Subsonic 4.3.beta1 released (Video support)

[mfarley]

I've identified a bug with the Android/Web player...

Mysteriously my Evo4g would play some videos, but fail for no reason on others (video not found or access denied).

I finally narrowed it down to Subsonic's attempt to resize the video for the Android web browser. It attempts to resize a width x height in a non-multiple of 2, which ffmpeg doesn't like:

LOG FROM AN ANDROID WEB VIEW = FAIL:
[2011-01-03 20:14:05,804] DEBUG TranscodeInputStream - Starting transcoder: [/var/subsonic/transcode/ffmpeg] [-ss] [0] [-i] [/storage/videos/Kids/Articles of Faith/Article1.mp4] [-b] [500k] [-s] [313x240] [-ar] [44100] [-ac] [2] [-v] [0] [-f] [flv] [-]

[2011-01-03 20:14:05,850] DEBUG InputStreamReaderThread - (/var/subsonic/transcode/ffmpeg) Frame size must be a multiple of 2

VIEWING THE SAME VIDEO ON A DESKTOP BROWSER = WIN:
[2011-01-03 20:15:12,693] DEBUG TranscodeInputStream - Starting transcoder: [/var/subsonic/transcode/ffmpeg] [-ss] [0] [-i] [/storage/videos/Kids/Articles of Faith/Article1.mp4] [-b] [1000k] [-s] [470x360] [-ar] [44100] [-ac] [2] [-v] [0] [-f] [flv] [-]

Notice how the Android webpage resizes the video to 313x240 whereas the desktop goes for 470x360? 313 isn't a multiple of 2, so it fails.

Otherwise -- thanks for this update! I love it, I love you Sindre! Made my New Years! (I've been wishing for this for a long time)

[josifbg]

All i can say is WOW

Thanks so much for that feature.

I`ve tested it and it`s working brilliant

Is it planed to be able to attach or include a subtitles to the movie?
It will be great if it can.

Thanks again for your effort

I`am considering donation for the 2nd time


Keep up the good work!

[stueyboy]

OK a quick update on my previous post about getting the video streaming to work on my HTC Desire...

Working excellent on web browser but getting a force close on Android when trying to view video and also not showing the files in the video folder on android either at the moment.

In a web browser on a computer everything is fine. On my phone, the initial folder was not showing any files. I had Subsonic look in my /video/Films folder which has a lot of films and the phone didn't see any of them. If I index the /video folder instead, the phone now sees the /Films subdirectory and when clicked on, I can see and play the videos in that folder.

I don't know if this is a peculiar bug or not but worth noting if anyone else has the same trouble.

Stu

[amels802]

Hi Sindre,

I want to commend you on a job well done with the video support in 4.3beta1 and the latest Android app. Not just how well it works, but how it's implemented into the existing UI. I had previously performed the video support mods suggested by other users which worked for the most part but not consistently.

I think if the Android app natively opened the video instead of the Browser, it would be that much better. As soon as the full version with video support is released, I'll definitely be donating again.

[amels802]

OK a quick update on my previous post about getting the video streaming to work on my HTC Desire...

In a web browser on a computer everything is fine. On my phone, the initial folder was not showing any files. I had Subsonic look in my /video/Films folder which has a lot of films and the phone didn't see any of them. If I index the /video folder instead, the phone now sees the /Films subdirectory and when clicked on, I can see and play the videos in that folder.

I don't know if this is a peculiar bug or not but worth noting if anyone else has the same trouble.

Stu

I encounter the same thing but it also happens with my music. I thought this was by design. With that said, the majority of my media files, with a few exceptions, are in their own folder.

[buellie]

I have encoded all my DVD's as mp4 files (high quality = 18 in Handbrake). Each movies is between 1-1.5Gb. Do you see it possible to transcode video files on the fly? I'm running linux with a quad-code 2.9Ghz which should be plenty for on-the-fly encoding of video.

im trying handbrake now..and it says 5 hours till completion
is this how long it takes you?..i know my computer is slow,
but that seems like an awful long time
thanks

[GJ51]

MP4 files will play no the desktop browser without needing to be transcoded. Just uncheck the box for mp4>flv in the player definition you use on your desktop broswer and the file will play in its native resolution in JW without transcoding.

[linuxman]

Ok I'm on a non flash abled 2.2 phone so any way you can change it from transcoding to flv and go to a standard that stream media player from the market could open and play?

[GJ51]

If I understand you correctly, I think I've already implied the answer. Although I'm not 100% sure, i believe that as the Android app is currently set up, it can only play flv format, unlike the desktop JW Player that can play mp4 as well as flv. Assuming that the Androis app requires flv for playback, you have only two ways to get there. First, just use the standard seup and transcode on the fly. This approach works, but there is a penalty to pay. In my testing, I found that even though my server has a quad core Xeon CPU, ffmpeg only uses one core per video stream to do the transcoding. therefore, in my case the server can never use more than 25% of the CPU's power per each video stream being transcoded. Testing with HD video and trying to squeeze it down to 200 kbps feed for mobile playback over 3G maxes out the core doing the transcoding and the process itself becomes a bottleneck for getting the data out. For my purposes, it makes more sense for me to just use video transcoding software to convert files I want to stream over internet into formats that are the right size and format for the device I intend to recieve the video on.

For example, hi res HD video that I'm going to watch internally on my home network, I'll leave encoded in mp4 at native resolution. I've already tested and found that over gigabit lan the JW player will give me 1920X1080 quality with no skips or stutters. It performs the same as if you were watching the original Blue Ray on a conventional player attached to a TV. Same quality and playback performance.

At the other end, 3g to Android devices has a wide range of throughput speed depending on signal strength, ranging from pretty good to almost non-existent. So I intend to set up a directory just for mobile video that will already be stored in flv format so that there's no transcoding involved. This way connection speed will be the bottleneck. I'll probably set up a format for 3g speed and another for Wifi speed, neither of which will be formatted for any better quality than my EVO can display.

There are a whole range of options and alternatives in between, including experimenting with custom transcoding options. What's possible in each particular application instance is dependent on a large number of variables as we all are running Subsonic on unique hardware configurations. None of us has identical servers, network set ups, phones, isp's, cellular carriers, and on and on ... There is no one size fits all in ths arena. But, if you know your equipment, and have realistic expectations for what your configuration can handle, you can customize SS to give good reults for your particular application.

It' s when users think they can watch a Blue Ray video over a crappy 3g signal on a device without much computing or graphics power, that dissappointment occurs. So, these are the extremes, finding the happy middle ground for you gear is the challenge.

[linuxman]

The problem is I have a v6 arm processor in my phone and adobe chose to only compile flash support for arm v7 and higher processors. I cannot stream anything flv to my phone because of this and some players support h264 mkv native format and subsonic could actually call to another application to play if needed. Mine won't even show the mp4 file at all at present to even attempt to play it.

[GJ51]

That is a problem. I don't know if we'll be able to send directly to other than the default app player or not in the future. If anyone figures out how to do that I would love to know too as I think I would prefer to just encode all my videos as mp4's and be able to send them directly to a player without transcoding on the fly.

[linuxman]

Plus throw on top that android has been horrible at moving forward adding common media types video playability wihtin it natively.

[sindre_mehus]

LOG FROM AN ANDROID WEB VIEW = FAIL:
[2011-01-03 20:14:05,804] DEBUG TranscodeInputStream - Starting transcoder: [/var/subsonic/transcode/ffmpeg] [-ss] [0] [-i] [/storage/videos/Kids/Articles of Faith/Article1.mp4] [-b] [500k] [-s] [313x240] [-ar] [44100] [-ac] [2] [-v] [0] [-f] [flv] [-]

[2011-01-03 20:14:05,850] DEBUG InputStreamReaderThread - (/var/subsonic/transcode/ffmpeg) Frame size must be a multiple of 2

This may happen on older versions (<0.6) of ffmpeg. I'll fix it for the final Subsonic 4.3 release.

Thanks a million!
Sindre

[mfarley]

That is a problem. I don't know if we'll be able to send directly to other than the default app player or not in the future. If anyone figures out how to do that I would love to know too as I think I would prefer to just encode all my videos as mp4's and be able to send them directly to a player without transcoding on the fly.

I'm on the opposite side of the fence -- my video archives are large and in a mixture of formats/quality/codecs/etc. My server has a fast CPU and my cell phone has a strong signal.

So I do *not* want to transcode my archives ahead of time, I *want* transcoding on the fly, I want it to be flv for my Android phone.

The way it is now is perfect for my hardware and videos.

[GJ51]

That's what makes Subsonic the best solution available today. Everyone can customize it for their own needs. You say "tomatoe" I say "toemato" and we all get a good vegetable, or is it a fruit? I can't remember.

Please post your successes/failures and tips used with your setup!