Trying to create a conf file for my Panasonic TV (TX-42LZ800) - UMS is not transcoding files with unsupported codecs

[wonkey_monkey]

Hi all,

I just got a new TV, a Panasonic TX-42LZ800. UMS (which, I would just like to say, I absolutely love for its simplicity and clarity) selected Panasonic-Viera.conf as the appropriate conf file, but this does not include lines to indicate support for MKV, Atmos, EAC3, and so on, all of which the TV supports.

So some files which didn't need transcoding were being transcoded (simple test: they were very slow to seek). First, I went to Transcoding Settings and put " * " in "Skip transcoding for the following extensions". That worked great - now nothing was being transcoded and my Dolby Vision test files were playing in all their unaltered HDR glory.

But I also have some files using the Opus audio codec, which the TV does not support. So these would come up "Audio codec not supported" when I tried to play them on the TV (it would play the video in silence).

Having read through DefaultRenderer.conf, I hoped that replacing all the "Supported" lines in Panasonic-Viera.conf with the following single line might work:

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Supported = f:.* v:.* a:(?!opus).*

This would indicate to UMS that the TV did not support Opus as an audio codec (I don't really care that it may include other filetypes and codecs which are also not supported; I will cross that bridge when I come to it).

I thought that UMS would then still transcode any files containing Opus audio, but that is not the case. Instead, they appear on the TV with an "[!]" icon, and say "File not supported" when I click on them.

Additionally, my 4K/HDR demo files also now appear with the [!] icon and do not play at all.

If I change a:(?!opus).* to a:.*, the Opus files appear playable (but only do so silently), while the 4K HDR files continue to report as unplayable.

What am I misunderstanding here? With the original lines from Panasonic-Viera.conf:

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Supported = f:avi|divx   v:divx|mjpeg|mp4         a:ac3|lpcm|mp3|mpa    m:video/divx       qpel:yes|no   gmc:0
Supported = f:mpegps     v:h264|mp4|mpeg1|mpeg2   a:aac-lc|ac3|lpcm     m:video/mpeg
Supported = f:mpegts     v:h264|mp4|mpeg1|mpeg2   a:aac-lc|ac3|lpcm|mpa m:video/mpeg
Supported = f:wmv        v:vc1                    a:wma                 m:video/x-ms-wmv                         n:2

...it will transcode files which don't match. So why does it not transcode Opus files when I replace the above with

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Supported = f:.* v:.* a:(?!opus).*

?

[mik_s]

I don't think negative matching works for supported formats.
This was something I tried to do a while ago on another renderer and could not get it to work, but I am not good with regex.

There are better confs to base yours of than the Panasonic-Viera.conf as that is for the old models. Did you chose to use that or was this automatically chosen by UMS?
Looking at other available Panasonic confs, Panasonic-VieraCX700, Panasonic-VieraCX680, and Panasonic-HZ1500 would be better to base yours off as they look to be 4K and support h265 which is much more common these days.

I don't see any others that might match your model TV so it would be good to get an accurate conf made.
I would need to see logs to be of any help with this as I would need to see what headers are sent by the TV (see the link in my sig)

To see if your files are actually playable on the TV then try playing from the #--TRANSCODE--# folder and choose "No transcoding"
(if you do not see it, enable "show the #--Transcode--# folder" in the GUI on the navigation tab, in the web GUI it is in the "virtual folders/files" section)
This streams the files unaltered so if they do not play properly then your TV does not support it.
If it does play when UMS would normally transcode you can look in the logs to see the decision making process so you can alter the conf.
Just search for "final verdict" then scroll up a bit.

[wonkey_monkey]

Negative matching does work as expected, but there were a number of other issues going on which I've now managed to figure out - thanks to your suggestion of using #TRANSCODE#/[No transcoding] and looking in the logs.

This attempt:

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f:.* v:.* a:(?!opus).+

was problematic because it didn't specify a mime type, so UMS was falling back on MIMETYPE_AUTO when a file didn't match and was due to be transcoded, which the TV then rejected outright.

The 4K/HDR issue was because UMS was rejecting those for direct streaming because it mistakenly thought the resolution was too high for the TV, or it decided that the bitrate was too high, and then the MIMETYPE_AUTO problem arose again.

Whereas if a file was approved for direct streaming, the mime type was being identified properly and sent to the TV.

So by specifying separate lines for each type, along with the appropriate mime type:

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Supported = f:avi       v:.+    a:(?!opus).+    m:video/divx
Supported = f:mp4       v:.+    a:(?!opus).+    m:video/mp4
Supported = f:mkv       v:.+    a:(?!opus).+    m:video/x-matroska
Supported = f:mpegps    v:.+    a:(?!opus).+    m:video/mpeg
Supported = f:mpegts    v:.+    a:(?!opus).+    m:video/mpeg

and adding appropriate MaxVideoWidth/MaxVideoHeight/MaxVideoBitrateMbps settings, I now have it working as I want. I could probably set it up properly according to the manual, but I'd rather have direct streaming as the default, and then I'll addd exceptions as and when I need them.

I also added:

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CustomFFmpegOptions = -c:v copy

so that only audio will be transcoded.