VU+duo2 transcoding capabilities

[hristogo]

Hi,
I am interested in purchasing VU+DUO2 mainly because of its transcoding capabilities. Can someone that have it to confirm the follwing:
1. Is the transcoding absolutly stable?
2. IF my upload speed drop below 5 mbit/s what hapenes? Should i lunch the program again or it restores automatically after the speed is above 5 mbit?
3. If i have a 4g mobile phone and if the download speed varies (above and below 5 mbit), what is hapening? Do i have to relunch or just i am loosing some frame rates?
4. Generraly, what hapenes if i am in a car and i want to watch stream and watch with 5mbit with a 4g mobile phone? Is it stable? If the car is on a go and if i lost the connection is it reconnected automatically by itself?
5. What is the quality of transcoding with 5mbit/s? As i understood it is full hd, but how does it look compared to the original chanell on your tv?
6. Which image is prefferable to have the best transcoding and streaming

Thanks in advance for your time and your answers!
BR,
Ico

[Robinson]

I can't answer all of your questions, especially because I only have experience with Solo2. However, I can answer no.5, at least partly.
Your understanding is wrong. It is not HD, it's not even SD! I don't remember the exact picture size but it is something like 240x400. Also, I'm not sure if 5 mbit/s is available for Duo2. In the case of Solo2, it is up to something like 1 mbit/s. There is certainly more in Duo2 but I'm not sure how much more.

[Trial]

Hi,
1. its stable if the connection is stable
5. it is not full HD it is 640x480 and quality at 5MBit is quite good. It is not so bad starting at 1MBit.

ciao

[hristogo]

Hi,
1. its stable if the connection is stable
5. it is not full HD it is 640x480 and quality at 5MBit is quite good. It is not so bad starting at 1MBit.

ciao

Hi,
Really.....5mbit/s and only 640*480 ????....:mad:
What do you mean with ".....and quality at 5MBit is quite good." ? - how does it look on 50" full hd tv? Is it watchable at all?

[Trial]

Hi,
with 1MBit it is really good watchable in a window at my PC. I did not try 5MBit.

ciao

[Robinson]

I don't think it will be any good on a 50" TV.
1 Mbit/s quality is acceptable but in a small to medium-sized window on a computer screen.

[hristogo]

Ok...i got confused.....what is the resolution of 5mbit/s stream?
...and what is the differance between 1mbit/s and 5mbit/s ?

[Trial]

Hi,
5MBit also 640x480 but very good quality.

ciao

[Johev]

Let me try and answer some of your questions regarding transcoding on the VU+ DUO2. I have one now for almost 2 months and am very pleased with it. I got the 4 DVB-S2 tuner option (or to be more precise the double twin DVB-S2), mainly for the transcoding capabilities. This way my son can watch his baby TV, I can watch the news and my wife can watch whatever she wants while recording something else (even if all the channels are on different transponders).

Now lets stop barging and start answering some of your questions.

If you watch SD channels, than you don't even need the transcoding capability to watch them remotely. A normal SD channels is between 2Mbts and 4Mbts. I have so far not come across any SD channel which would even come close to 4.5Mbts not to mention 5 Mbts. This means that if you choose to watch the SD version of a channel, you don't need to use the 8002 port and ask your device to transcode it on the fly, you can just freely stream it to your device through the 8001 port and the quality is the same as if you were watching it on your TV (the device where you stream it needs to have at least the same resolution as the stream, which almost every newer device has).

Now the stream will be as stable as your internet connection, both you upload at home and your mobile download and latency. This means that if something drops below the bandwidth of the stream, lets say your download speed on your device goes to 2Mbts while the stream is going at about 3.5Mbts (that is the normal average for my SD streams), than you would see some buffering, than lots of pixels and finally when your download speed would improve it would probably just skip the part where you were having some connections problems and the stream would resume with the full quality.

Now if you are watching HD channels, which tend to go from 8-12Mbts (I usually see them at around 10Mbts), than you would need to use the transcode feature of your device. If you set it at 5Mbts, the box will usually output a little more than 5Mbts (not sure why, but I normally get about 5.1 or 5.2), maybe the sound is not counted or something like that. This will mean that your 10Mbt HD stream will be compressed to 5Mbts on the fly, and streamed to you wherever you are. I think the resolution will be the same as the original one, however I need to check that as I have not paid close attention to that detail.

At 5Mbts the quality will be way above the SD quality, thus you should be very pleased with it. The reason I don't use such a high quality streaming is that which mobile data (not sure about your 4G) but in my case, I usually get between 2Mbts and 8Mbts. Thus I prefer to lower the stream to 2Mbts and minimise the buffering to the maximum, and the quality is already very good.

The rest of your questions depend more on the stability of your internet connections (both upload at home and download everywhere), than the capabilities of the box.

I hope I have answered your questions, if yes feel free to press the Thanks button below :)

[hristogo]

Hi,
Thanks a lot for your detailed answer. I have the follwing coments marked below in red colour.



Let me try and answer some of your questions regarding transcoding on the VU+ DUO2. I have one now for almost 2 months and am very pleased with it. I got the 4 DVB-S2 tuner option (or to be more precise the double twin DVB-S2), mainly for the transcoding capabilities. This way my son can watch his baby TV, I can watch the news and my wife can watch whatever she wants while recording something else (even if all the channels are on different transponders).

Now lets stop barging and start answering some of your questions.

If you watch SD channels, than you don't even need the transcoding capability to watch them remotely. A normal SD channels is between 2Mbts and 4Mbts. I have so far not come across any SD channel which would even come close to 4.5Mbts not to mention 5 Mbts. This means that if you choose to watch the SD version of a channel, you don't need to use the 8002 port and ask your device to transcode it on the fly, you can just freely stream it to your device through the 8001 port and the quality is the same as if you were watching it on your TV (the device where you stream it needs to have at least the same resolution as the stream, which almost every newer device has).

Now the stream will be as stable as your internet connection, both you upload at home and your mobile download and latency. This means that if something drops below the bandwidth of the stream, lets say your download speed on your device goes to 2Mbts while the stream is going at about 3.5Mbts (that is the normal average for my SD streams), than you would see some buffering, than lots of pixels and finally when your download speed would improve it would probably just skip the part where you were having some connections problems and the stream would resume with the full quality. OK, but i suppose you can stil transcode them to say to 1mbit/s and to keep the SD quality? What is the format of direct streaming (whitout transcoding) ? Because on my dreambox800HD i have a pure ts stream of approx. 8-10 mbit/s.

Now if you are watching HD channels, which tend to go from 8-12Mbts (I usually see them at around 10Mbts), than you would need to use the transcode feature of your device. If you set it at 5Mbts, the box will usually output a little more than 5Mbts (not sure why, but I normally get about 5.1 or 5.2), maybe the sound is not counted or something like that. This will mean that your 10Mbt HD stream will be compressed to 5Mbts on the fly, and streamed to you wherever you are. I think the resolution will be the same as the original one, however I need to check that as I have not paid close attention to that detail. On my Dreambox800hd i have a pure ts stream of approx. 40mbit/s. I will really appreciate information for the resolution after transcoding and streaming of FULLHD program at 5mbit/s ?

At 5Mbts the quality will be way above the SD quality, thus you should be very pleased with it. The reason I don't use such a high quality streaming is that which mobile data (not sure about your 4G) but in my case, I usually get between 2Mbts and 8Mbts. Thus I prefer to lower the stream to 2Mbts and minimise the buffering to the maximum, and the quality is already very good.

The rest of your questions depend more on the stability of your internet connections (both upload at home and download everywhere), than the capabilities of the box. So, if you have stable upload and good download, you can watch with no problem for 5 hours for example?

I hope I have answered your questions, if yes feel free to press the Thanks button below :)

[Trial]

Hi,
what is so hard to understand when I say 640x480? I checked it. My max on a HD channel was around 20MBit. SD channel are normally, which a few exceptions, MPEG2.

ciao

[Johev]

I was testing it right now and I have to take back my initial thought about the transcoded resolution as @Trial is 100% correct. Every transcoding HD or SD channel just ends up with the same standard 640*480 resolution. My SD channels are usually 720*576 resolution (not transcoded) and HD's are between 1920*1080 and 1440*1080.

So far I have not had an HD channel of 20mbts or above, however I trust you know your data and probably it's just my paid TV. I am Portuguese and subscribe to a Portuguese TV provider MEO, thus maybe they only have lower bandwidth HD channels.

As for the uninterrupted stream I'm not sure about 5h, but I have had 1h streams working just fine. However sometimes it does stop and I need to restart the stream, be it on my Galaxy Note (android phone) with the Vu+ player installed or on my laptop using VLC. Sometimes I just need to press play again as for no apparent reason it stops. No clue why, but not very common.

Good luck with the rest ;)

[sunday96]

I was testing it right now and I have to take back my initial thought about the transcoded resolution as @Trial is 100% correct. Every transcoding HD or SD channel just ends up with the same standard 640*480 resolution. My SD channels are usually 720*576 resolution (not transcoded) and HD's are between 1920*1080 and 1440*1080.

So far I have not had an HD channel of 20mbts or above, however I trust you know your data and probably it's just my paid TV. I am Portuguese and subscribe to a Portuguese TV provider MEO, thus maybe they only have lower bandwidth HD channels.

As for the uninterrupted stream I'm not sure about 5h, but I have had 1h streams working just fine. However sometimes it does stop and I need to restart the stream, be it on my Galaxy Note (android phone) with the Vu+ player installed or on my laptop using VLC. Sometimes I just need to press play again as for no apparent reason it stops. No clue why, but not very common.

Good luck with the rest ;)

I seem to be having issue with my Vu+ Player installed on my SG4. I can stream a SD channels but I get error each time I tried to stream HD channels via the S4, it just says the video cannot be played irrespective of the player (MX Player Pro, Samsung Video Player, etc) I am using for streaming....

I have also tried dreamdroid but still no joy.

Were you able to stream HD channels via android devices? If so, what app are using?

Cheers

[abdell67]

hi all
i have also problems watching my duo2 when i'm away :mad:
when i try to connect with my note 10.1 tablet via vu+ player it says that he can't connect
i think that the problem is related to the settings ( but i don't know how to do it )
i stream when i'm in the same network without any problem ( i have 40 mb connection )
but outside :confused:
can anyone help me ???

[hristogo]

Hi,
I have blackhole 2.0.7.3. installed on my new VU+DUO2. and i have the follwing problem with transcoding:
-I have opened both ports (8001 and 8002transcoding) and i have the streams working on both ports. I am trying to stream and transcode an FullHD chanell. I left the reciever working and from external location i managed to open both of the streams whitout problems with VLC and with WMP. Unfortunatelly i see no transcoding working. Both streams are with parameters: h.264, 1920x1080, 25 fps, Bitrate 4000-15000 kbit/s. I have tried to change the parameters on the reciever (bitrate, fps) but without sucess. It looks like both streams are absolutelly indentical.
Why transcoding feature is not working? Do i need to install some plugin? Is it possible the reciever to have a defect and can not make transcoding? Why the natural stream is in h.264 format? I though all natural sterams in general from any linux sat. reciever is in ts format?

Please help, as i start to think, that i have to replace the reciever!
Thank You!

[Trial]

Hi.
TS is a container and can contain mpeg2 (SD) or h264 (mainly HD). Transcoding should work and reduce Bitrate. I do not know BH but perhaps try latest 2.08 and ASK in their board.

Ciao

Gesendet von meinem Nexus 4 mit Tapatalk

[AJT]

Hi,
I have blackhole 2.0.7.3. installed on my new VU+DUO2. and i have the follwing problem with transcoding:
-I have opened both ports (8001 and 8002transcoding) and i have the streams working on both ports. I am trying to stream and transcode an FullHD chanell. I left the reciever working and from external location i managed to open both of the streams whitout problems with VLC and with WMP. Unfortunatelly i see no transcoding working. Both streams are with parameters: h.264, 1920x1080, 25 fps, Bitrate 4000-15000 kbit/s. I have tried to change the parameters on the reciever (bitrate, fps) but without sucess. It looks like both streams are absolutelly indentical.
Why transcoding feature is not working? Do i need to install some plugin? Is it possible the reciever to have a defect and can not make transcoding? Why the natural stream is in h.264 format? I though all natural sterams in general from any linux sat. reciever is in ts format?

Please help, as i start to think, that i have to replace the reciever!
Thank You!

This is for vix image problems..try vu+/blackhole for image elated problems orrr flash VIX.

[judge]

This is for vix image problems..try vu+/blackhole for image elated problems orrr flash VIX.

No, we support all images as much as we can, it's just that most of us here use ViX.

[danivtec]

Vu+ drivers are still not working fully with the transcoding function. It's not working at all with the latest drivers by the look of it and was hit and miss before that.

[Tkr001]

Yep, its crappy drivers. VU+ have really cocked this up and need to get their act together. I spent good coin on a Solo2 and a Duo2 and neither will transcode to my mobile devices any more.

[alomgir371]

Hi Guys,

I was thinking of upgrading to the Duo2 but was wondering if you knew whether this driver issue for transcoding has been resolved?

Thanks

[Trial]

Hi,
for Duo2 transcoding is working. I think only Solo2 has problems at the moment.

ciao

[Tkr001]

Not on my duo2 it isn't

[judge]

It's working on current test builds, also working on the Solo2.

[Tkr001]

It's working on current test builds, also working on the Solo2.
Great, I am holding my breath for VIX 4 to be released :)

[avinitski]

Are the latest drivers released inbuilt in the new OpenVix Zeus image?

[Rob van der Does]

Yes .

[avinitski]

I believe that in order to use transcoding the default port 80 must be used and no authentication can be set, if this is a driver issue from VU+ I feel almost cheated into spending so much money on a box and all that bloody advertising they do that this is THE streaming device.

I have to use build 753 of Vix as this is the only build that I feel streaming works to a satisfactory level.

If it is drivers then are there different drivers from build 753 to Zeus? Can the old drivers not be imported into Zeus?

[Rob van der Does]

Transcoding works fine on Zeus.

[Johev]

Transcoding works fine on Zeus.

Dear Rob van der Does, does zeus also support double transcoding for the DUO2?

Many thanks for your reply.

[Rob van der Does]

You mean using two different transcodings at the same time? I don't know that,

[Johev]

You mean using two different transcodings at the same time? I don't know that,

Thanks for your honest reply. Just to let you know that black hole team has that capability since 2.0.8 I think.

[Rob van der Does]

BH (and VTi for that matter) can't be compared to ViX. They have an easy job, as they simply use VU's image and add some plugins and a skin.
We have to figure out how VU's options work, how we can embed them and we quite often have to work around their (driver related) issues.

[Trial]

Hi,
it seems to work. I just watched one channel on TV, one transcoded on my PC and another one transcoded on my tablet. I cannot check with which settings as VLC on Android does not give me that information I think.

ciao

[avinitski]

Transcoding works fine on Zeus.

Personally speaking i wouldn't say its working fine when you have to use port 80 with no authentication, that's not fine by me but im sure its fine for others.

[Rob van der Does]

OK, as you wish: then transcoding is not working fine for you. It is for me; why would a fixed port bother me? And web authentication only adds seeming, and no real security.

You can always want more then you get; anyway we can't change things as they are in the hands of the VU-driver devs.

A little bird told me that VU is about to launch an updated version of the transcoding facilities. Who knows what that will bring us.

[avinitski]

OK, as you wish: then transcoding is not working fine for you. It is for me; why would a fixed port bother me? And web authentication only adds seeming, and no real security.

You can always want more then you get; anyway we can't change things as they are in the hands of the VU-driver devs.

A little bird told me that VU is about to launch an updated version of the transcoding facilities. Who knows what that will bring us.

i hope my post didnt come across like i was being an arse cos that was not my intention, sometimes its hard to know how somebody is coming across just over text on a forum, i appreciate what you people do for the Vix image, basically offering a fantastic free service and i like many others truly appreciate the time and effort that goes into coding\building\testing each build of vix, i work for a software company and i know what can go into even a small update.

i also appreciate the issue is out of your hands as the issue is driver related, i think part of my issue is that there are options available that are useless for me as they dont work, port and authentication, personally i would like these options for my own reasons and i do not "expect" them or demand them, i just see it as a shame they don't work properly.

:thumbsup:

[finbarr]

Personally speaking i wouldn't say its working fine when you have to use port 80 with no authentication, that's not fine by me but im sure its fine for others.

Set up a VPN then. Opening port 80 isn't the only option...