Even better than the Media Info is a sample clip which recreates the problem. Those sample clips are invaluable when debugging the issue. "Recreating the issue is 9/10 of debugging." ;)
If any of you has a chance/desire to create a sample clip, test to see if the same problem persists, then slide it my way it would be a super time saver.
Also please check out those Allow Direct Play and Allow Direct Stream checkboxes mentioned a couple posts back as a debugging tool.
Just tested with my sample tv episode which consistenly plays with missing video and confirmed:
AC3 On, DirectPlay On, DirectStream On = Audio only
AC3 On, DirectPlay On, DirectStream Off = Video and Audio :)
AC3 On, DirectPlay Off, DirectStream On = Audio only
AC3 On, DirectPlay Off, DirectStream Off = Video and Audio :)
AC3 Off, DirectPlay On, DirectStream On = Audio only
AC3 Off, DirectPlay On, DirectStream Off = Video and Audio :)
AC3 Off, DirectPlay Off, DirectStream On = Audio only
AC3 Off, DirectPlay Off, DirectStream Off = Video and Audio :)
I will create a sample clip shortly of this episode and see what happens with that :)
David
@mseeley further info for you. No I have Direct Stream turned off to make these video files work I have noticed that after almost exactly 30 minutes of playback I am starting to see the buffering issue happen. I will keep testing (which means watching more of my TV shows! :))
Sample coming later once I have worked out how to create it for you.
David
Hi David, noooo Direct Stream of Death!
Super awesome isolating the bug to Direct Stream: On. We "remux" in this case. Remuxing changes the video's container, may re-encode the audio, but doesn't touch the video. We have a FAQ that may help you generate sample files.
Nice work man. Thanks!
I had an odd experience on the Playstation which although this may not help solve the problem really annoyed me. The BBC iPlauyer app (sorry UK only guys) works fine for me with most programmes but for some reason when I tried to watch the Formula 1 from last weekend did exactly the same as the Plex App. Sound but no video. There is clearly a PlayStation issue here but I have no idea how or if that helps you.
I have also noticed that these playback problems do not happen when I use DLNA playback but I assume that is always transcoded so avoiding the problems?
I failed last night to create the sample video but will try again tonight when I hope to have more time available.
David
I am not trying to delay the fix however Why do we have to provide sample files when this problem didn’t exist before the update?
I've had this problem since the PS3 app was released in the US. When did the update happen?
Are the sample files I provided earlier in the thread no good?
The app auto updated on March 19th… I’ve never had an issue with the app before hand as long as I had it running on the recommended 8mbps via wired Ethernet, looked & operated beautifully . But since the update, I now get only audio and no video on a lot of my mkvs and some files play the ambient audio noise but no vocals ( as if the channels are not being separated properly). And now I get a lot of buffering… All works fine if I uncheck direct play and direct stream and force a transcode but now picture quality is a bit reduced. The release note say the UI has a better look and feel but it looks exactly the same to me.
I have been running into the same issue, audio with no video. I re-encoded the video with a lower amount of ReFrames (Reference Frames) from 9 to 7 and the video worked. I compared the video information against the original file and nothing else changed that was relevant. The two video info dumps in this thread had theirs at 9 and 16. Maybe someone else can check if their videos are above 8, then try encoding them lower and see if they work.
I am not sure how you might do this with other apps, but in ffmpeg via command line on a Mac it looks like this:
$ ffmpeg -i “/Input/path/to/file.mp4” -vcodec h264 -refs 7 -acodec copy “/Output/path/to/new.file.mp4”
DLNA will play these correctly without transcoding, so the PS3 is capable of playing them directly. I read somewhere that Plex has issues with anything above 8, so if this is the culprit can we change this for the PS3 App to except higher reframes?
@breimann: I don’t think there’s much of a chance of us getting more reframes from the PS3 app. The PS3 app and PS3 DLNA client aren’t the same playback components. I heartily agree that the PS3 app should be able to play the same files but in reality this isn’t possible. If it was all of our Plex experiences would be considerably nicer.
The official number of supported reference frames looks driven by the bitrate and AVC profile. The content many users acquire easily exceeds the official support matrix. Since you’re ffmpeg savvy these specs can help:
Progressive HTTP (aka MP4 direct play)
Resolution: 1024x576 to 1280x720
Bitrate: 2600kbps to 3500kbps
Profile: Main, Level 3.1
Max Reference Frames: 4
Resolution: 1280x720 to 1440x1080
Bitrate: 3500kbps to 6000kbps
Profile: Main, Level 4.0
Max Reference Frames: 4
Resolution: 1440x1080 to 1920x1080
Bitrate: 6000kbps to 9000kbps
Profile: Main, Level 4.0
Max Reference Frames: 2
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