Twonky Server 7 Special Transcoding does not work

[phibertron]

I have tried to get transcoding to work in 7.0.5 special
but can not get it to work

I tried the same exact things, I do, for version 6.x
but none of it works for 7.x

[phibertron]

I was finally able to get video transcoding to work with the PS3
during some tests with ffmpeg, I noticed I could get it to create thumbnails
so I knew that it was being called and executed
just couldnt figure out why it wasnt doing for the my test MOV file to the PS3

1. To get it working I placed a copy of ffmpeg in the cgi-bin folder

C:\Program Files\Twonky\TwonkyServer\cgi-bin\ffmpeg.exe

2. I created a description file for quicktime to mpeg

C:\Program Files\Twonky\TwonkyServer\cgi-bin\ffmpeg-quicktime-mpeg.desc

# transcode video
#(c) 2008 by PacketVideo
exec: ffmpeg -i $infile -vcodec mpeg2video $outfile
# capabilities
from=video/quicktime
to=video/mpeg
asynchronous

3. this was where the problem was, it needed an entry for MPEG to mpg
note: there are the PAL and NTSC to mpg, which would have also worked, in device profiles

C:\Program Files\Twonky\TwonkyServer\resources\transcoding.db

# video: DLNA mandatory
PAL,mpg,video/mpeg,MPEG_PS_PAL,720,576
NTSC,mpg,video/mpeg,MPEG_PS_NTSC,720,480
MPEG,ts,video/vnd.dlna.mpeg-tts,MPEG_TS_HD_NA_MPEG1_L2_ISO
MPEG,mpg,video/mpeg,MPEG_PS_NTSC,720,480
CIF15,mp4,video/mp4,AVC_MP4_BL_CIF15_AAC_520
MP4,mp4,video/mp4,AVC_MP4_BL_CIF15_AAC_520
WMV,wmv,video/x-ms-wmv,WMVMED_BASE


4. this is where the PS3 profile says to transcode MKV or MOV to MPEG
note: MPEG is a reference to what is defined in the transcode.db,
they had one for MPEG to .ts not but not to .mpg
which was why it is was failing on the ps3 for me

C:\Program Files\Twonky\TwonkyServer\resources\devicedb\Sony\PS3.XML

<VideoTranscoding>
<Source>video/x-matroska</Source>
<Source>video/quicktime</Source>
<Target>MPEG</Target>
</VideoTranscoding>

NOTE:
I could have changed the MPEG to NTSC in the PS3 profile
as NTSC is defined correctly to .mpg like the one I added, which also would have worked,
but I didnt want to have to go and edit all profiles to deal with that change to NTSC
which is why I chose to add an additional entry to the transcode.db for MPEG

When doing any type of transcode testing
always always always remeber to clear your cache
hence cache being cache
your results might not be accurate unless you clear the cache

[phibertron]

I should also mention, I found this out in my test

If I just used MPEG,mpg,video/mpeg
in the transcode.db
the ps3 would not let me do FF/RW or other PS3 navigation fetures

But when I used MPEG,mpg,video/mpeg,MPEG_PS_NTSC,720,480
I was able to do all of the FF/RW etc. features for media navigation on the PS3
for the transcoded file

the MPEG_PS_NTSC is the DLNA profile
the 720,480 is the resolution of that profile

[phibertron]

So, I did some testing with this transcode stuff in 7.0.5
And yes I can get things to transcode to mpg format

But, It appears that there is some sort of hard codeing going on in respect to other formats

For ex:
Say I wanted to transcode to mp4 format, the below has all the ducks lined up

transcode.db has this
MP4,mp4,video/mp4,AVC_MP4_BL_CIF15_AAC_520

ps3.xml has this
<Source>video/quicktime</Source>
<Target>MP4</Target>


ffmpeg-quicktime-mp4.desc has this
exec: ffmpeg -i $infile -vcodec copy -acodec copy $outfile
from=video/quicktime
to=video/mp4
asynchronous

But, It does not work, I can see that it creates a folder in the cache for "MP4"
but it does not start the actual transcode process or handoff any further

I did try some other combinations of db profiles and target pairs with appropriate desc files
but in the end it looks like the transcoder code is only working if it is video/mpeg in the db

[phibertron]

I should also mention that I used the following ffmpeg call on purpose

ffmpeg -i $infile -vcodec copy -acodec copy $outfile

I did try it with actuall encode settings, also
what the above does is just remux the original file into a new container
which leaves the source original

note this will only!!! work if the source video and audio formats
are compatable with the new container

in my case the MOV file I was working with had AVC and AAC audio
so remuxing into an MP4 container is a no brainer
with zero loss in quality
its almost like doing a mime translation, but different

[phibertron]

almost forgot

I also tried to pre-populate the cache, wich will normally work, but not currently