VLC 0.8.6d cannot play Silu (=HDDVD/BluRay) .ts files!

[g00ey]

The characteristics of the videofile is:
HD-DVD.REMUX.VC-1.1080p.DDplus.DD51.Fanxy@Silu

GSpot identifies it as an MPEG-2 Transport Stream but crashes when analysing it due to a faulty codec:
C:\Program\Cyberlink\PowerDVD\NavFilter\CLDemuxer.ax

MPlayer 1.0rc2-4.2.1 plays it with picture but no sound returning the error messages:

Too many video packets in the buffer: (7 in nnnnnnnn bytes).
Maybe you are playing a non-interleaved stream/file or the codec failed?
For AVI files, try to force non-interleaved mode with the -ni option.
a52: error at resampling

Here's the data it returns upon initialization

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MPlayer 1.0rc2-4.2.1 (C) 2000-2007 MPlayer Team CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz (Family: 15, Model: 4, Stepping: 1) CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1 Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX MMX2 SSE SSE2 Playing Serenity.HD-DVD.REMUX.VC-1.1080P.DDplus.DD51.Fanxy@Silu.disk1.ts. TS file format detected. VIDEO VC1(pid=4129) AUDIO A52(pid=4134) NO SUBS (yet)! PROGRAM N. 1 Searching for VC1 sequence header... found VIDEO: VC-1 1920x1080, 29.970 fps, header len: 33 ========================================================================== Opening video decoder: [dmo] DMO video codecs IMediaObject ERROR: 00E77130 could not open DMO DLL (0x0 : 0) Failed to create DMO filter ERROR: Could not open required DirectShow codec wvc1dmod.dll. You need to upgrade/install the binary codecs package. Go to http://www.mplayerhq.hu/dload.html VDecoder init failed :( Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family Selected video codec: [ffvc1] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg M$ WVC1) ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Opening audio decoder: [liba52] AC3 decoding with liba52 Using SSE optimized IMDCT transform a52: CRC check failed! Using MMX optimized resampler AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 448.0 kbit/31.75% (ratio: 56000->176400) Selected audio codec: [a52] afm: liba52 (AC3-liba52) ========================================================================== AO: [dsound] 44100Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample) Starting playback... a52: error at resampling a52: CRC check failed! a52: error at resampling VDec: vo config request - 1920 x 1080 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12) VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0) Movie-Aspect is 1.78:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect. VO: [directx] 1920x1080 => 1920x1080 Planar YV12 a52: CRC check failed! a52: error at resampling a52: CRC check failed! a52: error at resampling a52: CRC check failed! a52: error at resampling a52: CRC check failed! a52: error at resampling ...

VLC media player can only identify 3 audio streams (type a52) and no video.
The error log shows repeatedly during playback:

libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS duplicate (received 0, expected 1) for PID 0
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS duplicate (received 0, expected 1) for PID 256

This file plays flawlessly on Cyberlink PowerDVD 7.3 but on no other player and I have the K-Lite codec pack installed.

At least it should play properly on VLC but it doesn't, what's the problem?

EDIT: Same goes with the latest nightly build (0.9.0-svn-20080109win32); It says it cannot play WVC1 files. What kind of a format is this anyway ???

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

File broken.

[g00ey]

The file is not broken since it plays flawlessly on Cyberlink PowerDVD 7.3!
mPlayer plays it with accurate picture and sound (usind PID 4133, see next post below). A codec based media player such as Gabest Media Player Classic plays it with accurate sound but no picture.
Moreover, Quickpar hash verifications clearly indicate that the files are in their original state.

So both of the streams in the file are intact and fully working, thus the inability of playing it can only be due to flaws in the media players (or their codecs) and not because of a fault in the file itself.

This is not a problem specific to this file, but all Fanxy@Silu files out there.

[g00ey]

I read on the Silu website that Chinese characters in the description strings have a tendency to corrupt some of the media players (However, I don't think this has caused any problems here ...). Moreover they say that all the content in the Silu .ts files is left untouched, i.e. the streams are ripped directly from HD-DVD/BluRay disks without any modification or transcoding whatsoever.

Maybe BluRay and HD-DVD are still new formats and therefore don't have full support in Windows (or at least not with DirectX9c which I have installed on my system). It's quite obvious that BluRay/HD-DVD support for mplayer is merely under development for MPlayer whereas VLC currently seem to have no support for it at all.

To get into more detail about it: The .ts file has probably been ripped from an HDDVD disc using DumpHD and remuxed using a remuxer such as TsRemux. It has 5 streams (4 Elementary Streams (ES) and one Program Clock Reference Stream (PCR)):

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1 Video (VC1 1080p) - PID: 0x1021 (4129) 3 Audio - PID: 0x1025 (4133), 0x1026 (4134), 0x102D (4141) 1 PCR - PID 0x1001 (257) (Found using TSReader Lite) Program Association Table (PAT) PID = 0x0000 (0) Program Map Table (PMT) PID = 0x0100 (256) Audio Stream Formats PID 4133 = English Dolby Digital 5.1 448 kpbs PID 4134 = English Dolby Digital Plus ?.? ??? kbps PID 4141 = Chinese Dub AC3-Stereo 384kbps

It seems like the .ts file is properly demuxed but the players are unable to decode the streams properly. Most players doesn't seem to identify the PCM stream. I have now managed to make MPLayer to play it properly although the playback is a little more jerky and the hue/saturation of the colours are not as well tuned as on Cyberlinks PowerDVD 7.3. Here's what I did:

To get the video working:
First of all I restricted all access to the wvc1dmo* files, both in the codecs dir of mplayer and in the system32 dir of Windows. They simply just don't work on my system. That course of action forces mplayer to use the better working ffmpeg decoder which can decode the video stream using ffvc1.

To get the audio working:
By default MPLayer choses to play the audio stream with the PID4134 which it seems to be unable to decode. MPlayer appears to currently have no support for Dolby Digital Plus (However, a decoder is in development for the FFmpeg project. So maybe ffdshow will have a working decoder in the near future). By forcing it to use the stream with PID4133 for audio the problem is resolved.

On the Command Prompt the solution looks like this:

C:\> mplayer.exe -aid 4133 Serenity.HD-DVD.REMUX.VC-1.1080P.DDplus.DD51.Fanxy@Silu.disk1.ts

and it plays with no error messages (except for the ones generated due to disabling the windows VC1 crap):

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MPlayer 1.0rc2-4.2.1 (C) 2000-2007 MPlayer Team CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz (Family: 15, Model: 4, Stepping: 1) CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1 Compiled with runtime CPU detection. Playing Serenity.HD-DVD.REMUX.VC-1.1080P.DDplus.DD51.Fanxy@Silu.disk1.ts. TS file format detected. VIDEO VC1(pid=4129) AUDIO A52(pid=4133) NO SUBS (yet)! PROGRAM N. 1 Searching for VC1 sequence header... found VIDEO: VC-1 1920x1080, 29.970 fps, header len: 33 ========================================================================== Opening video decoder: [dmo] DMO video codecs IMediaObject ERROR: 00EC5260 could not open DMO DLL (0x0 : 0) Failed to create DMO filter ERROR: Could not open required DirectShow codec wvc1dmod.dll. (Thank GOD for that!) You need to upgrade/install the binary codecs package. Go to http://www.mplayerhq.hu/dload.html (I don't think so ...) VDecoder init failed :( (no sh1t!) Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family Selected video codec: [ffvc1] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg M$ WVC1) ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Opening audio decoder: [liba52] AC3 decoding with liba52 Using SSE optimized IMDCT transform Using MMX optimized resampler AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 448.0 kbit/29.17% (ratio: 56000->192000) Selected audio codec: [a52] afm: liba52 (AC3-liba52) ========================================================================== AO: [dsound] 48000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample) Starting playback... Error while decoding frame! VDec: vo config request - 1920 x 1080 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12) VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0) Movie-Aspect is 1.78:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect. VO: [directx] 1920x1080 => 1920x1080 Planar YV12 Exiting... (Quit)

So the score is 1-0.00000 to MPlayer vs. VLC
After playing it for a while I get the following error messages even though it continues to play fine:

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... VO: [directx] 1920x1080 => 1920x1080 Planar YV12 ************************************************ **** Your system is too SLOW to play this! **** ************************************************ Possible reasons, problems, workarounds: - Most common: broken/buggy _audio_ driver - Try -ao sdl or use the OSS emulation of ALSA. - Experiment with different values for -autosync, 30 is a good start. - Slow video output - Try a different -vo driver (-vo help for a list) or try -framedrop! - Slow CPU - Don't try to play a big DVD/DivX on a slow CPU! Try some of the lavdopts, e.g. -vfm ffmpeg -lavdopts lowres=1:fast:skiploopfilter=all. - Broken file - Try various combinations of -nobps -ni -forceidx -mc 0. - Slow media (NFS/SMB mounts, DVD, VCD etc) - Try -cache 8192. - Are you using -cache to play a non-interleaved AVI file? - Try -nocache. Read DOCS/HTML/en/video.html for tuning/speedup tips. If none of this helps you, read DOCS/HTML/en/bugreports.html. Too many video packets in the buffer: (7 in 8636679 bytes). Maybe you are playing a non-interleaved stream/file or the codec failed? For AVI files, try to force non-interleaved mode with the -ni option. Too many video packets in the buffer: (7 in 8636679 bytes). Maybe you are playing a non-interleaved stream/file or the codec failed? For AVI files, try to force non-interleaved mode with the -ni option. Too many video packets in the buffer: (7 in 8705674 bytes). Maybe you are playing a non-interleaved stream/file or the codec failed? For AVI files, try to force non-interleaved mode with the -ni option. Too many video packets in the buffer: (7 in 8705674 bytes). Maybe you are playing a non-interleaved stream/file or the codec failed? For AVI files, try to force non-interleaved mode with the -ni option. Too many video packets in the buffer: (7 in 8705674 bytes). Maybe you are playing a non-interleaved stream/file or the codec failed? For AVI files, try to force non-interleaved mode with the -ni option. ...

My computer seems to be too slow to play this file ...

Conclusion
The latest build of VLC seems to be able to identify all elementary streams properly although I cannot see the PIDS. When trying to play it runs into the same problem as MPlayer; it is trying to use the malfunctioning Windows VC1 DMO codec, but unlike MPlayer it doesn't offer the option of using the ffmpeg VC1 decoder instead. None of these players currently have support for DDPlus even though rumour has it that the Sonic codec supports it and ffmpeg is developing support for it. Cyberlink officially supports DDPlus through PowerDVD 7.3 and later...

[VLC_help]

Please don't paste information here about illegal downloads or problems with them. And don't put HD DVD material to TS container because that pulldown stuff causes issues to Blu-ray players (and people always forgot to remove it). DDPlus specs aren't open or free and that is why there aren't free decoders for it yet.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Have you tried to use latest VLC with the --codec dmo switch ?

[g00ey]

No, it still doesn't work, i.e. the --codec dmo option does not enforce VLC to use ffmpeg's VC1 codec.

If ripping HDDVD to .ts was such a bad idea, we wouldn't have a billion asians doing it, would we?
They are technologically far more developed than we are and technologies such as 1080p, and 100Mb symmetric internet connections are standards in those countries.
In almost every mid-class asian home you'll find a HDTV capable DVB reciever with a large built-in harddrive, which is also connected to a broadband internet connection. This box plays and captures video into .ts files by standard.
With that setting it is very convenient to rip HDDVD/BluRay movies to .ts and put them into the box for playback or download them directly from commercial VideoOnDemand sites such as Silu. I cannot see anything illegal about it.

[VLC_help]

Movie Serenity is protected by copyright laws. Second I am quite sure most DVB boxes don't handle VC-1 video inside transport stream, because nobody broadcasts VC-1. Only MPEG-2 or H.264. And also Blu-ray and HD DVD bitrates might be too high for average HDTV box. Also subtitle and menus won't work with those boxes and I am quite sure they don't handle Dolby Digital Plus audio either.

Blu-ray players with BDAV are better choise, but they aren't common outside Japan (in Asia).

[g00ey]

Besides Sony, Pioneer, LG and Samsung there are at least another 150 brands unkown to mankind in the western countries. And I'm quite sure that at least a few of them have a line of DVB-receivers/Media Centers (or whatever you want to call them) that are capable of doing all of the above. PowerDVD 7.3 and later versions supporting it is evidence enough for me. Cyberlink is a commercial company and I don't think it is a coincidence that their software have support for it, nor is it their intention to support a small group of crooked movie downloaders either

VLC has a reputation of being able to play anything you throw at it. Somehow I've never found that reputation to be justified, especially when I found it's weaker than PowerDVD when it comes to HiDef. It does not support the above mentioned formats and I just want to help out, hopefully making it earn its reputation in the future.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

VLC reads a lot of files, but doesn't have yet the good support for all the new HD material, since we don't have time and money to buy the specifications (that we couldn't buy anyway because they are not for open source)
In the future, it will have those support.

[g00ey]

Well I wish you good luck with it. Perhaps you should have an HD-specific section on your upload site for troublesome clips.

Evidently most recent builds of the ffmpeg's libavcodec suite are quite capable of playing HiDef VC1 streams as I have had success playing them with mplayer. And I think that the issue here is with VLC not properly configured to use these codecs, at least not with .ts files. Perhaps the ffmpeg package incorporated in VLC is dated and/or parts of it is not yet fully implemented with the player.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Yes, the ffmpeg in 0.8.6d is old. In 0.9.0 it is quite new.

In our incoming ftp, you can put any material you wanT.

[g00ey]

... but obviously not yet fully implemented, at least not on build 0.9.0-svn-20080109win32.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

ffmpeg is ffmpeg. not fully implemented ffmpeg doesn't mean anything.

[g00ey]

ffmpeg is a family or package of different codecs. If it were fully implemented, VLC should be able to use all of them which it is obviously not since it is unable to use the ffvc1 (or "FFmpeg M$ WVC1" if you will) codec.

[funman]

it is able:

{ VLC_FOURCC('W','V','C','1'), CODEC_ID_VC1,
VIDEO_ES, "Windows Media Video VC1" },
{ VLC_FOURCC('w','v','c','1'), CODEC_ID_VC1,
VIDEO_ES, "Windows Media Video VC1" },

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Well, funman, VLC can read VC1, but our TS demuxer, can't recognize some VC1 inside the TS container. I have a kind of fix, but I need messages, and samples...

[funman]

and it would be cool to have access to the sources of some of these asian tools (well, not powerdvd i think )

[g00ey]

Well, "{ VLC_FOURCC('W','V','C','1'), CODEC_ID_VC1, VIDEO_ES, "Windows Media Video VC1" }" doesn't say anything about VLC's ability to use the ffvc1 codec. If this was shown during a successful playback, it is most likely that VLC has used the wvc1dmo codec.

Regarding source for TSremuxers you can probably get them from the doom9 forums. TSRemux is originally submitted in these forums. If they don't supply the source (which I believe they would be happy to do) you can get IDA Pro and start digging into Assembly code, it has a good set of plug-in which sort of can "decompile" the assembly code to make it slightly more comprehensive.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Well, VLC can read VC1, but our TS demuxer, can't recognize some VC1 inside the TS container. I have a kind of fix, but I need messages, and samples...

What was unclear in this ? I need messages and samples if you want the support...

[funman]

And I need capable hardware !