Stream TS files to a TV from FoxSat

[GoGas]

Not sure if this this is correct forum – if not apologies anc can somebody suggest a better place to post.
I have upgraded the firmware on the Humax Foxsat box (v4 Bundle - highly recommended) and now wish to stream recorded programmes (realise I cannot do HD as they are encrypted) to Samsung DLNA enabled TV; there is a Windows 7 machine9 (with Windows Media Player [WMP] setup as DLNA Media Server) on the same network.

• The Samsung AllShare module can see files on the FoxSat via Twonky and can play music and photos but not the video “File format not supported”.
• I can open and play the .ts files from FoxSat directly without conversion (locally or via network) in WMP12 running on the Windows 7 machine . However if I choose the WMP12 “Play to Function” and select the Samsung TV (visible on the network) it does not playa and get error. WMP12 is meant to transcode on the fly but is obviously not doing.
• If I play a wmv file I can send it to the TV using the same functionality in WMP12 so streaming does work ( all permissions are set ok)
• If I use FFCoder (recommended) to convert the .ts file ( or group of file) to a MPEG4 format using default settings (H.264 and AAC) I can then play file on Windows 7 WMP12 and stream to the Samsung TV.
• I have tried using VLC media player on Windows 7 machine with great disappointment. In the transcoding it produced MPEG4 format that the sound did not play in WMP12 or the conversion was very blocky and also could not work out how to stream to the TV (it does have reserved IP Address) . In theory VLC should have been able to transcode and stream and it may be that I am using all the wrong settings but did look at what the Samsung should support and tried many of the options but I had no luck and a few crashes. (http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp60/samsung_hd_tech/dddlna.jpg)
• It has been suggested that it may be to transcode and stream in real time with some tools ( ? FFmpeg ) – but this looks command based and from the deveopement site not even sure what platform it runs on.

Has anybody managed to stream ( and transcode) the .ts files directly from FoxSat to Samsung TV (without static intermediate conversion)? I know people have streamed to a PS3 (which does seem to work but presumably sports bigger file format range) Would TVersity be of any help?

Thanks

Paul

 

[logiciel]

Hi, welcome to AVF, and you're fine here in the Freesat sub-forum.
All that technical stuff, just to watch a bit of TV, is too much for me, so I leave it to the enthusiasts to give you all the details.

 

[swedish cook]

...
[*]If I use FFCoder (recommended) to convert the .ts file ( or group of file) to a MPEG4 format using default settings (H.264 and AAC) I can then play file on Windows 7 WMP12 and stream to the Samsung TV.
...

I haven't seen any mention of TVs that are directly compatable with Humax .ts files but seems like you found one way. I'm converting to MP4 using VideoRedo to remove ads and Handbrake to convert, thats pretty typical from what I've seen on here.

There is a thread for devices which people have found to be directly compatable here http://www.avforums.com/forums/freesat/1409117-humax-foxsat-hdr-dlna-upnp-compatible-clients.html .

There are a few cheapish media players that you can attach to your TV to play the .ts directly - I realise thats not ideal but fact is the media support of TVs and BluRay players isn't half as good as a media player (yet).

 

[GoGas]

Thanks. Will look at the tools you suggest. Three points:

1. If I cannot stream directly then it may be worth looking at something that can be scripted on the Windows 7 box (on auto schedule basis) to look at what exists and convert to MPEG4 if it has not already happened.
2. When you say cheap media players any specific ones in mind - the thread refers to PS3.
3. Bizarrely on the Samsung TV when it finds and sees the DLNA media players (WMP12 and AllShare Samsung) on the Windows 7 I can switch between the two but the TV no longer sees the FoxSat. I guess a problem of the Samsung App

Paul

 

[raydon]

If I remux a recording from the Foxsat HDR using tsMuxerGUI and copy the resulting .ts file back to the HDR, I can stream it to my Samsung Smart TV without any problem using TwonkyMedia server. ( you will need to install the custom firmware to use TwonkyMedia ) Better still, if I run the recording through AV2HDR and use the resulting 3 files to replace the originals, I can play it back locally from the HDR, or stream it to my Samsung TV or PC via TwonkyMedia. If you do decide to use AV2HDR then remember to rename the original ts file by removing the date/time extension from the filename as AV2HDR will create new filenames containing current date/time.

 

[GoGas]

Thanks. Already have the custom firmware (really good piece of work) which is how I got involved in all this. Your solution with AV2HDR (something not familiar with) would produce similar result as coding and storing as MP4 on the Windows 7 machine (for TV) , leave the old file on Humax for local viewing.

Ideally what I was looking for was a system to read the Foxsat via SAMBA or DNLA from the Windows 7 machine, transcode and stream without storing the local file. In theory WMP12 may have done this as it can read and play the .ts file and is meant to trancode to format appropriate for destination device I believe as it streams WMP Help says "if it able to play the file generally you can stream it". However does not seem to know it is meant to transcode and see no way of altering that. The Samsung says supports .ts but obviously not all ts and wonder if WMP12 thinks it just supports ts and does not transcode.

I have now tried TVersity as media server and seems to offer nothing - cannot even get the SamsungTV to play a standard .mpg or .wmv file - and not sure it is worth the time to investigate this as does nto play the .ts files.

I have not tried Samsung support as their reputation is poor but may try to encourage them to improve their AllShare and codecs.

 

[kevkbuk]

TV support for this sort of thing will always be patchy... you'll be much better served with an independant media streamer. You won't need to transcode, you won't need the PC on, it'll just work... buy a well supported or open source streamer and it'll continue to work when you buy new devices or other formats come along. An Apple TV with XBMC installed works rather well...

 

[swedish cook]

You asked which media streamers work - there are some in the thread I posted, in addition to (hacked)apple tv mentioned above, people have WDTV working, I use an AC Ryan HD mini v1 and a Hisense 1080p (the Hisense is no longer for sale).

Has anyone tried the ridiculously cheap Sumvision media players ?

 

[Wakelest]

Hi –
I’ve been running a few experiments with my setup – Samsung D series tv, humax foxsat hdr, windows 7.
I gave up with Windows media Player as the quality of the image on the TV was poor – no doubt it could be improved with some tweaks.
Allshare only plays a few codecs and can’t cope with the Humax TS files.
I've had some success with Mezzmo - I can stream humax files from the computer or from the HDR to any computer or DNLA enabled TV on the network. The TS files from the Humax are not quite "standard enough" for my Samsung D series TV so Mezzmo remuxes them (not a full transcode) using ffdshow. Note this program didn't work straight out of the box for me, it knows the TV should play TS files so doesn't process them, I had to alter slightly the xml profile to encourage it to remux the files the TV didn't support.

As I've stated I've had some success - Whilst I can play all the formats I have on my computer the remux is not perfect because the files it needs to process lose the ability to fast forward / skip.

Some TS files I have made retain this capability, I used to think it was just the files made using Raydon's AV2HDR (thanks Raydon) that would retain this capability but in my experiments (as a complete novice) it’s a little more complicated.

When Streamed - files remuxed with AV2HDR with an audio stream of mp2 don't fast forward, whereas those with an audio stream of AC3 do. I've remuxed the same file 3 times, with AC3, mp2 and no audio stream the only one the Samsung won’t fast forward is the mp2.
Plug the very same files into the USB port and they all fast forward. I knew there were differences in the way the TV handles codecs depending on whether they’re streamed or plugged in the USB as I have a similar issue with FLV files – they need transcoding when delivered via DNLA but are supported natively via the USB.

This set up works reasonably well as anything I watch is automatically transferred and remuxed to the computer. If I don't want the file it gets deleted as the transcoded folder fills up.

 

[grahamlthompson]

Have you tried replacing the MP2 audio with AC3 2.0. ?

This may well do the job.

SUPER &copy - Media File Converter, Media File Encoder, Video Player, Audio Player, Media Player

EDIT

Ignore me I see you have on reading your post again.

The difference when using the files with the USB port is very likely down to the sidecar .nts file. that the hdr uses for this type of capability.