Media Extenders and Freeview|HD

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Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#72324 24-Nov-2010 11:35

I'm looking for a media extender that I can use to watch Freeview|HD programmes that have been recorded by my HTPC. So the media extender would have to be capable of handling media in a .TS (Transmission Stream) file container with H.264 video and HE-AAC (and AC3) audio.

Just checking the specs of media extenders hasn't really helped, because that can be a little misleading. For instance I thought that the AC Ryan Playon!HD Mini would do the job, and it's an attractive package at an attractive price. The specs say :
Video Formats Supported: TS - tick
Video Codecs Supported: H.264 | x264 - tick
Audio Formats Supported: HE-AAC - tick
All of the main requirements satisfied, but a quick scan of the AC Ryan support forum shows a bug in HE-AAC support. Someone tried playing content from NZ Freview|HD and got no sound. And that issue seems to be unresolved.

So forget specs, and rely on real first-hand experience.

Which media extenders have Geekzone members successfully used to play Freeview|HD content?

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362 posts

Ultimate Geek

#408847 24-Nov-2010 12:30

XBOX360?
New one even seems to support MKV's out of the box.

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davidcole

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#408854 24-Nov-2010 12:44

I thought the popcorn hour A200/C200 were able to play the HE-AAC-LC sound.

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Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#408881 24-Nov-2010 13:26

Rollux: XBOX360?

Have you used it to play Freeview|HD files yourself?

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#408885 24-Nov-2010 13:31

davidcole: I thought the popcorn hour A200/C200 were able to play the HE-AAC-LC sound.

Thanks, yes I had seen comments that the newer A200 and C200 models from Popcorn Hour were capable. In fact those are the only media extenders that I remember having seen reported as playing Freeview|HD recordings. But it would be useful for myself and others to establish what other options exist if any.

billgates

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#408890 24-Nov-2010 13:37

Deev8:
Rollux: XBOX360?

Have you used it to play Freeview|HD files yourself?

I have and use 360 to play freeview HD every night via win 7 machine. works and records tv shows fine.

Do whatever you want to do man.

davidcole

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#408934 24-Nov-2010 14:55

billgates:
Deev8:
Rollux: XBOX360?

Have you used it to play Freeview|HD files yourself?

I have and use 360 to play freeview HD every night via win 7 machine. works and records tv shows fine.

I think if connected to Windows 7, windows 7 does some transcoding of the file. I remember users of the Popcorn A100 - which notably did not natively play he-aac would suddenly work when connected to a W7 machine.

While it works I'm not sure if it's what the OP is after.

JimmyH

2886 posts

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#409198 24-Nov-2010 21:59

You need to check the audio support a bit more closely.

I am still trying to find a good way of converting Freeview .ts recordings.

What I have discovered is that while many programs can handle HE-AAC (as you list), TVNZ actually broadcasts HE-AAC v2. The support for v2 is a bit thinner, and I would therefore be a bit cautios and check before buying - as I suspect that that some units that claim to support HE-AAC may not actually support the version TVNZ is using.

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Rollux

362 posts

Ultimate Geek

#409217 24-Nov-2010 22:32

XBOX 360 allows the PC to do all the transcoding via Media Centre and then outputs it. Try to play a WTV or DVRMS file via the My Videos link - it won't play. Open it and play via media centre and it works fine.

I am talking about WIN7 here. Cannot comment about XP or Vista, but would assume the same thing.

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#409347 25-Nov-2010 10:12

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.

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#409349 25-Nov-2010 10:19

JimmyH: You need to check the audio support a bit more closely ... What I have discovered is that while many programs can handle HE-AAC (as you list), TVNZ actually broadcasts HE-AAC v2 ... I suspect that that some units that claim to support HE-AAC may not actually support the version TVNZ is using.

And to further complicate the situation, even if a device is designed to support all aspects of the NZ Freview|HD transmission stream there can be unresolved bugs that means that, in practice, it simply doesn't work in the way specified.

That is why I have practically given up looking at specifications for media extenders, and instead I'm looking for people who can say "I've used this media extender and I know that it can handle Freview|HD transmission stream files".

Rollux

362 posts

Ultimate Geek

#409428 25-Nov-2010 12:41

Why not a second small, inexpensive HTPC?

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#409441 25-Nov-2010 13:10

Rollux: Why not a second small, inexpensive HTPC?

Of course I would be sure that a second HTPC would be capable of doing the job, but I can see two issues compared to a media extender:

Complexity - a PC is more complex than necessary for the job it needs to do - simply playing media files.

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.

trig42

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#409470 25-Nov-2010 14:16

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 unit has been able to play everything I've thrown at it so far though. It isn't a true extender though, it won't let you watch live TV.

lchiu7

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#409492 25-Nov-2010 14:55

I wasn't following this thread but davidcole asked me to contribute

I regularly record shows from FreeviewHD using gbpvr and a WinTV Nova-T 500 (or something like that) card.

While gbpvr can play them back, even with hardware acceleration activated on my video card, it's still a bit choppy.

So I play the files back using a Popcorn Hour A200 which does so just fine. The PCH and the PC are on the same network and I just run MyiHome on the PC to present the files to PCH. I think the Popcorn Hour C200 can also play them back since it's based on the same Sigma chip and firmware. The A100 and A110 (I have both!) cannot play this audio.

About the only glitch I have noticed is, the PCH always defaults to the AAC audio track so I have to change to the DD track for TV3. Then audio disappears unless I skip back a second or so with the PCH. It doesn't matter of course for TVNZ since they don't broadcast in DD, yet.

Interestingly when I am watching a TV3 show with DD 5.1 audio and I switch from AAC to DD5.1 the audio sound stage expands noticeably and dare I say it, the audio quality is much better.

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

For those who are even more adventurous you can install a custom front end to the Popcorn Hour to control gbpvr so it puts the entire recording and playback capability into one interface.

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Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#409505 25-Nov-2010 15:34

lchiu7: I regularly record shows from FreeviewHD using gbpvr ... I play the files back using a Popcorn Hour A200 which does so just fine.

Thanks very much for the confirmation. I was reasonably confident that the Popcorn Hour A200 & C200 would do the job, but it's very valuable to have confirmation from first hand experience.

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.

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