#32 support transcode Video and Audio

[hiero]

Hello,
This patch supports transcoding for both Video and Audio using mencoder/ffmpeg as transcoder.
This uses multiple <res> elements. It means minidlna present multiple media format for one stream.
For example, in case source stream is H.264/AAC, minidlna presents both H.264/AAC and MPEG2/AC3.
If a client (TV) supports only MPEG2/AC3, it select MPEG2/AC3 stream.
All the Video stream can be transcoded to MPEG2/AC3 (DVD) stream.
All the Audio stream can be transcoded to LPCM stream.

mencoder/ffmpeg is required to be installed.

I tested on Ubunts 10.04 and Fedora 12.

I hope this patch is helpful to the users who's TV only supports MPEG2 and LPCM.

This patch is for minidlna_1.0.18_src.tar.gz.
This patch also support Toshiba TV.

heiro

[hiero]

merged transcode and minidlna.samsung-new-1.0.19.patch

[hiero]

I uploaded "minidlna_transcode_1.0.19_samsung-support_20110327.patch".
please try it.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the great patch. It is almost working. But I have the same problem as lkristensen mentioned in his comment "24000/1001 breaks A/V sync" with my Sony Bravia KDL-32V5500 TV.
hieroun, you suggested some option for it, could you please tell me, what and where I need to change?

[FifiTheReal]

Hello hiero,

Thank you for samsung support! It works fine!

Bye, Fifi

[Michalis Giannakidis]

Hello,

I tested this patch on Ubuntu 9.04 with Samsung LE32B653 T2 TV. Some of the issues I had to deal with (DLNA Root menu not working, compilation problems), are reported here:
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=1121518&aid=3148380&group_id=243163 (comment 65, user mgiannakidis)

In addition, I used the transcoding features introduced by this patch. I used the ffmpeg option. The default settings given in the .conf file, gave no improvement in my sample avis. While I was able to have sound on one of my two videos, after the transcoding patch, I had no sound in both videos.

Could it be that I need different options for ffmpeg or a newer ffmpeg? How can I debug this problem?

Thank you in advance

Michalis

[hiero]

Hello,

Following is how to change -ops option to "24000/1001".

--------------------
1) erase leading '#' of following lines in minidlna.conf

#transcode_video_mencoder_options=

2) replace "30000/1001" with "24000/1001" in fourth line
of "transcode_video_mencoder_options=" lines.

[hiero]

Hello Michalis,

I do not have Samsung TV. What I can do is import
existing patch. It might be bettert to wait for stable
samsung patch.

Does mencoder works? mencoder is better for my contents and TV.
An idea to check transcode is transcode contents off line
and send it to TV via minidlna without on-the-fly transcoding.
Adequate transcoder and options depends on contents and renderer(TV).
It is very dufficult to suggest what transcoder and options works
fine for each environment.

heiro

[Anonymous]

hieroun, thank you so much. I made changes as your instructions:

Following is how to change -ops option to "24000/1001".

--------------------
1) erase leading '#' of following lines in minidlna.conf

#transcode_video_mencoder_options=

2) replace "30000/1001" with "24000/1001" in fourth line
of "transcode_video_mencoder_options=" lines.

But, after changing fourth line with "24000/1001" it shows "Playback error message" for all mkv files. Before it was playing mkv files which are in 30000/1001 encoded format.

[P Walden]

Himali,

Players are all different in how fussy they are about the format of the transcoded videos. It also depends on your location as your player may be either ntsc-dvd or pal-dvd. For example my Sony blu-ray player only support playing ntsc-dvd formatted mpeg2 files at 30fps. Your symptoms are similar to the ones I had when trying different frame rates. When I tried 24fps, I got sound but no picture. The mplayer document here gives a good description of what is needed to be compliant

http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/menc-feat-vcd-dvd.html

Also, you can run your chosen transcoder (e.g ffmpeg or mencoder) stand-alone and test the mpeg2 files it generates on your player. In that way you can finalize the options you need to configure in minidlna.conf.

[Anonymous]

pcwalden Thank you so much for the guidance. I will test based on your suggestion.

[Anonymous]

pcwalden

I could solve my problem. Could you please share which argument worked for you. My problem is similar to yours.

[Anonymous]

pcwalden

I could not solve my problem. Could you please share which argument worked for
you. My problem is similar to yours.

[Nobody/Anonymous]

Hello Himali,

Following options are related to AV sync.
Try to remove them one by one to get better for your contents.
harddup
-mc 0
-noskip
-ofps 30000/1001
though top three options improve A/V sync in general,
they make side effects for some streams.

hiero

[Anonymous]

hiero,
Thank you so much. I will test line by line.

[hiero]

support transcode Video and Audio patch against 1.0.19 support Linux and Cygwin

[hiero]

"minidlna_transcode_1.0.19_20110402.tar.gz " is uploaded.

followings are changed from "minidlna_transcode_1.0.19_20110320.patch".

1. options for transcodeing are slightly changed, read minidlna.conf
2. streams which continer is "ogg" are supported.
3. This pacth can be build under Linux and Cygwin without any modification.
read "How to build on Cygwin.txt" to build on Cygwin.
4. 3246932 - Add option to show only contents of "Browse Folders" is imported.

[AzaToth]

Tried to apply and split up your patch at https://github.com/azatoth/minidlna/tree/hiero_transcode_plus
Difficult to know which is the author here and there :) Noticed you included https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=3246932&group_id=243163&atid=1121518 in your patch.
Didn't write any extensive commit messages, hoping you could do that :)

[Lars Rönnbäck]

Trying your latest patch, it is still locked down to using either mencoder or ffmpeg for the transcoding. For example, in minidlna.c there is a section:

case TRANSCODE_V_TRANSCODER:
strcpy(transcoder_video, ary_options[i].value);
if(strstr(ary_options[i].value, "mencoder") != NULL)
transcode_video = TRANSCODE_VIDEO_MENCODER;

I still cannot see why this cannot be done in a generic fashion, where you only concatenate the "transcode_video_transcoder" and "transcode_video_options" from the config file.

I want to be able to specify "mencoder/ffmpeg/or_any_filename_here/DISABLE" for the "transcode_video_transcoder" option. That way I am free to use whatever transcoder I want, or as in my case, my own script using mediainfo to pull information from $SOURCE and based on that select the optimal transcoding options.

[hiero]

I tested followings. They work.

transcode_video_transcoder=/usr/bin/mencoder
transcode_video_options=-ss $STARTPOSITION -endpos $DURATION
transcode_video_options=(other options)
transcode_video_options=-o - $SOURCE

or

transcode_video_transcoder=./transcode.sh
transcode_video_options=$SOURCE $STARTPOSITION $DURATION

It is not recomended, following also work.

transcode_video_transcoder=
transcode_video_options=/usr/bin/ffmpeg -ss $STARTPOSITION -t $DURATION -i $SOURCE -v 0 -loglevel quiet -target ntsc-dvd pipe:1

hiero

[hiero]

I got the FFMPEG options which has good A/V sync.
If anyone has A/V sync issue, it is worth trying.

minidlna.conf ----------
transcode_video_transcoder=ffmpeg
transcode_video_options=-ss $STARTPOSITION -t $DURATION -i $SOURCE -v 0 -loglevel quiet -async 1 -target ntsc-dvd pipe:1
----------

[P Walden]

hello hieroun

The latest cvs download supports native mp4 and mkv on my Sony BDP-S370. I selectively merged your minidlna_transcode_1.0.19_20110320.patch into this latest download.

It seems to work. the mpeg2 and mp4 files do not get transcoded, while the other file types do get transcoded.

You may want to produce another transcode patch as there have been many significant changes since 1.0.19

[hiero]

hello pcwalden

I uploaded the patch against CVS 384.

hiero

[hiero]

support transcode Video and Audio patch against 1.0.20 support Linux and Cygwin

[hiero]

patch against 1.0.20 is added.
I tested on Ubuntu 11.04 and Windows7/Vista/XP.

transcoder and transcode option can be specified in .conf file.
read "minidlna.conf" after patch

[AzaToth]

I would recommend you to remove all #If 1 litter