pyTivo Discussion Forum

sicklybutsexy · Joined: 05 Mar 2008 Posts: 152 Location: chicago

All I get is a black screen any time I try to transfer 16:9 movies to m wy 4:3 TV. Is there a way to configure ffmpeg to transcode 16:9 movies into 4:3 format on the fly? If not, is there still a way for me to watch 16:9 movies on that TV just stretched (and almost unwatchable)? thanks.

krkeegan · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 2:39 am Post subject:

Odd, I assume you have an S2? When playing does the TiVo information still come up if you press the info button on your remote?

You can always set aspect169=false for your specific TiVo. Read about the setting here

Could you also let us know the forst 3 digits of your TSN?

Is it possible there is another S2 variety out there that doesnt handle 16:9 properly?

sicklybutsexy · Joined: 05 Mar 2008 Posts: 152 Location: chicago

I used the most recent windows installer and now don't know how to change the 16:9 to false. I am using an S2 and the first three digits of my TSN are 540. thanks.

sicklybutsexy · Joined: 05 Mar 2008 Posts: 152 Location: chicago

I was able to change the 16:9 setting to "false" on my Tivo using the windows web configuration (if I had only just read in the first place). Still, all I get is a black screen when tranferring a 16:9 movie over. I get audio just no video. On my 16:9 tv in the other room it works fine.

I get all the information I would normally get if I press the info button...

jlc4 · Joined: 20 Feb 2008 Posts: 16

I also have a 540, and run pyTivo (not as a service) on windows. I just hit this problem today, and here's what I did to workaround it.

The tivo_compatible routine in the video plug in is not checking the aspect ratio versus the 16:9 blacklist tivo models. The transcode module tries to skip the re-encoding because it doesn't think it's necessary.

I don't have the skillset to fix tivo_compatible, but here is a quick-n-dirty workaround.

Go into the plugins/video directory edit transcode.py.
Find the output_video routine.
Comment out the check on tivo_compatible, up through the else.
(All that is left is the debug_write and transcode calls.)

Then delete the compiled python files in this directory so they will recompile next time you run pytivo. Restart pytivo.

If you plan on transferring a lot of 4:3 video, put this routine back the way it was before you do. It will save overhead the way it was before.

--Janet

krkeegan · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 5:20 am Post subject:

Odd.

Can both of you do me a favor?

1.Enable debug by placing the following in your pyTivo.conf file under the [Server] section:
debug=true

You can do this through the web admin.

2.Restart or Soft Reset.

3.Try and transfer a problem video.

4.Stop the debug by changing to debug=false

5.Restart or Soft Reset

6.Upload the debug.txt in your pyTivo directory as an attachment to your post.

Thanks

sicklybutsexy · Joined: 05 Mar 2008 Posts: 152 Location: chicago

Here is my debug.txt after following your instructions, thanks for trying to help out.

krkeegan · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:41 pm Post subject:

Hmm, is it possible that your S2 doesn't support 720x480?

I have been trying to find the documentation for the resolutions allowed in TiVoComeBack for S2s, but I can't seem to find it right now. From our own setup it looks like 544 is the widest we use.

I am pretty sure this will solve your issue.

Change Line 293 of Transcode.py from:

jlc4 · Joined: 20 Feb 2008 Posts: 16

Here's the link to supported modes, and 720x480 is on there.

http://tivosupport2.instancy.com/TiVoCollection/4012D160-79C3-4238-96C8-A27B323D1413/ins_Content.html

But since 9.1, on the 540, transferring 16:9 video gives you a black screen unless you re-encode the file (see link 1), and it never really worked on 540's to begin with (see link 2).

1. http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=372332
2. http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=6385&d=1125456406

There is code to check the aspect ratio and aspect169 flag in the transcode routine, but not in the tivo_compatible routine, which is why I commented the latter out to transfer my 16:9 files.

I saw your note to upload my debug log, but for today I'm going to muddle along with my hacked up transcode.py and upload some 16:9 files to my Tivo. If you still want my debug log with an unhacked-up version of pyTivo, I can do that tomorrow or Friday. Let me know if it will still be of any use then.

sicklybutsexy · Joined: 05 Mar 2008 Posts: 152 Location: chicago

krkeegan · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 7:05 pm Post subject:

sicklybutsexy can you post a new debug.txt file with my mod so I can see where we have ended up now?

sicklybutsexy · Joined: 05 Mar 2008 Posts: 152 Location: chicago

No need unless you want me to. My problem was I had to stop pyTivo as a service (I think) instead of just doing a soft reset after I made your mod. Now they play albeit stretched. There's no way to transcode that on the fly is there? Thanks though, much better than a black screen.

krkeegan · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 8:03 pm Post subject:

Oops sorry yes, any modifications to .py files will require a hard reset.

When you say stretched, what do they look like? They should have blank bars on the top and bottom and there isn't any?

sicklybutsexy · Joined: 05 Mar 2008 Posts: 152 Location: chicago

Well to tell you the truth it is harder to tell the difference on some movies compared to others. However, if I transcode a 16:9 movie to a 4:3 on my computer and then transfer it over and doesn't look as distorted (or distorted at all).

They do have black bars on the top and bottom but just not as much black bar as when I transcode them to 4:3 on my computer and then transfer them over.

jlc4 · Joined: 20 Feb 2008 Posts: 16

I got around to taking out my ugly hack and applying the supportedModes fix to my copy of transcode.py today. Works like a charm.

Thanks for the help!