Forced transcode of files that play fine on PS3, only happens after version 6.5.0

[sheath]

Hi,

Right now I am forced to use version 6.5.0 since any version after this has the issue described below. Can someone explain how I can fix it in the settings or is it a bug? I tried updating this past week and ran into this bug no matter the version after 6.5.0.

Files encoded with the settings play fine on 6.5.0 (No transcode) but any version after is a forced transcode. These files play fine when loaded onto the PS3 as well.
720P MP4 , [email protected] with 9 Ref frames
1080P MP4, [email protected] with 4 Ref frames
Both of those are the max allowable for the PS3 for .264 encoding of an MP4.

Edit: Added Logs

Example 720p file info

Code: Select all

General
Complete name                            : 
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media
Codec ID                                 : isom (isom/avc1/iso6)
File size                                : 177 MiB
Duration                                 : 24 min
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 1 011 kb/s

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : [email protected]
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 9 frames
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 24 min
Bit rate                                 : 815 kb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 23.3 Mb/s
Width                                    : 1 280 pixels
Height                                   : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.037
Stream size                              : 142 MiB (81%)
Title                                    : [email protected]
Writing library                          : x264 core 144 r2525 40bb568

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile                           : LC
Codec ID                                 : 40
Duration                                 : 24 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 192 kb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 202 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 46.875 FPS (1024 spf)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 33.5 MiB (19%)

Example 1080p file info

Code: Select all

General
Complete name                            : 
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media
Codec ID                                 : isom (isom/avc1/iso6)
File size                                : 378 MiB
Duration                                 : 24 min
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 2 143 kb/s

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : [email protected]
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 4 frames
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 24 min
Bit rate                                 : 1 948 kb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 11.3 Mb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.039
Stream size                              : 344 MiB (91%)
Title                                    : [email protected]
Writing library                          : x264 core 144 r2525 40bb568

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile                           : LC
Codec ID                                 : 40
Duration                                 : 24 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 192 kb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 203 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L R
Sampling rate                            : 44.1 kHz
Frame rate                               : 43.066 FPS (1024 spf)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 33.9 MiB (9%)

[Nadahar]

My guess would be that you might have subtitle settings that requires transcoding, but there's no point in guessing really. The log will tell exactly why the file is transcoded, so the only logical thing is to wait until you can provide one.

[sheath]

My guess would be that you might have subtitle settings that requires transcoding, but there's no point in guessing really. The log will tell exactly why the file is transcoded, so the only logical thing is to wait until you can provide one.

Found out that my friend im staying with had a PS3 so i used my laptop to reproduce the errors a little while ago. See the attached logs. One from 6.5.0 which requires no transcode and one from 6.7.4 which forces a Mencoder transcode of each file. No file had subtitle files in the MP4.

Looking into the logs for fun i see this in the 6.7.4. I think someone set these values in the program arbitrarily. This should be updated for the PS3 to the values I posted above IMO.
TRACE 2017-11-21 23:21:32.083 [HTTPv2 Request Worker 1] File "Test 720P.mp4" will not be streamed because the H.264 level (5.1) is not supported.
TRACE 2017-11-21 23:21:32.099 [HTTPv2 Request Worker 1] File "Test 1080P.mp4" will not be streamed because the H.264 level (4.2) is not supported.

Thanks for any help provided.

[Nadahar]

Video codecs and renderer capabilities definitely isn't within "my area of expertise" so I hope others can weigh in here, but I was under the impression that the PS3 was limited to level 4.1. I don't know why these higher levels work, it might be that the PS3 firmware has since been updated to support a higher level or it might depend on the media so that some higher level videos might work but isn't "supported". In either case, the H.264 level limit was implemented exactly because people had problems playing back higher level videos.

It's very easy to change though. All you need to do is to edit "Sony-Playstation3.conf" and add this line:

Code: Select all

H264Level41Limited = false

You can find this file in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Universal Media Server6.7.4/renderers". If you edit this file, you will have to replace it after every UMS update. To avoid that, you can place it in your profile folder instead. In your case the profile folder is "C:\ProgramData\UMS", which means that you should copy the file to "C:\ProgramData\UMS\renderers\Sony-Playstation3.conf". That version of the file won't be overwritten during installation so you shouldn't have to worry about that. Please note that if other changes to UMS is done that requires corresponding changes to the renderer configuration you might experience problems and will need to make a new "copy", but that should be a pretty rare event.

[sheath]

Is there a code for the 5.1 or will that hit both of them?

[Nadahar]

I (partially?, don't remember) made a solution for limiting to any level a while ago, but it was never merged. I think the argumentation was that 4.1 was the most common limitation among renderers. So, as for now, it's only possible to either allow or deny anything above 4.1.

[sheath]

Thanks, i will try it out. I think it really should be fixed though in the code. 4.1 was always the "recommended" level by sony but it was not the PS3 limit. What i posted above is its true limit and offers the best file for the PS3. Its all due to the memory and such of the PS3. Heres an old post describing part of it better than I can. https://movian.tv/boards/15/topics/7553. Its still a really old post though and over covers 4.2 level.
720P MP4 , [email protected] with 9 Ref frames
1080P MP4, [email protected] with 4 Ref frames

[sheath]

Just confirmed, your line of code does fix the issue. So that is a temporary workaround for both file resolutions. Thanks for your help so far.