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Streaming Video

M

macgd016

Member
I use Mezzmo to stream video to my TV and I have just tried it out with my HDR-FOX T2. It seems to work OK but I have noticed that unless the transcoding is given a bit of a head start the file stops after a short time. Pretranscoded files play fine. I was wondering if the Hummy is trying to load the file into a buffer before playing it and wants the file faster than it can be transcoded.

Any thoughts
 
Its probably that your network connection is not fast enough or the transcoding is slow . The Hummy can only play what it's being given
 
Yes it could be but I'm using Cat 5 cable and Mezzmo transcodes direct to my Tosiba TV without problem. This suggests that its the Hummy that is causing the problem
 
Is anyone else streaming to their Hummy, if so it would help me a great deal to know how well it works and what spec of PC you are using
 
Can't say I really understand your problem, the hummy will only play what you are giving it so if its not getting any info from your network it can't play anything,
also this from the Mezzmo specs

Powerful format support and transcoding: All popular video, audio and image file formats are supported. No special codec packs are necessary. No extra downloads are necessary. On-the-fly transcoding means your media files will be converted to video, audio or image formats that your DLNA-enabled devices can play. Pre-transcoding lets you transcode all your files before you stream them - fixing any stuttering or FF/REW/pause issues that can associated with transcoding files on-the-fly.

it actually says stuttering can occur
 
another point, maybe when you play to your toshiba the file you are playing may not need transcoding as the tosh is capable of playing the native file on your pc. The hummy will need files transcoded to a format that it can play ie.ts, hence the delay when you use the hummy
 
brianmt said:
another point, maybe when you play to your toshiba the file you are playing may not need transcoding as the tosh is capable of playing the native file on your pc. The hummy will need files transcoded to a format that it can play ie.ts, hence the delay when you use the hummy
Click to expand...

You are right some devices can play avi and other video files meaning that no transcoding would be needed but my Toshiba & the hummy can only play MPEG files, in this particular case Mezzmo is doing exactly the same transcoding for both devices so as videos play directly on the Toshiba it should play directly on the hummy. It is difficult to work out exactly what is wrong because files start to play but stop after a few seconds, if you retry (more of the file will have been transcoded at this point) the file will play for longer before failing. For testing purposes I have chosen a low resolution file that is transcoding at 50fps which is well ahead of the 25fps that it is playing at so the transcoding is well ahead of the playing.

If the hummy is passing the data straight through without any processing it should work OK so it looks to me as if it may be taking the data stream into some form of buffer and is able to do this faster than the streamed data is arriving and therefore fails. That is why I was hoping to hear from someone who has tried streaming to see what there experience they have had.
 
Well I downloaded Mezzmo and installed it . The video files that streamed from my windows7 laptop (WMP) streamed easily via mezzmo, video files that are on my laptop and won't stream to the hummy via WMP transcoded on the fly and played on my hummy; stuttering ie transcoding is slow ( mkv to .ts ), pretranscoding worked perfectly.
However Mezzmo repeatedly crashed my machine so not too impressed and i don't think it's worth 20 quid. I will have more of a play tomorrow and see if it's any better than XMBC which I use a lot .
 
I am interested in buying another HDR-Fox T2 to replace my Toppy in the bedroom, so I was wondering if anyone here successfully streams from one HDR to another? Most people seem to want to stream different file types to/from something other than another HDR?
 
That was very kind of you to go to so much trouble, thank you.

Your observations are very interesting and thought provoking:

I hadn’t bothered selecting WMP on the hummy because when I have used it on my Toshiba the quality was so appalling it was unwatchable but after reading your post I gave it a try. I was amazed at the quality, it was as good as any other media server I have used. However, it does not handle aspect ratios well, wide screen films are compressed into 16:9 which distorts the image, so its ok for TV but nothing over 16:9. Do you get the same thing?

Your results using Mezzmo are also interesting, the stuttering suggests that your PC doesn’t have enough grunt to transcode fast enough, (apparently you need a Quad core for HD) I have the same problem if I transcode to 1920x1080 but have just enough power to process 1280x720. However, you seem to be saying that the video continues to stumble along and does not stop and return to the file selection screen as mine does.

The standard Humax profile transcodes to 1920x1080 butI have tested out some Humax profiles for Mezzmo so I could send you one that deals with all aspect ratios and transcodes to 1280x720 which my 'lowly' 2.8Ghz dual core AMD can handle. I would have put it here but I can’t see any provision for attachments. Let me know if you want it.

Anyhow, if you are saying that files steaming from Mezzmo stutter along without failing I guess the issue I am experiencing is local to me but I can’t think what it can be. Back to the drawing board!

I can’t think why Mezzmo is crashing your laptop though, I have run it on three PC’s including two lowly single core laptops and although they weren’t man enough to transcode in any meaningful way they did not crash. The Mezzmo support is excellent so if you send them an email I am sure that they will be able to offer some advice.
 
The wide screen problem is a well known quirk of the hummy. set the hummy to 4:3 and format to letterbox, this seems to work on most things.
The crashing was probably my fault, bit impatient also I'm using windows 64 bit.
quite nice to see films streamed to the hummy that in the past I've only been able to watch by plugging my laptop into the TV
I agree you need a lot of grunt to transcode on the fly, also need no network traffic as well to enable maximum throughput that's why the pre-transcode is a good feature.
Still not convinced your toshiba sees the same file structure as the humax, if your tv has an usb port, you could always copy a humax file to a usb stick and see if it plays in your toshiba
In the past I've used wildmediaserver which also allows external web sites ie www.liveonlinefooty,com to be streamed, in my case wirelessly, to the humax.but this is quite a pfaff to set up so in the main I use windows 7 and XBMC if I have to use a server.
 
martypants16 said:
I Heard XMBC mentioned a lot on this forum, what does it offer over window media centre which i currently use?
Click to expand...

WMC does not include DLNA client capabilities, so will not stream from the HDR. XBMC will, and is available on many platforms. I keep plugging it because I see no reason to suggest anything else.

XBMC isn't perfect though, it can't cope with HiDef for a start. Splash Player Lite is the favourite for HiDef playback, but is not (yet) capable of streaming. Some people have reported VLC working for HiDef, and it is capable of playing from the DLNA server if you paste the URL into it (can't navigate for itself). A big plus with VLC is that if you first download the file rather than streaming it, VLC is unique in being able to start playing the download before it is complete.

(I have read many discussions about WMC, and Microsoft seems to simply not understand that WMC should be able to stream from DLNA.)
 
Black Hole said:
WMC does not include DLNA client capabilities, so will not stream from the HDR. XBMC will, and is available on many platforms. (I have read many discussions about WMC, and Microsoft seems to simply not understand that WMC should be able to stream from DLNA.)
Click to expand...
Ah ok, that is going to be useful to me. Dowloaded it and it looks nicer too, except i cant get the weather widget working!
Will stop hijacking this thread now......
 
In use Windows 7 wmp player all the time, streams from my pc to the hummy and streams from the hummy to the pc . Windows 7 WMP is by far the easiest to use I only use XBMC for some of the external sites
 
brianmt said:
The wide screen problem is a well known quirk of the hummy. set the hummy to 4:3 and format to letterbox, this seems to work on most things.
The crashing was probably my fault, bit impatient also I'm using windows 64 bit.
quite nice to see films streamed to the hummy that in the past I've only been able to watch by plugging my laptop into the TV
I agree you need a lot of grunt to transcode on the fly, also need no network traffic as well to enable maximum throughput that's why the pre-transcode is a good feature.
Still not convinced your toshiba sees the same file structure as the humax, if your tv has an usb port, you could always copy a humax file to a usb stick and see if it plays in your toshiba
In the past I've used wildmediaserver which also allows external web sites ie www.liveonlinefooty,com to be streamed, in my case wirelessly, to the humax.but this is quite a pfaff to set up so in the main I use windows 7 and XBMC if I have to use a server.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the 4:3 tip, I've tried it and it works a treat, bit of a pain though having to do this each time you want to watch a video!

Unfortunately the Toshiba USB modual is an entirly separate piece of electronics to the DLNA modual!

I've also tried WMS and it works quite well, as you say the setup is horrendus and there is no support at all, however, if you can get it set up and dont want to pay for a application that has no support you can download Home Media Server, it is exactly the same application but in Russian. My Russian is none existent but if you have the two applications open at the same time you can transfer the settings from one to the other.

In my view DLNA is a great idea its just a shame that they didn’t go a little further when they set out the codec requirements, if they had we might all be able to stream between devices that little bit easier.

Not sure whether to persue the Mezzmo/Humax issue as I have a working solution on the Toshiba but I do like things to work correctly!!
 
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