Video codecs on the HDR

Re. sound, in the link Mr Lazy posted in post #4 it seems that the HDR supports ACC but not AC3 - it crashes the box!!

I noticed that the files that crashed Andy Jenkinson's box were 5.1 AC-3 (in MP4) - I've successfully played videos (AVC codec if it matters) in MP4 containers with AC-3 but 2-channel not 5.1.
 
SD:
Container: MP4
Picture: keep aspect ratio, auto cropping
Video Filters: None
Video: MPEG-4 (FFmpeg), Framerate same as source, Quality Avg Bitrate (kbps) 2000
Audio: AAC (faac), Dolby Pro Logic II Mixdown, Samplerate Auto, Bitrate 192, DRC 0.0
Subtitiles: None
Advanced Options: None Used

I tried transcoding two WMV files that wouldn't play on the HDR using those settings.

One played fine, the other didn't, the HDR complained that it didn't support the audio format but played the video fine.

ffmpeg -i revealed that both were the same encoding (so I'd definitely used the same settings for both) but the one that played reported the bitrate as only 159kb/s whereas the one with no sound was 191kb/s. Just to make sure it wasn't my fault I re-ran Handbrake making doubly sure the settings were the same as above for both - same result.

I also tried with 160kb/s (since the one that plays was only that bitrate) but same result.

Any ideas?
 
I don't know, I've not got any wmv's to test with, ive only got mkv, mp4 and avi's.

I've also used AVC to encode avi files for the HDR when I've needed to join files together.

I'll find out the details later for you.

Jon.
 
I'm using StaxRip to transcode from mkv to divx (720p) with AC3 (5.1) with no issues. I can even stream these too.

I gave up with MP4 since I couldn't get AC3 (5.1) to work and it can't be streamed to the HDR anyway.

I would recommended StaxRip. It's free, very configurable and has an excellent install/first-transcode process that takes you through installing the necessary codecs.
 
I noticed that the files that crashed Andy Jenkinson's box were 5.1 AC-3 (in MP4) - I've successfully played videos (AVC codec if it matters) in MP4 containers with AC-3 but 2-channel not 5.1.

After reading this I re-transcoded the WMV that wouldnt play sound with the audio set to AC3, 2-channel, 224kb/s. The HDR played - no crashing - but still complained it couldn't support the audio format. I'm seriously confused. Guess I need to do some studying of codecs and wrappers ;)
 
I'm using StaxRip to transcode from mkv to divx (720p) with AC3 (5.1) with no issues. I can even stream these too.

I gave up with MP4 since I couldn't get AC3 (5.1) to work and it can't be streamed to the HDR anyway.

I would recommended StaxRip. It's free, very configurable and has an excellent install/first-transcode process that takes you through installing the necessary codecs.

Ubik - would you be so kind as to share your settings for StaxRip? I have just downloaded it and am toying with the settings.
 
I ripped a copy of A Scanner Darkly from HD DVD and retained the DD+ soundtrack - this was with makemkv. The HDR played the DD+ fine and even reported "DOLBY Digital Plus" as an icon when starting up.
 
Has anyone installed a codec (package) on the Humax, that supports DTS sound playback ?

Most of my MP4 / MPV files seem to have DTS sound tracks, and the others have two sound tracks, one 2 channel and the other DD5.1, the Humax seems to default to only the first sound track so I don't get the DD5.1 bit stream coming out of the S/Pdif.

I have no problem playing the files in VLC on the PC, not sure what codec it is using (it taken a long time to get it to work), but it be good to have the Humax as a true media server.
(Good to hear Humax have said they intend to add more codecs at some point !)

Regards,
Chris.
 
(Good to hear Humax have said they intend to add more codecs at some point !)

Err sorry to break this to you, but I dont think anymore major firmware releases will be coming out for the box anymore.
As for adding more codecs, I dont know if its possible. Anybody want to give something like THIS a shot? - Would be awesome if it works
 
Thanks for the info, not sure how the HDR audio decoding hooks into the system, could we use the FFMPEG package...
Interesting work you are doing with the TV Portal, could mplayer (or some browser player) be used to view video with DTS sound.
 
I was going start a thread about playing YouTube videos on line, but I think it might fit in here.

I notice that lots of YouTube wont play on the HD2. I think it maybe because a lot of the videos are now in .flv format. Does anyone know if this is why they wont play, and might there be "fix" in any future software upgrades?

As far as playing stuff from a network HDD drive, I got one this week, and so far its done pretty well, including some downloaded YouTube stuff. I've not tried any 720p or 108p stuff yet.
 
One way to watch youtube on the HDR is to capture them and convert the videos using a set of tools called Freemake Video Downloader, I also use Freemake to convert .ts files taken from my SpiderBox to Blyray rw discs format or Mp4, does a good job with HD .ts files, but sometimes can't decode the audio part of the ts files, even though its only mpeg2 and plays on the PC using VLC. Also playing around with DvdFab as it can convert video files to other formats... Just updated to Nero 11 but the video converter runs out of memory if I convert a 2 hour match, even when there is 2Tb hdd free.
 
I have a load of downloaded YouTube stuff on my PC and I've put them on the WD network drive.

I am interested in what you say about converting HD content using DvdFab. I've got about thirty HD DVD's which I got cheap when the format became redundant. I have used AnyDVD to rip them to a hard drive. I now need a decent program to convert them to Blu-Ray and / or AVI formats, before my HD DVD player and HD DVD Rom fall over. I can play them using a software HD DVD player, but they would be more portable & convenient using one of the other formats I've mentioned. Any suggestions would be welcomed.
 
Thanks for the info, not sure how the HDR audio decoding hooks into the system, could we use the FFMPEG package...
Interesting work you are doing with the TV Portal, could mplayer (or some browser player) be used to view video with DTS sound.
Not sure, but streaming works. Someone will need to test out what is possible.
 
Don't know if this is the place for this, but I'm looking for some info on playing XVID. Currently I'm finding that the XVID files I have won't play, but cranking them through "virtualdub" makes a file that will play, however on the HDR it appears heavily cropped to 4:3 format, so I'm wondering if I need to resize down to match a specific screen format.
 
Don't know if this is the place for this, but I'm looking for some info on playing XVID. Currently I'm finding that the XVID files I have won't play, but cranking them through "virtualdub" makes a file that will play, however on the HDR it appears heavily cropped to 4:3 format, so I'm wondering if I need to resize down to match a specific screen format.

Don't know why, they should. Can you describe how you are trying to play them (your setup etc) and details of the file you are trying to play (mediainfo best for doing this)
 
Don't know why, they should. Can you describe how you are trying to play them (your setup etc) and details of the file you are trying to play (mediainfo best for doing this)

Well as for setup the box runs standard firmware and the files were on an 8gb flash drive.

The only difference that I can see is that the version that wouldn't play had 3 warppoints, the recoded version didn't.

General
Complete name :
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 175 MiB
Duration : 24mn 34s
Overall bit rate : 997 Kbps
Writing application : VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.2 (build 2540/release)
Writing library : VirtualDubMod build 2540/release
Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Advanced Simple@L5
Format settings, BVOP : 2
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : 3 warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Muxing mode : Packed bitstream
Codec ID : XVID
Codec ID/Hint : XviD
Duration : 24mn 34s
Bit rate : 859 Kbps
Width : 704 pixels
Height : 400 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.127
Stream size : 151 MiB (86%)
Writing library : XviD 1.1.2 (UTC 2006-11-01)
Audio
ID : 1
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Mode : Joint stereo
Mode extension : MS Stereo
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 24mn 33s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : 50ms
Stream size : 22.5 MiB (13%)
Alignment : Split accross interleaves
Interleave, duration : 42 ms (1.00 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 500 ms
Writing library : LAME3.96.1
 
General
Complete name :
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 170 MiB
Duration : 24mn 34s
Overall bit rate : 969 Kbps
Writing library : VirtualDub build 32842/release
Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Advanced Simple@L5
Format settings, BVOP : 2
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Muxing mode : Packed bitstream
Codec ID : XVID
Codec ID/Hint : XviD
Duration : 24mn 34s
Bit rate : 832 Kbps
Width : 704 pixels
Height : 400 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.123
Stream size : 146 MiB (86%)
Writing library : XviD 64
Audio
ID : 1
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Mode : Joint stereo
Mode extension : MS Stereo
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 24mn 33s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : 50ms
Stream size : 22.5 MiB (13%)
Alignment : Split accross interleaves
Interleave, duration : 42 ms (1.00 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 500 ms
Writing library : LAME3.96.1
 
 
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