Placeshifter can't play back BTV created mpgs

[gveres]

I recently switched to Sage from BTV (used it for 4 years). I have a lot of BTV recorded videos. I used the import method that Brent documented. (1/2 of the videos failed to import but that is a topic for another thread).

Now I have about half of my BTV library in Sage. The problem is that half of those that imported properly don't play. I don't understand why. They were created by the PVR-250 using a VBR profile with a min of 3 Mb/s and a max of 12 Mb/s.

What happens when i try to play them is that the stop dialog box you normally get at the end of the video pops up immediately. I can't do anything to play them. I even tried playing the file from My Videos but that exhibits the same behavour.

Any ideas?

The file plays back fine in all other video playback programs on the same machine.

Thanks
Greg

[Opus4]

Your mention of a "stop dialog" and "My Videos" indicates that you are using a custom STV. When you are having problems, please revert to a default setup to try whatever the issue is that way. It doesn't sound like a custom STV would affect this, but you never know & it is easier to track things down from a base setup. If no one here knows an answer & you contact SageTV tech support, they'll want you to start with a default setup anyway.

You've also mentioned Placeshifter... what happens on a regular SageTV client, or an extender, if you have one?

- Andy

[Brent]

Greg,
Are these standard mpeg files?

Also, as Andy asked: can you play these files in SageTV or SageTV Client? Are you using service mode or not?

[gveres]

Ok, I tried on the HD extender - no joy.
I tried on a mac client (not placeshifter) - no joy.
I tried on the Sage Server (it is now setup as a service) - no joy

Is Sage running as a service? Well, it is as of last night, but it didn't work when it was not running as a service either.

Are these standard mpg files? Well, in the 4 years I have been running this btv setup I have not found a program that wouldn't play them or edit them. So I believe they are standard mpg files.

Does this happen in the "standard" Sage UI? I don't know. I can't locate the file to try in the standard UI. The standard UI isn't showing me any of the imported BTV files. And even though I have specified the directory where they exist as a media folder, Sage ignores 90% of the files in that folder, the problematic one I was using as the test case is one of those files that gets ignored.

Greg

[gveres]

I brought the same problematic mpg into Adobe Premiere Elements and it dealt with it just fine. No warnings that it didn't conform or anything like that.

Greg

[Brent]

Greg,
What codec are you using for playback in SageTV?

[Brent]

Originally Posted by gveres

Does this happen in the "standard" Sage UI? I don't know. I can't locate the file to try in the standard UI. The standard UI isn't showing me any of the imported BTV files. And even though I have specified the directory where they exist as a media folder, Sage ignores 90% of the files in that folder, the problematic one I was using as the test case is one of those files that gets ignored.

Greg

Bear with me here as I'm just trying to understand what's going on in your situation

If the file isn't showing in the standard SageUI, how is it showing in SageMC? Should be the same in both I would think.

Now that I'm reading more on your problems of getting the imported BTV files it sounds like we might want to focus on that first.

Bottom line, you should be able to import the video files and they should show up in your video library EVEN IF it doesn't show up in your recorded TV shows.
Let's pick one particular problem file. First where does this file show up? Is it in the recorded shows or is it in the video library? It really should show up in one or the other.

[gveres]

Originally Posted by Brent

Greg,
What codec are you using for playback in SageTV?

I didn't think I had control over the codec in placeshifter, or for the HD100.

On the mac client, it is whatever is installed by default - same with running it on the server. I don't even know where to change that.

Greg

[gveres]

Originally Posted by Brent

Bear with me here as I'm just trying to understand what's going on in your situation

If the file isn't showing in the standard SageUI, how is it showing in SageMC? Should be the same in both I would think.

I hear you. I would expect the exact same thing. I followed your instructions on how to import the BTV recordings into sage.

At first I noticed that a bunch of them weren't being converted to the sage xml file format because they didn't have a Title keyword. After some digging I realized that this was because these were added files (usually ripped DVDs) so I went into BTV and used the webadmin to give them the necessary database fields like title and series.

Then when I imported them using the webserver for sage, about half of them failed on the import. No explanation is given, they just failed to import. Ok, I thought, something to figure out later.

Originally Posted by Brent

Now that I'm reading more on your problems of getting the imported BTV files it sounds like we might want to focus on that first.

Bottom line, you should be able to import the video files and they should show up in your video library EVEN IF it doesn't show up in your recorded TV shows.
Let's pick one particular problem file. First where does this file show up? Is it in the recorded shows or is it in the video library? It really should show up in one or the other.

Ok, this file is an episode of Stargate Atlantis.

When I run SageMC, it shows up in the recorded shows. I have them listed by title and grouped. So there is a stargate atlantis group and it is listed under there - episode Lifeline.

Using SageMC, it does not show up under My Videos.

without SageMC, it doesn't show up in either location. Without SageMC, none of the imported videos show up anywhere.

The file is located in this directory on my filesystem:
C:\Videos\Greg Local\07- Greg Secondary\Stargate Atlantis-(Lifeline)-2008-03-17-0.mpg

I have added a recording directory to Sage for
C:\Videos\Greg Local\07- Greg Secondary

I have also added a Media Directory for videos for
C:\Videos\Greg Local\07- Greg Secondary

Greg

[Brent]

Okay, thanks for the info. I'm still confused as to why it would not show up in the default when it does in SageMC, but I'm not sure what to do with that fact so I'll ignore that fact for the moment.

Before we worry about whether it will play in Placeshifter or the extenders or the client, lets get it working in the SageTV server PC first.

You said it wouldn't play on your SageTV Server right? Just for informational purposes, is your SageTV Server on XP, Vista, Linux or Mac?
To test, from your server SageTV switch from service mode and re-open SageTV on your server PC. Now find that file and see if it will play in SageTV on your Server PC. If it is playing now, then we'll go to the next step.

Where I'm going with this is I'm wondering if your SageTV service needs to be logged in with a proper username and password. I've had it happen where an update to SageTV that I made "lost" the signon information for the service and therefore I couldn't access any files on shared drives until I opened up services in Windows Control Panel and re-input the username and password into the SageTV service. I don't know if this is the problem, but wanted to eliminate it just in case.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by gveres

After some digging I realized that this was because these were added files (usually ripped DVDs)

You should check the detailed info screen for the videos to see what the format is.

without SageMC, it doesn't show up in either location. Without SageMC, none of the imported videos show up anywhere.

Files imported as recordings are probably archived, so you may need to change the view on the SageTV Recordings menu to "Archives", on the bar above the recordings. (Use FF2/REW2 to easily change views.) All regular imports would be in Media Center -> Videos, then either use the Titles for Folder views. Videos are not filtered, so all imports are listed on one view or the other on that screen.

I have added a recording directory to Sage for
C:\Videos\Greg Local\07- Greg Secondary

I have also added a Media Directory for videos for
C:\Videos\Greg Local\07- Greg Secondary

This isn't going to cause this problem, but I don't recommend making a recording dir also an import dir. Unknown videos in recording dirs will still be imported (but not in the subdirs). I would create the imported video directory tree from a different base path.

- Andy

[gveres]

Guys, thank you very much for trying to help. Unfortunately I have just been swamped with work and I haven't had a chance to get back to this particular problem.



I will at some point.

Thanks again for your help.
Greg