Need h.264 help

[eguy]

After a couple of days of going no where I formatted my HTPC and started over.

XP Pro fully updated
AMD X2 - 5000
EVGA Nvidia 8600
Asus M2A-VM

I installed Theater Tek, CoreAVC and FFDshow. I can not play any h.264 content. In Media Player it says it acquired the codec but it shows no video.

When I render the h.264 file in GraphEdit it tells me "Cannot play back the video stream: no suitable decompressor could be found."

I insert the CoreAVC filter and try to put it in the filter graph and I get the error: "These filters cannot agree on a connection. Verify type compatibility of input pin and output pin. No combination of intermediate filters could be found to make the connection. (Return code 0x80040271)"

GSpot tells me that the Codec are not installed but if I open the Configure CoreAVC program it tells me that the codec is installed properly.

Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong....

TIA

Ed

[HawgGuy]

Just a WAG - Sounds like your codecs are not installed properly if Graphedit can't find them. Check the filter merits to see what your system thinks is the preferred codec.

Also, try different h.264 source files.

[eguy]

Originally Posted by HawgGuy

Just a WAG - Sounds like your codecs are not installed properly if Graphedit can't find them. Check the filter merits to see what your system thinks is the preferred codec.

Also, try different h.264 source files.

Graphedit finds the codec but can't use it. GSpot said it is not installed.

I rased the merits on the CoreAVC so that it is the highest in the list but still nothing.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled several times. I Formated the HD and reloaded the OS and then installed a paid for version of CoreAVC and it still does not work. The CoreAVC configuration program said all is good but.

I have two h.264 video samples I downloaded and ESPN2HD from DishNetwork to use and all of them have the same error.

[Patilan]

Just out of curiosity, are you able to get any playback when you set up Sage to use SageTVPlayer?

(Main Menu -> Setup -> Detailed Setup -> Video/Audio -> MPEG4 Playback -> SageTV Player)

[eguy]

I can play all non-h.264 channels and recorded video in Sage... It only seems to be the h.264 stuff that I have problems with..

[HawgGuy]

Can you post a screenshot of Graphedit when you try to render an h.264 media file?

[eguy]

I have attatched the .jpg file

What it shows is the box with the file and the Video connection going to the "CoreAVC Video Decoder" box and the Audio going to the "AC3Filter" box.

Then out from the "CoreAVC Video Deocer" box to the "Video Render" box and the "AC3Filter" going to the "Default DirectSound Device" box

[eguy]

FYI, I can play all the h.264 video in Media Player without a problem so it now seems to be just a Sage issue...

Also Gspot is no longer giving me an error as I loaded the LEAD h.264 codec and it liked it. It is also using the CoreAVC codec depending on which h.264 file I try...

GraphEdit is working without problems now...

I have tried the SageTV Player for MPEG4 with the same error..

[eguy]

GraphEdit showing two different h.264 files...

[Shield]

Originally Posted by eguy

GraphEdit showing two different h.264 files...

This is the type of $hit that drives me crazy. I mean really.

[SpiffyRex]

Hardware/drivers:
Does your Nvidia 8600 video card supports HDCP? Do you have the latest ForceWare drivers? The reason I ask these questions is that if the previous two queries are true, you should have hardware decoding for HD mpeg-2 AND h.264 without the need for any decoder (PureVideo) to enable it. The newer drivers will check if your card (not the chipset since the 7 and 8 GPU families support HDCP) supports HDCP and activate the hardware decoding in the chipset. Nvidia marketing calls it PureVideo HD and claims it off-loads 100% of h.264 processing (not just video acceleration) from the CPU. This was only available on Vista and now in the latest XP drivers too. Note that it's activated at the device driver level, not the codec. I have a 7600GT video card which doesn't support HDCP so can't testify to their claims. There's a sexy XFX 8500GT fanless video card for only $50, but I'm waiting to hear for people to claim success with this chipset since it's quite slower than the 8600GT or GTS.

Software/tweaks:
I assume your SageTV config is using VMR9, DirectShow mpeg4 playback, FSE mode, and 3D acceleration. To get smooth h.264 playback I had to enable all that, make sure SageTV uses the PureVideo decoder included in WinDVD 8, ac3Filter for audio (so I can use SPDIF to an external audio processor/amplifier), and modify the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\FreyTechnologies\Common\DSFilters\MpegDeMux\NumBuffers registry key from 40 to 60 Hex (thanks a LOT HawgGuy for that tip), Tried 80H and A0H but didn't see any improvement and didn't want to get too far away from the default. This is for *my* hardware/software configuration. Yours will be different (and better!) b/s of your graphics card. Currently I get very low CPU utilization for SD and HD mpeg-2 sources, but 80% or more CPU utilization for h.264 playback using an "old" 3Gz P4 single core CPU... Also, in addition to using GraphEdit you might like to turn on SageTV debugging. I learned the hard way that each hardware configuration requires some degree of tuning to get h.264 working, while mpeg-2 SD/HD playback is easy.

[eguy]

Hardware/drivers: I was using the drivers that shipped with the Video card but today I updated them to the latest from Nvidia. (on a side note one of the screen resizing functions that worked with the old driver does not work with the latest driver. I used the monitor control to fix the overscan) The card does support HDCP.

Software/tweaks: I do have all my setting the same as you listed as I needed those setting to get non-h.264 HD content to run smooth.

I loaded Vista Ultra on one of my HTPC's to see if that would make a difference but I have not been able to get it stable yet or run Sage properly. Every time I start Sage it changes my computer time to 4 hours ahead and it sets Sage time to 8 hours ahead. It syncs to the server time, which is correct, but for some reason does not get the correct time. I won't spend much time on Vista as I already want to format the drive and go back to XP. (Did I mention I really hate microsoft)

Also picked up an ATI 2600 card today which I will stick in one of the clients on Monday to see if that makes a difference.

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by eguy

I loaded Vista Ultra on one of my HTPC's to see if that would make a difference but I have not been able to get it stable yet or run Sage properly. Every time I start Sage it changes my computer time to 4 hours ahead and it sets Sage time to 8 hours ahead. It syncs to the server time, which is correct, but for some reason does not get the correct time. I won't spend much time on Vista as I already want to format the drive and go back to XP. (Did I mention I really hate microsoft)

Update your Java to 1.6. If you are using 1.4 or 1.5 in Vista, you will get the time problem in SAge and it will show GMT which is probably +8 hours ahead your time.

[Patilan]

Originally Posted by eguy

GraphEdit showing two different h.264 files...

Where did you get these files anyway?

In your screen shot I saw the file name "WhatBox_720x480_q23.avi", and I did a quick search...

Turns out it is a sample clip from the LEAD Technologies (Vanguard Software?) web site. Further search revealed past discussions on various forums that these clips use an illegal packing of b-frames, which only their own decoder supports. How about that!

If you want, try this h.264 AVI clip, and tell me if you still have the same problem:
http://Y3kLimousine.com/h264test.zip

Yours,
Patilan

[eguy]

Originally Posted by Patilan

Where did you get these files anyway?

In your screen shot I saw the file name "WhatBox_720x480_q23.avi", and I did a quick search...

Turns out it is a sample clip from the LEAD Technologies (Vanguard Software?) web site. Further search revealed past discussions on various forums that these clips use an illegal packing of b-frames, which only their own decoder supports. How about that!

If you want, try this h.264 AVI clip, and tell me if you still have the same problem:
http://Y3kLimousine.com/h264test.zip

Your file seems to work fine in SageTV but it still does not fix my problem. Let's forget about the WhatBox file. The MikeandMike file is a recording from the ESPN2HD channel which is h.264 compressed. I can not watch the video recording and I can not watch the channel in live TV.

I changed the Video card in one HTPC to the ATI 2600 and still have the problem.

On a second HTPC I loaded Vista Ultra and got it stable but I still get the same error.

Here is a section of my debug_log:
c:\TVRecording\MikeandMikeintheMorning-1771252-0.mpg, Seg0[Mon 10/22 8:57:33.729-Wed 12/31 19:00:00.000]]
Mon 10/22 8:57:45.850 DShowPlayer setVideoRendererFilter0({51B4ABF3-748F-4E3B-A276-C828330E926A}) called
Mon 10/22 8:57:45.961 Setting up VMR9 deinterlacing
Mon 10/22 8:57:45.961 Curr Mix Prefs=0x1015
Mon 10/22 8:57:45.962 Set to 0x2015, hr=0x0, New Mix Prefs=0x2015
Mon 10/22 8:57:45.962 DShowPlayer setVideoDecoderFilter0(CoreAVC Video Decoder) called
Mon 10/22 8:57:45.972 Could not add specified video decoder filter to graph hr=0x80070057
Mon 10/22 8:57:45.973 DShowPlayer setTimeshift=1 buffer=0
Mon 10/22 8:57:45.981 NATIVE Loading the source file
Mon 10/22 8:57:45.984 NATIVE Setting up the MPEG demux
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.058 NATIVE RenderAudio called stream=1
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.058 NATIVE RenderAudio step 1
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.058 NATIVE RenderAudio step 2
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.075 NATIVE RenderAudio step 3
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.076 NATIVE RenderAudio step 4
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.323 NATIVE RenderVideo called
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.324 NATIVE RenderVideo step 1
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.324 NATIVE RenderVideo step 2
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.324 Video source pin information:
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.324 PIN is not connected yet!Mon 10/22 8:57:46.329 M type MEDIATYPE_Video S type Unknown GUID Name F type FORMAT_MPEG2_VIDEO
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.329 NATIVE RenderVideo step 3
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.447 NATIVE Video renderer specified was unused
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.447 Exception from line: 587
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.447 Built:sage.PlaybackException: ERROR (-4,0x80040217): There was a problem rendering the video portion of the content for playback.
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.448 sage.PlaybackException: ERROR (-4,0x80040217): There was a problem rendering the video portion of the content for playback.
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.448 at sage.DShowMediaPlayer.setupGraph0(Native Method)
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.448 at sage.DShowTVPlayer.load(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.448 at sage.VideoFrame.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.448 at sage.VideoFrame.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.448 at sage.VideoFrame.access$100(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.448 at sage.VideoFrame$4.run(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.448 at java.awt.event.InvocationEvent.dispatch(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.448 at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.448 at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.448 at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.449 at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.449 at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.449 at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.449 at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.449 VideFrame had an error loading the file. It must abort the file load.
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.449 Tearing down playback graph
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.449 NATIVE Deallocating the CPlayerData object
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.462 processOptionsMenu optionsMenu=default:null|OptionsMenu:ErrorMessage
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.561 NATIVE Finished destroying the playback graph
Mon 10/22 8:57:46.575 VF processing job null nPlayin=false

[jaminben]

I'm a noob at this HTCP stuff so I could be typing complete b***** but below is what I had to do to get H.264 to work with Sage.

In the SageTV properties file change -
always_use_dshow_player=true (was false)

Also add this line to Sage properties file -
videoframe/h.264_video_decoder_filter=CoreAVC

Good luck and hope it works out for you.

Regards

Ben

[eguy]

Thanks for the info. Tried the setting with no luck...

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by eguy

I installed Theater Tek, CoreAVC and FFDshow. I can not play any h.264 content. In Media Player it says it acquired the codec but it shows no video.

I assume you have Haali media splitter installed?

[eguy]

Originally Posted by jaminben

I assume you have Haali media splitter installed?

yes...

This is really getting old. I can play h.264 everywhere except Sage...

[bluenote]

Forgive me if I misread. You can't render in graphedit, but you say you can play 'everywhere else'? Does this include windows media player?

If it does, do file properties while playing and see which codecs are being used. If they are different than what you are trying to get sage to use, then that is an indicator of your problem.

If you can't play in WMP, stop messing with sage and solve your WMP problem first.

If you just want to spray and pray, try installing ffdshow.

good luck

Cory