pyTivo Discussion Forum

[PeteTV]

I've tried to upload a few different DVDs that I own and they mostly work fine, except there's occasionally a skip or jump in the playback. These are mpeg2 (vod) files so they don't need any transcoding which I assume means ffmpeg isn't the problem.

I can play the video fine on a computer using a variety of players (MacOSX using VLC and mplayer, Win 2000/XP using WMP), so it SEEMS like it's not the video itself. I only see the playback issue when it's played on my Series 3 TiVo.

When the problem does crop up, it's always at the same spots... eg, if there's a skip 2 minutes in, then it doesn't matter how many times I upload the file or try to play it, it always skips right at that point.

Any ideas why this happens and how I can fix it?

[MasterCephus]

Can you try and watch the video on your machine using the ffmpeg you are using with pyTivo? That would maybe see if it's for sure an ffmpeg issue.

[wmcbrine]

I think in Pete's case, the problem is precisely that ffmpeg isn't getting involved. He may have to force them to be reencoded, which should fix the problem at the cost of a little quality.

[wgw]

You can open the vob with MPEG StreamClip and try the "Fix Timecode Breaks" option, then convert to MPEG. No need to buy the Apple MPEG-2 Playback Component for viewing. Just ignore error messages saying it's not installed.

But as wmcbrine mentioned, the only sure way I know of to smooth over this type of glitch is to force an ffmpeg transcode. I've just learned to live with a small number of skips.

[PeteTV]

[jjdolphin]

I had a similar problem with pixelation. What I had to do was re-encode with a lower bit rate. My original encoding was at around 9000 kbps, but lowering to 6,000 is what did the trick. Much lower pixelation.

I am not too sure why this was necessary.