[mythtv-users] Playstation 3 as UPnP client to MythTV

[Andre Newman]

On 22 Feb 2009, at 23:33, Rev Simon Rumble wrote:

> Hi folks.
>
> I'm attempting to use a PS3 as the frontend to my Myth system,  
> replacing

Hi, I use this combination for my everyday TV.

I agree that the PS3 gives excellent video results, I'm a broadcast  
engineer and the PS3 gives some of the best results scaling and de- 
interlacing outside of broadcast equipment and it gets gradually  
better every firmware revision.
>
> ** Transport stream support **
>
> The PS3 supports many permutations of MPEG Program Stream(PS), but  
> only

This is all a bit out of date, Sony seem to subtly change the  
compatibility with every firmware update and never mention it in the  
changelogs.

Currently it won't play ac3 in a ps (programme stream), I used to  
remux my BBC HD recordings (my main source of ac3) into ps with VLC  
scripted but that doesn't work anymore.
Currently the PS3 will only play ac3 if it's in a transport stream but  
it's quite fussy about the transports stream, fussier than the  
transmission engineers at most TV stations!

I have some ts recordings from a outside broadcast project last year  
and the PS3 will play some, not others. On examination my encoder/  
multiplexer engineer has been a little inconsistent setting up the  
transport stream configuration from event to event.
It's common for the ac3 audio to be mislabelled in the transport  
stream and most STBs will not care but the PS3 does, if the audio  
channel is mislabelled the PS3 won't let you select it.

I use a couple of freeware programs to analyse and fix what's going  
on, all windows I'm afraid but they run ok under wine.

TSReader lite
http://www.coolstf.com/tsreader/
It says MPEG2 but it reads MPEG4 too as that's usually delivered in a  
MPEG2 TS

TSDoctor
http://www.cypheros.de/dvb_e.html
This finds and fixes a few common TS mistakes but doesn't like some  
streams so it's not the answer to everything, sadly it's not scriptable.

BBCHDFixer
http://www.dvbviewer.info/forum/index.php?showtopic=18449
It was written to fix BBCHD's dodgy AC3 label but works for others  
too, I got the guy to make it scriptable so I use this on MythTV, my  
script is further down the thread.

>
> MPEG2 video with MPEG2 Layer 2 audio[1] inside a Transport Stream  
> (TS).
> Australian DVB-t seems to (sometimes?) use AC3 audio, so inside a TS  
> the
> PS3 can't play it back.  I either get the video with white noise  
> sound,

Do you use bitstream or PCM in the PS3 settings, the white noise is  
what AC3 sounds like when the PS3 or a surround amp thinks it's PCM.


>
> or it refuses to play back at all.
>
> It seems my Myth setup sometimes produces TS, and sometimes produces
> things that the PS3 is happy with.  Output from "file" looks like  
> this.
> Interestingly, the files labelled "data" play back, but the TS  
> doesn't.
>
> 1020_20090221181900.mpg: data
> 1020_20090221190000.mpg: data
> 1020_20090222050000.mpg: MPEG transport stream data
> 1020_20090222190000.mpg: TeX font metric data  
> (\377\377\377\377\377\377\377\377\377\377\377\377\377\377\377\377
>

That's surprising, I would have expected you to get different results  
from different channels but these look like the same channel!

> So the approach I've been looking at is demuxing the TS into a PS in a
> transcode job.  I haven't succeeded yet, so if anyone has a nice  
> script

I use to use this but it doesn't work since the PS3 updates:

#!/bin/sh
for a in 7940*.mpg; do
mv "./$a" "./$a.orig"
/usr/bin/vlc -I dummy -vvv "./$a.orig" --audio-language eng -- 
sout="#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,mux=ts,dst="/var/lib/mythtv3/ 
recordings/$a"}}" vlc:quit
done
exit

I used it to do batch updates but I'm sure you can get the guts of the  
vlc options from it, mux=ts or mux=ps will give you transport sstream  
or program stream of course.
>
> What's strange is that my tuners are almost identical.  lspci output:
> 03:0c.0 Multimedia controller: Philips Semiconductors SAA7134/ 
> SAA7135HL Video Broadcast Decoder (rev 01)
> 04:0f.0 Multimedia controller: Philips Semiconductors SAA7131/ 
> SAA7133/SAA7135 Video Broadcast Decoder (rev d0)

Do you use multirec? I've noticed some odd things that multirec does  
to transport streams to separate one channel from the multiplex, I'd  
give it a try with and without multirec to see if there's any  
difference. Multirec (or the changes needed to implement it) fixed a  
few problems I used to have.
>
> fine when mythfrontend (or mplayer or xine or whatever) is playing  
> back,
> but the PS3 is a bit pickier about it.

That's it, worth it for the better image quality though, especially if  
you have a HDTV or any kind of flat panel, although VDPAU is getting  
closer all the time.
Have you found the 50Hz playback setting, works wonderfully?
>
> So has anyone got any suggestions here?  I'd love to find a way to get
> Myth to just product something I can play on the PS3, without having  
> to
> transcode.  I can post up some more diagnostic information if people
> want it.

You could post a few minutes of the video that causes the problem  
somewhere.

>
>
> ** Refreshing UPnP shares **

A media server search works for me but yes it's very annoying.  
Recordings seem to refresh more frequently than Videos.

I have used the mythrename.pl script to create links to all my  
recordings in a directory that MediaTomb scans, mediatomb has an inode  
update mode which ought to be exactly what's needed but it doesn't  
work for me (yet). I find MediTomb is a great deal faster than MythTVs  
uPnP server and it doesn't slow myth down when you are watching a show  
like the internal server. Seems ten times faster when you go to the  
thumbnails menu view.


>
>
> ** Playback stops with FF/RW **

I only get this with some downloaded media, TV always works 100% so I  
guess this must be subtle differences in the media. I find that  
MediaTomb is often different to MythTV and something that won't play  
from myth will from MediaTomb. I need to get to the bottom of this one  
as that shouldn't be possible!
>
> ** Playback while recording **

If you find a fix let me know, this one is annoying ;-)
>
> [1] Sony's list of supported video file formats
>    http://playstation.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/playstation.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=361&p_created=1193250629&p_sid=rZ74mLcj&p_accessibility=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MSZwX3Byb2RzPTQmcF9jYXRzPSAmcF9wdj0xLjQmcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9ubCZwX3BhZ2U9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PWRpdng*&p_li=&p_topview=1
>
Wow, they updated it, it's still wrong though! It will play many  
things outside of that :-) and won't play many things inside of that.
I had it playing some 1080p50 test material which is AVC Level 4.2 but  
it plays fine, very fine actually.

Oddly the rules for what plays over uPnP are not the same as what  
plays from harddisk which is not the same as what plays from bluray or  
AVCHD! I've often got things to play by copying them from the uPnP  
server to harddisk (triangle menu).

I'm pretty happy with the MythTV/PS3 combination and I have a few  
friends with the same setup here in the UK and in the USA.

Andre