DirectShow messed up - how do I fix it?

[wtg]

Somehow my DirectShow got screwed up, and I can't figure out anyway to fix it short of a Windows re-install, which I of course want to avoid. I'm looking for suggestions.

Here's my situation:

Playback suddenly went from super-smooth to severe stuttering every 2-3 seconds when playing HD content, and no aspect-ratio controls and 4x3 SD content stretched to fill my 16x10 screen.

When I looked at my Video Decoder properties in Config, with my configured NVidia Decoder, the Video Format and Decoder Format boxes are strangely blank. Normally the Decoder Format shows the DirectX video acceleration mode that will be used. I've attached a screenshot below.

While the NVidia Decoder is the one that shows these blank spots, playback severely stutters regardless of the decoder I chose. One of the decoders won't even open it's Video Properties.

When I try to open a video file in GraphEdt, I get an error: Some of the streams in the this movie are in an unsupported format. Then the graph that it shows me doesn't connect the Video pin from the MPEG2 Demuxer to anything. Screenshots attached, showing a .ts file, but I get the same result with an MPG.

Here's what I've tried to fix it. Inspecting the system, everything else appears to be ok from what I can tell. Dxdiag says everything's working fine with DirectX. No errors anywhere except for a niggling unknown device in Device Manager. I can't figure out what it is, as all the system hardware seems to be accounted for. Maybe it's been there all along.

The first thing I tried was reinstalling the NVidia Pure Video decoders. Went fine but no change. Next, I reinstalled all my video card drivers - again fine, but no dice. Third, I downloaded dxsetup from Microsoft's site and ran it, installed fine, but still it's screwed up.

Oh, I did fine one strange thing going on in my Event Log. The first time the error appears is within a minute or two of installing 99.12. I honestly don't know if gb-pvr's installation has anything to do with these problems, but it does seem suspicious. Unfortunately the first error doesn't give me enough info to have a clue what to do, and I wonder if it's related to the unknown device error I have. The Windows Media Network Sharing Service it complains about I've since disabled - I didn't want it anyway. Again, I've attached some screenshots. If these are just a red herring, I apologize. I'm just trying to be thorough in case someone recognizes something.

I'm not sure where to go from here. I could uninstall GB-PVR and re-install the older version, but I don't see how that's gonna fix the anything. I really want to avoid a complete wipe and re-install of the OS, but I'm out of ideas. Any suggestions?

[wtg]

Shameless bump - since when was this forum short on advice?

[sub]

Sorry, nothing really springs to mind for me.

[bgowland]

WRT the UPnP and SSDP service errors in your logs - do you have any UPnP devices? If not then disable those services - they're nothing to do with DirectShow and they are just a red herring.

I do have a UPnP device but Microsoft's implementation of UPnP support (along with Windows Media Connect) is awful so I disable these services anyway and use 3rd party software. It has no bearing on GB-PVR or DirectShow.

Cheers,
Brian

[UKGuest44]

I'm not sure if you have it enabled or even if you've tried it, but if you have got it enabled, I've found system restore brilliant for solving these sorts of problems. In particular, the fact you can return to a previous state when it worked, compare the registry/settings/files/drivers/dlls etc. with the future state when it didn't work, fix the problem and then go forward (or just stay on the old restore point, you don't lose much)

The eaiest way to get to system restore is through the help and support center. A while ago, on my laptop, my graphics card randomly lost its ability to do 2D and AGP texture acceleration, and after spending hours puzzling over it, I gave up and did a system restore and it worked - since then, I've been very glad and happy with system restore - I hadn't used it before (I always like to try and find the ultimate cause and fix the problem myself, but this one stumped me), so it was a good first experience, just thought it may help in your situation if you haven't tried it yet. If it does, when you fix everything back up, make a restore point and registry backup!

I tried to do a bit of reading, one thing I did see was

For less CPU usage, make sure that the "Hardware acceleration" setting on the ForceWare Multimedia Video property page is enabled.

When hardware acceleration is enabled, the "Decoder Format" section of the ForceWare Multimedia Video property page will indicate the DXVA mode that is currently being used. If hardware acceleration is disabled or not available on the system, the same section will indicate a software mode such as YUY2.

The only thought that came to mind was that if it is enabled, have you tried disabling it and seeing if those two fields still stay blank and the problems with graphedit and such persist (obviously software isn't a proper solution, but in a diagnosis maybe it'd help) or vice versa?

I also found some references to people with decoder problems experimenting with ffdshow, although I unfortunately have little experience with it myself.

Just trying to offer suggestions, although no doubt futilely, so I apologise - best of luck solving your problem anyhow

[wtg]

I appreciate the tips you guys have offered. I found partial relief.

The stuttering was due to the unknown device. It turned out to be my firewire connection to my Motorola cable box. Why this suddenly became an unknown device and why it would make the system stutter so badly, I don't know, but thankfully unplugging it is all I had to do to get rid of the stuttering.

Unfortunately it didn't cure all my ills. The NVidia decoder properties are still blank, and my system still can't graph a .ts or .mpg file in GraphEdt. I get the same error telling me that the files contain unrecognized streams. Interestingly enough, I can playback the files fine now in GB-PVR though. Go figure.

I wish I hadn't disabled System Restore points, but I did for some odd reason. Since things are functional at this point I'm torn what to do. I know the system's screwed up under the covers and it may very well manifest itself in other ways soon, but I dread a wipe and reinstall so I think I'll continue investigating less dramatic options. I've already uninstalled and reinstalled about everything I can think of.