UMS transcoding *everything*

[matt_b]

I recently switched to UMS from PMS and I'm really pleased with it for the most part, but I've noticed that at least for my PS3, UMS is transcoding everything, including files that the PS3 will play just fine if I force it to skip transcoding for that file extension. This isn't a huge problem, but it is a bit annoying since transcoded video isn't nearly as smooth when seeking, and I'm fairly conscienscious of encoding videos in formats my devices (including my PS3) can play natively. Very few of my files should actually need to be transcoded. I don't think that PMS was doing this, since I didn't have the problems seeking through files that I'm currently haviing.

I've tried poking around the PS3.conf file to modify the supported files, but everything seems to be correct as far as I understand it. I've also compared it to the PS3.conf file that was being used by PMS, and they appear to be identical. (NOTE: I'm using the default settings in UMS for everything except that I had to uncheck ""Remux videos with TsMuxeR when possible instead of transcoding" in the Mencoder options, since for some reason none of my videos would play with that setting enabled.)

Here's the mediainfo for an example file (name withheld) that the PS3 will play natively but that UMS insists on transcodiing:

Code: Select all

Complete name                            : Videos/Movies/******.avi
Format                                   : AVI
Format/Info                              : Audio Video Interleave
File size                                : 1.30 GiB
Duration                                 : 2h 6mn
Overall bit rate                         : 1 475 Kbps

Video
ID                                       : 0
Format                                   : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile                           : Advanced Simple@L5
Format settings, BVOP                    : 1
Format settings, QPel                    : No
Format settings, GMC                     : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix                  : Custom
Codec ID                                 : XVID
Codec ID/Hint                            : XviD
Duration                                 : 2h 6mn
Bit rate                                 : 1 418 Kbps
Width                                    : 704 pixels
Height                                   : 304 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 2.35:1
Frame rate                               : 23.976 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.276
Stream size                              : 1.25 GiB (96%)
Writing library                          : XviD 1.2.0.dev47 (UTC 2006-11-01)

Audio
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : MPEG Audio
Format version                           : Version 2
Format profile                           : Layer 3
Mode                                     : Joint stereo
Mode extension                           : Intensity Stereo + MS Stereo
Codec ID                                 : 55
Codec ID/Hint                            : MP3
Duration                                 : 2h 6mn
Source duration                          : 2h 6mn
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 48.0 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 24.0 KHz
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 43.3 MiB (3%)
Alignment                                : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration                     : 42 ms (1.00 video frame)

If I understand the PS3.conf settings correctly, this should, I think, match the line:

Code: Select all

Supported = f:avi|divx        v:mp4|divx|mjpeg         a:mp3|lpcm|mpa|ac3   m:video/x-divx     gmc:0

... but it apparently doesn't. And as I said, if I add the avi extension to the "skip transcoding" list in the common transcoding settings, the PS3 will play the file without issue.

The only things I see with this particular file that might be causing problems are that it's Xvid rather than DivX (which shouldn't matter), and that the MIME type is "video/x-msvideo". However, even if I try to add "video/x-msvideo" to the MIME type entry in the previously quoted line in PS3.conf, the video is still transcoded. And as I said, every single file on my server is being transcoded, whether avi or mp4. I'd think that with a library the size of mine that at least a few of them would match the criteria if just by random chance.

This has been bugging me for weeks. If anyone has any solutions, I'd be extremely grateful.

[SubJunk]

Hi matt_b, that's strange, I just checked and it doesn't transcode AVI files for me. Please upload your debug info