[TM-TWIN-OE] 4.2.10 only - CPU overload on media playback pause or stop

[Rob van der Does]

So, what are people doing to play this back? I just navigate to it in the MovieList and press OK.

I hope that's indeed the case.

 

[birdman]

- First of all I tried playing it on my PC (using several mediaplayers). There I see already issues when pausing/fast-forwarding etc. This is a bad sign: a PC has seldom problems with playback of any files.

I've already noted that, for me, it plays fine on Linux and on my MBTwin box.
I've now copied it to MS Windows and run it through the stream fixing options of Video ReDo TV5. That didn't report a single issue with the stream, and the output was exactly the same size as the input. (Well, one thing it did fix was to set the correct run-time for the file, as the copy-N-blocks method left the original time of nearly 2hours in place, while this clip is actually 5:51).
So I can see nothing wrong with it at all, which makes me wonder what you are doing to it to get problems.

 

[birdman]

So I can see nothing wrong with it at all, which makes me wonder what you are doing to it to get problems.

Scrub that.
I didn't run the whole clip with vlc. I was skipping through it, so only probably played ~2 mins.
But if I play it all it steadily eats up memory and at ~3m27s it's used up all 16GB and starts to swap (which, being, on an SSD, doesn't slow down playback...). Eventually it is in trouble.

However - mplayer gets through the whole lot with a constant memory usage.

But it does look as though there is some oddity on the stream.

 

[Rob van der Does]

So I can see nothing wrong with it at all, which makes me wonder what you are doing to it to get problems.

The very same as the reporters did: play, pauze, stop & resume (and FF on the PC). Simply playing without interruption is fine.
And as I've tested this on the PC (using Windows Mediaplayer, MediaPlayer Clsaasic & VLC), the DUO2 (under ViX), the TM-N2S (under ATV), the Ultimo (under PLi) & the Xtrend ET8000 (under XTA) all with the same results, it's pretty clear that there is something amiss with the file.

 

[Piranha]

I'm damned glad you two know what you're talking about - I never was much good with Swahili anyway!

I now conclude:

1. If I want to continue viewing these KodiDirect plugin downloads I can either A. Keep one box on release 4.2.0009 OR B. recode each new file.

2. Had a play with Handbrake last night - it's a good name for it, as it takes an inordinate length of time to complete even the small snip I created yesterday (mind you, that is on my notebook PC, not noted for being quick!)

3. I have about 200GB of these files, so recoding them is a long-term project which I don't think I'll undertake!

4. Many thanks to Rob van der Does, Birdman, bbbuk et al for your efforts in testing etc. Much appreciated!

5. Despite what you say Rob, I am still bewildered somewhat as to WHY release 010 fails to behave the same way as all previous versions, when there doesn't appear to be any change to drivers, kernel, GStreamer or Python involved for the TM Twin!

6. However, I have the good grace to know when I am beaten and will probably just keep testing new releases and/or different E2 Media Players in the slim hope that I find an acceptable solution.

I will now leave you all in peace!

 

[Avalon]

H264 is jut a container, over the years people have shoved some very strange formats inside, this is where people often have problems as hardware playback depends on compliant encoding. Handbrake is great in that its quite straight forward to use and you can queue up jobs and just let it grind through them, before hardware encoding this took a long time. Now if you're not after the absolute best quality and the smallest size intel quick sync can make light work of jobs that took ages to do before - even a lowly i3 can do video encoding at stupidly high frame rates. Other GPU accelerated options exist, it's just about finding the best solution for your needs.

 

[birdman]

The very same as the reporters did: play, pauze, stop & resume (and FF on the PC). Simply playing without interruption is fine.

Ah - it turns out that my log also has the eServiceMP3, but it comes many lines after the Navigation line.
The file also reverse-winds very oddly (forwards is OK).
Mind you, I still can't induce any issues when pausing, stopping and resuming.

 

[IAmATeaf]

I just play the file using MovieList once I've browsed to my nas. The nas is always on and configured as a perm share on my box.

 

[Rob van der Does]

H264 is jut a container, ...

No, that is not correct. h264 (AVC) is a codec, and has nothing to do with a container.
Obviously a h264-coded file can be put into a container, such as MKV or AVI (as any file can).

 

[Rob van der Does]

3. I have about 200GB of these files, so recoding them is a long-term project which I don't think I'll undertake!

For a cold winter-day
Your best option is to decode every file directly after you download it. That way the job is not that big, and once done the file will be fine for every player you can think of.

 

[Piranha]

For a cold winter-day
Your best option is to decode every file directly after you download it. That way the job is not that big, and once done the file will be fine for every player you can think of.

Totally agree Rob! However! Having spotted that release 011 was available for TM Twin, I have flashed it, with settings restore from a 009 backup and guess what - it plays, pauses and stops mpg files just as 009 did! So, there was something in 010 that was different, not that it matters now!

I have just hooked-up a 500MB powered USB HDD to one box and am stripping all mpg files from it. Then I will set Handbrake running on my PC and keep checking how many it can recode in a day!

Thanks once again to everyone for their help.

 

[Avalon]

No, that is not correct. h264 (AVC) is a codec, and has nothing to do with a container.
Obviously a h264-coded file can be put into a container, such as MKV or AVI (as any file can).

You're right Rob, replace h264 with MKV and it's accurate.

 

[IAmATeaf]

I tested 011 last night and had similar results but thought it I may not have been testing properly. Tested again this morning and the video that had problems now plays, pauses and stops without any issues.