NPVR cannot play re-muxed .ts or .mpg file

[vmq]

I am trying to clean my recordings by re-muxing them because the OTA ATSC recordings here are sometimes a little glitchy. After the procedure the files play fine in VLC and Kodi, but NPVR plays the ts very jerky, and cannot play the .mpg. The original ts recording plays fine everywhere, but as I said has some glitches later.

I used the following two commands to create 30s samples:

Code:

ffmpeg -ss 90 -i "NCIS.S14E10.The Tie That Binds.ts" -t 30 -map 0:0 -map 0:1 -map 0:2 -f mpegts -c:v copy -c:a:0 copy -c:a:1 copy -y NCIS.ts
ffmpeg -ss 90 -i "NCIS.S14E10.The Tie That Binds.ts" -t 30 -f mpeg -c:v copy -c:a:0 copy -y NCIS.mpg

The samples can be found here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4WkBkH...sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4WkBkH...sp=sharing

I tried to play both in NPVR. My logs are attached.

Am I doing something wrong?

Volker

[mvallevand]

Glitches won't necessarily be fixed with copy remux, you really need to transcode to get proper timestamps but it can't fix mising information. When Kodi plays a file better than you need to try another decoder

Note too Nextpvr doesn't support mpg format. They are passed to Windows on the host and clients want to

Martin

[sub]

Try setting <ForceMpgGraph>false</ForceMpgGraph> in your config.xml to see if it helps.

[vmq]

OK, one thing first. ffmpeg does not write mpeg-2 by default, so using:

Code:

ffmpeg -ss 90 -i "NCIS.S14E10.The Tie That Binds.ts" -fflags +genpts -t 30 -f dvd -c:v copy -c:a:0 copy -y NCISm.mpg

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4WkBkH...sp=sharing

makes the file playable in NPVR. I would rather not use that, because ffmpeg also complains about the buffer size and the generated file seems to have some compliance issues. ccextractor complains. But in general it plays fine now.

The ts file was missing PTS, so after using

Code:

ffmpeg -ss 90 -i "NCIS.S14E10.The Tie That Binds.ts" -fflags +genpts -t 30 -map 0:0 -map 0:1 -map 0:2 -f mpegts -c:v copy -c:a:0 copy -c:a:1 copy -y NCISt.ts

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4WkBkH...sp=sharing

I got a ts that VLC and Kodi play AND the srt subtitles that ccextractor generated were in sync throughout the file (That's what my goal was in the first place). Unfortunately NPVR studders and stops playing after a few second. I would agree blaming the decoder, but the whole exercise here is that the video stream is unchanged. Does ffmpeg mess up the container (TS) so badly that NPVR cannot play it anymore?

Volker

P.S.: Does <ForceMpgGraph>false</ForceMpgGraph> affect the TS processing? DIdn't try it yet.

[vmq]

Glitches won't necessarily be fixed with copy remux, you really need to transcode to get proper timestamps but it can't fix mising information.

I used to do that with ProjectX or mencoder and mplex. Those are really dated and have problems with HD recordings. The ffmpeg copied transport stream seems to work fine, captions are synced and the two or three positions where a glitch occurred seem to play just nice. (I wouldn't notice if a few frames were missing, unless I really searched for that). Except that NPVR doesn't like it anymore :eek:

Do you have a recommendation for the transcoding? I heard VideoRedo works good. Or would ffmpeg work?

Volker

[sub]

Does <ForceMpgGraph>false</ForceMpgGraph> affect the TS processing? DIdn't try it yet.

No, it just affects the playback of .mpg files. Give it a go.

[vmq]

No, it just affects the playback of .mpg files. Give it a go.

Just did, but as the mpg's were already playing after I fixed the output of ffmpeg to actually generate mpeg-2 there was no change anymore. mpg works. (Kind of, there are still issues with non-standard PES headers according to ccextractor.)

I still wonder if the ts file is wrong, as I said it seems to work for other players.

Can someone try https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4WkBkH...sp=sharing if it works for them? Here NPVR returns to the main menu after 4 seconds. Other players play the full 30 seconds.

Volker

[mvallevand]

Can someone try https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4WkBkH...sp=sharing if it works for them? Here NPVR returns to the main menu after 4 seconds. Other players play the full 30 seconds.

Volker

I had to remux it with tsmuxer to get it to play but after that it works and cc'ing does display.

Martin

[vmq]

I had to remux it with tsmuxer to get it to play but after that it works and cc'ing does display.

You got me excited for a few seconds. I thought tsmuxer would be the tool I'm looking for to clean-up the recordings. So I ran it on the original recording and sadly it messes up the audio sync by about one second. The video plays fine in NPVR though. (I only used the tsmuxer GUI, maybe there are some switches I could try.)

It seems to work to remux with ffmpeg and then clean that up with tsmuxer. Not really a nice solution.

Volker

[scJohn]

I downloaded your file and got the following results:

MPC-HC x64 played the file without any problems.
Windows Media Player was unable to play the file. Went into a loop. Video froze but the audio went into a playback loop of around 5 seconds.

I have OTA and the above 2 media players are my goto for playing files that have less than perfect OTA transmission stream.

My suggestion. Hardware - if possible try adjusting you antenna to get a better reception for the offending station(s). Software - try VideoRedo or TS-Doctor.

Video decoders and players are not all created equally when it comes to handling OTA transmission errors. So just trying to transcode or recode the file will more than likely not solve the problem.

My solution to my problem(s) was to use MPC-HC to playback all of my recording. If MPC-HC chokes on a file, then I try WMP. Over the the last 2 years I have a 99% success rate in watching my recordings. Your solution will depend upon how often your OTA transmission stream goes wonky(technical term). Is this a rare occurrence or something that happens on a regular basis.