At glynor's urging, I'm starting this thread in the hopes of getting a solution to my Red October problems.
First the facts:
MC 16.0.179 [updated to 181]
Windows 7 64bit Home Premium
Core i5 @ 3.3Ghz, 4GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 4670, Catalyst 11.10, 3100 JRmarks in MC benchmark.
Dedicated HTPC, no extra crap installed except VLC, dbPowerAmp, and MPC-HC with MadVR
My video collection is ripped DVDs, as single VOBs or MPEGs. (standard def)
I have 3 problems that together have resulted in my not being able to use MC to play video:
1. Windows Merit based renders video fine, but I can't get it to bitstream the DD and DTS embedded soundtracks. That's a dealbreaker.
This caused me to switch to RO Standard...
2. Red October Standard worked for months, but somewhere in the MC upgrade chain developed a stutter. Now it bitstreams the audio perfectly, but the video framerate is choppy; looks like 15 to 20 fps. Unacceptable. (see this thread:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=66832 ) Changing the audio output mode as suggested in that thread had no beneficial effect on the problem.
Matt then kindly suggested I try Red October HQ... That worked for a while, but then a hardware problem forced me to replace my Radeon video card with a Radeon HD 4670. So...
3. MadVR in Red October HQ locks up (gives a black screen with the blue windows ring) when outputing video on the TV-out of the ATI card. Some points on this issue:
- Happens in both MC and MediaPlayerClassic-HomeCinema with MadVR installed. Clearly a MadVR issue not specific to MC.
- If I plug in a DVI monitor as the primary display and output to that, MadVR plays perfectly.
- If I make the S-Video TV connection the primary (or only) display, MadVR gives a black screen while the audio plays perfectly in the background. Software now unresponsive, and the only way to stop or get out is to kill the app from the task manager.
- So MadVR plays perfectly on one output of the card, and total fail on the other. Unfortunately this is a dedicated HTPC so the TV-out MUST be used.
I've tried every setting in MadVR I could find, to no avail. I contacted madshi about the MadVR issue, but haven't heard back yet. Also tried every combination of Windows Merit Based and RO standard, but couldn't get to where I needed to be.
Jim trotted out that old chestnut "upgrade your video drivers" and I did. Now running at 11.10 with the exact same issues - no change at all.
So there you go... Sorry this is so long, but glynor wanted the gory details. If any one of these three problems could be solved, I'd be able to use it for my ripped DVDs and all would be well. Obviously MadVR gives the best output quality so it would be preferred to get RO HQ working, but I'd settle for anything at this point.
I think I stuck a nerve with kind glynor by implying I found RO unreliable, which was contrary to his experience. I think it's great what JRiver is trying to do with RO, to be able to play anything without any fuss, the same way VLC can, but for me it's been twitchy. I wish I could get it working reliably so that I could enjoy MC for video as well as audio.
In doing another round of troubleshooting in preparing for this post, I think I may have finally fixed #2, the stuttering in RO Standard. A reinstall of .179 did nothing. But I again uninstalled MC, and then installed .181 from scratch. This time, RO Standard gave the "downloading components" message when starting to play a video. (It did NOT give that message with a reinstall of .179) After that, RO Standard seems to play without stuttering now. It would be nice to get MadVR and RO HQ working, but this is a start if it sticks.
It would be VERY nice if there were some way to "reset" Red October other than to go to this length. (I've seen the situation before where video playback in MC will somehow get broken, and the "fix" is to upgrade to a newer version, which seems to reset the MC playback chain.) So right now, RO-STD seems to "just work" again, and RO-HQ is broken because of the MadVR problem.
Thanks to everyone for their kind assistance and patience.