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[dreandre]

The Issue:

Something when using Media Center is killing my computer.  Need help trying to find the issue.

The Symptoms

While watching video, converting video, or tagging video, I lose video on all monitors.  I can still hear audio for about 5 seconds more, and then the audio begins to glitch/loop.  The sound is like and electronic short but it happens about every second. 

When this occurs, my only option is to hard start my computer.

What have I done so far...

I also use Adobe products and so I used products one at a time to see which product causes the crash.  I narrowed it down to Media center.  This issue has happened while performing multiple tasks, but I was able to recreate the issue consistently today using converter.  I attached a picture of the files I wanted to convert.  I attempted the convert 5 times and each time it crashed my computer.

My Thoughts

I though it might have something to do with my video card, which is a AMD.  I've usually had nVidia cards and I don't think this has ever happened with any previous video card.  I've attached a picture of the video card details.

I also wonder if it has to do with corrupt files, damage, or rights management issues.  I have a variety of different videos and different formats and I spend a lot of time organizing, converting, and tagging media.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts you might have.

[wer]

That has all the hallmarks of a driver issue.  I've seen that looping audio issue many times (not just in the context of MC) and it was always audio drivers, which in your case is the video card.

I would definitely try a very different set of video drivers. Not just the next version up or down; move by months or a year.

If I were going to do this, I would image the system first with something like Macrium Reflect, so that I could easily roll back like nothing had happened if I didn't like the result.

There are certainly other possibilities besides the driver, but that's what sounds most likely to me.

Good luck.

[dreandre]

OK so I have followed the driver advice and I still get the same problems.  Currently, I have the most up to date drivers installed for my video card as well as my audio card.

What are further ideas that could be causing this issue?

Thanks!!

[stevemac]

Similar symptoms to an issue I had a couple of years ago with an AMD card.  Turned out the video card was dying.  Initially only occurred when putting it under load, but it got progressively worse / more frequent.  Replaced the card and the issue disappeared

Steve

[dreandre]

Similar symptoms to an issue I had a couple of years ago with an AMD card.  Turned out the video card was dying.  Initially only occurred when putting it under load, but it got progressively worse / more frequent.  Replaced the card and the issue disappeared

Steve

I think you might be right Steve.  But there is one more thing that i want to ask about. 

Previously, I couldn't duplicate the error except when using MC, but I have now been able to create the error in Adobe Media Encoder.  I think it might have something to do with trying to convert a file .m4v.  Is there any connection to that file type when it comes to video conversion errors?

[wer]

It doesn't have anything to do with converting per se.

To do anything with a video file, it must be decoded. So for playback, it is decoded (decompressed), rendered into a frame buffer, and the video card displays the frames.

Conversion is the same, but with an extra step. The source file is decoded, into a raw format, and then re-encoded to something else. That file is saved and called a conversion. And once it has been decoded, it doesn't matter what the source format was: that doesn't affect the re-encoding.

If a file cannot be converted, it's because it cannot be decoded properly.  There might appear to be exceptions, but this is because the garbage data that exists in the failed decode causes errors during the re-encode, but escapes notice during playback. Or the conversion software could have a bug.

But the bottom line is any file that can be decoded can be played and/or converted. A file that cannot be decoded correctly cannot be played or converted correctly.

Some video drivers have hardware accelerated transcoding (transcoding = decode then re-encode) and those drivers or even the chip could have a bug.  So it can make it difficult for a user to determine whether the file is bad or the conversion software is bad, if hardware acceleration is being used.

Have you tried converting using Handbrake, with hardware acceleration disabled?

[dreandre]

Wer, what a phenomenal answer!

What you describe reconciles ALL of the experiences that I've been having....  Where converting would cause the problem, but every once in an while playback would catch it and cause the problem.  Decoding, encoding, and transcoding... I've never had anyone explain that so simply.

I will follow your suggestion with Handbrake, and I will follow up in a week or so and let you know how many issues if any I've had after following this suggestion! 

Thank you!!!

[wer]

That's generous of you to say, but honestly I don't think it was that great of an answer. I was just clearing up a misconception.    It doesn't really solve your problem.

I'm having difficulty in seeing how the problem you describe in your original post, where all your monitors go black, is connected to what you describe in Reply #4, about Adobe Media Encoder.

Are you saying that when you convert something in AME, that all your monitors go black?  And that you can reproduce this behavior at will with specific files?  I would find that surprising.

If that were true, I would have to suspect that you are doing hardware accelerated decoding or encoding in AME, and that that is triggering some bug in your video driver or fault in your video card.  I could even think of a contrived explanation where doing all that work pushes the temperature on the video card too high, and it flakes out.  But I would expect that behavior to also occur if you play 3d games on that computer. Do the fans on the card work? You might monitor the temperature on the card.  But I would still favor a fault in the driver or the card.

You said you tried the "latest" driver, but that wasn't really my original advice. The latest driver is not necessarily the best. Bugs get introduced, and stay for a while.  I would try a driver that's a year old. Or I would try the release of the driver that was current when your model of card was first released.

You can also of course try disabling hardware acceleration in MC. You know that option is currently enabled because you show it in your screenshot.  That might avoid a problem, but it won't really cure it if it also occurs when using Adobe Media Encoder.

[dreandre]

Hey Wer!

 Thanks for your response... I haven't yet done my due diligence yet in following up with the feedback you have given me... but now there a new wrinkle.....

So today i had the video issue kill my computer twice in the span of 15 minutes.  This time, I was not doing any work whatsoever with files.  It caused me to believe that my video card must be going bad.  I disconnected my computer and restarted it, and decided to check the error logs in the event viewer.  Here is the attachment of the event at the time that my computer died this morning...

from my limited knowledge, it looks like the issue might be coming from my Plex server that is running in the background...  Plex Transcoder.exe and decoder.dll...

I also found the transcoding settings in Plex and I unchecked "use hardware-accelerated video encoding".  I will also do that in Media Center and in AME.  Does this change or add anything to your ideas so far?  I will give a response to your last set of inquires in a few days.  But for now, does this change anything seeing this event log?

[tij]

It would be more productive for you to seek answers related to Plex issue in Plex forum ... as people there are more familiar with that product ... and Plex developers can address any bug if one is identified

That beeing said ... you should tick hardware decoding/encoding where possible in Plex setup ... transcoding is very CPU intensive process ... and offloading decoding to GPU helps a lot if hardware supports it.

EDIT: and since you tick "HDR" ... i assume you trying to transcode 4K ... you need very powerful CPU to do this smoothly ... best to pick setup that does not require transcoding 4K ... or do it in advance (there is setting somewhere in Plex for that ... i dont recall where ... thats why asking in Plex forum will get you faster answers lol)

[dreandre]

Current Status

So following up on the progress and feedback here, where I currently stand, is that I think the issue that is crashing my computer has to do with decoding, encoding and transcoding. I also think that hardware acceleration has something to do with it. 

The three known programs that I use that are related to these actions are Media Center, Adobe Media Encoder, and Plex Server.

Next Action Taken

So what I've done is I have gone into the settings for all three of these programs and I've disabled hardware acceleration.  I think want to use my computer normally to see if at any time I get a crash.  If I do get a crash within the next week, I will clean reinstall Plex server and try again for another week.  If after these steps, I get no more crashes, then I will come in and resolve this thread! 


Thanks so much for your insights!  If I'm still missing something let me know, thanks!

[dreandre]

At Wits End....

Welp!  I could never figure it out.  Nothing I tried solved the problem.  Ended up doing a clean windows reinstall, which didn't solve the issue after reinstalling all the programs cleanly. 

So it must be hardware, and with the price of new cards skyrocketing this year, I will just have to live with this one.  It most consistently happens when converting, and I wonder if maybe rights management is causing it.  Maybe they don't want me converting these DVD's.  Oh well,

Thanks all for considering and for your feedback!