Topic: TV Playback Video Blinks with MC 18 (Read 6951 times)

gtgray · « **on:** November 23, 2012, 04:16:28 pm »

With 18.0.78 the video blinks off and on (mostly off) with live TV. It is very difficult to stop the blinking playback. Stop from the remote control may work on the first press or it my not work for twenty presses. The mouse does not seem to move except while the video is visible. With patience you can get to the close gadget at the top of screen in the progress bar and shutdown playback to get back to Theater or Standard View which of course does not blink.

When I installed 18 and tried Live TV from Theater View I got a quick glimpse of a skinnny wide alert box then a black screen, the alert box was visible for such a short time I could not make out what it said. I later determinded it was a low storage available on drive C:\. I finally figured out that alt-tab would bring up the dialog box and I could click on ok and live TV would play just fine.

To solve the recording space problem I went to options for TV and set my preference for recording to a folder on E:\ which is a 1.75 GB partion on the same physical drive as my system partition C:\. After that single change I got only the blinking video when ever I play live TV. I had a sample WTV that was placed in that folder by Windows Media Center and MC18 will play it back fine.

Drive C: is my system partion and there was a 19 gb free there to begin with so I don't why that was error condition to start with.

I never had a similar issue with MC17

Matt · « **Reply #1 on:** November 29, 2012, 05:53:29 pm »

If you don't get a response, it could mean nobody knows. A simple bump would be better than posting angry comments.

Yaobing · « **Reply #2 on:** November 30, 2012, 08:08:18 am »

Quote from: gtgray on November 23, 2012, 04:16:28 pm

With 18.0.78 the video blinks off and on (mostly off) with live TV.

Can you explain this a bit more? What do you mean by "blinks"?

Is it related to the "Disk space" message box?

Are you using Red October Standard or HQ?

gtgray · « **Reply #3 on:** November 30, 2012, 08:55:27 am »

Quote from: Yaobing on November 30, 2012, 08:08:18 am

Can you explain this a bit more? What do you mean by "blinks"?

Is it related to the "Disk space" message box?

Are you using Red October Standard or HQ?

After changing the path to E:\Recorded TV I don't a "Disk Space Message". Blinking means the video will only display intermittently for a second or two before it goes away again sometimes for several minutes. I am using Red Otctober. Previously Recorded TV Files (before MC 18) playback without a hiccup.

gtgray · « **Reply #4 on:** November 30, 2012, 09:57:22 am »

Quote from: Matt on November 29, 2012, 05:53:29 pm

If you don't get a response, it could mean nobody knows. A simple bump would be better than posting angry comments.

Since this is the only support available for the product. No replay after 6 days because "It could mean nobody knows" is hardly satisfactory support in my book. Perhaps it is time to institute an inicident based trouble ticket system.

Yaobing · « **Reply #5 on:** November 30, 2012, 10:20:21 am »

Quote from: gtgray on November 30, 2012, 08:55:27 am

Previously Recorded TV Files (before MC 18) playback without a hiccup.

With MC18, you have trouble playing recorded TV and live TV?

Please email me a log.

gtgray · « **Reply #6 on:** December 01, 2012, 02:05:42 am »

Quote from: Yaobing on November 30, 2012, 10:20:21 am

With MC18, you have trouble playing recorded TV and live TV?

Please email me a log.

Just Live TV.....

Yaobing · « **Reply #7 on:** December 01, 2012, 10:22:52 am »

It looks like you are using Red October HQ, instead of Red October Standard. Or you are using a custom mode. Were you using Red October HQ with MC17 too? The prime suspect is madVR. Maybe your system is not set up properly for using madVR. Try changing video playback mode to "Red October Standard". It may just solve the problem.

gtgray · « **Reply #8 on:** December 02, 2012, 11:12:56 pm »

Quote from: Yaobing on December 01, 2012, 10:22:52 am

It looks like you are using Red October HQ, instead of Red October Standard. Or you are using a custom mode. Were you using Red October HQ with MC17 too? The prime suspect is madVR. Maybe your system is not set up properly for using madVR. Try changing video playback mode to "Red October Standard". It may just solve the problem.

I have run MadVR through all he revs of since Red October became part of the JR MC story and I have had no problem with it. I can record just fine in Media Center and play it back fine. This occurred when I change the path. this is a recording bug. Did you even look at my log?

Hendrik · « **Reply #9 on:** December 03, 2012, 01:16:18 am »

Quote from: gtgray on December 02, 2012, 11:12:56 pm

I have run MadVR through all he revs of since Red October became part of the JR MC story and I have had no problem with it.

Try with RO Std anyway. If the problem goes away, the Devs know in which direction to look, instead of completely stabbing in the dark. If the problem persists with RO Std, they also know that its not related to madVR and RO HQ. Its all about eliminating possible sources of the bug. Fixing issues which you can't reproduce yourself is very hard, so you need to try to help provide as many details as you can, otherwise the chances of fixin this are not very high.

To me, it sounds like your HDMI connection is unstable, which can be causd by a number of things.

gtgray · « **Reply #10 on:** December 03, 2012, 11:02:03 am »

Quote from: nevcairiel on December 03, 2012, 01:16:18 am

Try with RO Std anyway. If the problem goes away, the Devs know in which direction to look, instead of completely stabbing in the dark. If the problem persists with RO Std, they also know that its not related to madVR and RO HQ. Its all about eliminating possible sources of the bug. Fixing issues which you can't reproduce yourself is very hard, so you need to try to help provide as many details as you can, otherwise the chances of fixin this are not very high.

To me, it sounds like your HDMI connection is unstable, which can be causd by a number of things.

The behavior is different. I am running RO Std. Now I never know what is going to do. I can sometimes get it to play the first live TV HD channel it is tuned to. If I stop that channel then select another HD or SD from the guide it will give a complete black screen but audio is fine. In general audio is fine. I did discover in RO STD you could get it pretty consistently to change to the next channel up or down and play properly if the remote up and down channel buttons were. I also discovered with RO HQ you launch SD channels from the guide, not consistently but most of the time. The SD channels in HQ would always start from the unscaled version in the upper. The remote barely works with the Blinking video on a HD channel in RO HQ. You are lucky to be able to exit. I finally discoved I could get it to pause from the spacebard and then CTR-ALT-Delete would take me to my log on.

I have reinstalled. I triend to uninstall and then reinstall, but uninstall fails.

Yaobing · « **Reply #11 on:** December 03, 2012, 01:26:11 pm »

I did read your log. That was why I knew you were using madVR. Unfortunately the log does not show much in terms of how video behaves. It shows how MC built DirectShow graphs and started playing. I do not see any events that indicate anything was wrong.

I am totally baffled by this. If you can record TV shows, and the recordings play fine, then you should be able to play live TV. Are you still able to play live TV in MC17?

gtgray · « **Reply #12 on:** December 03, 2012, 11:48:22 pm »

The following is true of both MC17 and 18

RO HQ:

Very intermittent video on HD broadcast if you can change to an SD channel it will play fine go back to HD channel very intemitten vidoe.. Easiest way is the channel up or down button. Audio fine in all cases

On MC 18 RO STD and ROHQ play WMC recorded HD video fine. ROHQ plays SD DVD fine from the optical disk.

RO STD:
HD Live Broadcast plays fine. SD channel no video at all. Again audio is fine in either case.

RO HQ plays DVD fine

Yaobing · « **Reply #13 on:** December 04, 2012, 09:04:57 am »

We now know it is not an RO Std vs. RO HQ issue, not an MC18 vs. MC17 issue. So I would suggest it is something on your system. Has something changed on your system? Video card? Do you have good signal strength (right-click, "Show Signal strength on screen")? Is there something bad on your hard drive (if you cancel time-shifting, would video play smoothly)?

Yaobing · « **Reply #14 on:** December 04, 2012, 11:03:00 am »

I think I have a hunch on what is going on. Are you still using drive E:? Your drive E: is way too small to be efficiently running TV on. The fact that you did not get a disk space warning with such a small drive is an indication that the drive is bad. MC is not able to get disk space info on it. That would explain why TV ran so badly.

Try installing the build linked by Jim in this thread and change TV recording folder back to C: drive.

gtgray · « **Reply #15 on:** December 04, 2012, 12:02:10 pm »

Quote from: Yaobing on December 04, 2012, 11:03:00 am

I think I have a hunch on what is going on. Are you still using drive E:? Your drive E: is way too small to be efficiently running TV on. The fact that you did not get a disk space warning with such a small drive is an indication that the drive is bad. MC is not able to get disk space info on it. That would explain why TV ran so badly.

Try installing the build linked by Jim in this thread and change TV recording folder back to C: drive.

C: is the system partion at 100 Gig, E: is the second partion on the same physical drive with 1.5TB available, and where I have been recording. I did at one time have a 1 TB external USB drive, that is no longer on the PC. That was disconnected a couple of weeks ago. I don't know recall the drive letter assigment for that drive.

I will install the new build.

Yaobing · « **Reply #16 on:** December 04, 2012, 12:29:52 pm »

Quote from: gtgray on December 04, 2012, 12:02:10 pm

C: is the system partion at 100 Gig, E: is the second partion on the same physical drive with 1.5TB available, and where I have been recording.

I was under the impression that E: drive was tiny (1.75 GB):

Quote

To solve the recording space problem I went to options for TV and set my preference for recording to a folder on E:\ which is a 1.75 GB partion on the same physical drive as my system partition C:\.

Let me know how build 84 works with either drive. With C: drive having 19GB available space, you will get an OSD warning once in a while, but no popup box that could be blocked behind the main window.

gtgray · « **Reply #17 on:** December 04, 2012, 12:50:59 pm »

New build either drive behaves the same. No other hardware changes.. No software changes other than Windows Upate stuff.

Again WMC works perfectly.

I have seen UAC messages sometimes popup trying to lauch latest builds 17 and 18 since this started.

Yaobing · « **Reply #18 on:** December 04, 2012, 03:06:25 pm »

Are you able to record in MC and then playback?

gtgray · « **Reply #19 on:** December 04, 2012, 07:04:31 pm »

Quote from: Yaobing on December 04, 2012, 03:06:25 pm

Are you able to record in MC and then playback?

Yes. I just recorded 28 minutes of broadcast HD in RO STD played fine live and played the recording fine. In ROHQ HD Video recorded and played back as a mostly blank picture with normal audio.

ROHQ SD Video recorded and played back fine.

I have no idea

Yaobing · « **Reply #20 on:** December 05, 2012, 08:55:03 am »

Quote from: gtgray on December 04, 2012, 12:50:59 pm

I have seen UAC messages sometimes popup trying to lauch latest builds 17 and 18 since this started.

Tell me more about this. Do you log in as an administrator?

Quote from: gtgray on December 04, 2012, 07:04:31 pm

Yes. I just recorded 28 minutes of broadcast HD in RO STD played fine live and played the recording fine.

Can you still play this particular recording after you switch to RO HQ?

gtgray · « **Reply #21 on:** December 05, 2012, 01:15:01 pm »

Quote from: Yaobing on December 05, 2012, 08:55:03 am

Tell me more about this. Do you log in as an administrator?

Can you still play this particular recording after you switch to RO HQ?

No it won't play in RO HQ. I have logged in both as administrator and not as adminstrator all the behaviors are the same. I have been using MadVR since the earliest days it was available in MC.

i3 Sandybridge. Nvidia GT 454 Nvidia Win 7 32bit driver 306.97. It all worked fine until the latest release or so for both 17 and 18. I have installed no software. The only thing I do with this box is email, web and test MC version waiting for the one that is compelling enough to displace other video playback solutions. I am using a 37" Panny LED and a Denon receiver. This is my desktop workstation. I use it hours everyday. Again, for email and web and to do quickie evaluations of MC waiting for the right one. For a long time You Tube was broken, then when that was fixed the version of MadVR that provided menu support for DVD worked fine. About the next version is when things went south.

Yaobing · « **Reply #22 on:** December 05, 2012, 02:08:13 pm »

MC17 has not been updated for a long time. You initially reported the problem saying it occurred since you installed 18.0.78. So why would MC17 also have problem?

Yaobing · « **Reply #23 on:** December 05, 2012, 02:31:26 pm »

From what you have reported so far, it is the playback of recorded TV shows that is the problem, and the behavior is different from ROStd and ROHQ.

ROStd ROHQ
HD video OK Not OK
SD video Not OK OK

Is this picture accurate?

I have never seen such situation, and am totally stumped. I have tried several stabs in the dark, none seems to have hit the target. Here is another:

Is your anti-virus software aggressively protecting the hard drive on which MC tries to access?

gtgray · « **Reply #24 on:** December 06, 2012, 12:23:16 am »

The picture is accurate for recorded shows and live shows, WMC plays live and records fine in HD and MC 18 will play it back is ROHO.

I am running MS Essentials at defaults settings and I just completed a full scan and all was clear. Only the C: partition was fragment but then just 1 percent. I will try turning of anti-virus software and see if I can get live TV or recorded in MC 18 HD TV from ROHO.

gtgray · « **Reply #25 on:** December 06, 2012, 12:25:49 am »

Turning off real time av scanning made no difference.

Yaobing · « **Reply #26 on:** December 06, 2012, 11:47:23 am »

Is the option "Hardware accelerate video decoding when possible" on or off? Try change it.

Is "Video Clock" option on or off? Try change that.

Yaobing · « **Reply #27 on:** December 06, 2012, 11:50:08 am »

One thing we have not tried is to roll back to a previous version. Rolling back will tell us whether anything we did in the latest versions is the cause. If you normally let MC automatically download new versions, a few recent versions should still be on your hard drive.

gtgray · « **Reply #28 on:** December 06, 2012, 03:51:37 pm »

18.0.90 appears to work with Hardware acceleration turned off. Only thing I notice is that first frame display seems a bit sluggish in composition.

So does this indicate it is an issue with LAV Video. Isn't their an option for intel quick sync to do the decoding. Is that configurable and could that be the new piece that is maybe causing my problems. I understood quicksync freed up the discreet GPU to be used for rendering and not decoding.

Yaobing · « **Reply #29 on:** December 07, 2012, 08:21:24 am »

I don't have an answer. We are still investigating.

Yaobing · « **Reply #30 on:** December 13, 2012, 10:57:19 am »

There are a number of changes in video/TV in build 94. I hope they will fix the problems you experienced.

JimH · « **Reply #31 on:** December 14, 2012, 11:01:08 am »

I saw your post in the build 94 thread. Would you please describe your PC? Also, please run the benchmark program under Help in MC and paste the result here.

JimH · « **Reply #32 on:** December 14, 2012, 11:16:16 am »

This thread might be worth a look:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=76422.msg517710#msg517710

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: TV Playback Video Blinks with MC 18 (Read 6951 times)