Auto framerate/resolution plugin for Gen1

[Alicia]

Hi People,

after several pm's and not hearing from Psychodad for a couple of months, I decided to release the autores plugin for the wdtv gen1 in it's current (working !) state. I helped psychodad in the past by testing the autores plugin on my gen1 (Psychodad didn't have one). Unfortunately it seems Psychodad left the forum, before he could finish it completely. Really a pitty, as we were almost there. Of course, ALL CREDITS GO TO PSYCHODAD. I think he put something great together for the gen1 users and I found it was time to let all the other gen1 users try it out too.

Maybe one of you people has enough knowledge to pick up where Psychodad left to finish it completely. That would be really great.



***** Download *************

https://mega.co.nz/#!wIcUgayZ!KxShGhFQKZRZJhX7GPl4kARV50Y_AR1sIWJeH0zxPhs


***** How to install *******

Put the files "autores.app.bin" AND "autores.conf" into your usb stick's root and turn on your WD TV with the usb stick plugged in. The plugin will load automatically.

***** Configuration ********

Edit the autores.conf on the usb stick.
All options in the config file are commented, read carefully!

***** Features *************

* on-the-fly selection of the best fitting resolution and/or framerate when playing videos,
based on a video analysis with ffmpeg (works with hdmi connections only)
* the leds on the WD player can be disabled for video playback

********* Notes *************

If multiple output modes are available the script uses ffmpeg to choose the best setting.
Selection priority is in the following order:

1. Framerate
2. Resolution

***** Required firmware ******

1.03.01 WDLXTV - 0.5.8.1 (That's what I tested it with) - maybe older versions work too, but I can't confirm.

update 28feb2012 :
1.02.10 WDLXTV - 0.5.6.2 is NOT supported.

***** Known limitations ******

* autores doesn't work combined with event-osd. The box will crash or reboot if both event-osd and autores are loaded.
This means that in it's current state, autores will not work with apps that rely on event-osd like for example Titi's Msheet application.


For more info, maybe the original thread will help :

http://forum.wdlxtv.com/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=897&start=0&hilit=autores

Unfortunately, I am afraid I cannot be of any assistance if you have questions about the app, walk into problems etc. as all I did was testing for Psychodad. Enjoy the application !

[calcon79]

I have installed autores on my Gen1 using WDLXTV 0.5.8.1 and it seems to be working quite well. I have tried most of my media and it is switching the way I want it to. I guess my only complaint would be that if you were a purist (using TV to unconvert the 480p instead of the WDTV) you might not be too happy since it doesn't seem to auto switch to 480p for my files. I have that in my list but it likes to match 1080p60 before it matches 480p60. I'm ok with that because surprisingly the WDTV does a better job (to my eyes) upscaling the file than my TV does and I have a pioneer Kuro 5020fd which is very good at upscaling. I suppose it's possible that the slight blurring from the WDTV is disguising the artifacts in my compressed video because they seem to go away quite a bit when I set my WDTV to 1080 resolution. If you want absolute control of your resolution and framerate, the filename feature in the config file is working great for me as well. I can get it to switch to both 480i and 480p using that method. For the filename feature, autores will read characters in your filename to determine what resolution/framerate it will use to play the file. It is explained in the config file.

[calcon79]

Ok so I jumped the gun too quickly. It turns out that alot of my video content is 23.976 fps. I did some checking and it turns out that my TV does not support the 23.976 mode. It only supports 24 fps and 60 fps. I found out that my 23.976 fps videos are not being detected as 24p by autores by putting my TV into PC video mode. The only way I can properly detect those files is by using the filename feature of autores. I also found that occasionally my 480p files will be detected as 1080p and not 480p. I noticed that when my menu was 1080i the file would play back as 480p. When my menu is at 1080p, the files do no play back at 480p. This isn't a big deal for me since now I am using my filenames to tell autores what to do. I like this functionality better and I don't mind having to rename my files. I used a commandline program called mediainfo and python to check all my video files and then use the returned framerate and resolution from mediainfo to rename all of my video files. I think a good feature for autores would be to tell it what to do with files that return matches not in the config file list. That way when 23.976 fps is detected, I can choose the next best thing which is 24p. The same would go for when I have 25p content. I feel that this is just an issue with autores functionality, not really a bug. It appears to be working on gen1 just fine.

[Alicia]

BTW, if you want to see why autores switched to a certain framerate /resolution, all you have to do is telnet/ssh in the box and execute the following while the video is playing :

Code: Select all

# cat /tmp/autores.tmp

Then you'll get output like :

Code: Select all

video_file=/tmp/media/usb/USB2/5481-8KFD/Movie.avi
video_format=mpeg4
video_width=688
video_height=384
video_fps=25.000
video_mode_suggested=1080p50
video_mode_choosen=1080p50
audio_mode_choosen=stereo
menu_video_mode=1080p24
menu_audio_mode=stereo

[Alicia]

As I never tried WDTVExt for my Gen1, I downgraded my box from 1.03.01-WDLXTV-0.5.8.1 to 1.02.10-WDLXTV-0.5.6.2 as that older version does support WDTVExt.
Just to test, I tried if autores would also work with this older version. It didn't ; first post updated.

[rimini80]

Hi all,
unfortunately the mediafire link is down.

Could someone please updload the plugin again??

Many thanks!

[Alicia]

Done ! First post updated.