TS mux → crash .. again !?

[Selur]

As for the meta info, why is that so crucial for the final results ?

Because Hybrid also uses tsMuxeR for the muxing and thus if the tsMuxeR GUI creates another output, the only thing that can differ is the .meta file that is used by the command line tool (which the tsMuxeR GUI uses too).

It only describes the content from the input file ?

No, it describes what the tsMuxeR command line tool should multiplex with what settings.

I suspect more and more that it's not the muxing, but the extraction.
Try the following two things:
1. disable "Config->Internals->Extraction->Prefer ffmpeg for extraction from transport stream" and see whether that changes anything. Hybrid should then use tsMuxeR for the extraction. (if this fixes it, its the extraction with ffmpeg)
2. try if you enable "Config->Containers->General->Keep intermediat files", this way Hybrid will not delete the extracted stream after muxing. Then see whether muxing those streams with the tsMuxeR GUI produces another output than Hybrid. (should be the same, assuming they use the same .meta file, if it's the same and flawed it's not the muxing, but the extraction) You could also set the output to .raw as extension. (If you don't want the muxed file, you can also enable 'No multiplexing and splitting'. (Hybrid will then ignore the muxing step.)

Selur, could you add the option to create custom bitrates in hybrid if it's not involving weeks works?

For e-ac3 encoding? Not going to happen.

----
After muxing the audio stream into ts, mediainfo reports it as:

Format                                   : E-AC-3
Format/Info                              : Enhanced AC-3
Commercial name                          : Dolby Digital Plus
Format profile                           : Blu-ray Disc
Muxing mode                              : Stream extension
Codec ID                                 : 135
Duration                                 : 11 s 104 ms
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 1 664 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 8 channels
Channel layout                           : L R C LFE Ls Rs Lb Rb
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 2.20 MiB (34%)
Language                                 : English
Service kind                             : Complete Main

In the mkv it's reported as:

Format                                   : E-AC-3
Format/Info                              : Enhanced AC-3
Commercial name                          : Dolby Digital Plus
Format profile                           : Blu-ray Disc
Codec ID                                 : A_EAC3
Duration                                 : 11 s 104 ms
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 1 664 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel(s)_Original                      : 8 channels
ChannelLayout_Original                   : L R C LFE Ls Rs Lb Rb
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 2.20 MiB (36%)
Language                                 : English
Service kind                             : Complete Main
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

Cu Selur

[ToiletDuck]

No, it describes what the tsMuxeR command line tool should multiplex with what settings.

ah i see, and i asume each setting will be different depending what the content of the media files , isnt it?
And you suspect that tsmuxer reads an wrong or corrupted meta file ?

No, it describes what the tsMuxeR command line tool should multiplex with what settings.
I suspect more and more that it's not the muxing, but the extraction.
Try the following two things:
1. disable "Config->Internals->Extraction->Prefer ffmpeg for extraction from transport stream" and see whether that changes anything. Hybrid should then use tsMuxeR for the extraction. (if this fixes it, its the extraction with ffmpeg)
2. try if you enable "Config->Containers->General->Keep intermediat files", this way Hybrid will not delete the extracted stream after muxing. Then see whether muxing those streams with the tsMuxeR GUI produces another output than Hybrid. (should be the same, assuming they use the same .meta file, if it's the same and flawed it's not the muxing, but the extraction) You could also set the output to .raw as extension. (If you don't want the muxed file, you can also enable 'No multiplexing and splitting'. (Hybrid will then ignore the muxing step.)

 Iam one step ahead of ya.. I have thought of the extraction process aswell.  

And i have tried out point 2... as you described. and have used the a/v tracks hybrid / tsmuxer have demuxed / extracted and used these files to recompile the whole file through tsmuxer gui myself by adding the files 1 by 1 you know..

And that's why i wos refering to the manual muxing always, manually seems to have no issues at all 

Thanks for suggesting point 1... 

But this isn't it either, since for one i 've succesfully muxed it using the very same tracks hybrid or rather tsmuxer & ffmpeg has extracted.
And sure enough the same phenomenon keeps happening !  No audio in PDVD, the "non supported format" message from the bdplayer !
 
So, again. just to be sure its not an "extraction" issue, atleast all the trial and errors points in that direction... 
I have used the very same a/v tracks that FFmpeg this time did extracted through hybrid and remuxed it myself manually in tsmuxerguy..

You've guessed it → flawless playback 

You see, at one hand it's seems not to be an demux issue, and on the other not an mux issue aslong it's done manually .. the mux part!

Hence , why i asked to add the option for an custom bitrate for eac3.  
Since , pretty much everything is done by ffmpeg and ffmpeg uses custom bitrate last time i've checked..  



A real fine mess i got myself into... 


Fyi, the ffmpeg setting is not in Config→Internals→etc ... but under Config→Input→extraction.. atleast in the release you pm'd me ..

Am i right, and do you use FFmpeg not only for audio encoding but for extraction / remuxing aswell?  
Are we talking about the same tooL ?





Thanks for the efforts 

cheers,
TD

[Selur]

ah i see, and i asume each setting will be different depending what the content of the media files , isnt it?

yes, format, resolution, path, tags,...

And you suspect that tsmuxer reads an wrong or corrupted meta file ?

Yes, one possibility is that Hybrid might do something different in creating the .meta file which might cause the problem.

And that's why i wos refering to the manual muxing always, manually seems to have no issues at all

Then it's down to the .meta file.

You've guessed it → flawless playback

So it's the muxing => the .meta file.

You see, at one hand it's seems not to be an demux issue, and on the other not an mux issue aslong it's done manually .. the mux part!
Hence , why i asked to add the option for an custom bitrate for eac3.

Bit rate is not the muxing but the encoding part!

Fyi, the ffmpeg setting is not in Config→Internals→etc ... but under Config→Input→extraction.. atleast in the release you pm'd me ..

Yeah, my bad.

Am i right, and do you use FFmpeg not only for audio encoding but for extraction / remuxing aswell?

Depending on the settings in Hybrid it will use ffmpeg or tsMuxeR for muxing or extraction.

Are we talking about the same tooL ?

No clue, where you are going with this.


All in all the conclusion so far is, that manual muxing the files Hybrid extracted using tsMuxeR GUI works.
So the issue must be the .meta file fed to tsMuxeR (command line), since for the muxing, both tsMuxeR GUI and Hybrid are simple frontends which call the command line tool.

Here's the documentation of the command line tool (tsMuxeR):

tsMuxeR version git-c6f3d85. github.com/justdan96/tsMuxer

tsMuxeR is a simple program to mux video to TS/M2TS files or create BD disks.
tsMuxeR does not use external filters (codecs).

Examples:
    tsMuxeR <media file name>
    tsMuxeR <meta file name> <out file/dir name>

tsMuxeR can be run in track detection mode or muxing mode. If tsMuxeR is run
with only one argument, then the program displays track information required to
construct a meta file. When running with two arguments, tsMuxeR starts the
muxing or demuxing process.

Meta file format:
File MUST have the .meta extension and be encoded in UTF-8 (but see README.md).
This file defines the files you want to multiplex.
The first line of a meta file contains additional parameters that apply to all
tracks. In this case the first line should begin with the word MUXOPT.

The following lines form a list of tracks and their parameters.  The format is
as follows:   <code name>,   <file name>,   <parameters>   Parameters are
separated with commas, with each parameter consisting of a name and a value,
separated with an equals sign.
Example of META file:

MUXOPT --blu-ray
V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC, D:/media/test/stream.h264, fps=25
A_AC3, D:/media/test/stream.ac3, timeshift=-10000ms

In this example one AC3 audio stream and one H264 video stream are multiplexed
into BD disc. The input file name can reference an elementary stream or a track
located inside a container.

Supported input containers:
- TS/M2TS/MTS
- EVO/VOB/MPG/MPEG
- MKV
- MOV/MP4
- MPLS (Blu-ray media play list file)

Names of codecs in the meta file:
- V_MPEGI/ISO/VVC   H.266/VVC
- V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC  H.265/HEVC
- V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC   H.264/AVC
- V_MPEG4/ISO/MVC   H.264/MVC
- V_MS/VFW/WVC1     VC1
- V_MPEG-2          MPEG2
- A_AC3             AC3/AC3+/TRUE-HD
- A_AAC             AAC
- A_DTS             DTS/DTS-Express/DTS-HD
- A_MP3             MPEG audio layer 1/2/3
- A_LPCM            raw pcm data or PCM WAV file
- S_HDMV/PGS        Presentation graphic stream (BD subtitle format)
- S_TEXT/UTF8       SRT subtitle format.  Encoding MUST be  UTF-8/UTF-16/UTF-32

Each track may have additional parameters. Track parameters do not have dashes.
If a parameter's value consists of several words, it must be enclosed in quotes.

Common additional parameters for any type of track:
- track             track number if input file is a container.
- lang              track language. MUST contain exactly 3 letters.

Additional parameters for audio tracks:
- timeshift         Shift audio track by the given number of milliseconds.
                    Can be negative.
- down-to-dts       Available only for DTS-HD tracks. Filter out HD part.
- down-to-ac3       Available only for TRUE-HD tracks. Filter out HD part.
- secondary         Mux as secondary audio. Available for DD+ and DTS-Express.
- default           Mark this track as the default when muxing to Blu-ray.

Additional parameters for video tracks:
- fps               The number of frames per second. If not defined, the value
                    is auto detected if available in the source stream. If not,
                    it defaults to 23.976.
- delPulldown       Remove pulldown from the track, if it exists. If the
                    pulldown is present, the FPS value is changed from 30 to 24.
- ar                Override video aspect ratio. 16:9, 4:3 e.t.c.

Additional parameters for H.264 video tracks:
- level             Overwrite the level in the H264 stream. Do note that this
                    option only updates the headers and does not reencode the
                    stream, which may not meet the requirements for a lower
                    level.
- insertSEI         If the original stream does not contain SEI picture timing,
                    SEI buffering period or VUI parameters, add this data to
                    the stream. This option is recommended for BD muxing.
- forceSEI          Add SEI picture timing, buffering period and VUI parameters
                    to the stream and rebuild this data if it already exists.
- contSPS           If the original video doesn't contain repetitive SPS/PPS,
                    then SPS/PPS will be added to the stream before each key
                    frame. This option is recommended for BD muxing.
- subTrack          Used for combined AVC/MVC tracks only. TsMuxeR always
                    demultiplexes such tracks to separate AVC and MVC streams.
                    Setting this to 1 sets the reference to the AVC part, while
                    2 sets it to the MVC part.
- secondary         Mux as secondary video (PIP).
- pipCorner         Corner for PIP video. Allowed values: "TopLeft","TopRight",
                    "BottomRight", "BottomLeft".
- pipHOffset        PIP window horizontal offset from the corner in pixels.
- pipVOffset        PIP window vertical offset from the corner in pixels.
- pipScale          PIP window scale factor. Allowed values: "1", "1/2", "1/4",
                    "1.5", "fullScreen".
- pipLumma          Allow the PIP window to be transparent. Transparent colors
                    are lumma colors in range [0..pipLumma].

Additional parameters for PG and SRT tracks:

- video-width       The width of the video in pixels.
- video-height      The height of the video in pixels.
- default           Mark this track as the default when muxing to Blu-ray.
                    Allowed values are "all" which causes all subtitles to be
                    shown, and "forced" which shows only elements marked as
                    "forced" in the subtitle stream.
- fps               Video fps. It is recommended to define this parameter in
                    order to enable more careful timing processing.
- 3d-plane          Defines the number of the '3D offset track' which is placed
                    inside the MVC track. Each message has an individual 3D
                    offset. This information is stored inside 3D offset track.

Additional parameters for SRT tracks:

- font-name         Font name to render.
- font-color        Font color, defined as a hexadecimal or decimal number.
                    24-bit long numbers (for instance 0xFF00FF) define RGB
                    components, while 32-bit long ones (for instance
                    0x80FF00FF) define ARGB components.
- font-size         Font size in pixels.
- font-italic       Italic display text.
- font-bold         Bold display text.
- font-underline    Underlined text.
- font-strikeout    Strikethrough text.
- bottom-offset     Distance from the lower edge while displaying text.
- font-border       Outline width.
- fadein-time       Time in ms for smooth subtitle appearance.
- fadeout-time      Time in ms for smooth subtitle disappearance.
- line-spacing      Interval between subtitle lines. Default value is 1.0.

tsMuxeR supports additional tags inside SRT tracks. The syntax and parameters
coincide with HTML: <b>, <i>, <u>, <strike>, <font>. Default relative font size
(used in these tags) is 3.  For example:

<b><font size=5 color="deepskyblue" name="Arial"><u>Test</u>
<font size= 4 color="#806040">colored</font>text</font>
</b>

Global additional parameters are placed in the first line of the META file,
which must begin with the MUXOPT token.
All parameters in this group start with two dashes:

--no-pcr-on-video-pid Allocate a separate PID for PCR and do not use the existing
                      video PID.
--new-audio-pes       Use bytes 0xfd instead of 0xbd for AC3, True-HD, DTS and
                      DTS-HD. Activated automatically for BD muxing.
--no-hdmv-descriptors Use ITU-T H.222.0 | ISO/IEC 13818-1 descriptors instead of
                      HDMV descriptors. Not activated for BD or AVCHD muxing.
--vbr                 Use variable bitrate.
--minbitrate          Sets the lower limit of the VBR bitrate. If the stream has
                      a smaller bitrate, NULL packets will be inserted to
                      compensate.
--maxbitrate          The upper limit of the vbr bitrate.
--cbr                 Muxing mode with a fixed bitrate. --vbr and --cbr must not
                      be used together.
--vbv-len             The  length  of the  virtual  buffer  in milliseconds.  The
                      default value  is 500.  Typically, this  option  is used
                      together with --cbr. The parameter is similar to  the value
                      of vbv-buffer-size  in  the  x264  codec,  but  defined in
                      milliseconds instead of kbit.
--no-asyncio          Do not  create  a separate thread  for writing. This option
                      also disables the FILE_FLAG_NO_BUFFERING flag on Windows
                      when writing.
                      This option is deprecated.
--auto-chapters       Insert a chapter every <n> minutes. Used only in BD/AVCHD
                      mode.
--custom-chapters     A semicolon delimited list of hh:mm:ss.zzz strings,
                      representing the chapters' start times.
--demux               Run in demux mode : the selected audio and video tracks are
                      stored as separate files. The output name must be a folder
                      name. All selected effects (such as changing the level of
                      a H264 stream) are processed. When demuxing, certain types
                      of tracks are always changed :
                      - Subtitles in a Presentation Graphic Stream are converted
                        into sup format.
                      - PCM audio is saved as WAV files.
--blu-ray             Mux as a BD disc. If the output file name is a folder, a
                      Blu-Ray folder structure is created inside that folder.
                      SSIF files for BD3D discs are not created in this case. If
                      the output name has an .iso extension, then the disc is
                      created directly as an image file.
--blu-ray-v3          As above - except mux to UHD BD discs.
--avchd               Mux to AVCHD disc.
--cut-start           Trim the beginning of the file. The value should be followed
                      by the time unit : "ms" (milliseconds), "s" (seconds) or
                      "min" (minutes).
--cut-end             Trim the end of the file. Same rules as --cut-start apply.
--split-duration      Split the output into several files, with each of them being
                      <n> seconds long.
--split-size          Split the output into several files, with each of them
                      having a given maximum size. KB, KiB, MB, MiB, GB and GiB
                      are accepted as size units.
--right-eye           Use base video stream for right eye. Used for 3DBD only.
--start-time          Timestamp of the first video frame. May be defined as 45Khz
                      clock (just a number) or as time in hh:mm:ss.zzz format.
--mplsOffset          The number of the first MPLS file.  Used for BD disc mode.
--m2tsOffset          The number of the first M2TS file.  Used for BD disc mode.
--insertBlankPL       Add an additional short playlist. Used for cropped video
                      muxed to BD disc.
--blankOffset         Blank playlist number.
--label               Disk label when muxing to ISO.
--extra-iso-space     Allocate extra space in 64K units for ISO metadata (file
                      and directory names). Normally, tsMuxeR allocates this space
                      automatically, but if split condition generates a lot
                      of small files, it may be required to define extra space.
--constant-iso-hdr    Generates an ISO header that does not depend on the program
                      version or the current time. Not meant for normal usage.

Cu Selur

[ToiletDuck]

And you suspect that tsmuxer reads an wrong or corrupted meta file ?

Yes, one possibility is that Hybrid might do something different in creating the .meta file which might cause the problem.

&

And that's why i wos refering to the manual muxing always, manually seems to have no issues at all

Then it's down to the .meta file.

You've guessed it → flawless playback

So it's the muxing => the .meta file.

could it be ?  Could the .meta file be responsible for these playback issues !?

I mean, have you compared the .meta file tsmuxergui creates with the one hybrid creates ?

It looks pretty much the same to me !!

↓ This is the info from tsmuxergui :

MUXOPT --no-pcr-on-video-pid --new-audio-pes --hdmv-descriptors --vbr  --vbv-len=500
V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC, "C:\Users\Downloads\dolby-digital-plus-lossless-(www.demolandia.net).mkv", track=1, lang=eng
A_AC3, "C:\Users\Downloads\dolby-digital-plus-lossless-(www.demolandia.net).mkv", track=2, lang=eng

And this ↓ is from hybrid :

MUXOPT --no-pcr-on-video-pid --new-audio-pes --hdmv-descriptors --vbr --vbv-len=500
V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC, "C:\Users\Downloads\dolby-digital-plus-lossless-(www.demolandia.net)_1_2023-08-09@22_52_42_5510_02.264", fps=29.97, insertSEI, contSPS, ar=1:1 (Square), lang=eng
A_AC3, "C:\Users\Downloads\iId_1_aid_0_lang_en_2023-08-09@22_52_42_5510_01.eac3", lang=eng

And the only difference i see is that →  fps=29.97, insertSEI, contSPS, ar=1:1 → not present in the meta file created by tsmuxergui !?  

You see, at one hand it's seems not to be an demux issue, and on the other not an mux issue aslong it's done manually .. the mux part!
Hence , why i asked to add the option for an custom bitrate for eac3. 

Bit rate is not the muxing but the encoding part!

I get that seller... But maybe for some reason, using strict bluray compliant bitrate settings might shed a shiny bright light to this problem   (thinking out of the box)

Are we talking about the same tooL ?

No clue, where you are going with this.

All in all the conclusion so far is, that manual muxing the files Hybrid extracted using tsMuxeR GUI works.
So the issue must be the .meta file fed to tsMuxeR (command line), since for the muxing, both tsMuxeR GUI and Hybrid are simple frontends which call the command line tool.
Cu Selur

I asking , because to my knowledge ffmpeg stand alone doesn't create media files me thinks.. Only the content/tracks ...
that or i have overlooked something !



So, i guess you know what the next step is i presume 

And whit that said, the viewers have just raised the bar for you reaching 300+ views ..
Iam not the only one seeking wisdom / answers .. so it seems 


cheers,
TD

[Selur]

the views are just bots,...
Will later (after work) create a dev version where one can disable the "fps=29.97, insertSEI, contSPS, ar=1:1" part for muxing for testing.

Cu Selur

[Selur]

Argh,.. after a quick thought: those are video settings, and the video isn't the problem.
I assume that if you would ignore the video and just create a file with audio only, it would also not play on your hardware, correct?

Cu Selur

Ps.: does one or both of the attached files play properly for you?

[ToiletDuck]

Argh,.. after a quick thought: those are video settings, and the video isn't the problem.
I assume that if you would ignore the video and just create a file with audio only, it would also not play on your hardware, correct?

Cu Selur

Ps.: does one or both of the attached files play properly for you?

Yes, iam more leaning towards the audio track being the main issue indeed... 

And correct, i've have just tested an sample and removed just the video and kept the audio in the ts file..  

Powerdvd play's it fine, but my bdplayer is an weebit more "stricter" →  corrupt or damaged file  !


Both files/samples in both zip archives you've uploaded don't work alas 

Further more to be specific and maybe helpfull to you, powerdvd info tells me nothing about the audio tracks from the first archive (Remux) except → , unknow, not specified etc .. the info from bitrates,sampling rates, channels,  audio application mode etc. ! 
But it recognizes "A" audio track none theless..

For the latter archive (Remxu2   ) , it doesn't detec any audio track at all, as if i play an Video only file !


Do you have powerdvd installed selur?
I ask because , powerdvd is the closest aproximatio to how an BD hardware player would act..
i.e: compatibility, bd/dvd compliant restrictions ..

In my experience over the years, if an media file or bd/dvd structure won't play decent in powerdvd → 99.99% it will go wrong in many bdplayers i have tested aswell !!
Goes from black screens, to audio corruption mids / end movie due to wrong rip process (decryption !!) etc...

I mean , pdvd is an close to good benchmark for the real deal.. i must say..
Whereas mpc isn't ! YOu can throw just about anything in mpc , and it will play just fine regardless of the strict standards for hardware players !!


cheers,
td

[Selur]

No, I don't have PowerDVD installed.
Attached additional files for testing.

Cu Selur

[ToiletDuck]

No, I don't have PowerDVD installed.
Attached additional files for testing.

Cu Selur

that explains why you need me as genui pig 

As for the attached files... (drumroll) ..

first the bad news 

Remux3 = no show = same notifications / info both in pdvd / bdplayer !

As for ... (drumroll)

Remux4: the file play's (bitstreams) flawless in pdvd this time..  
Now, you would guess if it plays fine in pdvd, it will dance in the bdplayer aswell you would think ... 

Mind you i'v said 99.99% of all the content that does play in pdvd will certainly play in hardware...
There's always that 0.01%   ...

And yes, you've guessed it right   .. Remix4 play just fine in both device/software player    

Is this it ...   .. (*holding fingers acrossed) ... Is this "The final curtain call" .. hahaha   

If so, then this thread just went viral 

But seriously... what did you found out ..???
to be more specifice... DID you RECODED the EAC3 stream mayhap? 
Because i have seen difference between the source and your uploads !


cheers,
TD

[Selur]

I used passthrough for video&audio, set output to m2ts and enabled 'Create Structure->Blu-ray' then used the file from the BDMV\STREAM folder.
=> try whether you can reproduce this

MUXOPT --no-pcr-on-video-pid --new-audio-pes --blu-ray --label="DOLBY-DIGITAL-PLUS-LOSSLESS" --vbr --vbv-len=500

V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC, "G:\Output\dolby-digital-plus-lossless_1_2023-08-11@17_19_46_4510_02.264", fps=29.97, insertSEI, contSPS, ar=1:1 (Square), lang=eng

A_AC3, "G:\Output\iId_1_aid_0_lang_en_2023-08-11@17_19_46_4510_01.eac3", lang=eng

Seems like the '--blu-ray' does something else that is need for your setup.

Cu Selur

Ps.: also check if it changes anything if you use: https://www.videohelp.com/download/tsMux...2.6.15.zip