Universal Media Server | Forum

Hi

Firstly would like to say i really like this software and hands down the best media server i have used.

Ok i was looking around and trying to find out whether it is possible to some how up scale videos without transcoding?

At the moment i have a lg smart tv and it plays the video files direct stream without any transcoding, however some video files are not in proper ratio or size format e.g. 1920 X 800, this will create black bars on top and bottom which sometimes gets annoying. Now my TV doesn't have an option to scale to 16:9 when played through dlna or usb but has only for inputs e.g. hdmi.

So i wanted to know is there a way that i can force the video file to play 1920x1080 so to remove the black bars without transcoding? (I know i can upscale using transcoding but i notice quality drops down)

Cheers.

Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad you like the program
In general, black bars are a good idea since they stop the image from being zoomed in and/or stretched; black bars are the best way to see the video as it was intended. However it's totally your choice to stretch the image or do anything you want. Maybe try adding these lines to your renderer's .conf file:
Those commands tell the TV to display the video in full screen but we don't transcode the video. Whether your TV pays attention to the command is another thing

SubJunk wrote:Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad you like the program
In general, black bars are a good idea since they stop the image from being zoomed in and/or stretched; black bars are the best way to see the video as it was intended. However it's totally your choice to stretch the image or do anything you want. Maybe try adding these lines to your renderer's .conf file:

Code: Select all

CustomMencoderOptions =-lavcopts aspect=16/9
OverrideFFmpegVideoFilter = setdar=16/9

Those commands tell the TV to display the video in full screen but we don't transcode the video. Whether your TV pays attention to the command is another thing

Thank you for the quick reply, in relation to adding those lines as you mentioned, which render config do i add them in? i tried adding them in "LG-LA6200" since this is what UMS detects my TV as. Now when i added those
lines do i add them anywhere using notepad as this is what i did but still showing black bars?

your further assistance will much be appreciated.

Now that I thought about it some more I don't think it's possible to do what you want to do, sorry. The only option will be to transcode. If you're on a wired connection there shouldn't be any quality loss while transcoding

SubJunk wrote:Now that I thought about it some more I don't think it's possible to do what you want to do, sorry. The only option will be to transcode. If you're on a wired connection there shouldn't be any quality loss while transcoding

ahh had my hopes up there for abit. thats ok, yea im using a wired connection to the TV but i see drop of quality when transcoding, since my files are full 1080p HD.

Anyways really appreciate the help.

To improve the quality, you could go to the General Configuration tab and disable the renderers "LG LA6200" and "LG LA644V" since those renderers need lower quality than other LG renderers. Worth a try Make sure you restart the program after saving the setting too

SubJunk wrote:To improve the quality, you could go to the General Configuration tab and disable the renderers "LG LA6200" and "LG LA644V" since those renderers need lower quality than other LG renderers. Worth a try Make sure you restart the program after saving the setting too

AWESOME You are a LEGEND!!!!, now it plays the same quality as if i were without transcoding. (However i had to untick all the LG renders for it to work, i also notice under "Detected media renders' my tv shows up as a different lg render?)

Sometimes i do get a slight lag on my high bitrated 1080p vids but it only happened once at the start of the movie and seemed not to happen after that (this could be because my cpu is about 6 years old but its a quad core ) will be upgrading my pc soon.


Lastly is there a way to use the fast forward/seek options the same way i can without transcoding? because when i do, it seems to restart the video?

Once again thank you so much for your help

fight2fight wrote:is there a way to use the fast forward/seek options the same way i can without transcoding? because when i do, it seems to restart the video?

Yay glad that worked! Seeking works for me, not sure why it would restart the video. Which version of the program are you using?

SubJunk wrote:

fight2fight wrote:is there a way to use the fast forward/seek options the same way i can without transcoding? because when i do, it seems to restart the video?

Yay glad that worked! Seeking works for me, not sure why it would restart the video. Which version of the program are you using?

i have the latest version 3.6.4, Could it be because of my old quad core cpu? i just with another file and this time it would seek back to where i was at e.g. im watching at 1:00 i try to skip 3 minutes in it just goes back to 1:00 instead of before like restarting?

however i do notice the buffer shoots up crazy when i try to seek and i also tried to increase the "Maximum Transcode" from 200 to 500 and even 1200, but same issue?

You have to have ticked at least one LG renderer if your TV is LG branch otherwise UMS keeps it as unknown renderer and only simply streams all media. If your TV supports the media format you can play them but the else not (transcoding is not working). Also seeking in that case may not work. To help you please follow viewtopic.php?f=9&t=556