HDHomerun Playback problem

[Sandy H.]

I have the HDHomerun connected and it works fine for watching live TV in GBPVR. I record something and all seems well, but when I go to play it back from 'recordings', it just flashes a black screen for a few seconds and returns to the previous menu. The files exist and play in Windows Media Center.

I do have an HDPVR connected and all the recordings from it play fine. I did have the HDHomerun working at one time, but apparently lost something while working on the HDPVR.

Any help is appreciated.

Sandy.

[sub]

I have the HDHomerun connected and it works fine for watching live TV in GBPVR. I record something and all seems well, but when I go to play it back from 'recordings', it just flashes a black screen for a few seconds and returns to the previous menu. The files exist and play in Windows Media Center.

Reproduce this problem, then zip and attach the pvrx2.exe.log and pvrx2.exe-native.log and I'll take a look.

[Sandy H.]

Thanks Sub!

I played another HDPVR recording to make sure I did not mess something up across the board, but it played fine. I went back to play recent HDHomerum recordings and it did the black screen thing again, but on the third one or so, it crashed PVRx2. I did a reboot on the machine to make sure I wasn't sending bad information and ran the following test.

Tune to local TV channel in TVGuide->watch. I hit crtl-k to set record, right arrow to get to timed record and set to 1 minute. PVRx2 crashed in about 5 seconds and I had a blip of sound, but no video. I checked the system tray and the GBPVR recorder icon was active and HDPVR was sleeping, HDHomerun 1 was recording the channel and HDHomerun was sleeping.

The crashing seems to be somewhat new, but I have not been working with the HDHomerun tuners for a few weeks. At this point, I am sure I have messed something up, so I apologize for that.

The requested log files are attached from the above session. The machine is somewhat current technology and running Vista 64.

[edit 12/26/2008 6:32 pm EST: I just checked some recordings from 12/21 in media player and some had sound, but others did not. Not sure if that is critical.]

Thanks for the help,

Sandy.

[sub]

How big is the "C:\GBPVR\Manual Recordings\3.1 WBTVDT1_20081226181349.dvr-ms" file?

[whurlston]

I've see this issue as well but my cable provider had recently undergone some "upgrade" changes so I assumed it was something in the stream and told sub not to worry about it. Switching to the TS Mux solved the issue.

[Sandy H.]

Sub: The file size is 100,229kb. There are other ones that are 1gb to 27 gb and all have the same issue.

whurlston: This is OTA, not cable driven, but the problem could be the stream, as you say.

Thanks for the help.

Sandy.

[sub]

Can you try Whurlstons suggestion of using the TS Mux instead to see if it makes any difference?

[Sandy H.]

I tried the BDA multiplexer as TS Mux instead of Microsoft dvr-ms and recorded 2 channels simultaneously on the HDHomerun. Upon attempted playback, both had audio, but the screen was black. I attempted to playback previously successful HDHomerun recordings and either get nothing or on certain ones, a PVRx2 crash.

In my own attempt to solve the problem, assuming that if the TS mux helped, then maybe a different PVRx2 render option would help. I switched from EVR to VMR9 Fullscreen, but then just got a blank screen, no sound, but no apparent crash. <Esc> also did not bring back the menu choices, so I assume there is something locked, but not a crash. PVRx2 was 'not responding' in task manager.

So, to hand control back over to those who know, I switched back to EVR and have audio on the new recordings, black screen and PVRx2 does not crash on the recording after completion.

I think this is an issue on my end, not the broadcast company, because I don't know why old recordings won't work or sometimes crash. I am not sure, but I may have never run Windows Media Center back when HDHomerun worked properly. The new recordings today play by default (correctly, with Video and Audio) in VLC media player, but the ones from a week ago open (correctly, with Video and Audio) in Windows Media Center. Old recordings (back when HDHomerun worked in PVRx2) do not play with WMC (unsupported file type) or VLC (nothing).

Sorry if this is too much information or not the correct bits.

Sandy.

[sub]

I tried the BDA multiplexer as TS Mux instead of Microsoft dvr-ms and recorded 2 channels simultaneously on the HDHomerun. Upon attempted playback, both had audio, but the screen was black.

This sounds like the recordings worked, but you've got some problem with your video decoder used for playback. Have you tried other video decoders?

Try playing one of these TS Mux recordings, then zip and attach the pvrx2.exe.log and pvrx2.exe-native.log and I'll take a look what decoder its using etc.

[Sandy H.]

I used the Cyberlink codec as it seemed better, but switched to the arcsoft codec and got the same black screen.

This post includes the arcsoft codec logs.

Sandy.