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DLNA to Panasonic Viera: "Cannot read file"

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    J128

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    Has anybody managed successfully to get a Foxsat HDR to DLNA to a Panasonic Viera?

    I'm getting a "Cannot read file" from the TV, which I think probably means the file needs to be transcoded to a very slightly different format.

    The TV is a Panasonic TX-L37D28BWA, which is a 2010 Freesat HD model (bought end-of-line in 2011). It is connected with a BT HomeHub and the Foxsat using HomePlugs.

    The Foxsat HDR is running the current version (4.0.7) of the custom firmware. I have been trying both the Twonky package (4.4.18) and MediaTomb (0.11.0), though mostly Twonky as this seems to show up in the Panasonic's "Media Server" list more reliably -- at least it usually seems to, at least after a couple of minutes or so; whereas MediaTomb seems to just stop running quite often.

    With Twonky, when the Panasonic can see the server, I seem to get the media list through all right. All videos, whether HD or SD, are identified as MPEG2-PS; though it thinks the HD recordings are all of length 596:31:23. The SD files appear to be the correct duration; but after a pause of about 30 seconds for buffering, up comes a message "Cannot read file".

    The TV can run Freesat iplayer all right, so I don't think there can be a bandwidth or network problem. And if I download one of the .ts files a pc, it seems to run fine, so there doesn't seem to be any file corruption problem.

    I've had difficulties getting the TV (or indeed anything on the network) to share media from the pc, but I have managed it a couple of times, and the TV was able to then able to play a couple of the short sample videos that came with Win 7, though not any of the .ts files I'd copied over.

    I'm thinking that the Viera must be being very fussy about the stream resolution and/or packaging; and may need some transcoding done, to a greater or lesser degree. I suspect Twonky is capable of this, but I'm not sure how to go about it. So I thought I'd ask whether anyone has had any luck in the past with this sort of problem, and can give any advice as to getting round it?

    | Sun 1 Jul 2012 19:28:38 #1 |
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    J128

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    Just to add a little bit more:

    Reading around, it seems the problem may be that there are too many streams included in the Humax .ts file. The Panasonic may expect just a video stream and an audio stream, but the Humax .ts also includes a described audio stream, a teletext stream, and a subtitles stream.

    Experimenting with ffmpeg to repackage a 5 minute test file saved on my PC, I tried the following:


    ffmpeg -i Test_20100426_0820.ts -acodec copy -vcodec copy Test_MPG.mpg

    ffmpeg -i Test_20100426_0820.ts -acodec copy -vcodec copy Test_TS.ts

    ffmpeg -i Test_20100426_0820.ts -acodec copy -vcodec copy Test_AVI.avi

    This gives three files, packaged in different ways, of different sizes.

    When I try to share these to the TV from my PC or from my Asus tablet, the .mpg gives the same long "Please wait" and then "Cannot read file" as before.

    The .ts file plays properly, and comes up quickly on the preview screen; but the TV seems not to read its duration, which makes fast-forward a bit haphazard.

    The .avi gives an error "File not supported". The Panasonic can play AVI files off the computer, but it seems only if they are MP4/Xvid/Divx compressed.

    (This last is in line with what the 2010 Panasonics claim to support, as summarised here, also with information for the 2009 range).

    Strangely, the TV knows how long the AVI file should be, but not the MPG -- if they are served from the Asus. But from the PC it's the other way round: then it knows how long the MPG is, but not the AVI. So this seems to depend on what the software running on the server can recognise, rather than the TV.

    Similar problems seem to have been had with Samsung TVs (and overcome) -- for example, in this DigitalSpy thread, Wakelest seems to have got something to work. There too he appears to have initially had problems with the video duration, but seems to have overcome them.

    | Mon 2 Jul 2012 16:22:05 #2 |
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    J128

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    Here's also a recent thread in the HDR-FOX T2 forum that might be relevant, in its case adapting Humax .ts files offline into a format that both the FOX T2 and a Panasonic could read:

    DLNA to smart TVs

    | Tue 3 Jul 2012 1:06:23 #3 |
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    J128

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    This download-modify-reupload approach is also used by Raydon himself, the creator of the media & fileserver bundle, to get Foxsat HDR .ts files to DLNA to a Samsung tv:

    Stream TS files to a TV from FoxSat (post #5)

    Wakelest also gives more information (post #9) about the fast-forwarding issues he had: apparently the Samsung is fine with AC3 audio streams, but doesn't like mp2 audio streams in TS files.

    From threads elsewhere, it seems that the Humax box is thought not to have sufficient processing power for any full transcoding -- but I haven't found reports yet on any attempts just at TS -> TS remultiplexing; which should be a lot less to cope with; and should be at least requestable in the MediaTomb config.xml file with ffmpeg.

    http://www.hummypkg.org.uk/foxsat/ appears not to have a readymade ffmpeg package for the FoxSat HDR yet, just for the Fox T2. But people seem to have successfully build ffmpeg for the FoxSat in the past

    | Tue 3 Jul 2012 23:50:50 #4 |
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    J128

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    AdrianF36 has looked at getting MediaTomb to do some limited transcoding, to get Humax files to stream onto a Sony Bravia -- apparently with some success, but pause / rewind / fast forward didn't work:

    Sony Bravia DLNA access using the Media & File Server Bundle for the Foxsat HDR (Post #29, 24 April 2012)

    | Wed 4 Jul 2012 11:49:29 #5 |

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