UMS/Sony/VLC MKV file freezing

[ColemanEb]

Well, I very happy to report the problem is finally solved!!!! I just finished watching a full episode of one of MKV files, start to finish!!

I tried your suggestion, valib, and added the code line to the renderer file, no success. Then I took your other suggestion, and went into the transcode folder and found an option to play the file with NO TRANSCODING. Held my breath at the 4 min mark, and it kept playing. And playing, and playing.. Let it run for about 20 minutes, and then thought to research a more elegant and permanent way to disable transcoding. A quick google search turned up this thread in the MAC OSX Specific Support Forum:

https://www.universalmediaserver.com/fo ... hp?t=12335

So, I took that line on disabling file specific transcoding, and added it to the SONY BRAVIA renderer file. Restarted UMS, and the VLC app on the TV, and started another video straight from the regular menu. Same GREAT SUCCESS!!

I would like to gratefully thank both you and Nadahar for your help giving me the insights and direction in solving this problem!! I learned a lot, and now my media viewing is back in flow again!!

[Nadahar]

"disable_transcode_for_extensions" should only be used for testing. It is a crude mechanism that disables most of what UMS actually does. Since the file plays without transcoding, the correct solution is to modify whatever setting needs modifying so that UMS doesn't transcode the file. A debug log from when trying to play (without having "disable_transcode_for_extensions" set) will reveal the reason it is transcoded.

[ColemanEb]

Well, ok then....I've gone into the Bravia Renderer and commented out the two lines I added today, and now the symptoms have changed. The file never opens on the TV when I start it.

Please see attached debugs...
Thanks.

[ColemanEb]

Well, things went from bad to worse. Realized later last night that NOTHING is playing, not the MKV, or even the MP4's I had in my media library. As soon as I launch anything on the TV, it just sits there and stares at me with that big 65" black screen, and chuckles....
So, I went scorched earth, and blew away the entire UMS 9.8.1 configuration, to include all the files and folders in the /Application Support/UMS directory. Reloaded UMS, reset everything up from default, hoping I'd at least get back to the point I started this thread with, but NADA...ZIP...nothing is playing still...
Rechecked all router connections, good.
The UMS program still shows up in VLC on the TV, and I can navigate down to any file, they just won't play.
Including the latest debugs from this rebuild, but I'm at wits end with this...
Thanks...
B

[Nadahar]

When things stopped to work, you should only have reversed the last step. It's very difficult to guess what else is happening now, since you wiped and reinstalled everything. I looked at the log, but can't see anything obvious except that UMS is sending the wrong DLNA PN - but that's nothing new, and that shouldn't be what has changed.

I'm not sure I understand where VLC comes into play here. While I love VLC as a player, its UPnP/DLNA implementation isn't exactly solid. I personally don't use VLC for that because I find the behavior to be too inconsistent. Kodi is a bit better, but there are things there as well. I've actually found that Kodi 16 is pretty stable on UPnP/DLNA for audio and video, but images doesn't work. If that's ok, I would suggest Kodi 16. Are you running VLC on the TV for UPnP/DLNA support? Doesn't the TV have it's own "media player", it should support UPnP/DLNA better..?

[ColemanEb]

As a retired computer networking engineer, I'm well versed in the concept of going back to what changed just before something broke. That has gotten me out of more jams than I care to count. In response to your previous message, all I did was comment out the disable_transcode_for_extensions = mp4,m4v,mkv,avi,mpg line in the renderer to reboot the UMS to get you a clean debug file. It was at that point that things went to hell in a handbasket, and the blank black screen of death started.
Despite the fact that this should have simply brought us back to the "4 minute freeze", something else went south at that point which one would suspect was related to UMS. Well, it wasn't. More on that in a minute.
Yes, I had begun this process of using the TV as the renderer using its native "Video" app. Immediately I ran into the issue with it not recognizing or playing the MKV files, and the the MP4's were choppy and stuttery at best. It saw UMS just fine, and all the files and folders, just wouldn't play them well. Since I use VLC on my iMac, when I found another thread on the Sony Bravia's using VLC, I installed it, and things "progressed" to the MKV's working up till the 4 minute mark, then freezing, which is where this thread began.
I went back to the native video app for more t/s'ing this afternoon, but it responds just like VLC...spinning circle, and then it says it can't play the video.
As to Kodi vs VLC, seems I am Sony is still blocking Kodi from installing; I just checked for it, an could see it but not install it. A plethora of web articles seem to point a fix for certain Sony TV's, but mine (with the latest software update) apparently isn't one of them.
So I was resigned, for the time being, to going back to "Sneaker Netting" my files to the TV on USB, and that's when I discovered the real culprit of the problem....The TV itself!! When I plugged in the USB drive to view a file, it wouldn't play!! Blank black screen just like under UMS. So, I went scorched earth and factory reset the TV. Once it was setup again, the USB files worked again. I went back to the UMS via VLC, including the transcode disable, and I'm back to where things broke last night, able to play a full video file start to finish.

So, where to go from here. While I understand your position on the Disable function being for testing, and reducing the some of the functionality of UMS, it does give me exactly what I use it for: Playing video files (mostly MKV's) stored on my iMac to the TV. Full 1080p, full 5.1 audio, so I'm not sure what I'm missing at this point. While I'm all for finding what the possible root cause of the freeze is from the first setup, there seems to be nothing evident in the debugs I'd sent prior that leapt out to getting the problem of why it was failing during the transcode, or even why it was trying to in the first place. The last debug I sent on the 11th (2020-11-11-22-15) might be the best example of what is going on, which I sent prior to setting the disable transcode. If you can find something evident in that which might fix things without the disable, I'm happy to continue troubleshooting. All for now...and again, thanks for all your help!
Thanks,
b

[mik_s]

I just had a quick look at your logs and as Valib already mentioned your conf doesn't show support for eac3 audio and subtitles, but also h265 and divx. So UMS is transcoding them.

I modified the Sony-BraviaXBR-mod.conf to add those to a few of the supported formats that should work for now, but will need to know the full capabilities to make sure the supported formats is correct.

I think the config for the Sony-BraviaXBR is too broad and needs narrowing down to a series/year to give batter compatibility in the future.

The settings for transcoding is probably not quite right causing the problem at 4min, in theory transcoding is only used when UMS thinks that file is unsupported and is used as a fallback to a format that will work as long as the settings are right which can take a bit of trial and error. I've changed the format to MPEGTS-H264-AC3, see if that makes any difference. have a look at the DefaultRenderer.conf for all the settings and experiment. Use the TRANSCODE folder to test with and without transcoding.

[Nadahar]

@Coleman I'm not suggesting to dig in to find the underlying problem. I'm merely suggesting that the renderer configuration file is modified so that files that don't need transcoding isn't transcoded without using the very broad "disable_transcode_for_extensions". There probably will be situations where you need a file to be transcoded (unsupported video or audio codec or subtitles), and disabling transcoding per file extension will break this completely. Give @mik_s's file a go, maybe it does what's needed.

As to making a useful log file, you'd want to start UMS in trace mode, try to play one of the files that works when "disable.." is on until it fails, and then pack the debug files. The less other stuff that happens in the log, the easier it is to find what's important. In the log file I looked at (the last one), there was no transcoding, so it didn't reveal anything related to why UMS decides to transcode. I assume that "disable.." was active.

[ColemanEb]

@mik_s, nadahar,
Well, some very good news this AM! Great success with the new modified Bravia renderer conf!

Here's the breakdown of what happened:

1. Added the Modified Sony XBR renderer to UMS.
2. Shut down UMS and restarted.
3. Deselected the stock XBR file with the "disable transcode" line, and enabled the new conf.
4. Restarted again.
5. Fired up the TV, and played a Cosmos file.
6. Video ran past the 4 min mark, and played completed, with full 1080p and 5.1 audio.
7. Packed the debug, and attaching it.

Let me know what y'all see in this, but things are definitely better!!
Thanks
B

[Nadahar]

Good to hear that it's working. There's really not any reason to study the log file if things are working