AVI files not playing on HD200

[kevandcan]

I'm a new user of SageTV and absolutely love it!
I just received my HD200 extender and am floored by the quality and ease of use (as a side note, I was a bit skeptical that the box could really stream high-def from my computer to it on my 50" plasma, but the quality and speed is amazing. Well done SageTV staff!!).

That being said, I can't get my AVIs to play on the HD200. I downloaded the latest firmware (not beta) and still only show a black screen when it tries to play the AVIs. These AVIs are generated from my Canon PowerShot camera and playback fine on the computer.

Any suggestions?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by kevandcan

I downloaded the latest firmware (not beta)

Be sure to try the beta firmware -- the stickies in this forum list some changes & how to install the beta firmware.

- Andy

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by kevandcan

I'm a new user of SageTV and absolutely love it!
I just received my HD200 extender and am floored by the quality and ease of use (as a side note, I was a bit skeptical that the box could really stream high-def from my computer to it on my 50" plasma, but the quality and speed is amazing. Well done SageTV staff!!).

That being said, I can't get my AVIs to play on the HD200. I downloaded the latest firmware (not beta) and still only show a black screen when it tries to play the AVIs. These AVIs are generated from my Canon PowerShot camera and playback fine on the computer.

Any suggestions?

Keep in mind that an AVI is not video format, it's a container. I think that the video format, in the AVI, for the canon powershot is MJPG, based on what mplayer tells me....

VIDEO:  [MJPG]  640x480  24bpp  30.000 fps  8953.5 kbps (1093.0 kbyte/s)

Do the HD extenders support MJPG video playback?

[kevandcan]

I upgraded the firmware to the latest beta on the HD200 and I upgraded SageTV to 6.5.5. The AVIs play fine in SageTV on my computer, but not on the extender. Any more suggestions? The supporting documentation says AVIs are supported, so I am hoping this is just a configuration issue.

I've attached one of the AVIs that runs fine on SageTV but not on the extender when connected to my SageTV server (MVI_2932.ZIP).

[joelinkup]

Try changing the file extension from *.avi to *.mpg... I am 100% sure that it will still play on your PC... But MAYBE now it will also be recognized and play on the SageTV equipment... I don't have any SageTV stuff but I have used this "trick" with other equipment...

[kevandcan]

Originally Posted by joelinkup

Try changing the file extension from *.avi to *.mpg... I am 100% sure that it will still play on your PC... But MAYBE now it will also be recognized and play on the SageTV equipment... I don't have any SageTV stuff but I have used this "trick" with other equipment...

That may work, but with 100s and 100s of these AVIs, I'd rather not rename all of them...

Any other config settings?

[valnar]

Originally Posted by kevandcan

That may work, but with 100s and 100s of these AVIs, I'd rather not rename all of them...

Any other config settings?

Not really. AVI isn't supported too well because it can be such a bastard of a container. It's also possible that MJPG is not supported, regardless of container. Please try it before doing anything else.

[kevandcan]

Originally Posted by valnar

Not really. AVI isn't supported too well because it can be such a bastard of a container. It's also possible that MJPG is not supported, regardless of container. Please try it before doing anything else.

I renamed the extension on one of the AVIs to .mpg and tried it again. Ran fine in SageTV on my computer, but NOT on the extender. Any other ideas?

[pjpjpjpj]

+1 for kevandcan's issue.

I have never had luck playing AVI movies from my Canon Powershot on my extenders, either. It wasn't a huge deal to me (or I would have posted here months ago), but if anyone knows a solution, I would love to hear it...

[valnar]

Originally Posted by kevandcan

I renamed the extension on one of the AVIs to .mpg and tried it again. Ran fine in SageTV on my computer, but NOT on the extender. Any other ideas?

Yah, send it to Sage. Methinks MJPG video is not supported.

[kevandcan]

Since HD200 is listed as supporting AVIs, I've submitted a support request with SageTV. Thanks,

[valnar]

Originally Posted by kevandcan

Since HD200 is listed as supporting AVIs, I've submitted a support request with SageTV. Thanks,

Don't get hung up on the AVI thing. That has nothing to do with it. You can put MPEG1 and MPEG2 within AVI, and it'll work fine. Let's see what Sage says.

[ltljrt]

Seeing the same here. None of my AVIs will play on HDTheatre.
The time marker will progress through the file, but no audio/video.

VideoLan (v 0.9.8a) info shows:
Stream 0
Codec: MJPG
Language:
Type:Video
Resolution: 640x480
Framerate: 30.000300
Stream 1
Codec: araw
Language:
Type:Audio
Channels: 2
Sample rate: 44100 Hz
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 1411 kb/s
General
Duration: 0:00:01
Meta-Information
Setting: HAS_INDEX

VideoLan will play it but does initially note that:
"This AVI file is broken. Seeking will not work correctly.
Do you want to try and repair it (this may take a long time) ?"

[metapath]

My AVI files play fine on the HD-200. And some of them are from my Canon SD-1000 camera.

Caveat: I don't play these using the SageTV server and HD-200 in extender mode. I play them in standalone mode. I'd be interested if that works for those of you having problems. (And yes, my HD-200s are running Beta firmware.)

[ltljrt]

I'm using the HD200 in standalone mode as well.
The AVIs I've tried were from my Canon-S5IS.
Interesting that your SD-1000 files play without issue.
Metapath - would you mind you posting the codec details of a playable AVI file?

[PAF]

I am seeing the same thing with the AVI files from my Nikon Coolpix 7900. The files will not play on either the HD-100 or the HD-200 but they did play before on the HD-100. They also play on the server.

I am running the beta version on all of the extenders as well as the server.

[metapath]

I'd be happy to post the codec details of my playable AVI files.
Just tell me how to get the info...?
Thx.

[joelinkup]

I recently purchased, for my brother, an HD-200 Extender and an HVR-2250Tuner Card... They are working OK after many hours of playing around... Well there are some issues still but it is coming along... I have MANY movies from a Canon Powershot S3, S5 and A710IS... At this time ALL the AVI movies play OK on the Server (Vista 64) and ALL the AVI movies play OK via the HD-200 Extender at the TV... I even tried the movie that the person posted as an attachment and that also works at both places... I am using the latest Sage software in the server and the latest firmware in the Extender... Why it works I do not know... But it does work... I wish I could be of more help... BUT there is a way... I did nothing special and it just works...

[kevandcan]

FYI - here's the response from Sage Support on the issue:

"This file contains mjpeg which doesn't work on the hd200 in standalone mode.
It should work on the extender mode though but doesn't seem to right now. It is being looked into."

I only really care about extender mode, so hopefully it will be fixed.

[ltljrt]

ok - I have latest beta running, but alas I'm running it in standalone mode.

Metadata - i was using an application called VideoLan to acquire the information on the codec. For future reference, open the file and then type "control-J" to bring up the media's codec details.