Re: How to play MPEG PS files?

Can you share a 100M+ excerpt or 2 on a fileshare?

I wrote the vdr-convert script to transcode .vdr files to .ts format for=20
the same reason, and to compress MPEG2 .ts vdr files to H264/5, also=20
importantly to retain the AD and subs streams properly *in sync*, all=20
using ffmpeg. And I wanted the results to be standard and compatible=20
with vdr 2+ and 3rd party players like smplayer, vlc etc. It's possible,=20
not so easy.

The .vdr conversion turns out to be a lot harder than most people think=20
a) because the subs stream was split over multiple packets in a=20
nonstandard private stream in .vdr files (even though they are dvbsubs),=20
which them needed to be reconstructed, and b) you need several tweaks=20
and bug workarounds for ffmpeg.

Stock ffmpeg particularly doesn=E2=80=99t like DTS timestamps missing in =
subs or=20
worse messed up in A/V streams due to broadcasters chopping up the files=20
and not rebuilding them properly, I've seen some of that.

Anyway, in all the messing around / patching ffmpeg, I built a little=20
experience of 'broken' files for conversion. If I can remember, that=20
might help.

Richard


On 11/01/2025 17:50, Marko M=C3=A4kel=C3=A4 wrote:
> Tue, Jan 07, 2025 at 09:53:13PM +0100, Frantisek Rysanek wrote:
>>> I got some video files in MPEG PS format.
>>>
>> Have you tried VLC ?
>
> Sorry, I should have been more explicit. I thought that when I ask=20
> this on the VDR mailing list, it would be clear that I would like to=20
> play such files in VDR, by selecting them from the Recordings menu, or=20
> from a menu that is generated by a VDR plugin, similar to the DVD=20
> plugin which I remember trying some 20 years ago.
>
> Yes, VLC is great for playing various files, including the two forms=20
> of recordings that VDR generates (001.vdr for MPEG PES in older VDR,=20
> and 00001.ts for MPEG TS). But I would like to play the files not on a=20
> general-purpose computer, but on my VDR box, that is, a Raspberry Pi 2=20
> or 3 via the rpihddevice plugin. The GPU firmware is capable of=20
> decoding the video packets. With a multi-terabyte SSD, it makes a very=20
> compact and silent "video jukebox" system.
>
>> I'm not very fluent in the various container formats... could it be=20
>> that the file is really in a "transport stream" format, maybe with a=20
>> limited/filtered subset of PID's ?
>
> The files that I would like to play back are not in MPEG TS but in=20
> MPEG PS format. As a test, I converted one of them into an MPEG TS=20
> container (ffmpeg -i file.mpg -codec copy 00001.ts). FFMPEG complained=20
> about some missing timestamp information, and VDR indicates that there=20
> are several errors per second. The playback seemed to be fine=20
> nevertheless.
>
> It would be great if there was a way to make MPEG PS containers appear=20
> in a VDR menu so that they could be selected for playback. I know that=20
> I could convert the MPEG PS files to slightly malformed MPEG TS files,=20
> but I would like to avoid that step.
>
> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Marko