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pytivo mkv push problem

Discussion in 'TiVo Home Media Features & TiVoToGo' started by oneguido, Apr 15, 2011.

  1. Apr 15, 2011 #1 of 6
    oneguido

    oneguido New Member

    33
    0
    Sep 12, 2006
    Hello,

    I've all of a sudden been having issues pushing certain mkv files to my tivo's. All has been great up until recently and it is only a select few of the mkv files I have (Most transfer perfectly fine). The problem mkv's all appear to be AC3 audio but they don't play properly in Windows Media Player either. The Video is fine, but the audio makes a flickering noise from start to end. The same files plays fine in VLC and Windows Media Center, but will only push a portion to the tivo. It appears that I can pull it to the tivo just fine as well, but I want to push it to a specific folder.

    I've updated to the latest version of pytivo, checked and have 1.02 ffmpeg, and don't really know what else to look for.

    Please help, thanks in advance.
     
  2. Apr 16, 2011 #2 of 6
    Rdian06

    Rdian06 New Member

    463
    0
    Apr 12, 2008
    wmcbrine recently updated pyTivo to remux (aka changing container format) h264 video and ac3 audio to mp4 format for pushing. Previously, pyTivo was transcoding (converting the video codec) to mpeg2 video and ac3 audio in vob format for push. Pull still uses the transcode method because pull does not support mp4 (as far as we can figure out.)

    So if your problems started when you updated pyTivo, this might explain why. If you updated pyTivo only after noticing the problem, then I'd imagine something in your mkvs are different and might be tickling some issues in my old ffmpeg builds. You might try switching to the mainstream ffmpeg for Windows compiles at:

    http://hawkeye.arrozcru.org/

    However, the new ffmpeg's my have slight changes to the messages pyTivo parses, so you may have to stay on wmcbrine's latest code to use them.
     
  3. Apr 18, 2011 #3 of 6
    oneguido

    oneguido New Member

    33
    0
    Sep 12, 2006
    Thanks for your reply. It's the strangest thing, I've been able to see everything fine for a while with about a 6 month old version of pytivo. I only updated because I began having problems (weird noise mentioned above). I'm now convinced it's something else. I've uninstalled Windows Media Player and reinstalled it, still doesn't play sound correctly. I think it has to be related and besides I would like it to play right on my computer. The only thing I can think of is that I did a system restore a few weeks back and maybe that screwed something up.

    Once again the pull seems to work completely fine, I tested it again yesterday. But the push gets stuck with certain files. It appears like these newer mkv files are encoded differently, but I know they aren't.

    I haven't attempted to update to the newer ffmpeg builds you mentioned. I'm uninstalling and reinstalling Divx codecs and will see if that helps.

    Any other thoughts?

    Thanks
     
  4. May 23, 2011 #4 of 6
    wluk

    wluk New Member

    28
    0
    Jun 10, 2008
    great info.

    I was too having problems pushing mkv which I didn't have problems before. The push would stop after a few minutes ending up a "partial push" on my tivo.

    Now I loaded the 2010-10-31 build which is the version I used before I upgraded to the latest 2010-4-7. I am able to push mkv again.

    http://repo.or.cz/w/pyTivo/wmcbrine.git

    Thanks
     
  5. May 23, 2011 #5 of 6
    Dan203

    Dan203 Super Moderator Staff Member TCF Club

    50,622
    5,894
    Apr 17, 2000
    Nevada
    If you're actually interested in adding H.264 support to pull you should look at the TS format. In New Zeland they broadcast programs in H.264 and when you transfer them to a PC they use the TiVo-TS format. I ran some tests a while back and I was able to decrypt an H.264 TiVo-TS file from a NZ user and then pull it back to my US Premiere unit without recoding. However a TS file I created myself would not transfer. I tried to compare the two files and the onl difference I saw was a special packet in the TiVo-TS file which I assumed was only for decrypting, but must also be something the TiVo expects in pull mode. I then got side tracked by something else and never put any more work into it. If someone could figure out how to create a TS file from scratch that TiVo will accept as a TiVo-TS transfer then they may be able to add the ability to pull H.264 to Premiere units.

    Dan
     
  6. May 23, 2011 #6 of 6
    Rdian06

    Rdian06 New Member

    463
    0
    Apr 12, 2008
    wmcbrine has been looking for a way to pull h264 TS files ever since the NZ units were released. I don't know how much progress he's made, but he's definitely more versed in the parts of pyTivo that need to be modified to make this happen. I don't remember him ever mentioning finding that special packet you did. Maybe PM him and offer up the sample file plus info you discovered. I'm sure he'd figure it out in short order.

    Unfortunately, life has been keeping me busy with no time to work on hobbies.
     

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