No Video on multiple HD200's

[tinajj]

I currently have 8 recordings. In all but one I have audio but no video (black screen) during playback on both my HD200s. One of the video's does play and others (since deleted) have played as well. The strange thing is all recordings play using SageTV on the computer. I checked the properties on all the files and there is no significant difference other than the date. This has me stumped, why would some recordings playback fine and others have no video. Although it is possible it is unlikely both HD200s would have a hardware problem. Since the videos played fine on the computer, I would doubt there would be something wrong with the files themselves. The media extender firmware and SageTV have the latest versions.

[JParedis]

Although I can't help, I can share my experience. Most of the video's play well on my HD200, but now and then I got one that doesn't play, or only gives sound, or stutters. Until now I just looked for another version of the video, or re-coded it on my PC. As I said, not savy enough to find the source of the issue (although I suspect some codex issue).

Note however that all play find on the PC. I believe, and here a Sage expert should confirm, that on the PC it uses codex/player available on PC. So it's not the same as your HD200.

[Tiki]

Where did the recordings come from (did you record them in Sage, or are they files you got from somewhere else)?

Chances are, there is something corrupted with the files or whatever is creating the files is doing it in a non-standard way that Sage can't recognize.

As mentioned above, PC clients use software decoders that are installed in Windows (sometimes in combination with hardware acceleration in your video card). The extenders have their own hardware-based decoders that are different and may not handle all content in exactly the same way. In this case, the decoders used in the PC may be a little more tolerant of whatever "corruption" exists in these particular files.

If these are files that you imported from somewhere, you may want to try re-encoding them (use some conversion software), or fixing them with a tool like quick stream fix from video redo.

If these are files you recorded in Sage, you are likely to keep experiencing this problem and may want to try to find a way to prevent it. The likely cause would depend on the specific capture device you are using.

For example, I think some others have posted about similar symptoms when using SageDCT with a cable card tuner (HD Homerun Prime or similar) - only happens on certain channels with certain cable providers. It appears to be a problem with the way Comcast is creating the stream. The creator of SageDCT has released some work-arounds to fix the issue.

If you post more detail about the type of capture device used, someone here might be able to point you in the right direction.