Unable to transcode podcasts

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RichJ
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 8:19 pm

Unable to transcode podcasts

Post by RichJ »

Hi
I'm having trouble transcoding streams from the Internet.
I have WMS set up and can view movies stored on my PC, on my Sony Bravia TV fine - it transcodes these without issue.
I have set up several podcasts, and can list/update these fine in WMS and on the TV. However when I come to play these, they do not work. As an example, I just did a "test transcoding" on a BBC iplayer stream, the output was:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Wild Media Server\wmsmpeg.exe" -probesize 7000000 -analyzeduration 5000000 -i "http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... 0_12_2010/" -f dvd -vcodec mpeg2video -b 8000000 -aspect 16:9 -copyts -pix_fmt yuv420p -threads 2 -acodec ac3 -ab 448000 -ar 48000 "C:\tmp\Transcode\WmsTemp\Test_4a4f88879c7b7ba6a69e9abfb143a4a6.mpg" -v -1 -loglevel quiet

FFmpeg version SVN-r25702, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 the FFmpeg developers built on Nov 24 2010 13:41:21 with gcc 4.5.0
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... 0_12_2010/: Invalid data found when processing input

As you can probably tell, transcoding profile currently set to "movies (primary)", but I have tried several others with different errors.
If I change profile to "Movies - VLC - FFMPEG", the output is:

[004ff4a4] dummy interface: VLC media player - 1.1.5 The Luggage
[004ff4a4] dummy interface: Copyright © 1996-2010 the VideoLAN team
[004ff4a4] dummy interface: Warning: if you can't access the GUI anymore, open a command-line window, go to the directory where you installed VLC and run "vlc -I qt"

[004ff4a4] dummy interface: using the dummy interface module...
[004fd5b4] filesystem access error: failed to read (Specified event object handle is invalid)
[004c3f7c] main input error: open of `fd://0' failed: (null)
[004c3f7c] main input error: Your input can't be opened
[004c3f7c] main input error: VLC is unable to open the MRL 'fd://0'. Check the log for details.

Have tried various suggestions from threads on the forum, including resetting profiles back to default. I have installed VLC but can't find a way to test that this is installed/configured correctly to transcode/display internet content.

Any tips gratefully received... which profile should I be using? Steps to debug? Is there any documentation I can read too?
Thanks
Eugene
Posts: 2940
Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2009 8:05 pm

Re: Unable to transcode podcasts

Post by Eugene »

Hi
RichJ wrote: I'm having trouble transcoding streams from the Internet.
I have WMS set up and can view movies stored on my PC, on my Sony Bravia TV fine - it transcodes these without issue.
I have set up several podcasts, and can list/update these fine in WMS and on the TV. However when I come to play these, they do not work. As an example, I just did a "test transcoding" on a BBC iplayer stream, the output was:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Wild Media Server\wmsmpeg.exe" -probesize 7000000 -analyzeduration 5000000 -i "http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... 0_12_2010/" -f dvd -vcodec mpeg2video -b 8000000 -aspect 16:9 -copyts -pix_fmt yuv420p -threads 2 -acodec ac3 -ab 448000 -ar 48000 "C:\tmp\Transcode\WmsTemp\Test_4a4f88879c7b7ba6a69e9abfb143a4a6.mpg" -v -1 -loglevel quiet

FFmpeg version SVN-r25702, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 the FFmpeg developers built on Nov 24 2010 13:41:21 with gcc 4.5.0
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... 0_12_2010/: Invalid data found when processing input

As you can probably tell, transcoding profile currently set to "movies (primary)", but I have tried several others with different errors.
If I change profile to "Movies - VLC - FFMPEG", the output is:

[004ff4a4] dummy interface: VLC media player - 1.1.5 The Luggage
[004ff4a4] dummy interface: Copyright © 1996-2010 the VideoLAN team
[004ff4a4] dummy interface: Warning: if you can't access the GUI anymore, open a command-line window, go to the directory where you installed VLC and run "vlc -I qt"

[004ff4a4] dummy interface: using the dummy interface module...
[004fd5b4] filesystem access error: failed to read (Specified event object handle is invalid)
[004c3f7c] main input error: open of `fd://0' failed: (null)
[004c3f7c] main input error: Your input can't be opened
[004c3f7c] main input error: VLC is unable to open the MRL 'fd://0'. Check the log for details.

Have tried various suggestions from threads on the forum, including resetting profiles back to default. I have installed VLC but can't find a way to test that this is installed/configured correctly to transcode/display internet content.

Any tips gratefully received... which profile should I be using? Steps to debug? Is there any documentation I can read too?
Thanks
Podcast folder "BBC iPlayer", link http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... 0_12_2010/, Test transcoding, no problems. Have you checked playback in Internet Explorer ?
RichJ
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 8:19 pm

Re: Unable to transcode podcasts

Post by RichJ »

Hi
Yes, if I view that link in Internet Explorer, the video displays absolutely fine.
Eugene
Posts: 2940
Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2009 8:05 pm

Re: Unable to transcode podcasts

Post by Eugene »

RichJ
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 8:19 pm

Re: Unable to transcode podcasts

Post by RichJ »

I was... but I'd obviously messed it up as I've just deleted the folder and re-loaded it from that zip file and it now works! Great - Thanks!

That's a good step forward, but I am still unable to view content from several other sites:
National Geographic - Content appears in list, but no videos there - have tried links in browser and pages load but no video.
BeatlesTube - content appears in list, but transcode test shows "No such file or directory" error - however link works ok in browser.
4od/You Tube - a lot of the content requires confirmation of being over 18 - can this be automated?
MTV - lists all appear OK but content will not load - when trying in Browser a message appears suggesting redirecting to mtv.co.uk - do I need a UK version of the podcast?

I was also having problems with these, but have got them working so thought I would post the solution!
ITV Player - no content appears in the "List [Movies]" pane - the titles are shown in the folders pane on left but not as episodes?
Discovery - as ITV Player, all content appears in the "Folders" pane, but nothing in the "List" pane.
For both of these, I deleted the folder, shut down/restarted the software. Added the Podcast again (Load from File), Create Podcast Feeds, Update Podcasts. I had tried create/update before, but found it only worked on a clean restart, without attempting to use anything before completing these steps.

I've also found that if I "update podcasts" from my TV (Sony Bravia), the TV loses connection and I have to restart the server.

Really pleased with the software now I have a few podcasts working - hope I can get some more!
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