Audio without video for ~5 seconds (1 Viewer)

[toricred]

So I have this plugin working perfectly in 1.3a with a minor exception.

When I start watching a recording there are about 5 seconds of audio with no video. I have tried multiple codec to resolve this, but no luck.

It's not major, just a slight issue.

 

[RoChess]

I've actually seen that problem before and it did indeed turn out to be a codec problem.

LAVfilters should work fine, however they do have some concurrency issues if the system is doing other stuff in the background. Did you verify your mediainfo.dll is up-to-date, because normally MediaPortal scans every file right before playback starts. This could cause a concurrency access issue to the mediafile, causing playback out of sync issues if the codecs are not playing nice (some of these issues have been fixed in newer MediaInfo releases).

The best concurrency codec I've worked with was the MPC-HC standalone filters, as I could even mess with the codec via concurrent RDP. If I try the same with LAV then I get stutters and other weird issues. I'm still using LAV myself, because it is simply much easier to keep up-to-date due to the MPEI package, and I really shouldn't be doing concurrent RDP when MediaPortal is in use anyway (or so the wife tells me)

 

[toricred]

I upgraded to the latest Mediainfo and that didn't fix it. I then installed SAF 6.12, but which codecs are the ones you were referring to?

 

[RoChess]

That would be MPC-HC Standalone filters:

http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/downloads/

Remember MediaPortal is 32-bit, so even on a 64-bit OS, you have to pick the 32-bit filters, or they won't get used. Also remove all the other packs/filters/etc that you have installed as it is very easy for conflicts to arise, and of course be sure to configure MediaPortal correctly to actually use those MPC-HC codecs.

LAVfilters you can install via MPEI (The MediaPortal Extension Installer shortcut on your desktop), and should be listed under "known extensions" as LAVfilter. But you have to also verify that the video and audio settings are configured properly (DXVA for example is not enabled by default) and configure MediaPortal as well to use them.

My recommendation would be to try LAV first, and if that still gives you issues, to try MPC-HC.

The 5 second delay you had btw, I remembered as well, it was with ffdshow based codec that I saw that with. And also with Haali splitter. See it's not just audio or video codec, it can be the splitter as well as it decides how the file is played.

 

[toricred]

I tried the MPC codecs and they didn't help. It appears to be using the LAV splitter. How do I change the splitter used by MP.

 

[RoChess]

The MPC-HC zip files contains audio codecs, video codecs and splitters as well. If you register them correctly they should take priority under normal circumstances, but it is best to uninstall any agressive splitters such as Haali to make sure.

 

[emphatic]

Maybe a stupid question but do you use the Automatic Refresh Rate Changer? Because in my setup, I get no video for five seconds because my video card is resetting the refresh rate... Perfectly normal though.

Emph

 

[HomeY]

Maybe a stupid question but do you use the Automatic Refresh Rate Changer?

Nope, he's not:

2012-07-21 16:20:46.960769 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: RefreshRateChanger.AdaptRefreshRate: 'auto refreshrate changer' disabled

But it does look like the MediaInfo scan is taking it's time:

2012-07-21 16:20:47.565804 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: g_Player.OnStarted() \\Server2\s\vids\Alphas\Alphas - S01E11 - Original Sin.ts media:Video
2012-07-21 16:20:47.595806 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: VideoDatabase media info file: \\Server2\s\vids\Alphas\Alphas - S01E11 - Original Sin.ts
2012-07-21 16:20:51.663038 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: MediaInfoWrapper.MediaInfoWrapper: DLL Version      : MediaInfoLib - v0.7.54

There is at least a 4 secs gap.

It looks like it's a combination of MediaInfo working on the file, and TsReader trying to get the Audio/Video in sync @ the same time:

21-07-2012 16:20:47.616 [834]  H.264 I-FRAME found 0.671000
21-07-2012 16:20:47.661 [834]  H.264 First supposed '0' frame found. 0.671000
21-07-2012 16:20:47.697 [6e4]Audio Samples : 11, First : 0.089, Last : 0.409
21-07-2012 16:20:47.697 [6e4]Video Samples : 14, First : 0.671, Last : 0.888
21-07-2012 16:20:47.697 [6e4]Compensation : ( Rnd : 0 mS ) Audio pts ahead Video pts . Add 0.500 sec of extra video comp to start now !...
21-07-2012 16:20:47.697 [6e4]demux:Compensation:-0.129, Clock on start 0.000 m_rtStart:0
21-07-2012 16:20:47.700 [6e4]audPin: Add pmt and set discontinuity L:1 B:0 fTime:0.314 SampCnt:0
21-07-2012 16:20:47.700 [6e4]Aud/Ref : 0.185, Compensated = 0.314 ( 0.314 A/V buffers=08/14), Clk : 0.000000, SampCnt 0, Sleep 1 ms, stallPt 1.500
21-07-2012 16:20:47.701 [6e4]Aud/Ref : 0.217, Compensated = 0.346 ( 0.346 A/V buffers=07/14), Clk : 0.000000, SampCnt 1, Sleep 1 ms, stallPt 1.500
21-07-2012 16:20:47.702 [6e4]Aud/Ref : 0.249, Compensated = 0.378 ( 0.378 A/V buffers=06/14), Clk : 0.000000, SampCnt 2, Sleep 1 ms, stallPt 1.500
21-07-2012 16:20:47.702 [434]vidPin: Add pmt and set discontinuity L:1 B:1 fTime:0.450 SampCnt:0
21-07-2012 16:20:47.702 [434]Vid/Ref : 0.671, I-frame(00), Compensated = 0.450 ( 0.450 A/V buffers=05/14), Clk : 0.000000, SampCnt 0, stallPt 2.500
21-07-2012 16:20:47.719 [fc8]CTsReaderFilter::Run(17974.62) state 1 seeking 0
21-07-2012 16:20:47.719 [fc8]CTsReaderFilter::Run(17974.62) state 2 -->done
21-07-2012 16:20:47.775 [434]Vid/Ref : 0.687, ?-frame(00), Compensated = 0.474 ( 0.426 A/V buffers=04/14), Clk : 0.048000, SampCnt 1, stallPt 2.500
21-07-2012 16:20:47.777 [434]Vid/Ref : 0.704, ?-frame(00), Compensated = 0.499 ( 0.450 A/V buffers=04/13), Clk : 0.050000, SampCnt 2, stallPt 2.500
21-07-2012 16:20:47.784 [434]Vid/Ref : 0.721, ?-frame(00), Compensated = 0.525 ( 0.468 A/V buffers=04/12), Clk : 0.057000, SampCnt 3, stallPt 2.500
21-07-2012 16:20:47.810 [834]  H.264 2nd GOP found 0.921000
21-07-2012 16:20:48.087 [6e4]Aud/Ref : 0.345, Compensated = 0.474 ( 0.114 A/V buffers=13/10), Clk : 0.360000, SampCnt 5, Sleep 1 ms, stallPt 1.500
21-07-2012 16:20:48.138 [6e4]Aud/Ref : 0.377, Compensated = 0.506 ( 0.091 A/V buffers=14/12), Clk : 0.415333, SampCnt 6, Sleep 1 ms, stallPt 1.500
21-07-2012 16:20:48.139 [6e4]Aud/Ref : 0.409, Compensated = 0.538 ( 0.122 A/V buffers=13/12), Clk : 0.416333, SampCnt 7, Sleep 1 ms, stallPt 1.500
21-07-2012 16:20:48.291 [6e4]audPin : Audio to render late= 0.098

 

[RoChess]

That's what I had myself as well, MediaInfo would add a gigantic delay on certain AVI files I had. The only reason I really noticed it (few seconds is less annoying then close to a minute delay) was because I had some files on a slow WiFi share and MediaInfo was copying almost the entire file to analyze.

Reported this to MediaInfo developers, supplied them with the trouble file in question, and they fixed it. It did require a change to MePo, MovPic and TVS as well to accept the new MediaInfo parameter, but that eventually got all fixed.

However codecs and file containers constantly change over time, so maybe you have a file that causes a new problem that has not been fixed yet. You can actually disable MediaInfo.dll for an easy test by just renaming the DLL to MediaInfo.DLL.OLD or something and see if the problem then goes away to confirm it is indeed MediaInfo causing it.

Updating MediaInfo.dll might be a solution, but if you already run the current version (v0.7.58 is latest), then you are left with contacting their developers at the SourceForge website and they will provide you with FTP details to give them the mediafile in question that is causing issues (assuming it's not super large, my problem file was 350MB so not too bad).

 

[toricred]

The thing is that it is every file, not just one. It also seems to only happen the first time I play a file. I'll try renaming MediaInfo to be sure that's the problem and report back.

Edit: I found the problem. I had the dll file in multiple places and they were not all the same size/version. After renaming all but the one in the MediaPortal directory the problem went away. Oddly enough the MP2 Client folder had a newer one that was slightly larger. I am not going to be doing much more testing with the MP2 Client on this machine so no harm done.