Sony Bravia KDL-32EX500 & MEncoder/FFMPeg

[mx5gr]

I have a Sony Bravia KDL-32EX500 and I have been using PMS and then UMS for some years. When playing mkv/mp4 files using Mencoder or FFMpeg, the image is distorted in its aspect in the sense that two black borders are added on the top and bottom of the screen, albeit the file has correct aspect ratio (16:9). The internal Sony renderer cannot zoom in correctly as it does with AVI files, hence all HD/MP4 files appear as squeezed on top and bottom. Please note that when the same file is reproduced using tsmuxer, the correct full-screen 16:9 aspect ratio is shown, however with no external subtitle support that is desired.

I've tried many custom mencoder settings as published in other form topics to no effect. Why tsmuxer plays back the file normally and Mencoder and FFMpeg do not?

Moreover, when a video file with external subtitles is played back with FFMpeg, the subtitle font size is much smaller than when played with Mencoder with the same UMS settings. How can this be fixed (only Fontconfig is enabled in Subtitle support).

[mx5gr]

Anyone?

[OlliL]

Have you tried my suggestions?

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=615

[mx5gr]

Which file I need to alter?

I assume that the mencoder_decode within UMS can be expressed in the renderer file by the CustomMencoderOptions flag within the renderer file, correct?

Moreover, do I need to recompile Mencoder, as per your last perl lines?

[OlliL]

The relevant part for you is only the change in UMS.conf. I have no idea about how to achive this with the GUI as I have a headless setup without monitors.
The whole Mencoder part can be skipped on your side. I only included it in the post because the playback was stuttering. But this might be due to my local setup - but has nothing to do with the Sony TV.

The aspect thing can be fixed by canging UMS.conf like I posted.

UMS.conf:

Code: Select all

#false for not falling back to tsMuxer
mencoder_mux_compatible = false
# :2 is needed for some extrem "short" videos like aspect 2.35:1 which otherwise would create a green bar on the verry top
# of the screen the strange scale is needed to avoid some "auto" screen adjustments on the TV which makes all wrong. 
# 1276:720 also works but cuts parts of the screen away on the left and right. tested with 4:3, 16:9, 16:10 and 2.35:1 videos
mencoder_decode =  -vf softskip,expand=::::1:16/9:2,scale=1283:720 -lavcopts aspect=16/9

Make sure your TV Screen is also set up correctly (see the bottom of my linked post).

[ExSport]

You are right that mencoder_decode is global settings so don't use it. You will break other non-Bravia renderers.
CustomMencoderOptions is better bet. It must be defined in renderer.conf, not in ums.conf.
Or wait for new version where there is a better AR support for PanTV and Sony Bravia ones.

[OlliL]

This is only a problem if you use non-Bravia renderers too. You do not need to care if the Bravia is your only renderer.
Is the position the same where the string gets added in the command line if you use renderer.conf?

[mx5gr]

Tried it with the renderer.conf Custom Mencoder Settings. However, when a video file has subtitles (usually external in the form of .srt), the subtitles flash continuously at every subtitle line appearance from normal font to large and the screen colors are distorted when that happens.. As if the transcoding engine is trying to resize the subtitles but it cannot and it reverts back to their normal size.

I use Fontconfig as the supported subtitling method, I'll try with ASS/SSA as well..

[mx5gr]

UPDATE: When ASS/SSA subtitles option was activated and Fontconfig off, the subtitles appeared twice, in large fonts overlayed with smaller ones, hence unreadable. This occurred with all file types: MP4, MKV, AVI (DiVX/XViD).

With Fontconfig enabled and the "Use embedded styles" option disabled, the following results were obtained:

MKV: Correct aspect re-size (16:9), correct subtitles
MP4: Unplayable file, albeit correct aspect. When first subtitle appears, file is paused (probably due to re-size as indicated in my previous post and below)
AVI: Correct aspect, however major issue with subtitles. Once they appear at normal size and they immediately switch to a huge font with a green overlay on the video picture.

How can we limit the Custom MEncoder settings to MKV files only? Or can someone suggest an fix to the above?

[ExSport]

This is only a problem if you use non-Bravia renderers too. You do not need to care if the Bravia is your only renderer.
Is the position the same where the string gets added in the command line if you use renderer.conf?

True but Bravia is crappy one. Params which works correctly for e.g. Panasonic TV, Android TV, played directly on PC, it just works. Not true for Bravia.
Bravia needs weird settings which "works" for Bravia only but is "unusable/incorrect" for all other "correct" renderers which have AR problems.