Please help! Somehow I screwed up Overlay...

[popechild]

I seem to have screwed up something on my Sage server and I'm hoping someone will have an idea for how to fix it. Basically, I get a PlaybackException error any time I try to use Overlay as my renderer. A quick summary:

I had installed a trial of PowerDVD and dediced to uninstall it. At the same time, I went ahead and uninstalled a bunch of other programs I rarely use to try to cut down on bloat. I don't *think* I uninstalled anything at that step, but then when trying to uninstall PowerDVD, it erased the PowerDVD entry from "Add/Remove Programs" but didn't actually remove or uninstall the program. So I did it manually, including removing all entries that contained "cyberlink" or "powerdvd" from the registry.

Somewhere in the process I screwed something up with Sage. When I tried to go in and watch tv/dvds/videos, I kept getting the old PlaybackException error. After playing around with a bunch of settings, I've learned this much: Shows playback without the error if I have my video/dvd renderer set to Default or VMR9, but I get the playback error when it's set to Overlay.

This is a big problem for me, because I only have HD channels, and my computer's not quite fast enough to playback using VMR without stuttering. And I don't know what "default" means, but it stutters just like VMR does. It's always played back perfectly using Overlay though, so I need to be able to keep using Overlay.

Is there anything I can try to do to "fix" the overlay rendering? I honestly don't know enough about renderers to know what would cause it to not work, but until I get the figured out I have no tv at all that doesn't stutter horribly.

Thanks so much!

[GKusnick]

My advice would be to revert to a System Restore point from before you installed PowerDVD and started messing around manually in the registry.

[popechild]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

My advice would be to revert to a System Restore point from before you installed PowerDVD and started messing around manually in the registry.

Yeah, that was attempt #1, but for some reason there are no system restore points for me to go back to. I wasn't happy to find that out, and I can't say I understand why. I had exported my entire registry before making any changes and tried to import that when I saw that there were problems, but that didn't seem to help.

I also tried to do a repair of Sage, then a full re-install. Same issue. So I'm guessing it's something outside of Sage itself - something that Sage relies on for instance. Since I don't know how this stuff really works, it's hard for me to guess at it well, but is there a way to "re-install" the overlay capabilities of my system in general if those have somehow been corrupted? Would re-installing/updating the nVidia video drivers have anything to do with this?

[Apap]

Originally Posted by popechild

Would re-installing/updating the nVidia video drivers have anything to do with this?

That would be my first guess.

[popechild]

Originally Posted by Apap

That would be my first guess.

Okay, re-installed the nvidia drivers that were working great for me before, but still get the same PlaybackException error whenever I try to play dvds or live/recorded tv using the overlay renderer.

[GKusnick]

Were you using PureVideo before the PowerDVD fiasco? If so, try reinstalling that.

Or if you have a recent backup of your system, try restoring the System State.

If you have no backups or restore points of any kind, and you can't fix it any other way, you could get out your Windows XP CD and try running the installer in Repair mode. But this is likely to undo months or years of Windows Updates, so you'd really rather have backups.

[popechild]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Were you using PureVideo before the PowerDVD fiasco? If so, try reinstalling that.

Or if you have a recent backup of your system, try restoring the System State.

If you have no backups or restore points of any kind, and you can't fix it any other way, you could get out your Windows XP CD and try running the installer in Repair mode. But this is likely to undo months or years of Windows Updates, so you'd really rather have backups.

I've tried re-installing PureVideo, as well as upgrading to the latest nVidia drivers to no avail. And unfortunately, the last full system backup I have was long ago enough that it won't do a ton of good at this point. My backup software's been having its own problems since then with a bug that's prevented me from doing the regular backups I had been doing.

Are the windows updates the only real hassle with running the repair mode? I don't mind redownloading and installing months of Windows Updates if it gets everything else running properly again. Or could running the repair disc cause other issues I'm not thinking about?

[popechild]

An update: Somehow in the process of uninstalling/updating/reinstalling nVidia drivers/PureVideo/DirectX/etc., I've ended up in a situation where now Default gives the same error as Overlay (in the video renderer setting). For all I know, this could mean that I've somehow changed my system's "default" setting from VMR to Overlay - but if I did, I have no idea how that happened, or how to change it back.

So basically, now VMR9 plays back - but not without the stutters I've always had with VMR9 - and both Overlay and Default give the playbackException error. I guess I'm off to try the XP Repair disc...

EDIT: Nevermind. After a reboot, "Default" now plays back just like VMR9, so it's still just Overlay - the one I need to work - that has a problem.

[popechild]

Well, my recorded tv files playback silky smooth in WMP, so I assume that means WMP's using Overlay? (Either that, or somehow it's able to use VMR and get smooth playback where Sage is not.) If WMP can use Overlay, why can't my Sage?

Like I mentioned before, I don't know enough about this stuff to know what that means, but maybe it'll help someone help me debug this. (I've submitted a ticket to support as well...)

[camus]

Grabbing at straws here...
In Sage do you have 3D Acceleration enabled? I always get a playback exception error if I try to use Overlay with it enabled.

[popechild]

Originally Posted by camus

Grabbing at straws here...
In Sage do you have 3D Acceleration enabled? I always get a playback exception error if I try to use Overlay with it enabled.

I've tried it both ways. I'm *fairly* certain that I've tried about every combination of settings I can come up with on the renderer/decoder/3d/fse combos. The only constant across every test is that dang playbackException if the renderer is set to overlay. (That goes for the video renderer or dvd renderer.)

WMP plays back fine in Overlay though, so it's not as if "overlay is broken" on my machine, if such a thing is even possible...

[Tander]

I hate to say this but you really need to try re-installing the Cyberlink Powerdvd. I run in Overlay mode with very good HD, but I'm using the Cyberlink decoders...

Tander

[OttoNP]

I also can't use overlay if FSE is on. FSE is full screen exclusive mode....

[popechild]

Originally Posted by Tander

I hate to say this but you really need to try re-installing the Cyberlink Powerdvd. I run in Overlay mode with very good HD, but I'm using the Cyberlink decoders...

Tander

I'll give it a shot, but I've been using Overlay for a year before installing the PowerDVD trial with no problems, which is part of what's strange.

And thanks OttoNP, but I'm definitely not running FSE...

[popechild]

Good news! Re-installing the PowerDVD trial fixed the problem, even though I'm not actually using the PowerDVD decoder... strange...

Anyway, I guess I'll just leave it on the machine as bloatware and hope nothing changes when the trial ends...

Thanks for all the help!

[Tander]

Glad to hear that helped. My guess is that when you removed the PowerDvd, another decoder that wasn't compatible got "promoted" up the filter chain. Everytime you install a software package with encoders etc., they get assigned the highest priority level, and when Windows loads, it looks for the highest priority filters to use.

While I'm a fairly new user, I've had to learn the hard way, by using graphedit, etc.,..., and seeing what filters I am actually using.

If it happens again, you should take a look at the thread called "How I solved my VMR9 and stuttering..." even though you are using Overlay. It has some excellent info on using graphedit, and filter priorities...

Tander

[popechild]

Originally Posted by Tander

Glad to hear that helped. My guess is that when you removed the PowerDvd, another decoder that wasn't compatible got "promoted" up the filter chain. Everytime you install a software package with encoders etc., they get assigned the highest priority level, and when Windows loads, it looks for the highest priority filters to use.

While I'm a fairly new user, I've had to learn the hard way, by using graphedit, etc.,..., and seeing what filters I am actually using.

If it happens again, you should take a look at the thread called "How I solved my VMR9 and stuttering..." even though you are using Overlay. It has some excellent info on using graphedit, and filter priorities...

Tander

Yeah, thanks for the help. Although I think it was more than just re-orders filters, because I uninstalled and re-installed PureVideo multiple times to make sure it was still primary, and can tell it's not using the PowerDVD stuff now. Oh well, I guess it uninstalled something more "foundational" accidentally, but at least it's working again now!

[Tander]

Good point... you would have thought the purevideo would have the priority... but glad it's working again...

Tander