Compressed TV Shows Won't Play - Help!!

[infocus13]

Guys, I'm hoping someone can help me out here - I am going absolutely insane!

First my problem:

* I record DVB-T shows (Melbourne, Aus) as MPEG2. Live TV and the recorded shows themselves play fine.
* I go to compress the shows to MPEG4 in Sage (I tried MPEG4 Good Quality, High Quality, MPEG4 HDTV, etc).
* Once the show is compressed, I cannot play it in Sage. When I go to play the resulting MP4 file, I get a "-4" error saying that "Sage cannot render the video content for playback" or something similar.
* This happens with all my TV shows compressed to MPEG4 in sage. My other MP4s (i.e. AVI movies, video clips, etc.) play fine.

What does Sage do to these MP4s that it cannot play them?

Now to my specs:

* AMD x2 4200
* ATI HD 2600pro (connected to CRT flat screen via DVI)
* 1.5gb RAM
* Cyberlink PowerDvd 7.2 Ultra
* VMR9
* 3D acceleration on in Sage
* FSE mode ON in Sage

guys, any help would be much appreciated. I recently swapped out my 7300LE for the 2600pro so not sure if thats the problem. I never compressed to MP4 on the 7300LE. I only compressed to DVD Extra Long Play on the 7300LE and that worked fine.

[gplasky]

There's an option in Sage to either have mp4 played by a directshow filter or the Sageplayer. Choose the one that works for you.


Gerry

[infocus13]

Thanks for your reply. I'm running SageMC - is the option to select player in Detailed setup?

I have been through the various detailed setup menus several times and don't remember seeing the option to select player - perhaps I just wasnt paying attention. Do you remember which menu it is in?

I'm at work now so will try this when I get home.

[ke6guj]

Its not a selectable in the menus. YOu have to shut down Sage and manually edit the sage.properties or sageclient.properties files in notepad.

mplayer/use_for_all_mpeg4_playback=false is the line you are looking for. If set to true, it uses the built-in Sage mplayer. If set to false, it uses the directshow filters.

[infocus13]

I see! Will try when I get home tonight. Thanks!

Is there any performance/PQ differences between using mplayer and directshow?

[nielm]

Alternatively, install an XVid decoder. (www.koepi.org)

[infocus13]

Nielm, I already have Xvid installed on my PC - still get that error from my first post. The strange thing is that all my other AVIs play fine.

I know that AVI is only a container, etc. But what is so special about Sage MP4s that my Xvid decoder cant play?

I tried installing ffdshow and the Sage MP4s sort of started to play but then would crash Sage.

Is it something in the filter properties / filter merit that I mucked up (or ATI gfx driver installer mucked up)?

[nielm]

try analysing the file with gspot... it will show you which decoder will be used...
http://www.headbands.com/gspot/

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

Its not a selectable in the menus. YOu have to shut down Sage and manually edit the sage.properties or sageclient.properties files in notepad.

mplayer/use_for_all_mpeg4_playback=false is the line you are looking for. If set to true, it uses the built-in Sage mplayer. If set to false, it uses the directshow filters.

In the latest beta (and also NOT yet not in SageMC setup) you can go to DetailedSetup-Video/Audio and choose either DirectShow or SageTV Player to handle your MP4s. SageMC Setailed setup is not the latest so you would have to go back to SageTV3 (the default) to have access to all the latest settings.


Gerry

[infocus13]

Thanks guys.

I changed the mplayer line to true and yes, all Sage-encoded MP4s now play in sage, yay! Thanks for your help!

I would like to know, why the default config didn't work. In other words, the default config sends Sage MP4s to DirectShow filters & they refuse to play the content - why is that?

Am I taking a hit on my PQ/performance if I get mplayer to play all my MP4s?

[nielm]

Originally Posted by dkatchalov

I would like to know, why the default config didn't work. In other words, the default config sends Sage MP4s to DirectShow filters & they refuse to play the content - why is that?

As mentioned above, try gspot to analyse the file to see which decoders get used.