make changes the settings.xml is updated and I've quite, enabled/disabled the plugin etc....always will default to a poor quality if VLC is selected in the X-NEWA settings...

[mvallevand]

I think we are "dis-oriented" NEWA only allows me options for sending SD formats, and the resolution is horizontal. It sounds like you want to see 720 vertical. UJB's use case is for Internet streaming, not for ATV's. perhaps issue a wishlist for 1280?

As a test I edited C:\Users\Public\NPVR\web\App_Code\Classes\VLCUtility.cs and in function changed setVideo() for the low res option in 320 to output 1280 and 720 with the line vsize = "width=1280,height=720"; and it does send 720p h264. My personal observation is that SD upscaling didn't look as nice.

Martin

[smacrae]

That worked....trouble is I am finding if I fiddle with the settings I get good audio and no video...or the other way around...

Any ideas?

[mvallevand]

That worked....trouble is I am finding if I fiddle with the settings I get good audio and no video...or the other way around...

Any ideas?

Sounds like a transcoding glitch more more than a specific problem.

Martin

[smacrae]

It's very odd....I have VLC installed in two locations to test...one in "Program Files" and the other in "Program Files (x86)"....version 2.0.5 and 2.1.3 respectively....if I modify NEWA for the VLC locations I get video on the first and no audio and the other way around on the second version of VLC...

Any ideas of what I could try...I even tried have NEWA use the 32-bit version for video and the 64-bit version for audio as these seems to work for each but only the first entry in the video variable is picked up and used when transcoding...feeling so close but just not quite there....

[mvallevand]

Sorry I long ago gave up looking for a magic bullet solution for transcoding live tv on-the-fly. Sounds like you might have an a/v sync issue, but that's just a wild guess.

Martin

[smacrae]

Yeah...it's odd...pretty sure it's not a sync issue as it happens on the Mac, aTV, Windows box etc. and doesn't matter what file I pick (live or recorded) it's the same issue...

Hmm..sooooo close....

Maybe I'll just get a G-Box Midnight MX2 as I assuming it is easily capable of running 720P streams....have you had any experience with Android devices like this?

[mvallevand]

720p is usually not an issue it's 1080i because the lack of h/w deinterlacing of mpeg2 is common on many low-end devices. If have a few Pivos boxes which use the same outdated amlogic chip as the mx2. Better mpeg2 than your atv but slower UI.

Martin