Ideal settings for playing divx?

[bibi-phoque]

Hello,
I have been a GBPVR user for a while, works great in the living room. I recently purchased a MVP, because there were getting very cheap and was looking for a device that can stream, for the bedroom.
I have been using only GBPVR "out of the box" functionality, and am able to play Live TV, recordings, TV guide from MVP.
However, I do have one problem, I am not able to watch a full divx, it will always stop half way (it works, and then the MVP reboot itself). Very frustrating, because we can't go forward either.

I now understand that the MVP cannot play divx and does an on-the-fly conversion to mpeg through FFmpeg. I have the delay set to 10s in GBPVR config, so there is plenty of time for the conversion to start and buffer a few seconds of video. My machine is a 3GHz P4 with 1G or Ram. The MVP is wired to the router, and the GBPVR server is in 802.11G (in the living room). I can play Live TV and Recordings just fine from the bedroom and I get very good speed in wireless (48 Mbs).


Any idea what I could do differently? Is it expected to add some plugin (like Zprocess) to be able to sucessfully play divx from the mvp?

Thanks in advance,
Yann

[zehd]

Hello,
I have been a GBPVR user for a while, works great in the living room. I recently purchased a MVP, because there were getting very cheap and was looking for a device that can stream, for the bedroom.
I have been using only GBPVR "out of the box" functionality, and am able to play Live TV, recordings, TV guide from MVP.
However, I do have one problem, I am not able to watch a full divx, it will always stop half way (it works, and then the MVP reboot itself). Very frustrating, because we can't go forward either.

I now understand that the MVP cannot play divx and does an on-the-fly conversion to mpeg through FFmpeg. I have the delay set to 10s in GBPVR config, so there is plenty of time for the conversion to start and buffer a few seconds of video. My machine is a 3GHz P4 with 1G or Ram. The MVP is wired to the router, and the GBPVR server is in 802.11G (in the living room). I can play Live TV and Recordings just fine from the bedroom and I get very good speed in wireless (48 Mbs).


Any idea what I could do differently? Is it expected to add some plugin (like Zprocess) to be able to sucessfully play divx from the mvp?

Thanks in advance,
Yann

Although you may like ZProcess because it will maintain the aspect ratio for your divx, and I do suggest it, your problem would probably be the same whether you use it or not.

Read this little note...http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Utili...ess1#toc33

Even though you have the preplay delay set to 10 secs, it may not be enough if there are competing processes.

Have a read and see if there are somethings that you can do. You said that you are using mostly the defaults with GB-PVR... have you tweaked the CPU Priority for any processes, like the GB-PVR Recording Service?

[bibi-phoque]

Hi Frank,
Thanks for the reply.
I did have a read through this very good FAQ, and increased the ffmpeg process to the highest priority (real time). I haven't touched any other process though. Should I put Low priority for the GB-PVR Recording Service?

Thanks again,
Yann

[zehd]

Hi Frank,
Thanks for the reply.
I did have a read through this very good FAQ, and increased the ffmpeg process to the highest priority (real time). I haven't touched any other process though. Should I put Low priority for the GB-PVR Recording Service?

Thanks again,
Yann

I have found that Below Normal is the correct value, though in rare instances Normal works. Anything highre and ZProcess/FFmpeg over powers the MVP service and everything stalls...

I know that it sound counter intuitive. Lowering the process makes for smoother operation. I think of it as the GB-PVR Recording Service / MVP Server and FFmpeg have to play fairly and share the resources.

In reality, you should be able to have everything GB-PVR and ZProcess/FFmpeg set to their respective defaults, and it should be smooth sailing, unless there is yet another process competing...

For these reasons, I have only inlcuded the two Priorities levels in the new ZProcess2

[mvallevand]

Even though you have the preplay delay set to 10 secs, it may not be enough if there are competing processes.

Personally I think the 10s prebuffer is too much for transcoding, it's right on the fringe of when the Hauppauge dongle times out.

The fact that the file is playing well and then failing is really what you need to figure out. I think that the the divx file itself might be the cause and then I would look at the wireless network.

Martin

[zehd]

Personally I think the 10s prebuffer is too much for transcoding, it's right on the fringe of when the Hauppauge dongle times out.

The fact that the file is playing well and then failing is really what you need to figure out. I think that the the divx file itself might be the cause and then I would look at the wireless network.

Martin

Wired network.

Yep, all divx/xvid are not the same, and some can cause for slower transcoding...

[mvallevand]

Wired network.

Yep, all divx/xvid are not the same, and some can cause for slower transcoding...

I read wired mvp but since the server is connected by 802.11g this is wireless to me.

I understand that all files aren't all the same but I still find it surprising to have it crash half way through to the point of a reboot. On mvpmc stalls because data isn't available this typically this appears like a stop or you have to hit the stop key. This acts more like a socket disconnect.

Martin

[zehd]

I read wired mvp but since the server is connected by 802.11g this is wireless to me.

I understand that all files aren't all the same but I still find it surprising to have it crash half way through to the point of a reboot. On mvpmc stalls because data isn't available this typically this appears like a stop or you have to hit the stop key. This acts more like a socket disconnect.

Martin

A while ago, whenever the temp MPG would run out, the MVP would always reboot. It happens much more rarely for me now. Usually just cuts out...

In my experience, using the default dongles, I have been able to have the preplay delay up around 12000...

I did miss the part of the server being wireless. Certainly, that could be the bottleneck...

[bibi-phoque]

All,
Thanks for your replies.

Yes, it is a wireless network but because it is a small flat (it's expensive in Dublin ;-), I got excellent speed (I can play 720 HD videos from the wireless server just fine, and the divx are on a Hard Disk connected to the router).

I got this problem on most of my divx, although they are all very similar (TV series like heroes and 24). 350MB for 42 min, 512x384, 139kb/s for the video and 125kbs for the audio.

I guess there is a few things to try :
- I need to find a RJ45 cable and plug my server, to see if I get the same problem...
- I will try to increase the delay to 12s.

Will keep you updated.

Thanks,
Yann

[SuMo]

Yes, it is a wireless network ....... and the divx are on a Hard Disk connected to the router).

I think inhere lies the problem, what's happening is that GBPVR fetches the divx from the NAS drive, transcodes it to an MPEG2 and sends it to the MVP.
So receiving and transmitting data at the same time.
Are you using MS - QOS ?

I got this problem on most of my divx, although they are all very similar (TV series like heroes and 24). 350MB for 42 min, 512x384, 139kb/s for the video and 125kbs for the audio.

I think you mean 1390kb/s ?

I guess there is a few things to try :
- I need to find a RJ45 cable and plug my server, to see if I get the same problem...
- I will try to increase the delay to 12s.

Try hardwireing the NAS to the gbpvr server if that's an option.