Video works fine on PC but skips on Media Center

[kopoloko]

I have a couple of TV eps where it starts with 5 seconds of the main logo and sound effect before starting the actual show. When I play them on my Lenovo Y550 Win7 laptop they work fine. However, when I play them on my Markus 800 media center the video plays for a second and skips into the actual show. The audio plays normally and therefore becomes out of sync. As far as I can tell the behaviour and timing is identical in every episode. I assume it's a video codec issue so I tried re-encoding to h264* but that didn't fix the issue. The video skips in an identical manner. Is it possible that the data allocation is bad and my computer does a better job compensating, or something like that?


*I found if weird and should note that the filesize grew only 10MB (from 175 to 185). I assume that's a bit small for a 20 minute h264 encode.

[aedipuss]

you could try identifying the video spec with mediainfo. copy paste the complete text mode output.

[kopoloko]

This is the text output:

General
Complete name : M:\MOVIE\TV Shows\^ Kids Shows\Justice League\Justice League - 1.01 - Secret Origins (1).avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 176 MiB
Duration : 21mn 23s
Overall bit rate : 1 149 Kbps
Writing application : VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.2 (build 2540/release)
Writing library : VirtualDubMod build 2540/release

Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Advanced Simple@L5
Format settings, BVOP : 2
Format settings, QPel : Yes
Format settings, GMC : 3 warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Muxing mode : Packed bitstream
Codec ID : XVID
Codec ID/Hint : XviD
Duration : 21mn 23s
Bit rate : 1 011 Kbps
Width : 512 pixels
Height : 384 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Bottom Field First
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.214
Stream size : 155 MiB (88%)
Writing library : XviD 1.1.2 (UTC 2006-11-01)

Audio
ID : 1
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Mode : Joint stereo
Mode extension : MS Stereo
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 21mn 23s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 19.6 MiB (11%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 42 ms (1.00 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 504 ms

[jagabo]

There are no standalone media players or DVD/Blu-ray players that can handle 3 warp point GMC.

[kopoloko]

How do I fix it? How do you "correct" the use of 3 warp point GMC? Is it a matter of simply re-encoding?

I have some minor experience with XviD4PSP. I usually use it to re-encode AAC audio to MP3. What Video encoding do you recommend? I tried it with the h264 lossless codec but that didn't work. I know xvid is probably the obvious choice, but there are over a dozen different ones to choose from. Any guidance would be appreciated.

[jagabo]

It sounds like the problem may be limited to introductory sequence. If that's true, you may be able to remove that without reencoding the entire video. Use VirtualDub. Open the video file, set Video -> Direct Stream Copy. Use Shift+Right-arrow to move to successive key frames until you get past the introduction. Press the Mark-in tool or the Home key. Move to the end of the video and press the Mark-out tool or the End key. Then select File -> Save as AVI. See if that new file plays correctly. If not, you'll have to reencode.

I'm not aware of any standalone media player that can play h.264 lossless. You have to use a lossy encoder that your player supports. If you use a high enough bitrate or high quality setting the loss of quality will be minimal. In Xvid4psp try something like the x264 Q18 HQ setting.

[kopoloko]

Thanks for your help.

I watched the video again, this time with an eye on the clock. My initial impression was off. The video skips a total of 25 seconds (10 of which is the show). So your idea of trimming the video is good just not in this case.

I am re-encoding the first few files for a test run. Hopefully I can get it hooked up tonight and confirm they work.

EDIT - So I finally got the chance to try the re-ecnoded x264 Q18 HQ version out last weekend and it has the same problem. Here is the mediainfo for the new file:

General
Complete name : C:\Users\Paul\Downloads\Movies\Justice League - 1.01 - Secret Origins (1).avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 116 MiB
Duration : 21mn 23s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 759 Kbps
Writing application : VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.3 | www.virtualdub-fr.org || (build 2550/release)
Writing library : VirtualDubMod build 2550/release

Video
ID : 0
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L2.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames
Codec ID : h264
Duration : 21mn 23s
Bit rate : 618 Kbps
Width : 512 pixels
Height : 384 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.131
Stream size : 94.6 MiB (81%)
Writing library : x264 core 116 r2074 2641b9e
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:-1:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=50 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=18.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00

Audio
ID : 1
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Mode : Joint stereo
Mode extension : MS Stereo
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 21mn 23s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 19.6 MiB (17%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 24 ms (0.58 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 486 ms

[kopoloko]

Sorry for the double post but I'm not sure if my edit was seen. Any help with this problem would be appreciated. Thanks.