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[jmone]

I'm setting up a MC18 environment for a mate and they have some iPads, so a couple of Q's so I don't appear toooo much like a Noob
- What iPad app do you recommend to connect to the MC Media Server over DLNA
- What MC18 DLNA profiles work best
- other hints welcome!

Thanks
Nathan

Edit - I'm interested in Video working as well as Audio.

[jmone]

I've only an iPhone to test and one combo I found that works is:
- ACE Player (http://ranysoft.wordpress.com/)
- MPEG2/DVD/PAL stream with MPEG2 Audio

The player did like both MPEG2 and AVC streams but had issues with Audio either being in sync (eg the video was playing way to fast when with AAC tracks used on the H264 and FLV Profiles ) or it would not play the DD track used by the MPEG2 Profiles.  The good news is the "MPEG2/DVD/PAL stream with MPEG2 Audio" profile seems to work and I guess it would in other plays (not tested).

EDIT:  Also tested it with "Good Player" with similar results to above (though while the H264 did not run in FFW it was out of sync with the Audio).  The issue with the  "MPEG2/DVD/PAL stream with MPEG2 Audio" profile is it is in a MPG container so can you not seek at all.

I'm sure there must be Apple heads who have worked this out!

[rpalmer68]

I'm sure there must be Apple heads who have worked this out!

You'd think so, but having asked the same question before and getting as much response as you have, I'm starting to think maybe not.....

[csimon]

Before switching to JRemote, I used PlugPlayer.

It can stream to the iDevice, but I used it as a DLNA controller so can't verify how well it works as a renderer itself.

It is quite elegant but I got frustrated with it for lack of development progress (no updates in over 2 years I think) and it is not able to display large thumbnails in a grid while browsing (it's only textual browsing).

PS. Any reason why you specifically want a DLNA player rather than a remote like JRemote, because I would actually recommend JRemote?

[jmone]

I'm trying JRemote and while it is fine for Audio for local playback it says it will only work with MP4 Video (which most of my library is not).....  Unless I've got it configured wrong or I'm missing something...

[jmone]

I too tried plug player and while it worked when it first came out - it will not play video either (anymore).

[)p(]

I'm trying JRemote and while it is fine for Audio for local playback it says it will only work with MP4 Video (which most of my library is not).....  Unless I've got it configured wrong or I'm missing something...

That is right.

I have not found a good stable solution for video from a jrmc server on the ipad yet.

What i do and works very well for me is having plex media server running on the same server as jrmc. I tag and rename the video files using tmdb and tvdb names in jrmc. Plex uses these as scrapers and will pick them up automatically in the background. I use the plex ios app to play videos on our iphones, ipads and trough airplay on apple tv. The transcoder works really well. With supported video formats like h.264 it will only transcode the audio. Most mkv's play without quality loss this way and barely any server load.

[jmone]

From what I can tell the iStuff is picky about the combination of container, video codec, and audio codec.  If we can work out the "best" combination then MC could add it as a predefined profile in the MC DLNA Server that the plethora of existing DLNA renderers on the iStuff can then use.  From my testing it seems it likes:
- AVC or MPEG2 video
- AAC, MPEG Audio (and I guess PCM), MP3 audio
- TS, MPG, MP4 containers

The issue seems to be that some combos have audio sync issues.  The existing "MPEG2/DVD/PAL stream with MPEG2 Audio" profile works well but you can not seek as it is a MPG container.  I wonder if AVC/MPEG2 for Video and MPEG Audio/PCM/MP3 for audio in a TS container would work and also give seeking?  This is one for Bob I guess.....

[)p(]

I don't really know but from what I have experienced the h.264 AAC combination works best on ios.

[jmone]

You would think so but I get either the lip sync being out or the video playing far to fast and the Audio in real time.

[InflatableMouse]

For my ipads and iphone I use AirVideo. It has its own server backend which requires java but it works quite well. I use JRemote for everything else.

[bob]

To stream converted video, the only format that works is h264 in a .ts container AND unfortunately, it requires either segmented output or an index file and we've not gotten time to mess with that yet.

[jmone]

...did some more testing by turning off conversion in the DLNA server (eg Original) then using ACE player to pull the content.  Most stuff worked with the excpetion of AVC in TS (and of course no high bit rate stuff).  Simple stuff like MPEG2 Video with PCM or MPEG2 Audio in MPG container was fine, so was XVID, DivX with MP3 or ADPCM tracks.

So while MP4 with AVC/AAC makes sense for the handheld conversion, to get streaming working for now, you are better off with MPEG2 Video with PCM, MPEG2 Audio, or MP3 as a streaming profile till the whole TS with AVC/AAC works out.

More testing again - MPEG2 Video with MPEG2 Audio in a TS Container works and allows seeking.   I did not try to "tune" the bitrates but this worked:

Code: [Select]

ffmpeg -i input2.mpg -vcodec mpeg2video -s 1280x720 -b 1750k -ac 2 -acodec mp2 -f mpegts output.ts
The result was seekable and the time code counted up and the time code remaining counted down BUT the remaining was way to high and if I seeked further I then started getting playback of the following video ....

PS - I was testing on an iPhone.

[InflatableMouse]

We could try to motivate Lespaul to build a DLNA client into JRemote 

[bob]

...did some more testing by turning off conversion in the DLNA server (eg Original) then using ACE player to pull the content.  Most stuff worked with the excpetion of AVC in TS (and of course no high bit rate stuff).  Simple stuff like MPEG2 Video with PCM or MPEG2 Audio in MPG container was fine, so was XVID, DivX with MP3 or ADPCM tracks.

So while MP4 with AVC/AAC makes sense for the handheld conversion, to get streaming working for now, you are better off with MPEG2 Video with PCM, MPEG2 Audio, or MP3 as a streaming profile till the whole TS with AVC/AAC works out.

More testing again - MPEG2 Video with MPEG2 Audio in a TS Container works and allows seeking.   I did not try to "tune" the bitrates but this worked:

Code: [Select]

ffmpeg -i input2.mpg -vcodec mpeg2video -s 1280x720 -b 1750k -ac 2 -acodec mp2 -f mpegts output.ts
The result was seekable and the time code counted up and the time code remaining counted down BUT the remaining was way to high and if I seeked further I then started getting playback of the following video ....

PS - I was testing on an iPhone.

The important thing though from our point of view is whether or not the video format will stream WHILE being converted.

[jmone]

The current "MPEG2/DVD/PAL stream with MPEG2 Audio" DLNA profile does (but it is MPG and does not seek).  Only one way to find out I guess (you could just change this existing profile from MPG to TS for testing....)

[InflatableMouse]

I've been on the search as well and found Media:Connect. It's supposed to be a full featured DLNA/upnp client app but I can't get it to work with MC yet.

I've not paid for the full version, the lite is supposed to work with everything except it only shows 3 items in each folder. But maybe that's changed as the article I found dated from 2010 and their website doesn't reveal it either. Time to search their forums I guess.

[rpalmer68]

I've been on the search as well and found Media:Connect. It's supposed to be a full featured DLNA/upnp client app but I can't get it to work with MC yet.

I've not paid for the full version, the lite is supposed to work with everything except it only shows 3 items in each folder. But maybe that's changed as the article I found dated from 2010 and their website doesn't reveal it either. Time to search their forums I guess.

I have the full version and I can't get it to work either!

I've ended up using Good Player with the MPEG2/DVD/PAL stream with MPEG2 Audio  DLNA profile in MC as other streams played but lip sync was out.

The time bar at the top doesn't update but if you move it playback does seem to seek.  FF/REW don't work though.

Must be a better solution, but it is going to need some tweaking in the DLNA profiles (which it seems Nathan is playing with)

Richard
 

[bob]

I'm testing on my iPhone 3gs on 6.1.2 and I cannot get any format to stream while converting. I'm thinking these players you're using are doing a conversion on the client side.