Some .rec files do not play

[mr-b]

Hi

Some of the .rec files produced by my Topfield TF5800 PVR will not play (no video or audio and the progress bar does not move) in VLC 1.1.11. They play fine in mplayer.
I tried the latest nightly build 1.2.0-pre1-20111110-0303 Twoflower with no success.
(These files also won't play in XBMC 10.1 and that forum advised me to try an XBMC nightly with a new version of ffmpeg and this worked. They also mentioned that VLC uses ffmpeg and so this might explain the VLC problem).

Debug messages output @ http://pastebin.com/UjD1Dk6L.

Any ideas?

[VLC_help]

Did you try FFmpeg demuxer option in VLC?
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=78404&p=317142&hil ... eg#p317162

[mr-b]

I tried that but VLC just reports:

"VLC can't recognize the input's format:
The format of 'file:///M:/test.rec' cannot be detected. Have a look at the log for details"

Messages (verbosity 1) says:
main error: no suitable demux module for `file/avcodec://M:\test.rec'

However this happens for known working .rec files too.
If I reset the Demux module to to Default then it returns to playing the known working .rec files fine.

[VLC_help]

Does tool called Mediainfo identify those problematic .rec files?

[mr-b]

Yup it id's them as:

Code: Select all

General ID : 4101 (0x1005) Complete name : M:\test VLC not OK.rec Format : MPEG-TS File size : 1.60 GiB Duration : 1h 7mn Overall bit rate : 3 403 Kbps Video ID : 620 (0x26C) Menu ID : 4351 (0x10FF) Format : MPEG Video Format version : Version 2 Format profile : Main@Main Format settings, BVOP : Yes Format settings, Matrix : Custom Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=36 Codec ID : 2 Duration : 1h 7mn Bit rate mode : Variable Bit rate : 2 976 Kbps Maximum bit rate : 15.0 Mbps Width : 720 pixels Height : 576 pixels Display aspect ratio : 16:9 Active Format Description : Letterbox 16:9 image, with alternative 14:9 center Active Format Description, Muxin : A/53 Frame rate : 25.000 fps Standard : PAL Color space : YUV Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 Bit depth : 8 bits Scan type : Interlaced Scan order : Top Field First Compression mode : Lossy Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.287 Stream size : 1.40 GiB (87%) Audio ID : 621 (0x26D) Menu ID : 4351 (0x10FF) Format : MPEG Audio Format version : Version 1 Format profile : Layer 2 Codec ID : 3 Duration : 1h 7mn Bit rate mode : Constant Bit rate : 256 Kbps Channel(s) : 2 channels Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz Compression mode : Lossy Delay relative to video : -586ms Stream size : 123 MiB (8%) Language : English Text ID : 623 (0x26F) Menu ID : 4351 (0x10FF) Format : DVB Subtitle Codec ID : 6 Duration : 1h 7mn Delay relative to video : 4s 296ms Language : English Menu ID : 4351 (0x10FF) Menu ID : 4351 (0x10FF) Duration : 1h 7mn List : 620 (0x26C) (MPEG Video) / 621 (0x26D) (MPEG Audio, English) / 623 (0x26F) (DVB Subtitle, English) Language : / English / English

Also as before, mplayer plays the problematic files OK.

[VLC_help]

Sorry, I missed the subtitle line the log on first check. You have to remove W:\Toppy\World's Strictest Parents 2011\The Worlds Strictest Parents_110821 not VLC_fixed_problem.txt from that folder. There is a bug in current VLC releases, that will cause stopping issue if you try to playback external subtitle file with TS/M2TS input.

[mr-b]

Gah, that wasn't a subtitle file so no idea why it was detected as such. Anyway here's the new log after I moved the problem .rec file into it's own folder:
http://pastebin.com/NGZpwmV0

[VLC_help]

It seems VLC doesn't find the packets after first ones. Only thing that helps for sure is ProjectX demux and then remux with proper tool, but that is quite nasty if every DVB recording does that.

[mr-b]

The problem with reencoding is that you can lose subtitles, not to mention that it's a pain, especially when mplayer and a later build of XBMC with a later FFMPEG) seem to cope OK with it.

What next?

[VLC_help]

You don't lose subtitles with ProjectX, you can demux them and add them back when you remux.

[mr-b]

That all sounds like a heap of work and too time-consuming - it's far easier for me to use mplayer instead of VLC ...
Can't there be a bug filed for VLC?

[VLC_help]

I can open a ticket for this if you share us one sample file that doesn't play in VLC.

[mr-b]

Tx - here's a 10MB sample http://www.multiupload.com/5IRAZQFIG1.

[VLC_help]

Weekend tag added.

[VLC_help]

http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/4274 I would guess the issue is the same.