Media Extenders and Freeview|HD

Forums › Freeview (DVB-T/DVB-S) › Media Extenders and Freeview|HD

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#409513 25-Nov-2010 15:54

trig42: WDTV Live? Plays .ts. Unsure about the Audio (does do AAC fine, I don't know about this AAC v2?) I have one, but don't have a WMC to test a recording.

The important thing is HE-AAC sound as opposed to just AAC (or LE-AAC) sound. The version discussion was a further complication on top of that.

If you are interested enough to give it a quick test, there is an old but perfectly usable file sample that Fossie posted in his Geekzone blog a couple of years ago TVNZ 7 Sample - 576i video with HE-AAC LATM audio. The 48MB sample is a couple of minutes from TVNZ7.

lchiu7

6479 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#409531 25-Nov-2010 16:29

It's not only AAC-HE that's the issue - it's the LATM container the audio is in. That causes the problems.

Not sure Win7 WMP can play it but certainly PowerDVD9 and above can.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

lchiu7

6479 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#409533 25-Nov-2010 16:31

Deev8:

lchiu7: For those who have a player that cannot handle AAC-HE audio, the following one line VLC command will conver it to AAC-LE

"c:\program files\videolan\vlc\vlc.exe" %1 :sout=#transcode{acodec=mp4a,ab=256,channels=2,samplerate=48000}:duplicate{dst=std{access=file,mux=ts,dst=%2}} -I dummy vlc://quit

That could be very useful under some circumstances. It could be a bit of a pain for regular use, but not nearly as bad as transcoding the video. But certainly a reasonable solution for someone with a player that doesn't support AAC-HE who wants to occasionally watch material recorded from Freeview|HD.

Thought I haven't tried it, I think there is an option in gbpvr to run a script following a recording so you could theoretically run the above script to process the file automatically.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

davidcole

6041 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#409544 25-Nov-2010 16:42

Yeah, postprocessing.bat but you have to either use the original filament for the destination file, or update the dB as your last step if you want the recording to survive. All very doable.

Previously known as psycik

Home Assistant: Gigabyte AMD A8 Brix, Home Assistant with Aeotech ZWave Controller, Raspberry PI, Wemos D1 Mini, Zwave, Shelly Humidity and Temperature sensors
Media:Chromecast v2, ATV4 4k, ATV4, HDHomeRun Dual
Server Host Plex Server 3x3TB, 4x4TB using MergerFS, Samsung 850 evo 512 GB SSD, Proxmox Server with 1xW10, 2xUbuntu 22.04 LTS, Backblaze Backups, usenetprime.com fastmail.com Sharesies Trakt.TV Sharesight

Regs

4066 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Snowflake

#409636 25-Nov-2010 20:56

Deev8:
Rollux: XBOX 360 allows the PC to do all the transcoding via Media Centre and then outputs it.

Thanks for that information. I'm looking for a solution that can be totally standalone with no transcoding involved. So I want to identify media extenders that would be capable of playing a file that results from recording a Freeview|HD programme on a PC (in my case that would be a .TS file) stored perhaps on a USB memory stick, or USB-connected disk. I'm not saying that I would use it that way all of the time, but a media extender with the ability to work in a standalone setup would be ideal.

i just checked my setup and when i queue a freeviewHD recording on my xbox 360 extender, the main MCE PC spikes to 100% CPU.... it is actually unwatchable on my setup as i have an older dual core athlonw without enough grunt (it used to be fine for mpeg2. Obviously there is some transcoding going on which is a shame as the playback of the recording on the MCE itseld is almost entirely offloaded to the GPU.

On the other hand, i have some 1080p video shot from handycam and converted to h.264/mkv and these play just fine on the extender without hammering the MCE host.

Sales Engineer
Snowflake
www.snowflake.com

about.me/nzregs
Twitter: @nzregs

trig42

5816 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#410120 27-Nov-2010 07:29

Deev8:
trig42: WDTV Live? Plays .ts. Unsure about the Audio (does do AAC fine, I don't know about this AAC v2?) I have one, but don't have a WMC to test a recording.

The important thing is HE-AAC sound as opposed to just AAC (or LE-AAC) sound. The version discussion was a further complication on top of that.

If you are interested enough to give it a quick test, there is an old but perfectly usable file sample that Fossie posted in his Geekzone blog a couple of years ago TVNZ 7 Sample - 576i video with HE-AAC LATM audio. The 48MB sample is a couple of minutes from TVNZ7.

I downloaded that file, and no, there is no audio on the WDTV Live.

lchiu7

6479 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#410174 27-Nov-2010 11:41

That's hardly surprising. There are very few media extenders that can play AAC-HE (LATM) audio. The Popcorn Hour A200 and C200 are two. There are also a couple of others whose names elude me which are based on the same firmware and presumably Sigma chipset that can do it also.

As an aside, I wonder if Google TV can?

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#410197 27-Nov-2010 13:10

lchiu7: There are very few media extenders that can play AAC-HE (LATM) audio. The Popcorn Hour A200 and C200 are two. There are also a couple of others whose names elude me which are based on the same firmware and presumably Sigma chipset that can do it also.

It would be good to find out from anyone who's had first hand experience what those others might be. The Popcorn Hour A200 or C200 are obvious safe choices - something that I thought would be the case before starting this thread, but it has been very good having it confirmed.

However choice and options are always good, and it would be useful if we manage to identify any other current possibilities.

Thanks to everyone for the helpful information so far.

aaristotle

145 posts

Master Geek

#410224 27-Nov-2010 15:08

I am using two Apacer AL670 Media Players to play back DVB-T tv recorded using Media Portal.
One is connected to the TV in the Lounge and the other to the TV in the Family room, both using HDMI. Both link back to a shared folder on a PC, with the recorded Tv programs from Mediaportal. I am using the family computer to run Mediaportal to capture the programs but don't actually use it for playback.
The Apacer AL670 plays back recordings from all the channels, with perfect sound, and 'not quite' smooth high speed action on the HD recordings. Unless the action is a meant to be a constant speed such as a jet passing fast from one side of the screen to the other then it not really noticable, and then what you do see is a very slight speed up / slow down of the object.
The Apacer remote needs to be within a 30 degree arc in front for it to work and the response is not quite instant but not too bad. You can forward through programs at 1 to 16x and can also go to a particular time location of the recording. It will also remember where you are up to on all the programs and allow you to continue from where you last stopped. The Apacer also has Internet Radio which works well on the one I bought recently but not on the older one, even though they both have the latest updates.
Programs can be deleted from the shared folder directly from the Apacer but one niggle I have is renaming the file requires you to reenter the name again rather than edit the existing name. I was hoping to be able to 'flag' the filename so I could see who had watched it!

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#410259 27-Nov-2010 19:07

aaristotle: I am using two Apacer AL670 Media Players to play back DVB-T tv recorded using Media Portal.

That's interesting - I hadn't come across the Apacer AL670 before.

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#410260 27-Nov-2010 19:11

Deev8: The Popcorn Hour A200 or C200 are obvious safe choices ...

And I should add the new Popcorn Hour A-210 to that list as well. Almost identical to the A-200 in terms of hardware and software, but passively cooled and in a black aluminium case rather than the A-200's plastic case. It runs the same firmware as the A-200.

dolsen

1476 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#411082 30-Nov-2010 11:20

Supposedly the apacer al460 can play back according to this

http://forums.gbpvr.com/showthread.php?45755-Play-NZ-Freeview-HD-Files-Over-Network

First in have them on sale for $79.99 today (Tuesday, 30th November). I've just brought one so I'll see how it goes.

xcubed

194 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#411101 30-Nov-2010 11:47

Rollux: Why not a second small, inexpensive HTPC?

Deev8: Cost - even an inexpensive PC (capable of playing Freeview|HD material) has a significant cost. The Popcorn Hour C-200, which can do the job that I want, is what I consider to be a top-end media extender and it's available in NZ for $666 (and possibly less if I searched carefully). A capable PC would cost more than that.

It's probably overkill for what you want, but I've found the Asus EEE Boxes to be great as media extenders, running something like MediaPortal. They're not much more expensive than the Popcorn Hour (~$690 for the ones with the Nvidia ION graphics chipset), and they're fully fledged PCs. The ones without the ION chipset would probably work fine too, knocking a bit off the cost, but the hardware accelerated video decoding is nice to have.

I went for an EB1012: http://www.google.co.nz/#q=asus+eb1012&cr=countryNZ

lchiu7

6479 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#411115 30-Nov-2010 12:08

You can purchase the Popcorn Hour C200 for US$299+US$30 for shipping here so that's about $450. And if you don't need BD playback the A210 is equally as good for $199+shipping òr about $310. And the WAF for the PCH is way better than for a HTPC but of course the HTPC can record where as the PCH can't. But we are talking about media extenders here.

Furthermore I presume the $690 for the HTPC does not include another $120 or so for a Windows licence plus an IR reeiver and remote.

As usual YMMV.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

Regs

4066 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Snowflake

#411124 30-Nov-2010 12:18

lchiu7: You can purchase the Popcorn Hour C200 for US$299+US$30 for shipping here so that's about $450. And if you don't need BD playback the A210 is equally as good for $199+shipping òr about $310. And the WAF for the PCH is way better than for a HTPC but of course the HTPC can record where as the PCH can't. But we are talking about media extenders here.

Furthermore I presume the $690 for the HTPC does not include another $120 or so for a Windows licence plus an IR reeiver and remote.

As usual YMMV.

if you already have an HTPC (which is grunty enough for transcoding) and you just need an extender then you cant really beat the xbox 360. for less than $500 you can also get it with the cool new Kinect camera too! Nothing beats the WAF for the xbox extender and HTPC combo. recording and watch live TV from either location(s) etc. Same menus etc.

Sales Engineer
Snowflake
www.snowflake.com

about.me/nzregs
Twitter: @nzregs

1 | 2 | 3 | 4