External hard drive/TV choppy

[Bopop4]

Hi all, I have a bit of a problem with streaming movies and TV shows from my 2TB WD External Hard Drive. I have it connected to a Panasonic Blu-Ray player via USB, and it works great for watching movies, TV, etc

The problem is that I recently tried to stream a very high quality file, and the video starts to become choppy.

I can run 500mb 22 minute TV shows, and 6.5gb movies fine, but the file that didn't work was a 900mb 22 minute program.

(The 6.5gb movie is 148 minutes long, and 148/22=6.7
6.7*.9=6, so in theory it should be able to run it, but it doesn't.)

Oh, and it's in MP4 format.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

[TB]

Provided your numbers are correct (6.5Gb/148 and 900Mb/22), it shouldn't be a bitrate issue, which was my first thought.

Are all the videos .mp4?

What are the resolutions?

 

[Sharky.]

Are all files using the same codec? Your player might be able to play an h.264 MP4 but not h.263 (for example) - when a video file doesn't work as expected the first thing I check is the codec that was used to encode the file.

 

[Bopop4]

Ah, the movie (Inception) is an .mkv, it's at 1280x536.
The TV show is an .mp4, running at 1920x1080.

Edit: Codec is H.264 on both.

 

[TB]

Download Any Video Converter, load the .mp4 file into it, on the top right corner select Video Files then the .mkv file. In the start time and stop time boxes under the video preview box, set it for something like 5 and 6 minutes respectively to test it out. If it works, convert the entire thing.

 

[Bopop4]

Ok, I'll try that, thanks.
(Would Handbrake work as well? Because that's what I have now.)

 

[TB]

I haven't used HB in forever but I believe it does mkv, yes.

 

[Bopop4]

Ok.
(Just wondering, would you consider Any Video Converter to be better than Handbrake?)

 

[TB]

I can't really answer that. I've never truly used Handbrake (and when I dabbled with it it was years ago) whereas I've used AVC for quite a while now. AVC serves my needs for converting videos for my RAZR, iPad and PS3 well enough. 👍

 

[Bopop4]

Ok, Handbrake was being a bit fussy, and sometimes the Blu-Ray wouldn't play the small file, but I was able to get proper frame rate with an insanely good quality picture.
Now all I have to do is convert over 50GBs of data to .mkv.

Thanks you so much for all of the help! I really appreciate it.
👍

 

[TB]

If it helps, you can load up AVC with a bunch of files you want converted and go to bed/school/work and they'll be waiting for you when you return.

 

[Samus]

MKV and MP4 are both just container formats so simply changing that shouldn't have an effect, it sounds like you're also re-encoding them as well though. You should get something like MediaInfo and actually look at what format the video and audio is in both files, that might help you to get an idea of what is causing the jerkyness.

 

[djinline]

Problems could also arise from an incompatible video profile (i.e. PS3 only supports up to L4.1). So it would be good to check the maximum supported by your player if possible and encode the file accordingly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Levels

 

[Sprite]

I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't the video but the Audio format. If its a codec AC3 or MPEG ect. A friend of mine had the same issue and it turned out to be the Audio format within the .mp4 container. As he was streaming them the other end when been played didn't recognise the format. When played through his xbox however it worked fine. After much trouble it turned out to be an audio issue and then encode the server was sending out.

Im a huge fan of Handbrake and have been using for years. I'm currently backing up my dvd's so they can go into storage and I have the digital files so I can bounce them around the house.

 

[Bopop4]

I got the MediaInfo application, and tested the show and the movie.
TV show:
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42
File size : 961 MiB
Duration : 22mn 2s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 6 093 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2012-12-15 12:45:11
Tagged date : UTC 2012-12-15 12:45:11
©TIM : 00:00:00:00
©TSC : 2997
©TSZ : 125

ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L5.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 3 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 22mn 2s
Bit rate : 5 768 Kbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.116
Stream size : 910 MiB (95%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2012-12-15 12:45:11
Tagged date : UTC 2012-12-15 12:45:11
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709

ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 22mn 2s
Source duration : 22mn 2s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 317 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 406 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 50.1 MiB (5%)
Source stream size : 50.1 MiB (5%)
Language : English

The movie.

Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 6.55 GiB
Duration : 2h 28mn
Overall bit rate : 6 332 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2010-11-14 13:02:25
Writing application : mkvmerge v4.4.0 ('Die Wiederkehr') built on Oct 31 2010 21:52:48
Writing library : libebml v1.0.0 + libmatroska v1.0.0

ID : 3
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames
Muxing mode : Header stripping
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 2h 28mn
Bit rate : 4 821 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 536 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.40:1
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.293
Stream size : 4.86 GiB (74%)
Writing library : x264 core 107 r1766 f9f0035
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.15 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=6 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=4821 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

ID : 1
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Mode : 16
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 2h 28mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 509 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 1.56 GiB (24%)
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

So yeah, if anyone could tell me what's wrong here, I'd really appreciate it.
(I don't really even know what I'm looking for.)
Thanks.

 

[Slash]

I would just download XMedia Recode and reformat it.

 

[Samus]

As said above it is probably the H.264 profile level, it's 4.1 on the film, 5.1 on the TV show. Use this http://www.videohelp.com/tools/H264-AVC-Level-Editor and switch them to 4.1.

 

[Bopop4]

Ok, I'll try that. Thanks. 👍
(What is profile level anyways?)

 

[Samus]

It's in the wiki article djinline posted but basically it's a set level that the media must be inside and players will have a rating of what the highest level they can manage. You have to set the right level when you create a file but sometimes people use a level higher than is neccesary. In the case of your video level 4.0 is high enough because it's within 1920x1080@30 and 25Mbps bitrate. The level someone has chosen is 5.1, which is up to 4,096×2,304@26.7 and 300Mbps, clearly not necessary for your file.