cant play anything but mpg

[pboodi]

Hi..

I am a long tine user of sage but have not found out yet how to get the playback feature to play anything but what sage records. Such as podcasts and such. I would think somthing like a wmv would play but it does not. Can anyone give me any ideas to try.

thanks
pboodi

[infocus13]

Originally Posted by pboodi

Hi..

I am a long tine user of sage but have not found out yet how to get the playback feature to play anything but what sage records. Such as podcasts and such. I would think somthing like a wmv would play but it does not. Can anyone give me any ideas to try.

thanks
pboodi

In detailed setup, under video options, change the video player (or similar) from directshow to SageTV Player and see if that helps.

Or make sure you have the right codecs installed on your PC to play al your media files (i.e. xvid for mp4s, etc.)

Hope this helps.

[pboodi]

hello...dkatchalov

Thank you for the reply. I am using sage tv version 6. and I don't see video player, direct show or sage tv player anywhere in the detailed setup. I see video/audio and I see "video render" ,"Mpeg2 video decoder", etc, but nothing you described.

I have installed vlc and it plays the videos fine. but I'm not sure if that qualafies as codec support.

pboodi

[Patilan]

Originally Posted by pboodi

I am using sage tv version 6. and I don't see video player, direct show or sage tv player anywhere in the detailed setup...

Setup -> Detailed Setup -> Video/Audio -> MPEG4 Playback -> SageTVPlayer

[pboodi]

Setup -> Detailed Setup -> Video/Audio ->

1) VideoRender

2) Mpeg2video Decoder Filter

3) DXVA MPEG Mode

4) DXVA Deinterlacing

5) DScaler Deinterlacinf filter

6) Audio render

7) Mpeg2 Audio Decoder Filter

8) Audio Playback delay

Sorry no Mpeg4 playback and no sage tv player

Maybe configuring the hauppauge card for playback has somthing to do with it.

[Patilan]

Which version of Sage are you running?

[gplasky]

Use the default SageTV3.xml. You're either using an older version or another STV like SageMC.

Gerry

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by Patilan

Which version of Sage are you running?

+1. What version? YOu mention V6., is that 6.0, 6.1, or 6.2? Not sure when the "MPEG4 Playback" setting got added.

[elaw]

Don't think that setting was added until 6.2.

I think there might have been a setting in the properties file that accomplished the same thing on older versions?

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by elaw

I think there might have been a setting in the properties file that accomplished the same thing on older versions?

Yup, mplayer/use_for_all_mpeg4_playback=
set to false and it uses your installed directdraw codecs. Set it to true, and it uses Sage's mplayer with its built-in codecs.

[pboodi]

I believe It is Sage MC and version 6.0.13.1..... SageTV3.xml.....Is supposed to only work with 6.2.8 and above. and I dont have any mplayer to set to true...

Thanks guys for the feedback.

I'll solve this If I can keep chipping away at it.

[ke6guj]

If you are talking about the splash screen on startup, it says "SageTV Media Center Version 6".

It looks like V6.0, 6.1, and 6.2 all have the same splash screen. Go to Setup and look for the Software Version. that will tell you what version you have. Path should be Setup>Help>System Information if using the default UI.

SageMC is not SageTV Media Center, it is an alternate User Interface that you can add to SageTV Media Center to make it look more like Windows Media Center Edition.

If you are running V6.0 or 6.1 and don't wan't to upgrade to V6.2, then shut down sage completely (service too, if used) And mod the sage.properties and/or sageclient.properties files to adjust the mplayer/use_for_all_mpeg4_playback= line.

[pboodi]

I'M not opposed to upgrading. SageMC is the only thing I installed so I don't understand how it works but it does somewhat. So If I understand my choices are to upgrade or edit the sagetv properties file.

The only two lines concerning mplayer in the properties file are

mplayer/audio_renderer=dsound
mplayer/color_key=65552
mplayer/enable_video_postprocessing=false
mplayer_debug=false

[ke6guj]

I'd make sure you are using the Default UI for all you adjustments, but you mentioned the Setup -> Detailed Setup -> Video/Audio -> and SageMC doesn't have the Video/Audio menu screen.

I dunno why you don't have the mplayer/use_for_all_mpeg4_playback= line in your .properties files. YOu may be able to add the line in with Sage shut down, but I'd say first, confirm what version you are running, and then upgrade to V6.2 if need be. If already at 6.2, maybe uninstall and reinstall Sage and see if that helps. Make sure you back up your Sage folder before hand and your wiz.bin file in particular.

[pboodi]

Ok...Thanks to all who responded....sorry for the delayed response.

I upgraded to 6.2.10 and I have a line for Mplayer. Im assuming Jack meant to set the following line to true since he indicated "

if you are running V6.0 or 6.1 and don't wan't to upgrade to V6.2, then shut down sage completely (service too, if used) And mod the sage.properties and/or sageclient.properties files to adjust the mplayer/use_for_all_mpeg4_playback= line.

I'll post back if it works

[ke6guj]

Yup, if mplayer/use_for_all_mpeg4_playback= is set to true, then it will use mplayer for playback with mplayer's built-in codecs. If it is set to false, then it will use any of you installed directdraw codecs for playback.

SO, set it to true and see if it helps.

Actually, now that you have upgraded to 6.2.10, see if you can change the mplayer setting via the UI with the Setup -> Detailed Setup -> Video/Audio -> MPEG4 Playback -> SageTVPlayer path.

[davephan]

What type of hardware are you using?

I am using MVPs to playback compressed video formats such as MPEG2, Xvid, MPEG4, and other formats.

Dave

[pboodi]

Hi again and thanks for resop0nding

I have set the mplayer line to true. but have noticed that the codecs in mplayer aren't all updated. I increased the update interval to daily.

I have run some tests with another computer. Both have mplayer11 the non sage computer will play most of the files I would like to play. I'm still waiting for the sage computer to update the codecs for mplayer.

Is there something I can do about the files that wont play? The files are the same format as the ones that DO play, such as wmv,avi etc. But they are older versions of the working format, such as wmv,avi etc...

as for the hardware I'm using

Video capture -hauppauge pvr350
Video playback - hauppauge pvr350
computer- pentium base with 1 gig of ram

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by pboodi

. but have noticed that the codecs in mplayer aren't all updated. I increased the update interval to daily.

huh? Not aware of any update interval for sage's mplayer. You only get updates to Sage's mplayer during new Sage releases. YOu can't substitute an newer mplayer build in place of sagetranscoder.exe and expect it to work.

I have run some tests with another computer. Both have mplayer11 the non sage computer will play most of the files I would like to play. I'm still waiting for the sage computer to update the codecs for mplayer.

Thats because Sage doesn't use mplayer11, it uses its own mplayer build.

Is there something I can do about the files that wont play? The files are the same format as the ones that DO play, such as wmv,avi etc. But they are older versions of the working format, such as wmv,avi etc...

I'd probably put in a support ticket with the info on what videos play and what don't and what codecs they were made with.

as for the hardware I'm using

Video capture -hauppauge pvr350
Video playback - hauppauge pvr350
computer- pentium base with 1 gig of ram

Not sure if playback on the 350 has anything to do with it. I thought that the 350 could only output mpeg, nothing else.



edit: I meant SageTVPlayer.exe is mplayer instead of SageTVTranscoder.exe

[davephan]

Originally Posted by pboodi

Hi again and thanks for resop0nding

I have set the mplayer line to true. but have noticed that the codecs in mplayer aren't all updated. I increased the update interval to daily.

I have run some tests with another computer. Both have mplayer11 the non sage computer will play most of the files I would like to play. I'm still waiting for the sage computer to update the codecs for mplayer.

Is there something I can do about the files that wont play? The files are the same format as the ones that DO play, such as wmv,avi etc. But they are older versions of the working format, such as wmv,avi etc...

as for the hardware I'm using

Video capture -hauppauge pvr350
Video playback - hauppauge pvr350
computer- pentium base with 1 gig of ram

Pboodi,

You need a Hauppauge MVP if you want to playback compressed video formats. The PVR 350 will only playback MPEG2 files. I compress most of my video from MPEG2 to Xvid AVI. The files are 20% of the original size and still look good. When I started using video compression, I had to playback my AVI files on my computer screen, since my PVR 350 can't play them back. I bought one MVP, and it works great to playback compressed video. I later bought a second MVP because I got tired of moving the MVP around the house.

How fast is the CPU? I had an Athlon XP+ 2800, which is barely fast enough to playback the AVI files without stuttering. Once in awhile the video would stutter. When my Athlon XP+ 2800 system died, I had to switch to an older Athlon XP+ 2100, which had severe AVI playback stuttering problems.

My old XP+ 2800 had to transcode MPEG2 files into Xvid AVI files during off hours (to avoid stuttering playback), or I transcoded video with an older second computer. The newer 3.0 gig dual core system can playback compressed video and transcode MPEG2 into Xvid AVI files at the same time, with no playback problems.

So, compressing video all boils down to needing a faster CPU to save on disk space. You also need that better CPU if you want to playback files that someone else already compressed.


Dave