TV's "elapsed/total time" display is erratic

[richardh]

Hi there.

I'm sending transcoded .mpg media to my DLNA Samsung TV (UA46B7100), and have noticed something a bit strange with the playing time - the one shown on the TV's INFO display during playback.

Sometimes it shows the "elapsed" and "total" time display, and sometimes the display is absent (blank). I haven't yet identified any pattern to it - if I repeatedly select and play the same file, the "time" fields may or may not appear on the TV. I have noticed that without the time display, there's no ability to pause during playback... so I guess it's more than just cosmetic!

Furthermore, when the time display is present, the elapsed time itself is running very, very slowly. By the end of a 90 minute .mpg movie file, the elapsed time has barely recorded 5 minutes.


I'm transcoding to MPEGTS, having removed "mpg" from the native supported types to force transcoding. If I switch back to direct "mpg" to TV without transcoding, the time display works 100% normally... but the amazing Samsung 1GB file-size limit for .mpg stops play around the 20 minute mark.


Please let me know how we can go about investigating the erratic time display...

Thanks very much!


Rich

[tyler78]

Mine too.

[gvr]

same here with a WMV file, elapsed time start over again when the movie is almost at its end.

[connstellation]

Ive had a similar problem with the new samsung TVs, they play mkv fine (no FW/RW which is a bummer) however the transcoding is shot and the elapsed/total time is as you said. However my biggest problem is that my whole collection is in mkv, mostly, and my movies like to bug out right on (or within 30 seconds of it) the 23 minute mark. The video still plays same quality (about 2000kbps per video encoded in 264) however the audio likes to snow out as if it's corrupted, although it certainly is not.

Anyone have ideas? I would say it was a network problem (going over a strong lan wireless connection) however the video, which is significantly larger than the audio has no problem sustaining. (and of course I do not have the ability to FW/RW to test scenarios conveniently)

Anyone run into a similar problem? any ideas?

[richardh]

Ive had a similar problem with the new samsung TVs, they play mkv fine (no FW/RW which is a bummer) however the transcoding is shot and the elapsed/total time is as you said. However my biggest problem is that my whole collection is in mkv, mostly, and my movies like to bug out right on (or within 30 seconds of it) the 23 minute mark. The video still plays same quality (about 2000kbps per video encoded in 264) however the audio likes to snow out as if it's corrupted, although it certainly is not.

Anyone have ideas? I would say it was a network problem (going over a strong lan wireless connection) however the video, which is significantly larger than the audio has no problem sustaining. (and of course I do not have the ability to FW/RW to test scenarios conveniently)

Anyone run into a similar problem? any ideas?

My .mpg videos stopped dead at around 21-23 minutes. After reading some other posts about it, I came to understand it was a 1GB limit in the Samsung TV's player. But could such a thing have any relevance to your problem of the audio failing at the 23-minute mark? Perhaps do some calculations with the overall time and file size, and see if 23 minutes is the magic 1GB mark (give or take). It could be a clue of some kind...

Good luck with it!

Rich

[connstellation]

I've considered it however, most of my 2h-3hour movies come out to about 2-3gb. and on

So far the two movies I have tried Star Trek (2009) 720p 23.976fps video @ 2500kbps and aac audio @160kbps is a 2.19gb file, sound snowed out at about 23minutes into it (a little later), but always at the same spot (3 times now)

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (2009) 720p 23.976fps @ 2500kbps and aac audio @ 160kbps, also a 2.19 gb file froze at about 23 minutes.
both encoded h.264, mkv container, etc etc
It's just the sound that dies and whines, the video is fine.

(yeah, their file sizes are identical, although the total movie time is a 30 minute difference) so 2.19gb might be a funky number Both movies funk up at @ about 23 minutes comes out to about 350mb of playback. I do not have a problem playing xvid encodes (quality being significantly lower, however file sizes being between 340-350mb total, 40 minute long clips, maybe an extra mb or two could kill it? who knows)
the samsung looks more xvid friendly. It also allows rw/fw for xvid encodes however, I haven't tried larger files yet. Could it just be the MKV container killing it you think? My reasoning is solely based on the inability to RW/FW which leads me to think it can't properly read the file. Of course, it's unreasonable reasoning it's just my speculation. I'll try the movies with an xvid format similar specs. I will also try smaller mkv encodes.