Transcoding problem with Quest2 / DeoVR

[rpeinl]

Hi there, I'm trying to use UMS 10.4.1 on Windows 10 to stream 360° videos from my PC to my Quest 2 in the local network using DeoVR as a client app. I have video files in MP4 format, different codecs (h.264, h.265, VP9) and in quite a high resolution (4k, 5k, 6k, 8k). If I navigate to the #--transcode--# virtual folder and then play the file with "no transcoding", everything works fine. This is also the only file that shows a proper size. All other transcoding options do not work and show size zero. The problem with this workaround is, that navigation is a nightmare, I cannot simply skip to the next video, but need to go back, back into the next file and then again chose the "no transcoding" option.

My expectation would be to achieve the same playback result, if I click on the file in the normal folder. However, it seems, that UMS tries to transcode by default and has problems doing so (all file sizes are shown as zero). I only get a black screen and sometimes sound but no video. I've tried to disable transcoding globally, but then no files are shown.

My Quest 2 is recognized as a Chromecast device. It might be possible to achieve the desired effect via a custom media render config, but I don't know which values might have the desired effect there. I've tried CustomFFMPEGOption -c copy, but it had no effect. I also increased the MaxVideoBitrateMbps = 50 with no effect.

Copying the video files to the Quest2 device and playing them with DeoVR from the local storage is working fine.

[valib]

@rpeinl first of all we need the log in the TRACE mode. See the https://www.universalmediaserver.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=556. It seems that your renderer is not properly recognised and all video is transcoded. In the WiKi is guide https://github.com/UniversalMediaServer/UniversalMediaServer/wiki/faq#my-device-is-not-supported-by-ums-how-can-i-create-a-custom-rendererconf-to-make-ums-recognize-my-device how to make the renderer.conf. Please try to use it.

[SubJunk]

Closing this as it has gone stale. Please reopen if those logs are added

[threedguru]

@SubJunk This morning, I have been trying to make DeoVR Player work (it is a free one - no surprises - I wanto make UMS 2D to 3D playback work in it - it supports SBS). However, it seems to have a fundamental problem transcoding. As indicated in this issue and the link below it doesn't transcode. It seems to see videos as having zero bytes. I have created a custom renderer file similar to BigScreen/Pigasus and tested it, but none of the TranscodeVideo settings make any difference. Sometimes it plays the video, but the video is a black screen and at other times it says unrecognised format. It plays non-transcoded UMS videos perfectly. There is definitely something odd about how this player is behaving - which has been flagged going back a good while, see here for example as well as the issue raised above. I have attached my log file - with new Custom Renderer DeoVR - t should work:

https://forums.oculusvr.com/t5/Talk-VR/DeoVR-adds-DLNA-and-new-player-UI/m-p/751831

"Been trying to use the DLNA feature a bit this week on a Quest. I'm streaming via Universal Media Server and I don't understand how DeoVR decides if it's able to stream a movie/360 video or not, as UMS thinks it's serving everything up fine, but the screen will just be black for some of the videos. You can tell which ones aren't going to work because they'll simply show 0kb size. What's odd is they do stream perfectly well in Oculus Gallery still, so it's not that the Quest isn't capable of decoding them, it's that the DeoVR app is doing something different that makes it ignore them. Any idea what might be going on?"

_ums_dbg_2022-12-29-14-29.zip

[SubJunk]

@threedguru UMS has some different settings that can help with this, and it will be a matter of trial and error to find the right combination. The 0kb filesize could be a clue - some renderers don't seem to anticipate transcoded video with unknown filesize. We have a way to fake the filesize, see the notes about TranscodedVideoFileSize here https://github.com/UniversalMediaServer/UniversalMediaServer/blob/main/src/main/external-resources/renderers/DefaultRenderer.conf#L334