Problem with TS, possible corruption?

[Killer3737]

I've got a transport stream from an HDTV broadcast and there seems to be a problem with it. The file plays fine in VLC Media Player but in PowerDVD I just get a green screen with a bit of fluffy picture at the edge and a black screen on WMP. Not tried any others.

Here is the PowerDVD look


That to me would suggest it's corrupt in some way, but if it was how would it play correctly in VLC? The proper video must be there somewhere. I've tried demuxing with several different tools, ran quickstream fix in VideoReDo and mpeg2repair but any demuxed/remuxed version is the same.

Any ideas for fixing it or is it screwed?

[fritzi93]

Not tried any others.

I would. If it plays okay in, say, MPCHC and Splash, then I'd say the fault is in PowerDVD. Eliminate the easy things first.

[jagabo]

That to me would suggest it's corrupt in some way

To me it says PowerDVD is a crappy player. The point of a TS stream is to make it easy for a player to resync if any part of the stream is corrupt.

[Killer3737]

There must be something different or wrong about this file though, I can play countless other very similar spec 1080i/MPEG2 streams in PowerDVD just fine. The only thing I saw video mediainfo was two closed caption streams in the video, but I removed them and still the same issue.

Trid that Splash player posted above, same problem as Windows Media Player, audio but no picture, black screen. MPCHC was similar to PDVD:


There is definitely something wrong with it. VLC seems to be the only program that'll play it. MPEG2Repair seems to think it's fine though:

Sequence Frame 163027(1-P) / Time 1:30:39 :
Info: End of MPEG2 sequence

Sequence Summary:

File Size Processed: 21.76 GB, Play Time: 01h:30m:39s
1920 x 1080, 29.97 fps, 35.53 Mbps (33.24 Mbps Average).
Average Video Quality: 135.37 KB/Frame, 0.53 Bits/Pixel.
MPEG Audio.
0 of 163027 video frames found with errors.
0 of 0 audio frames found with errors.
0 corrupted video bytes in file.
0.000000 seconds of video timestamp gaps.
0.000000 seconds of audio timestamp gaps.

End of Log

Odd. I also notice Windows 7 doesn't generate a thumbnail for the file like it does all my other TS.

[jagabo]

You could try remuxing it into another TS file, or another container.

[Killer3737]

You could try remuxing it into another TS file, or another container.

Tried a few different ways, no joy. Could this be some sort of encryption from the TV station?

[poisondeathray]

Could this be some sort of encryption from the TV station?

not likely if VLC can play it

[budwzr]

That's why VLC is so widely popular, it just works.

P.S. Have you been dinking with the codecs?

[poisondeathray]

can you cut a sample with tsmuxer (split & cut tab) and upload a sample here ?

[jagabo]

That's why VLC is so widely popular, it just works.

Except when it doesn't. LOL

can you cut a sample with tsmuxer (split & cut tab) and upload a sample here ?

Yeah, I'd like to see a little bit too.

[budwzr]

I hereby claim copyright to the "Have you been dinking with...?" line of inquisition.

[poisondeathray]

My guess is a bad directshow splitter. I would install haali media splitter, make sure everything is ok (i.e. pins connect) in graphstudio and preferred filter tweaker

[Killer3737]

Here is a 30s clip:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JI3SLTQQ

I haven't touched any codecs since I recently did a fresh install of windows 7. I don't know what those last things you mentioned are but I don't see how it can be a codec issue since I can play other technically identical MPEG2 1080i HD TS files without problem in any program.

I know I could just be satisified with playing this in VLC and move on but I'd like to find out what the problem is, it's a strange one.

[poisondeathray]

Here is a 30s clip:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JI3SLTQQ

I haven't touched any codecs since I recently did a fresh install of windows 7. I don't know what those last things you mentioned are but I don't see how it can be a codec issue since I can play other technically identical MPEG2 1080i HD TS files without problem in any program.

I know I could just be satisified with playing this in VLC and move on but I'd like to find out what the problem is, it's a strange one.

Works fine in mpc, wmp or any directshow player. It's definitely a codec/splitter issue. Default win7 install means you're using Microsoft decoder and splitter = no good.

VLC works in this case because it doesn't rely on your system installed directshow filters

Use ffdshow and enable MPEG2 decoding, with haali splitter. Follow the instructions above to diagnose exactly where your filter problem is

[jagabo]

The problem is the 4:2:2 chroma subsampling. Not many MPEG 2 decoders can handle 4:2:2 chroma and I rarely see MPEG 2 video that uses it (normally they use 4:2:0). As poisondeathray points out, ffdshow works. And you already know VLC's internal MPEG 2 decoder works.

[Killer3737]

Ok thanks for working out the problem but I'm a bit confused with the solution. I installed ffdshow and haali splitter but I don't seem to be able to choose Haali for MPEG2 decoding in it, I just see libavcodec and libmpeg2. I've obviously not done it right at it's still not playing.

[jagabo]

Playing a video with DirectShow involves piecing together several filters. First is a file reader. This tells Windows that that particular type of file is an A/V file. Then a file splitter. That splits the video and audio out to separate streams. Then the audio and video streams are sent to decompressors (codecs), sometimes these are followed by format converters, finally, the decompressed audio and video are sent to renders that put the video on the screen and send the audio to the sound card. Windows looks through all the installed filters and decides how to best build a filter graph each time you play a video. If you have more than one filter that can perform the same function the one with the higher "priority" is used. You can use a DirectShow filter manager to set the priority of different filters. In addition to this, any player can use its own private filters anywhere along the chain.

This thread shows some sample filter graphs:
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/313673-avchd-files-wont-play-smoothly-%28and-some-o...=1#post1939128

Haali is a reader/splitter. It doesn't do any decompression. ffdshow is the decoder. As you've seen it has two libraries for MPEG 2 decoding. You may have to use a filter manager to boost the priority of ffdshow.

[turk690]

I've got a transport stream from an HDTV broadcast and there seems to be a problem with it. The file plays fine in VLC Media Player but in PowerDVD I just get a green screen with a bit of fluffy picture at the edge and a black screen on WMP. Not tried any others.

Here is the PowerDVD look


That to me would suggest it's corrupt in some way, but if it was how would it play correctly in VLC? The proper video must be there somewhere. I've tried demuxing with several different tools, ran quickstream fix in VideoReDo and mpeg2repair but any demuxed/remuxed version is the same.

Any ideas for fixing it or is it screwed?

There are distinctions between transport streams and program streams and you have to convert one to the other for it to play successfully in the program of your choice. PowerDVD is an exclusive program stream player that's why it can't make heads or tails of that file in the way VLC can. I use Womble MPEG-VCR to convert the *.ts fished off my PVR HDD to legit *.mpg.

[jagabo]

I don't know whether PowerDVD can play transport streams or not. But the sample that was uploaded was a program stream misnamed with .TS instead of .MPG.

[Killer3737]

Ok so is there anything I can do with this file to get it to play anywhere else apart from the directshow stuff?

PDVD can play normal MPEG2 transport streams yes, I do it all the time.

[jagabo]

Ok so is there anything I can do with this file to get it to play anywhere else apart from the directshow stuff?

You can recompress it with 4:2:0 chroma subsampling. But you'll still need an MPEG 2 decoder that can read the 4:2:2 chroma source correctly. And you'll lose quality from recompressing.

[Killer3737]

Ok, guess I'll just leave it as is and only play it wtih VLC.

How do you think that has happened though? You say it is very rare for a TV broadcast to be like that, and a friend of mine has just given me a capture of the exact same broadcast he got and it's 4:2:0 and so obviously plays in PowerDVD just fine. Has the person who capped it messed up something do you think?

[[_chef_]]

The problem is the 4:2:2 chroma subsampling. Not many MPEG 2 decoders can handle 4:2:2 chroma and I rarely see MPEG 2 video that uses it (normally they use 4:2:0). As poisondeathray points out, ffdshow works. And you already know VLC's internal MPEG 2 decoder works.

Exactly. That's why VLC is so popular - someone said that already.
Elecard and nero codecs also can show 4.2.2 content.

The person who made that recording was using a feed, no regularly TV station stream!!!