Video Streams Not Playing (both flash and external player)

[inslee]

Problem Description: Subsonic has serious issues playing videos in both the external and internal Flash player.

• Internal Flash Player: After a certain period of time, the video becomes increasingly choppy during playback (even when buffered so I'm not so sure it's an issue with the speed of the server) to the point where it freezes the browser and requires the browser's process to be terminated manually.
• External Players: When trying to open the video using VLC or Windows Media Player, both players return an error and are unable to open the stream

Troubleshooting Steps: I originally tried using the stable version of Subsonic 4.5 but then updated to the newest version of Subsonic and restarted the server after ensuring that it was not using SSL. I've also used multiple browsers to play the videos (Chrome, Firefox, IE 9)

Playback Application and version: Flash 11,1,102,55, VLC 1.1.11 and WMP 12

Subsonic Version: 4.6.beta2 (build 2566) – November 16, 2011

Server Version: jetty-6.1.x, java 1.6.0_29, Windows 7 (66.3 MB / 96.7 MB)

Hardware Platform: Core 2 Duo E6600, 4 GB RAM, Windows 7

Java Memory Limit: 100MB (also tested with 256 MB)

Output from ffmpeg -i:

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ffmpeg version N-31653-gfaa3381, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Jul 28 2011 01:57:12 with gcc 4.6.1
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-memalign-hack --enable-
runtime-cpudetect --enable-avisynth --enable-bzlib --enable-frei0r --enable-libo
pencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgsm --
enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger
--enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enabl
e-libx264 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-zlib
  libavutil    51. 11. 0 / 51. 11. 0
  libavcodec   53.  9. 0 / 53.  9. 0
  libavformat  53.  6. 0 / 53.  6. 0
  libavdevice  53.  2. 0 / 53.  2. 0
  libavfilter   2. 27. 3 /  2. 27. 3
  libswscale    2.  0. 0 /  2.  0. 0
  libpostproc  51.  2. 0 / 51.  2. 0
ffmpeg: missing argument for option 'i'


Last ten log file lines:

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[11/23/11 11:26:22 PM EST]   INFO   PlaylistInputStream   admin listening to "Sample.mkv"
[11/23/11 11:26:22 PM EST]   DEBUG   TranscodeInputStream   Starting transcoder: [c:\subsonic\transcode\ffmpeg] [-ss] [%o] [-i] [H:\Films\Sample.mkv] [-async] [1] [-b] [1000k] [-s] [%wx%h] [-ar] [44100] [-ac] [2] [-v] [0] [-f] [flv] [-vcodec] [libx264] [-preset] [superfast] [-threads] [0] [-]
[11/23/11 11:26:22 PM EST]   DEBUG   InputStreamReaderThread   (c:\subsonic\transcode\ffmpeg) ffmpeg version N-31653-gfaa3381, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
[11/23/11 11:26:22 PM EST]   DEBUG   InputStreamReaderThread   (c:\subsonic\transcode\ffmpeg) built on Jul 28 2011 01:57:12 with gcc 4.6.1
[11/23/11 11:26:22 PM EST]   DEBUG   InputStreamReaderThread   (c:\subsonic\transcode\ffmpeg) configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-memalign-hack --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-avisynth --enable-bzlib --enable-frei0r --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-zlib
[11/23/11 11:26:22 PM EST]   DEBUG   InputStreamReaderThread   (c:\subsonic\transcode\ffmpeg) libavutil 51. 11. 0 / 51. 11. 0
[11/23/11 11:26:22 PM EST]   DEBUG   InputStreamReaderThread   (c:\subsonic\transcode\ffmpeg) libavcodec 53. 9. 0 / 53. 9. 0
[11/23/11 11:26:22 PM EST]   DEBUG   InputStreamReaderThread   (c:\subsonic\transcode\ffmpeg) libavformat 53. 6. 0 / 53. 6. 0
[11/23/11 11:26:22 PM EST]   DEBUG   InputStreamReaderThread   (c:\subsonic\transcode\ffmpeg) libavdevice 53. 2. 0 / 53. 2. 0
[11/23/11 11:26:22 PM EST]   DEBUG   InputStreamReaderThread   (c:\subsonic\transcode\ffmpeg) libavfilter 2. 27. 3 / 2. 27. 3
[11/23/11 11:26:22 PM EST]   DEBUG   InputStreamReaderThread   (c:\subsonic\transcode\ffmpeg) libswscale 2. 0. 0 / 2. 0. 0
[11/23/11 11:26:22 PM EST]   DEBUG   InputStreamReaderThread   (c:\subsonic\transcode\ffmpeg) libpostproc 51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0
[11/23/11 11:26:22 PM EST]   DEBUG   InputStreamReaderThread   (c:\subsonic\transcode\ffmpeg) Invalid duration specification for ss: %o


Also, VLC has the following messages in its log when trying to play the stream:

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avcodec debug: couldn't guess format
access_http debug: New Title= - Sample
vobsub debug: this doesn't seem to be a vobsub file
ps warning: this does not look like an MPEG PS stream, continuing anyway
main debug: using demux module "ps"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 30003.001 ms - Total 30003.001 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 30003.000 ms)
main debug: looking for meta reader module: 2 candidates
lua debug: Trying Lua scripts in C:\Users\Me\AppData\Roaming\vlc\lua\meta\reader
lua debug: Trying Lua scripts in C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\reader
lua debug: Trying Lua playlist script C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\reader\filename.lua
main debug: no meta reader module matching "any" could be loaded
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 3.000 ms - Total 3.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 3.000 ms)
main debug: `http://myserver/stream?player=43&suffix=.flv' successfully opened
ps warning: garbage at input, trying to resync...

[BKKKPewsey]

1st thing I would try is upping the SS memory limit (try 256MB)
Depending on the power of the client machines you could disable the video transcoding for the external players and just stream the raw file.
Then let VLC or WMP do any transcoding that may be required.

[inslee]

Disabling transcoding gets me these errors in VLC (after upping the memory to 256 MB)

Also, Seeking within the video in the flash player does not work either. It simply stops playing back the file.

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access_http warning: ICY metaint=20480
access_http info: Raw-audio server found,  demuxer selected
mkv warning: no cues/empty cues found->seek won't be precise
mkv warning: EOF
mkv warning: cannot get block EOF?
dts info: DTS channels:6 samplerate:48000 bitrate:1536000
direct3d warning: trying surface pixel format: YV12
main warning: can't get output picture
avcodec warning: disabling direct rendering
main warning: received buffer in the future
main warning: received buffer in the future
main warning: received buffer in the future
main warning: received buffer in the future
main warning: received buffer in the future

[BKKKPewsey]

Are you using external player or external with playlist? (I find in testing the latter works better and allows seeking)
That video does play ok in vlc directly I presume ?

[inslee]

Are you using external player or external with playlist? (I find in testing the latter works better and allows seeking)
That video does play ok in vlc directly I presume ?

I've tried both options and it still doesnt work. The flash player choppy symptoms appear about 18-20 minutes into any video (regardless of format or encapsulation)

[Exrace]

What version of flash?

[inslee]

What version of flash?

I'm running 11,1,102,55 (should be the latest version right now)

[Exrace]

How does your version of flash play other movies from other sites?
Maybe your having display driver issue?

[inslee]

How does your version of flash play other movies from other sites?
Maybe your having display driver issue?

I don't have problems playing flash videos anywhere else and even flash issues wouldnt explain the issues playing in external players.

I've since been manually setting up streams using VLC on both ends and it has been working very well with transcoding so the hardware is fast enough for it.