HD PVR and SageTV Client

[alisonnic]

I have an HD PVR which I'm trying to use with SageTV Client. When I try to watch Live TV, I get this message:

There was a Playback Error in playback. Details:
sage.PlaybackException: ERROR (-4,0x80040217):
There was a problem rendering the video portion of the
content for playback.

The same thing happens if I try to play a show recorded by the PVR and SageTV on the client. This error also occurs if I test video playback in the video configuration wizard on the client.

I searched the forum and FAQ and found I need to have a video decoder installed. I first tried installing PowerDVD 6, but that didn't work (it doesn't have an H.264 decoder.)

So I plugged the HD PVR into the client computer (the installer wouldn't work without the PVR connected) and installed the Hauppauge driver and Arcsoft software from the CD. If I understand correctly, this has installed the Arcsoft H.264 encoder/decoder on this computer.

I also entered these settings into the Properties file on the client:

videoframe/aac_audio_decoder_filter=ArcSoft Audio Decoder HD
videoframe/ac3_audio_decoder_filter=AC3Filter
videoframe/h264_video_decoder_filter=ArcSoft Video Decoder

Detailed Setup->Video/Audio->H264 Video Decoder now shows ArcSoft Video Decoder.

However, the SageTV Client still gives the same error message when trying to play live TV, play a recording, or perform the video playback test.

FWIW, Arcsoft Media Theater on the client computer plays the PVR's recordings fine, so it appears that the Arcsoft video decoder has been installed.

What am I doing wrong?

[alisonnic]

Wait. I just found the fddshow H.264 decoder, installed it, and it seems to be working.

[SWKerr]

You should be able to make all the decoder selections in the GUI with the latest versions of Sage. Do you see Arcsoft as an option in Sage? If not you did not get TME installed correctly.

[alisonnic]

Originally Posted by SWKerr

You should be able to make all the decoder selections in the GUI with the latest versions of Sage. Do you see Arcsoft as an option in Sage? If not you did not get TME installed correctly.

No, Arcsoft is not an option in SageTVClient on my client system. Should I uninstall and reinstall SageTVClient? I installed SageTVClient first, then installed the Arcsoft software when I realized I needed an H.264 decoder. Maybe uninstalling SageTVClient and reinstalling it now that the Arcsoft software is in place would solve this problem?

I also should say that although fddshow works, SageTVClient crashes quite often since I started using fddshow. Sometimes it crashes while I'm navigating STVC's menus, sometimes it crashes when STV is transitioning from one live TV show to another at the end of an hour, and sometimes (fairly often) it crashes while I'm just watching something, either live or a recording. I'd say on average it crashes about 4 or 5 times per hour while watching.

So it looks like fddshow is not a very good solution, at least on my system. I'd love to get the Arcsoft decoder working. It works fine on my SageTV server.

[darcilicious]

Originally Posted by alisonnic

No, Arcsoft is not an option in SageTVClient on my client system. Should I uninstall and reinstall SageTVClient? I installed SageTVClient first, then installed the Arcsoft software when I realized I needed an H.264 decoder. Maybe uninstalling SageTVClient and reinstalling it now that the Arcsoft software is in place would solve this problem?

Yes, SageTV client is much happier if the decoders are installed first.

[alisonnic]

Voila! I uninstalled SageTVClient, rebooted, and reinstalled it. Now the Arcsoft decoder appears in STVC's video setup for an H.264 decoding option. I simply selected it, and now the Client is working much better. Only one crash so far, and it was different than those I was getting with fddshow: STVC hung (froze) rather than simply crashing to the desktop. Hopefully that kind of failure will be rare.

Thanks, SWKerr and darcilicious!