Xvid playback on standalone: video stops, audio continues

[Chetwood]

I've suggested the Philips 3260 to a friend of mine cause like my Cyberhome it's supposed to playback any avi (that don't use QPEL, GMC) which has been true so far.

Now he visited me with some avis that have their video stuck on playback for 30 seconds or so while sound continues to play. Then video goes on for a few seconds till it stops again all the while with audio continuing. I've tried playback from DVD+RW and USB-HDD but on both players I'm getting the same effect. The files playback on my PC with MPC however. Remuxing them with Avi-Mux GUI didn't help. Still I'm inclined to believe it's the files rather than our standalones. So how do I determine what's wrong with them? TIA!

[Sharc]

Some players react hysterically on vbv buffer issues.
Which XviD profile (2-pass) did you use for encoding? You may want to try with a simpler profile, reduce the bitrate (increase compression), or for better vbv control revert to DivX.

[olnima]

To small interleave (500ms suggested) can be a problem, also multiple b-frames in combination with packed (or not) bitstream.
Maybe You can load an re-save the avis in VirtualDub (Direct-Stream-Copy) by adjusting the interleave.

Olnima

Your png is not viewable, also try to analyze the avis with "avinaptic".

[Chetwood]

Like I said, it's not my encode (and apparently also not that of my buddy) so I'm not sure where to start. I'm doing my own encodes with AutoGK standard settings cause I've read somewhere that it's MTK standalone profiles are a bit outdated (can anyone confirm this?) Direct Stream Copy with VDmod made no difference and Gspot export doesn't work so I hope my png is approved soon. In the meantime, here's what's avinaptics got to say:



[ About file ]

Name: test.avi
Date: 26/04/2006 17:19:30
Size: 366,422,016 bytes (349.447 MB)

[ Generic infos ]

Play duration: 00:43:05 (2585.24 s)
Container type: AVI OpenDML
Number of streams: 2
Type of stream nr. 0: video
Type of stream nr. 1: audio
Audio streams: 1
ISFT: VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.2 (build 2540/release)
JUNK: VirtualDubMod build 2540/release

[ Relevant data ]

Resolution: 640 x 352
Width: multiple of 32
Height: multiple of 32
Average DRF: 4.164255
Standard deviation: 1.072572
Std. dev. weighted mean: 0.462478

[ Video track ]

FourCC: xvid/XVID
Resolution: 640 x 352
Frame aspect ratio: 20:11 = 1.818181
Pixel aspect ratio: 1:1 = 1
Display aspect ratio: 20:11 = 1.818181
Framerate: 25 fps
Number of frames: 64631
Stream size: 320,360,283 bytes
Bitrate: 991.351775 kbps
Qf: 0.176021
Key frames: 1846 (0; 25; 29; 30; 31; ... 64555)
Null frames: 0
Min key int: 1
Max key int: 302
Avg key int: 35.011375
Delay: 0 ms

[ Audio track ]

Audio tag: 0x55 (MP3)
Bitrate (container): 129.728 kbps VBR
Channels (container): 2
Sample rate (container): 48000 Hz
Chunks: 107643
Stream size: 41,893,824 bytes
Preload: 504 ms
Max A/V diff: 520 ms
Type: MPEG-1 Layer III
Encoder: LAME3.90. (Made with BeSweet v1.5b30)
MPEG frames: 107643
Play duration: 00:43:03 (2583.432 s)
Bitrate (bitstream): 129.730758 kbps VBR
Chunk-aligned: Yes
Emphasis: none
Mode: joint stereo
Delay: 0 ms

[ About MPEG4 encoding ]

User data: DivX999b000p
User data: XviD0037
Packed bitstream: Yes (*)
QPel: No
GMC: No
Interlaced: No
Aspect ratio: Square pixels
Quant type: H.263
Number of frames: 64631
Drop/delay frames: 0
Corrupted frames: 0

I-VOPs: 1846 ( 2.856 %) #
P-VOPs: 22682 ( 35.095 %) #########
B-VOPs: 40103 ( 62.049 %) ################
S-VOPs: 0 ( 0.000 %)
N-VOPs: 0 ( 0.000 %)

Max consecutive B-VOPs: 2
1 consec: 4233 ( 19.095 %) #####
2 consec: 17935 ( 80.905 %) ####################

[ DRF analysis ]

Average DRF: 4.164255
Standard deviation: 1.072572
Max DRF: 7

DRF=1: 20 ( 0.031 %)
DRF=2: 2542 ( 3.933 %) #
DRF=3: 21049 ( 32.568 %) ########
DRF=4: 7966 ( 12.325 %) ###
DRF=5: 29489 ( 45.627 %) ###########
DRF=6: 3375 ( 5.222 %) #
DRF=7: 190 ( 0.294 %)
DRF>7: 0 ( 0.000 %)

I-VOPs average DRF: 2.529794
I-VOPs std. deviation: 0.508785
I-VOPs max DRF: 3

P-VOPs average DRF: 2.968212
P-VOPs std. deviation: 0.344255
P-VOPs max DRF: 4

B-VOPs average DRF: 4.915966
B-VOPs std. deviation: 0.527213
B-VOPs max DRF: 7

[ Profile compliancy ]

Profile to check: MTK PAL 6000
Resolution: Ok
Framerate: Ok
Min buffer fill: 17%

[mr soft]

129.728 kbps VBR


That could be your issue . A lot of standalones don´t like vbr audio.

Sidenote : your lame codec is way old
Encoder: LAME3.90

[Chetwood]

Again, it's not my encode and both players in question do playback my encodes with VBR just fine (and also these problematic files, like I said, Audio plays on flawlessly).

[olnima]

Anyway - it's simple to recode audio to cbr and to set interleave in the upper mentioned way. Try it and in 15 minutes you know more about this...


Olnima


//edit: oh I see, interleaving is allready about 500 ms

[prOnorama]

Again, it's not my encode and both players in question do playback my encodes with VBR just fine (and also these problematic files, like I said, Audio plays on flawlessly).

This smells like rule #6 to me. Why don't you ask the person who encoded the "some avis your friend visited you with" it for advice on which settings were used?

[Lenchik]

Max consecutive B-VOPs: 2
Can this be a problem for some standalones?

[Chetwood]

Anyway - it's simple to recode audio to cbr and to set interleave in the upper mentioned way.
I did this with Avi-Mux GUI but CBR made no difference.

This smells like rule #6 to me. Why don't you ask the person who encoded the "some avis your friend visited you with" it for advice on which settings were used?
Cause I don't want a reencode, I want to know why these files don't playback properly. Both players are said to playback any SD avis so I'd like to get to the bottom of this. BTW, who died and made you mod? Just keep those pointless allegations to yourself.

[olnima]

I did this with Avi-Mux GUI but CBR made no difference...

Try the same with VirtualDub

[Chetwood]

I tried it with VDMod and got the same results. I'm wondering what's wrong with this file...

[setarip_old]

Hi!

Since the moderators haven't locked this thread, I guess it's okay to post toit. Check out the following link:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22packed+bitstream%22+and+%22AVI%22+and+%22playback%22

[CWR03]

If you disable the audio completely and play only the video, what happens? It might be easier to find a problem by eliminating the audio as the source.

[Sharc]

You may also want to check your file for excessive bitrate peaks, e.g. using the Bitrate Viewer
http://www.winhoros.de/docs/bitrate-viewer/index.html

[Ranguvar]

Another idea is to try removing the packed bitstream, some standalones react oddly to it. Some need it, some hate it. Use MPEG4Modifier to do that.

[Chetwood]

That did the trick, thx a lot.

[7ekno]

The biggests trip-ups for stand-alones are:

- GMC
- Qpel
- Packed bit-stream
- > 1 B-frame (breaks DivX compatibility in earlier versions)
- AVI container settings (use AVImux_GUI, in the profile folder there are settings for AC3 and MP3 for maximum standalone player compatibility ... just associate the .amg files with AVImux_GUI and double clik the needed profile, and re-mux your AVI)

I ran across a problematic "MPEG4" player where I did over 200 XviD encodes / muxes to try to narrow down the problem, and it ended up being the container mux settings used (muxes with legacy options, Junk before header and REC lists would drop audio after 5-20 secs) ... although the problematic "MPEG4" player worked fine with the "standalone profiles" in the above mentioned AVImux-GUI directory) ...

I thought I would share for future thread searchees :P

Tek

[Chetwood]

Well I've read on a German forum that e.g. AutoGK's standalone profiles are outdated but I haven't read any official confirmation on this so far. Still, I'm currently doing my own encodes with standalone support disabled (also because I don't know which chipset my next player is gonna have).