HDHomeRun video ok but no audio

[dfrumin]

Hi everyone, sorry if I missed this in another thread (I tried searching but nothing popped up). I'm evaluating SageTV and this is the last thing for me to buy so hoping you all can help me get this going.

Setup:
* Windows Server 2003 SP2
* SageTV v6.4.6.180
* STV file set 20080731
* Java Version 1.6.0 (latest)
* DirectX 10 (latest, Mar 08 redist)
* 2 HDHomeRun tuners set to get ClearQAM signals from Comcast cable, updated to the latest firmware and software

I got it to the point where I add a tuner, scan the channels (they match well) and I can tune to a channel. But, when I tune I get:

There was a Playback error in playback. Details: sage.PlaybackException: ERROR (-5,0x80040200): There was a problem rendering the audio portion of the content for playback.

This is independent of whether I tune in channel setup or in live tv watching. In addition, I can set a program to record and it will record, but when I play it back in Windows Media Player there's no audio in it. When I bring up the same program in VLC with the HDHR Setup console I have audio no problem.

I tried changing the Audio Renderer in Setup / Advanced Setup to serveral options (Default, DirectSound, SoundMax which is my card, ...) I tried changing the MPEG2 Audio Decoder filter (Sage's, generic, Default). Neither seemed to have any impact.

One other interesting note for the SageTV folks - it would appear that when the audio playback issue happens the SageTV service keeps recording the live tv feed. I now have 6hrs of recorded material and there's no way to stop it that I can find. I can start ANOTHER recording via the UI or switch the channel, but it keeps going after the audio error. Funny but a bit scary if it's a HD program <g>

I'm sort of stuck here but feel <== this ==> close to having it done. I want to move away from individual PCs doing recording via MCE to having SageTV server do all the recording in one central (and big hard drive) place.

HELP???

thanks,

-dan

[Conejo]

Make sure you have follow the latest install instructions from the Silicon Dust HDHR Forum website, using these installers:

SageTV Media Server Add-in

HDhomerun Windows v20080727

This may be an audio codec issue.
The HDHomeRun receives pre-encoded A/V data-streams and passes that along to SageTV to record to a file. Upon playback, the file gets split (demuxed) into a video and audio segment and decoded for rendering.

I'm assuming that your default audio codec is faulty. You can test this by going into SageTV Detailed Setup > Video/Audio > MPEG2 Audio Decoder Filter and select a specific entry (try the AC3 Filter).

[dfrumin]

Hi Conejo,

Thanks for the tip. I missed the 6.4.7 update and was hoping it would do the trick, but no luck. I already had the latest HDHR software and firmware.

I have three Audio Codecs listed: Default, Mpeg, SageTV Mpeg. None of the three seem to make a difference

Now, here's my confusion - I can see why the decoder is meaningful to watching video live. But why is it necessary when a show is being recorded? That's why I tried the test of recording a program (w/o seeing it live) and then bringing it up in windows media player. It recorded fine but w/o audio. Shouldn't Sage just take the blended stream from HDHR and stuff it to the hard drive w/o any processing? That seems the most perf efficient.

The implication may be that there's an issue with HDHR -> SAGE audio transfer, so maybe in the live tv the audio codec has nothing to look at? Not sure.

Love any help you or others on the forum can provide. I'm sooooo close.

thanks,

d

[Conejo]

If you have an HDHR based SageTV recording, manually launch VLC Player and open/play the .mpg file to verify that it can play back. If it plays audio then this is a OS codec playback issue.

You could try reinstalling DirectX to make sure all of your dshow filters are up to date.