Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[nickbuol]

Mod's Note: This topic was split from:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=92736.0

Wow.  Thanks for the fast replies.  I am transitioning over from another system that had some core issues like forced subtitles not working (all or none, and no easy way to turn them off and on once a movie is playing), and poor MadVR support (no exclusive mode).  I have all of my titles' metadata from Media Center Master and don't have the dedicated "server" install of JRiver yet as I am still using the old server system for my Roku and Android devices.  I want to make sure that I get functionality on my theater before changing everything over, but I expect that I should be able to function better once doing so.


I will try disabling Security Essentials first and see if that helps with the no-video issue #3.  If it starts working, then I will attack that first.  If not, I now have some steps to follow for logging, etc.

Again, thanks for the help so quickly.

[glynor]

I'm guessing about your #3 issue above, but... You may also want to read this post I wrote earlier today:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=92666.msg638639#msg638639

When playing video that is streamed by the Server copy of MC, the clients react somewhat poorly when the streaming fails (and what you described is essentially what I've seen in the past when testing it).  If you sit and wait a LONG time, it may actually eventually play, if this is the case.

However, you almost certainly DO NOT want it set up that way if you're on a LAN.  Instead, import the files into MC using their UNC paths (or be sure to map identical network volumes on all clients and servers), and you will have a much better experience.

The main problem is that MC streams the video over, but does not transcode it on the fly to a better streaming format, so whether this works well or not depends on the source format (and your network's capabilties).

[nickbuol]

Thanks.  I might be using mapped drives, let me change that to UNC paths tonight.

FYI on the infrastructure.  Video files are .MKV full movie rips from blu-ray.  I don't need or want any transcoding.  The idea is to have 100% source quality in the theater.  I build the server and HTPC to be well overpowered for these tasks.  I also have a full gigabit wired network infrastructure to handle the data.  To date I've never had a single "blip" even when playing back movies due to network or processing issues as I paid some good money to make sure that my system would last a while and wasn't just a re-purposed old PC.    It may not be a super high end rig, but at least has an i5-4670K running at 3.40 GHz, 8 Gigs of fast RAM, a SSD to boot from, and an Asus HD7790 1GB GDDR5 card.  Again, not the most expensive rig, but I dropped about $2500 into it and the media server.

I will still double and triple check things and love the brainstorming.  You never know when something simple may be the source of the problem.  Not sure how a UNC path vs. mapped drive would allow a movie to play perfect, and then the next movie to play just audio (it obviously found the source .MKV) but no audio, but you never know.  There are lots of moving pieces in these systems, and going to UNC paths may help something else that may be a problem later, or even a sub-system problem that really is causing this issue.

Thanks.

[glynor]

Thanks.  I might be using mapped drives, let me change that to UNC paths tonight.

Mapped drives are fine.  It is just a pain to do it if you have a bunch of client machines (or you nuke/pave them a bunch).

The biggest thing is that they have to be mapped so that the path in the end is exactly the same on the Server and the Client(s).  The Locate On Disk (External) trick I described in the other thread is the easiest way to test it.

I actually use mapped drive letters at home instead of UNC paths.  One benefit of this is that if you travel, you can take along a USB disk with copies of your media library (or a portion of it) and attach it to your computer and set the drive letter to match the same letter as what the mapped drive would typically use.  Then, connecting to the remote library server still works, but when you play a movie, it doesn't have to stream it, and can play it right from the USB disk.

[nickbuol]

That doesn't help with movies released out of chronological order (like Star Wars), or where you want to force a specific order (again like Star Wars).

I use the following fields to deal with sorting issues:
Series - populated for TV shows and also movies that are part of a 'series'.
Episode - populated for TV shows and also movies that are part of a 'series'.
Date - release date.
Custom field (could possibly just use an expression for this instead of making it a separate field) 'Movie Series' = 'Series' if populated, otherwise 'Name'.  This is what I group/sort my movies with.
Custom field 'Episode Order' - for movies or series where I want a different than 'normal' viewing sequence.  An example of this would be the Firefly TV series.  Episode = actual episode order from when it was a TV show, and Episode Order = the 'correct' order (Fox aired them out of order).

Then my sort is usually something like:
Movie Series
Episode Order
Episode
Date

First it sorts by name/series.  Then if there is no episode order, it sorts by episode, and if that is not there either it sorts by date.

1 question and 1 update...
How do I set up a custom field like mentioned above to populate with the Series information if it exists with info, otherwise fill with the Name field if the Series field is empty?

Secondly, I disabled Microsoft Security Essentials completely, and I thought that it fixed it.  I was able to start a movie, play it for a couple of seconds, stop it, jump to another movie, and repeat...  I did that about 6 times and then it did the "audio, but no video - stay on the Movie Info Screen".  Before it would do this on the 2nd movie choice.  Maybe it was pure luck.  So I tried again, I got through about 10 quick movie selections, plays (for 2 seconds) and then switch to another movie.  Some times I stopped playback first, other times I just hit ESC on my keyboard.  But it did it again.  

I know that this isn't normal to select a movie and then jump to another so quickly, thus I don't know if it is an issue for real world use, if others would see the same thing but never have since it is an odd test, etc.

I have a Radeon HD 7790 and I have driver 14.301.1001.0 dated 09/15/2014 installed.  I also have the  AMD Catalyst Control Center software installed.  For my previous Windows 7 install, I did just the driver at the time and no AMD software application.  I wonder if that is my problem.  Too many things trying to control the video.  Thoughts?

Solid playback is key obviously, but I started working backwards.  I have Red October HQ, Hardware accelerate, and VideoClock enabled.  I disabled VideoClock, and the same 9-10 movie selections and it would lock.  No audio either this time.  A quick CTRL-ALT-DEL and then "cancel" and the program isn't locked any more (I don't actual close any apps).  So I dropped back to Red October Standard and tried again.

I try to play a movie and get a "Media Center 20 has stopped working" box.  Strange.  I change it back to Red October HQ, and the program no longer crashes, and I am back to my ability to play multiple movies again.  Odd.  So I turn on MS Security Essentials again, and I can still start about 8-9 movies before the first lock up of the app.  At this point, I am back to my original setup minus the VideoClock.  I enable VideoClock and it only took until the 3rd movie before I got an audio but stuck on the movie info screen situation again.

For now I will look at the recommended way to have MS Security Essentials configured, even though it didn't seem to have any impact on playback.  I am going to leave VideoClock off for now.  I also still need to change things over to UNC paths, but it is almost 11pm and I have to get up at about 4:30am.  

UPDATE:  OK,  I decided to tweak MS Security Essentials, and then I noticed that I WAS using UNC paths already, and not mapped drives.  More testing tomorrow.  I might have to break this into a troubleshooting thread.

[glynor]

Yeah.  That doesn't sound normal at all.  I can quickly switch between huge swaths of video files in a row without a hitch (I just skipped-next through at least 15 or 20 to convince myself I wasn't crazy).  

But, the Video Clock related differences might be a clue... The way video clock works is by tweaking the audio track on a video in very minute ways in order to make the video sync with your system's refresh rate, so that it doesn't have to drop frames occasionally to make up for the small variations between framerates.  It could, conceivably be some other stuff, though.  I can split this off into a separate post, if you'd like.

Have you gone through the Audio Setup process?  Because videos also play audio, the audio setup is intimately involved in video playback as well.  And, in particular, video clock does things (very small things, but things nonetheless) to the audio stream, so I can see this having an impact.

If that doesn't help, also check:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Audio_Troubleshooting_Guide

[glynor]

has an i5-4670K running at 3.40 GHz, 8 Gigs of fast RAM, a SSD to boot from, and an Asus HD7790 1GB GDDR5 card.  Again, not the most expensive rig, but I dropped about $2500 into it and the media server.

That should be plenty for ROHQ.

It is similar to both of my primary machines at home.  My HTPC is an older Core i5 760 (Nehalem) with an AMD 6870 GPU and 8GB of RAM, and my Server is a Core i7-3770 with 32GB of RAM and also an AMD 6870 GPU.  Both handle ROHQ without skipping a beat.

The fact that ROST also doesn't work is suspicious, because that absolutely should work and shouldn't crash.  I wonder if (maybe as some artifact of your existing setup) DirectX is misbehaving.  In addition to the stuff above, can you do two things:

1. Run DirectXdiag

Process described here:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Troubleshooting_Drivers#Multimedia_Frameworks

And report any issues you encounter.

2. Get a Log of the ROST Crash

1. Enable Logging
2. Switch it back to Red October Standard.
3. Restart MC to get a fresh log going.
4. Make it crash (play something).
5. Restart MC again.
6. Go back to Help > Logging and click the Report a Problem button.  This makes a zip file that should contain a crash dump of the last time MC crashed, along with other diagnostic information.

Come here and post a link to the Zip file.  If it is too big to attach directly to your post, or if you don't yet have attachment privileges, you can use a service like WikiSend or DropBox to make a public link.

[glynor]

Lastly, Windows Defender (aka Microsoft Security Essentials on Windows 7) is pretty well behaved.  That's what I use here.  I don't need to use the exceptions with most of my systems (in fact, I don't think I've bothered to update it for MC20 on my HTPC), but it doesn't hurt.

If disabling it didn't help, then it is likely not involved.  That's a bit murky because of what you found, though (it seemed to help at first, but then turning it back on didn't revert the change, so dunno there).

In any case, my guide here shows exactly how to make it well behaved:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Taming_Windows_Defender

If you do that stuff, it is almost certainly not involved.

[nickbuol]

That should be plenty for ROHQ.

It is similar to both of my primary machines at home.  My HTPC is an older Core i5 760 (Nehalem) with an AMD 6870 GPU and 8GB of RAM, and my Server is a Core i7-3770 with 32GB of RAM and also an AMD 6870 GPU.  Both handle ROHQ without skipping a beat.

The fact that ROST also doesn't work is suspicious, because that absolutely should work and shouldn't crash.  I wonder if (maybe as some artifact of your existing setup) DirectX is misbehaving.  In addition to the stuff above, can you do two things:

1. Run DirectXdiag

Process described here:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Troubleshooting_Drivers#Multimedia_Frameworks

And report any issues you encounter.

2. Get a Log of the ROST Crash

1. Enable Logging
2. Switch it back to Red October Standard.
3. Restart MC to get a fresh log going.
4. Make it crash (play something).
5. Restart MC again.
6. Go back to Help > Logging and click the Report a Problem button.  This makes a zip file that should contain a crash dump of the last time MC crashed, along with other diagnostic information.

Come here and post a link to the Zip file.  If it is too big to attach directly to your post, or if you don't yet have attachment privileges, you can use a service like WikiSend or DropBox to make a public link.

I am starting to think that you never sleep.  

I ran dxdiag and there were no errors under any of the tabs of information.  Display, Sound 1, Sound 2, Sound 3, and Input tabs all state "*  No problems found."

I then ran it in 64bit mode and got the exact same results of "* No problems found."

So I turned on logging and set MC to Red October Standard, and of course it didn't "crash" like it did last night.  Maybe those crashes were because of the other underlying issue that keeps causing a random movie to not play after other movies play just fine.

I still grabbed the log though.  I started 2 Fast 2 Furious, and it played fine, I went to 2 Guns, and it played fine, but when I went to 3:10 to Yuma, it locked on the movie info screen.  Log file is attached.  Also, I set the exceptions for the instructions for MS Security Essentials, and I agree that I don't think it is a problem.

One last note.  This was a fresh "delete partitions/format/reinstall" of the O/S, base drivers, and then right into JRiver.  No other "junk" has been installed, and there really isn't anything "residual" that would be there from any previous software since I just did this format/reinstall.  I will check out the sound settings next, and maybe uninstall all of the "extra" video driver software and just use the core drivers only.


UPDATE:  I set the audio settings per the guide.  I had actually already done that previously and had forgotten, but I verified them nonetheless, so that didn't have an impact.  Next up is the video driver software removal and just the main drivers installed.  

UPDATE #2:  I removed all video drivers and software, rebooted, and reinstalled just the base drivers (no added applications trying to manipulate teh video card).  I restarted again, checked the video and audio settings again in Windows and MC.  I set it to Red October HQ since the problem seemed to be independent of that setting.  I made it through about 6 movie selections and playbacks (for just a couple of seconds each), and then it did it again.  It sits at the Movie Info Screen that shows the brief movie description, duration, rating, date, etc and has the single movie poster image on the right (it happened this time with Cars).  When I select Watch at the top, that screen stays there, but you can hear the audio start up with the Pixar version of the Walt Disney castle.  I still have control over fast forward/rewind/skip for the audio, but it just sits on that screen with the information and never displays video.

Next question, do I *have to* run JRiver on my media server?  I am currently just pointing to my existing media shares, but don't have JRiver running on the media server.  Is there something happening (or not happening) with file handling from the server? I get absolutely zero lag when things are working, and I've disabled my previous media server software, although I was hoping to keep it since I've already invested in a Roku specifically for movie playback elsewhere and I didn't see a Roku app for with JRiver MC.  I did see Gizmo for our Android devices though.

[glynor]

I am starting to think that you never sleep.  

Sleeping is giving in.
(No matter what the time is.)



I'll try to look at the rest tonight after I get home from work and daddy duties.

[nickbuol]

No problem.  Just FYI that I watched my first full movie today.  It was kind of a crappy movie (A Good Day to Die Hard).  Just trying to check a movie off of my "to do" list.  I never could before because of forced subtitle issues with that other program.  The movie has a lot of film grain so it doesn't have impressive video, but the system still performed flawlessly.

[nickbuol]

One of the few problems that keeps coming up once, then I reboot and it doesn't happen again for a while.

Fresh install of Windows 7 just a couple of days ago.  Just have JRiver and its components installed plus MS Security Essentials (which has been "tweaked" to better work with MC).  I have followed the audio and video setup guides too.  Most of the time it works, but when this crash happens, I have to reboot, even when freshly cold booted.

Error log is attached.

[glynor]

I suspect this is related to the other problem.  Crash logs are what we want, though for whatever reason, that one doesn't contain a crash dump, nor does either log file show an unhandled exception.

Perhaps because you rebooted in between.  Don't worry about trying to do anything with MC after the crash.  Just re-launch it and collect the log.

Also, are you running any plugins of any kind at all?

[nickbuol]

No plugins at all.  Watching a movie now,  but I will turn logging back on and leave it on until the next crash. It took 2 reboots before it resolved itself this time.

[glynor]

So, I dug into the System Info file in the last log package you posted.  All of this stuff is something of long-shots, but worth trying.

1. Your Intel Chipset drivers are out of date.  You're running 9.4.0.1017 (July 2013).  The latest is 10.0.13 from March 2014.

2. Same goes with your Intel NIC driver (yours is 8/17/2013).  NIC drivers are actually pretty common causes of performance problems and crashes, especially since you're playing from a network volume.

3. Your Intel AHCI SATA controller driver is also out of date (same age as the chipset drivers).  The current version is 13.2.4.1000 from August 2014.

For each of those, it is possible (though perhaps unlikely) that there is a bug in the version you're running.  Might be worth trying one, then the other.  I think the SATA driver is less likely to be involved, but... Who knows.

Other notes:

* There is a known problem with the 840 EVO drives.  It is performance related, not crash related, I think.  But worth mentioning since you have one.  Might want to check it for a firmware update, if you haven't been following that saga.

EDIT: They did release an updated firmware on 10/15 as promised: http://anandtech.com/show/8617/samsung-releases-firmware-update-to-fix-the-ssd-840-evo-read-performance-bug

* If you aren't using the Realtek onboard audio (I'm thinking you're using the AMD HDMI out, though we hadn't discussed this in detail), disable it in the motherboard BIOS.  Your driver is also a bit old here, but I wouldn't bother if you aren't using it, and just disable that junk.

Lastly, try copying a set of files over to your local disk, and see if it makes any difference.  Network playback should absolutely work, but this could help rule things in or out, and identify a place to target.

[glynor]

No plugins at all.

Bummer.  That could have been an easy answer.

It took 2 reboots before it resolved itself this time.

This makes me think the problem is hardware (physical or drivers).

MC cannot impact the PC through a reboot.

[glynor]

This is interesting.  It shows up multiple times in a few of the logs you posted near the end.  Looks like it is trying to play, but the audio and video streams aren't loading.

Code: [Select]

0936942: 2068: Playback: CBitrateMonitor::UpdateBitrate: Accum audio bytes 0, video bytes 0, time period 1999.9852388786248412 ms, bitrate 0
That log (the one further up in the replies) has a whole bunch of these kinds of lines.  All nearly identical (even the time period is basically identical except the floating point portion):

Code: [Select]

0942262: 2640: Playback: COSDWindow::UpdatePosition: Finish (0 ms)
0942948: 2068: Playback: CBitrateMonitor::UpdateBitrate: Accum audio bytes 0, video bytes 0, time period 1999.9912638261248504 ms, bitrate 0
0944103: 2640: General: CMCResourceHelper::GetIsModalPopupShowing: Menu showing
0944945: 2068: Playback: CBitrateMonitor::UpdateBitrate: Accum audio bytes 0, video bytes 0, time period 1999.9475829567491018 ms, bitrate 0
0946942: 2068: Playback: CBitrateMonitor::UpdateBitrate: Accum audio bytes 0, video bytes 0, time period 1999.986443868124752 ms, bitrate 0
0948939: 2068: Playback: CBitrateMonitor::UpdateBitrate: Accum audio bytes 0, video bytes 0, time period 1999.966862788749495 ms, bitrate 0
0949906: 2640: General: CMCResourceHelper::GetIsModalPopupShowing: Main window disabled
That's right at the end of that log, when it just ends without showing any shutdown process.

Then, Previous Log.txt from your more recent (just above) zip file shows it creating the DirectShow graph, and then the same kind of Playback line, followed by basically nothing.  Here's the tail of that log:

Code: [Select]

0029500: 944: Playback: DShowVideoGraph::ConnectDecoders: Start
0029500: 944: Playback: DShowVideoGraph::ConnectAudioDecoder: Start
0029515: 832: Import: AddFile: Skipping Previously Removed: \\BUOL-MEDIA\Movies\Mummy Returns, The (2001)\trailers\trailer.mp4
0029515: 944: Playback: DShowVideoGraph::ConnectAudioDecoder: Added LAV audio decoder: 0AAB989C
0029515: 944: Playback: DShowVideoGraph::ConnectDecoder: Start
0029515: 944: Playback: DShowVideoGraph::ConnectDecoder: Output pin 1: 0AAEEB44; Output pin 2: 00000000; Decoder: 0AAB989C; Media type: Audio
0029515: 944: Playback: DShowVideoGraph::ConnectDecoderPin: Start
0029515: 944: Playback: DShowVideoGraph::ConnectDecoderPin: Success
0029515: 944: Playback: DShowVideoGraph::ConnectDecoderPin: Finish (0 ms)
0029515: 944: Playback: DShowVideoGraph::ConnectDecoder: Finish (0 ms)
0029515: 944: Playback: DShowVideoGraph::ConnectAudioDecoder: Finish (15 ms)
0029515: 944: Playback: DShowVideoGraph::LoadVideoRenderer: Start
0029531: 2972: General: CDXCore::Terminate: Clearing variables
0029531: 2972: General: CDXCore::Terminate: Finish (78 ms)
0034570: 944: Playback: DShowVideoGraph::LoadVideoRenderer: Waited for user interface mode change: 5055.30ms
0034570: 2036: Playback: CBitrateMonitor::UpdateBitrate: Accum audio bytes 0, video bytes 0, time period 5060.6058232491332092 ms, bitrate 0
0034570: 944: Playback: DShowVideoGraph::LoadVideoRenderer: Loading video renderer: madVR
This makes me suspect disk/data source in some fashion.

I'd do those drivers (perhaps now even more essentially the Intel NIC one), and do a test with all local media.

[nickbuol]

Working on the drivers.  I ran the chipset install, but it didn't act like it did anything but extract files somewhere even though it says that it is an installer and will update my files.  I will need to verify that.  The SATA driver I found isn't 13.2.4.1000.  The only thing that I found with that version was an Intel RST RAID driver.  The latest I could find from Intel is 11.6.0.1030 which is still newer, but dated 2012.  The NIC has been updated.  I will try the AHCI SATA 11.6.0.1030 next, and then run the EVO update.  It sounds like it takes a bit of time depending on data size on the drive, so I will wait to copy over a couple of movies at 30GB until that is done. 

[glynor]

The Rapid Storage Driver is both the AHCI and the RAID driver.

But, like I said, that's not likely to be the cause.

[nickbuol]

The Rapid Store is both the AHCI and the RAID driver.

Yeah, I downloaded the RST driver  anyway and just installed it.  It says, once you run it, that it is also the AHCI driver. The older AHCI driver mentioned right on the DL page that it was also for RST.  Just bad wording on their website.   

[nickbuol]

Chipset update installed after 2 reboots. 

[glynor]

Yeah, I downloaded the RST driver  anyway and just installed it.  It says, once you run it, that it is also the AHCI driver. The older AHCI driver mentioned right on the DL page that it was also for RST.  Just bad wording on their website.   

Yeah.  It is.

[glynor]

Chipset update installed after 2 reboots. 

Interesting.

[nickbuol]

I played 2 locally copied files (just double clicked them to play them for about 30 seconds each) without issue.  I then opened up MC20 again, turned logging back on and clicked on Theater View...  Nothing happened.  MC20 had locked.  I went into task manager to kill it and got the following popup error information:

Description:
  A problem caused this program to stop interacting with Windows.

Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name:   AppHangB1
  Application Name:   Media Center 20.exe
  Application Version:   20.0.21.0
  Application Timestamp:   5432aeee
  Hang Signature:   6872
  Hang Type:   2048
  OS Version:   6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
  Locale ID:   1033
  Additional Hang Signature 1:   687219d018b920713e33a0624027bf36
  Additional Hang Signature 2:   d5fc
  Additional Hang Signature 3:   d5fc336e583eac23038633d9d39a85ac
  Additional Hang Signature 4:   6872
  Additional Hang Signature 5:   687219d018b920713e33a0624027bf36
  Additional Hang Signature 6:   d5fc
  Additional Hang Signature 7:   d5fc336e583eac23038633d9d39a85ac

Going to reboot again.  The SSD update went without error, and I ran all of the updates for drivers, although I still am not feeling 100% confident about the Intel Chipset.  I will test some more and see what happens.  Everything is so random that it makes it hard to pinpoint an issue.

[nickbuol]

I decided to update my motherboard firmware as well as it was a couple of versions behind.  I also took the time while in the BIOS to disable the onboard HDMI Audio.  The primary video was already set to the Radeon card.  There was no setting to "turn off" onboard video, just that I could select the add-on card as the primary.

I rebooted of course, and after about 6 movie selections, it crashed again.  Got this one:
Description:
  A problem caused this program to stop interacting with Windows.

Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name:   AppHangB1
  Application Name:   Media Center 20.exe
  Application Version:   20.0.21.0
  Application Timestamp:   5432aeee
  Hang Signature:   5b7b
  Hang Type:   2048
  OS Version:   6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
  Locale ID:   1033
  Additional Hang Signature 1:   5b7b5f5e607c630d615873ae4e83d0f9
  Additional Hang Signature 2:   e5c6
  Additional Hang Signature 3:   e5c6db4ed5cad16714275cb32a5f3d9b
  Additional Hang Signature 4:   5b7b
  Additional Hang Signature 5:   5b7b5f5e607c630d615873ae4e83d0f9
  Additional Hang Signature 6:   e5c6
  Additional Hang Signature 7:   e5c6db4ed5cad16714275cb32a5f3d9b

Read our privacy statement online:
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=104288&clcid=0x0409

If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
  C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

The behavior was similar to my original issue.  Try to play a file after others worked, and then it just sits at the Movie Info screen when you hit Watch.  This time it was when I tried Date Night, which is in the "previous log" file that is attached.  The "log" file is when I fired up MC20 again to have it save the logs.

[glynor]

Here it hung and showed this right at the end:

Code: [Select]

0366291: 2464: Playback: CBitrateMonitor::UpdateBitrate: Accum audio bytes 0, video bytes 0, time period 2000.1479141989198069 ms, bitrate 0
0368303: 2464: Playback: CBitrateMonitor::UpdateBitrate: Accum audio bytes 0, video bytes 0, time period 2000.1430941842909306 ms, bitrate 0
0370300: 2464: Playback: CBitrateMonitor::UpdateBitrate: Accum audio bytes 0, video bytes 0, time period 2000.1427929333767679 ms, bitrate 0
That has got to be related.  That thread was getting those zero bitrate log messages the entire time.

Hendrik, if you see this, wasn't there a way in Task Manager or Process Explorer to capture a dump from a hung but still running process?  I can do it from Task Manager, but it comes out just shy of a GB in size, which is probably too difficult to post.  Is there a way to trim that down?

Is the minidump useful from Process Explorer?  Mine is only 3MB when done that way.

[nickbuol]

And then to add to the total randomness of this, I did the following...

I actually renamed and then added the 2 movies that I had copied locally to the library.  These were 3:10 to Yuma and Cars, both which happened to randomly do the "I hear the movie but still see the movie info screen" thing. 

I went back and forth at least 20 times without issue between those two.  Then I started hitting movies from the server and after a good number of them, I tried Contact...  Bam...  Not a crash, but it did the audio but stuck on the movie info screen thing.  I hit CTRL-ALT-DEL, but didn't go into task manager or anything.  I just exited out of the CTRL-ALT-DEL screen, and bam....  There was the movie... Paused, but there.  The movie info screen was gone.  I was able to play the movie right from that spot as if nothing was wrong.  Almost like the movie video isn't "overlaying" to the foreground or however you would describe it.  I have a log file for it attached.  Probably the last one for tonight.  I've been messing with this for several more hours tonight and while I greatly appreciate your help, I don't want to completely take over your free time either. 

[kensn]

For the record I have had the movie start in theater view and on occasion have to use Crtl-Alt-Delete, then hit cancel to get it to show also. I can hear it playing though....
Mine is not paused though. That may have to do the setting "Pause video when entering Theater View".

Ken

[glynor]

Yeah.  I'm sorry.  This is an odd one.  I have definitely not seen this kind of behavior before.

The drivers look to be updated.  I think we might need help from someone at JRiver.  If no one answers today, I'll poke someone.

[JimH]

I actually renamed and then added the 2 movies that I had copied locally to the library.  These were 3:10 to Yuma and Cars, both which happened to randomly do the "I hear the movie but still see the movie info screen" thing. 

What happens if you hit F11 a time or two?

[nickbuol]

What happens if you hit F11 a time or two?

I will try that when I get home from work tonight.

[JustinChase]

sorry, I didn't go to the thread this was taken from, so I'm not sure I fully understand the issue, and from what I've read, the following might not be related, but...

Whenever I start a movie from Theater view, then hit the back button on my remote, the screen takes me "back" to the theater view menu, but the video and audio continue playing, but there is no way to 'get back' to the movie/video.  I have to hit ctl-alt-del to go to task manager, then re-select MC, then I can see the video playing again.

I only mention it because kensn said he sees the same thing, so I thought it was relevant to mention that I also see this.  I reported it a long time ago, in version 18 or 19, but it never received any attention.  It still continues to behave this way in v20.

[glynor]

I don't understand what is happening to you two.

F11 cycles in and out of Theater View and Display View.

[JustinChase]

I don't understand what is happening to you two.

F11 cycles in and out of Theater View and Display View.

Me niether, but my remote doesn't have an F11 key, it's a regular Windows Media Center remote.

I was slightly incorrect on the behavior.  if I open Theater View, navigate to, then play a video, it works fine.  If I then hit the back button on the remote, the video and audio stop, and I go back to the theater view menu.  If I then select the same video again, and hit the ok button, the video starts playing back again, but the theater view menu just stays on the screen, and I can't see the video playing, I only hear the audio.

If you have a WMC remote, give it a shot, it's happened on every machine I've used on hundreds of versions of MC, I have to believe it's not 'just me' having this issue

[mojave]

Hi Nick, welcome to Interact. I assume you are the Nick that lives in Iowa. If so, I met you at David Beck's open house. I go by desertdome at AVS, but mojave everywhere else.

On a similar issue, when at RMAF, we had some Blu-ray concert clips thrown into the regular music playlist. When the clips were selected with a keyboard, they launched into Display View properly. When the clips were selected with either Gizmo or eos, it switched to Display View, but there was a black screen with only the sound. Switching back to Theater View and then back to Display View fixed the issue and the video was now shown. This is the same as pressing F11 twice.

[nickbuol]

So I am NOT crazy...  Or at least not crazy by myself.

So this must be an "undocumented feature" then and no need to dive into the "select a movie, get audio but stuck on the movie info screen" thing.

I have a Harmony One remote, but also a wireless keyboard.  I will try the F11 trick, and if it works, I will program a key on my Harmony to simulate F11.

mojave, yes, it is me.  I am the same "nickbuol" everywhere on the interwebs.  My full name is Nicholas Buol, and there is a Nickolas Buol out there, but the userID 'nickbuol' is mine.  The "other" Nick" isn't on the internet nearly as much. 

Yeah, I was reluctant to go with JRiver MC for a long time.  I was looking at XBMC (as many people do), and was going to create a couple of Raspberry Pi devices to watch movies on TVs in the house, but was talked into trying a couple of other software programs and have been using MediaBrowser 3 for almost a year.  I have a really rock solid setup with that, but for some reason can never get just forced subtitles to work (it is all on or all off no matter what my settings), and MBT doesn't support MadVR very well, even though they have tried to integrate it more into their program.  They openly admit this, and I paid for hardware that can run MadVR pretty well.  My only solution was to install a 3rd party video player within MBT which would allow subtitles and MadVR to work, but that wasn't very seemless.  Then I said to myself, "Self... What are you doing?  You know that JRiver MediaCenter is supposed to be really good."  So I am giving it a shot.  I love the simple "5 button" remote setup, but more importantly that the forced subtitles work, and so does HQ MadVR.  I am sure that some of my other issues will go away after I stop messing around trying to chase down a problem that seems to go beyond me and my setup, as well as when I look at running JRiver MC on my media server to set up a REAL MC Library and let it have full go at metadata, etc.

Anyway, that is what brings me here.  One thing is for sure, the support in these forums has been great!  Glynor has spent hours helping me out.  If I was ever near Bar Harbor, Maine I would buy him a beer (or at least a glass of wine).  I could be there in just over 23 hours if I didn't have to stop for gas/food/bathroom...

[glynor]

Me niether, but my remote doesn't have an F11 key, it's a regular Windows Media Center remote.

The Green Button should act identical to F11 on a WMC remote, unless you have something funky set up.

[glynor]

On a similar issue, when at RMAF, we had some Blu-ray concert clips thrown into the regular music playlist. When the clips were selected with a keyboard, they launched into Display View properly. When the clips were selected with either Gizmo or eos, it switched to Display View, but there was a black screen with only the sound. Switching back to Theater View and then back to Display View fixed the issue and the video was now shown. This is the same as pressing F11 twice.

Sounds like a bug.  I've never seen that, but I use a remote that is programmed via Girder (and so uses a combination of Windows Messages and keyboard emulation).

Does it only happen when audio files are mixed into Playing Now?
Does it only happen with certain kinds of BluRay rips or something?

Most of my video content is H.264 TS files from my HD-PVRs, and whatnot.  The rest is MKVs and MP4s, mostly that I've made myself.

[glynor]

Glynor has spent hours helping me out.  If I was ever near Bar Harbor, Maine I would buy him a beer (or at least a glass of wine).  I could be there in just over 23 hours if I didn't have to stop for gas/food/bathroom...

If you do ever come visit, definitely give me a shout (pretty much goes for everyone here).

I take coffee, beer, wine, whiskey, and high-fives.  So I'm pretty easy. 

[JustinChase]

The Green Button should act identical to F11 on a WMC remote, unless you have something funky set up.

huh, I did not know that; thanks.

I still think the behavior I reported is a bug, and should be fixed, but hopefully the green button will save me from ctl-alt-del next time.

Thanks again.

[glynor]

I still think the behavior I reported is a bug, and should be fixed, but hopefully the green button will save me from ctl-alt-del next time.

Oh, definitely!!

Not arguing that at all.  I don't think anyone was.  I think it was testing to see what works to get out of the funk without killing it.

[nickbuol]

So I was messing around with the system last night.  F11 really didn't do anything for me.  Neither did the green button from the old WMC remote (since someone stated that they do the same thing, this didn't surprise me).

So since the whole "stuck seeing just the Movie Info Screen when the movie is playing" is a common "bug," I won't worry too much about it.

Problem now is all of the MC20 application crashes that are happening.  I don't remember those happening until after I started messing around to try to fix the above listed "bug." 

I might just say the heck with it and format and reinstall. Ugh.  Not looking forward to doing that, but I think that it will be less frustrating than trying to fix an application crash issue that wasn't there after the fresh install and only showed up when trying to resolve that bug.

[glynor]

Sorry!  I'm really at a loss.  I think your crashing problem and the frozen display problem are both caused by the same thing (I don't think you're seeing quite the same thing as the other commenters here).

If you can, do it on a separate hard drive, and keep your existing install untouched until you're sure it makes a difference.