pli-marc

Codec issue on Zero4K:

As to your old media, use VLC or tools like mediainfo so determine what codecs are actually needed, without that information it is all guesswork.

I appreciate your input.  I scanned a portion of the library and found that in fact

only the h264 and hevc files play well.  The rest doesn't.  Here's an excerpt of

the non-working codecs used (as per ffmpeg):

48 mpeg4 (Advanced Simple Profile) (XVID / 0x44495658) NOT OK

9 mpeg4 (Simple Profile) (mp4v / 0x7634706D) NOT OK

6 mpeg4 (Simple Profile) (XVID / 0x44495658) NOT OK

5 mpeg4 (DX50 / 0x30355844) NOT OK

4 mpeg4 (Simple Profile) (DIVX / 0x58564944) NOT OK

1 mpeg4 (Simple Profile) (xvid / 0x64697678) NOT OK

1 mpeg4 (Simple Profile) (DX50 / 0x30355844) NOT OK



7 mpeg1video NOT OK

2 msmpeg4v3 (DIV3 / 0x33564944) NOT OK

1 vp6f NOT OK

(sorry for messy alignment, the online editor insists on compressing the spaces)

The numbers in front reflect the ratio of files present in the test sample, so my problem

is the mpeg series of codecs, in particular mpeg4.  I also have files where audio doesn't

work because of codec issues, but I haven't made a survey for that.

Most (all?) of these older files used to work on the Zero.

In other words, I'm looking for an upated-hardware Zero, like the Zero4K, but without

the newly introduced limitations of the Zero4K.  Does that exist?

I suppose the bigger boxes are better in this regard, but I hestitate to buy a set of

them only to find out that those reject my library too.

Heavy (big) file issue on Zero:

About your suggestion with rsize/wsize for the "heavy" file issue (different from codec

issue).  This is interesting, I had thought that bigger was better.  For many files the

stutter is very predictable.  There are a few ones which play more or less OK if I

don't touch anything, but as soon as I cause an overlay to be drawn or jump to a

different position then it goes downhill until I stop.  I'll make some experiments with

your memory fragmentation suggestion.

I have no problem with the Zero in combination with the fallback tuner, it was my main "fallback streaming" box for years. I suspect it is more of a network issue.

 

The fallback stream is also in a format that can be processed directly by the hardware, so apart from handing the incoming packets, not much CPU is involved.

 

I don't think you'll find anything that plays "anything". In the end, it is an STB, not a media streamer. You might be better of buying on of those.

My gripes with the Zero are that it doesn't have DVB-T/T2 option, doesn't support HEVC and

it has not enough CPU to receive and decode a heavy 6-10 GB h264 movie over SMB

(=not a satellite stream, but rather a movie that has been encoded for desktops).

My problem with the Zero4K is that it doesn't decode my dated 240p - 720p movies from

last decade.

Which box works better as media streamer for me?   Note that it still needs to have STB

functionality in OpenPLi, because the main purpose is not to play from the movie library.

The main purpose is to view live TV over the remote fallback tuner, to browse the EPG

to program timers with the remote timer plugin, and to view recorded programs from the

"centralized" movie folder which is imported over SMB.

Maybe I am asking a stupid question here.  It's just that I didn't expect that a media player

can also be an STB.  I only knew of STBs that can be media players too, and the Vu

series used to be one of the best of them (after the original Dreambox).  Do all media

players support all STB features, provided that an OpenPLi firmware exists for them?

Please note that avi, mkv, etc are NOT codecs, they are container formats. It is what is in those containers that requires a codec.

Yes, sorry for not making the distinction.  My current setup plays h264 h265 mp4 and

probably the older mpeg1/2 too.  It does not play the typical "desktop" formats from last decade.

The Zero (without 4K) does play them, but it has no HEVC, no variant with DVB-T/T2 tuner,

only 100mbit ethernet, and any "movie-length" stream with 6+ GB size is too heavy for it to

reproduce without stutter.  That's probably a CPU problem, the good old Duo2 is smooth.

Can you recommend hardware for the viewer that solves the codec problems, even when

it has no tuner at all, or tuner(s) that I dont use?  It would be nice if I can keep using my Vu

remotes.