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[audunth]

Just installed .122.

- Crashes when trying to play MKV file with Windows merit. Haali/ffdshow/EVR. Worked in .116 and before.

- Playing AVI files with Windows merit, Mpeg4s Decoder DMO and MP3 Decoder DMO is used even though I selected ffdshow audio/video for AVI files in File types.

I appreciate all your work with RO, and I understand that's your priority right now, but please make sure good old merit based playback works like it always has. The ability to configure the DS engine EXACTLY how I want is one of the main reasons I love MC so much. You just sent out a newsletter claiming MC 16 is stable, but since you introduced RO it feels like it's gone back to beta.

Let me know if you need logs or more info or if there's anything I can do to help out.

[JimH]

I appreciate all your work with RO, and I understand that's your priority right now, but please make sure good old merit based playback works like it always has. The ability to configure the DS engine EXACTLY how I want is one of the main reasons I love MC so much. You just sent out a newsletter claiming MC 16 is stable, but since you introduced RO it feels like it's gone back to beta.

We've never thought that Windows merit base selection worked well.  It may sometimes.

[audunth]

MC crashes when I try to play a file type that has played well with the Windows merit system since MC 13. That the Merit systems is flawed? We all know it has it's flaws and it takes some tweaking to get it where you want, but once that is done, it works like a charm.

[audunth]

I've done some more testing (build 122/123) and no matter what I do I can't get MC to load Haali anymore. For MKVs it tries to load it and crashes. For AVIs or MP4s it just loads a different splitter even though I select Haali in File types.

Has anyone else experienced this, or can you try playing a MKV file with Merit system playback, selecting Haali and ffdshow video/audio? Is there any settings I can try and change? There's been numerous fixes that concerns video options, handling of the merit system and Red October. Since it worked in build 116, failed in 119, worked again when I reverted back to 116 and now fails again in 122/123, I'm pretty sure one of these fixes/changes makes it not work anymore on my system. If there's anything I can do to make it work I'm listening.

Here's the log of MC crashing trying to play an MKV:

Code: [Select]

7855399: 4180: Playback: LoadAudioRenderer: Start
7855399: 4180: Playback: LoadAudioRenderer: Finish (0 ms)
7855399: 4180: Playback: MeritBasedRendering::RenderFileInternal: Start
7855399: 4180: Playback: MeritBasedRendering::LoadSourceFilter: Start
7855399: 4180: Playback: MeritBasedRendering::LoadSourceFilter: Failed to add user selected filter to graph
7855399: 4180: Playback: MeritBasedRendering::LoadSourceFilter: Finish (0 ms)
7855399: 4180: Playback: MeritBasedRendering::RenderFileInternal: LoadSourceFilter returned 0x80004005
7855399: 4180: Playback: MeritBasedRendering::LoadTransformFilters: Start
7855399: 4180: Playback: MeritBasedRendering::LoadTransformFilters: Finish (0 ms)
7855399: 4180: Playback: MeritBasedRendering::RenderFileInternal: LoadTransformFilters returned 0x1
7855399: 4180: Playback: MeritBasedRendering::RenderFileInternal: Rendering by automatic way
7859782: 5968: Playback: CDShowFilterGraphNotifyWindow::OnDXEvent: Start
7859782: 5968: Playback: CDShowFilterGraphNotifyWindow::OnDXEvent: Event: 30 (0x1e), 0, 0
7859782: 5968: Playback: CDShowFilterGraphNotifyWindow::OnDXEvent: Unhandled DX event: 0x1e
7859782: 5968: Playback: CDShowFilterGraphNotifyWindow::OnDXEvent: Finish (0 ms)
7859891: 4180: General: TopLevelExceptionFilter: Unhandled exception -- program crashing
7859891: 4180: General: TopLevelExceptionFilter: Message: 0, wParam: 0, lParam: 0, Window class:
7859969: 712: Sharing Plugins: CHTTPListenerWorker::HandleConnection: Start
7859969: 712: Sharing Plugins: CHTTPListenerWorker::HandleRequest: TCP: 192.168.2.10: SUBSCRIBE: http://192.168.2.6:52100/ContentDirectory/event
7859969: 712: Sharing Plugins: VHTTPMessage::Write: Wrote 151 bytes
7859969: 712: Sharing Plugins: CHTTPListenerWorker::HandleConnection: Finish (0 ms)
7859969: 2180: Sharing Plugins: CHTTPListenerWorker::HandleConnection: Start
7859969: 2180: Sharing Plugins: CHTTPListenerWorker::HandleRequest: UDP: 192.168.2.10: M-SEARCH: http://239.255.255.250:1900*
7860344: 2180: Sharing Plugins: VHTTPMessage::Write: Wrote 394 bytes
7860344: 2180: Sharing Plugins: CHTTPListenerWorker::HandleConnection: Finish (375 ms)
7860344: 2284: Sharing Plugins: CHTTPListenerWorker::HandleConnection: Start
7860344: 2284: Sharing Plugins: CHTTPListenerWorker::HandleRequest: UDP: 192.168.2.10: M-SEARCH: http://239.255.255.250:1900*
7860437: 2284: Sharing Plugins: VHTTPMessage::Write: Wrote 406 bytes
7860437: 2284: Sharing Plugins: CHTTPListenerWorker::HandleConnection: Finish (93 ms)

Why is there a problem not being able to use Haali some of you might say? Because Haali lets me select video stream in a seamless branched MKV, LAV splitter don't (it shows only one video stream). And even if that gets fixed in a future version of LAV, I think MC should be able to use both without crashing.

[glynor]

Now that most of the basic RO playback difficulties are straightened out, I was planning on trying to start a concerted effort to test Windows Merit system functionality among the beta members to try to get that back in working order.

What we really need is an effort to test specific setups for specific media types in both MC16 and then in GraphEdit, and report the results, maybe along with similar testing in MC15 just for reference against the "old way".

I don't think we'll get a lot of support for "specialty" filters and setups that require complex workarounds.  But, it should be able to handle basic things like using a CCCP-like setup and CoreAVC and whatnot.  In other words, the stuff that worked right pre-RO.

Who's with me and willing to spend some time testing and reporting useful details?

[audunth]

I'm not part of the beta team, but I'll be happy to do some testing with different filters. I have several computers, including two laptops with MC 15. Don't use MC on them very much, so I've just not bothered to upgrade them to MC 16.

I've never used GraphEdit before, is that a standalone application, or is it a part of Windows?

[glynor]

I've never used GraphEdit before, is that a standalone application, or is it a part of Windows?

Both.  

It is part of the Windows 7 SDK (or the DirectX SDK for older versions of Windows).  More info: http://www.videohelp.com/tools/GraphEdit

GraphEdit is basically a tool that allows you to manually build DirectShow filter chains to see what happens and what works/doesn't.

An alternative is GraphStudio, which is basically the same but a little fancier.

[audunth]

Thanks, I'll download it and try it out.

[audunth]

Same problem in build 126. Can someone please try it on their system to see if MC crashes or not? All my MKV files makes MC crash. They are 1080p or 720p Blu-ray rips with various sound formats (DD, DTS, FLAC).

Options -> Video

Directshow selection Method: Advanced - Windows merit based (less stable)

Decoders, Renderers & More (select file type to configure below)
Matroska Video (mkv)
Playback Method: JRiver video engine (using DirectShow filters)
Source Filter: Haali Media Splitter
Other Filters: ffdshow Audio Decoder; ffdshow Video Decoder; DirectVobSub (tried both with and without DirectVobSub)
Video Renderer: Enhanced Video Renderer

Haali version installed is the latest one.
ffdshow is version 3223 from Jan 23 2010 (updated to latest build a while back and had some problems so I had to revert back to this one and it's worked perfectly for a year and a half).

This exact setup worked on MC 16.0.116 and below. Since it now makes MC crash, that means some change in MC done after 116 is responsible. Not necessarily a bug, it could be just a change. I'm just trying to figure out what, and if there's anything I can do to make it work again. So knowing if this makes MC crash for others too is essential.

Btw I'm on Windows 7 32 bit US English. Asus motherboard with Core2Duo E6300 @ 2,4 GHz, 1 GB RAM.

[JimH]

This exact setup worked on MC 16.0.116 and below. Since it now makes MC crash, that means some change in MC done after 116 is responsible.

There are a lot of other moving parts on your computer, so let's not assume that MC is the cause.  I replied to your other post to keep your reports in a single thread.  This one works.  And to update your video driver.

Test with Red October Standard, with nothing more added.

[Matt]

I can play MKV files with merit based on my work machine.

But it's sort of normal for merit based selection to not work and crash.  That's why we wrote (and strongly recommend) Red October.

[audunth]

When the exact same setup worked on the exact same computer with the exact same parts/filters/drivers etc. etc. the only difference being Media Center version 16.0.116, and it makes MC crash all of a sudden in Media Center 16.0.119, 16.0.122, 16.0.125 and 16.0.126, I have GOT to assume some change was made after .116. I agree the computer has a lot of other moving parts, but here, the only part that moved was the version of MC.

I have worked several years with computers, including a job in which I was a user support representative, running around offices of 400 people fixing problems with their computers, installing new hardware and software etc. When you update a piece of software and it makes the computer crash, the first thing to try is roll back to the previous version. When it then works, you pretty much know for a fact the updated software caused the crash. Not necessarily a bug, but something in the software that changed the way it interacts with the rest of the system.

I know why you wrote Red October, and I know there's a lot of people having trouble with the Merit system. But if you set up Merit playback in MC with the right filters and don't overload your computer with different versions of different filters, it's always been ROCK SOLID STABLE and worked every time, 100 out of 100 times (of course assuming the file is the same). I've used it for years, and have never had any problems that I couldn't solve pretty easily. Those problems have always come when updating filters, experimenting with settings, reinstalling Windows, trying a new file type or faulty file etc., never at random. Crashes in MC has always been fixed in the next few builds by you guys.

I've just installed the latest Catalyst drivers from AMD, and it made no difference. I also did a checkdisk on my C drive in case some file has been corrupted during an abnormal shutdown. And I went into the ffdshow configuration and selected the settings preset that MC created a while back when auto-configuring ffdshow, to see if that helped.

I'm open for suggestions, and I'm not saying a BUG in MC causes the crash, I'm merely saying something changed between .116 and .119 that is responsible. I know you did some changes to the video options, can that be the cause? That I have to check some setting that I normally don't touch? I'm trying to figure out what's causing the crash here.

I've said several times before; it works with Red October. I've also explained why I want to stick with the Merit system.

Matt, thanks for testing. Did you try a HD mkv file with H264 video and multichannel AC3 or DTS or FLAC sound, for example a Blu-ray rip? The compression field of my files say AVC1 video. And did you set up everything as I described in the post above?

[audunth]

By the way, my other issue of Youtube high quality playback also crashing MC was solved after updating the video driver. My apologies for assuming that was a bug

[JimH]

By the way, my other issue of Youtube high quality playback also crashing MC was solved after updating the video driver. My apologies for assuming that was a bug

It happens a lot.  You're a gentleman to say so.

[Matt]

I wasn't clear: did the driver update fix the YouTube and MKV playback issue?

If it still crashes, please email a crash log to matt at jriver dot com.

Thanks.

[audunth]

No, the driver update only fixed the YouTube direct playback problem. Not the MKV playback using Merit system.

Logs are in your mailbox

Let me know if you need more info about my system.

[Matt]

The crash log just shows that building the graph (a single call) for the MKV file crashes.  This happens when Windows picks a bad filter.

One change in .117 was this:
Fixed: Merit-based video renderering would not always use the selected video renderer.

So you could try different video renderers.

If that doesn't work, I think you're on your own.  Again, I'd recommend Red October.

[JustinChase]

Who's with me and willing to spend some time testing and reporting useful details?

I've finally got MOST/enough of my home improvement projects wrapped up enough and my family visitors left this morning, so I should have MUCH more time to test out some stuff now/again.

so, yeah, I'm happy to help test out the system.  I'm no longer in the beta group, so if you do your testing there, I can't help, otherwise, I'm ready

I know I've got some files that are currently not playing correctly, but were playing fine before Red October.

I saw in another thread a while back that jmone had a playlist of "test/problem files" he tested with, and I think that's a great idea.  I'll work on compiling a similar list of my own, and get some feedback on what's not working for me.

Do you have any "methodology" for testing in mind, or we all test the best we can and report our findings?