Cancel recording (which wasn't even recording), crash (enclosed)

[glassvial]

So...any thoughts?

[sub]

So...any thoughts?

I didnt see your log. I'm pretty sure that post just said 'nevermind' when I read it yesterday, then you came back later and updated it and attached the logs. The problem with doing this is the forum doesnt highlight it as a new post, so I dont know it's waiting to be read, and never saw it.

What do you have your decoders set to on the Settings -> Decoders screen? It looks like you dont have any valid decoders selected.

2011-01-12 19:14:42.757 [DEBUG][1] Adding system LATM AAC decoder
2011-01-12 19:14:42.757 [ERROR][1] Unable to find named decoder
2011-01-12 19:14:42.757 [DEBUG][1] Adding system AC3 decoder
2011-01-12 19:14:42.757 [ERROR][1] Unable to find named decoder
2011-01-12 19:14:42.757 [DEBUG][1] Adding system MPEG1 Layer2 decoder
2011-01-12 19:14:42.757 [ERROR][1] Unable to find named decoder
2011-01-12 19:14:42.773 [DEBUG][1] Adding system MPEG2 decoder

[glassvial]

Sorry about that, I forgot I edited that post yesterday.

From top to bottom it goes like this (these are all the default settings, btw)

Video Renderer: EVR
Audio Renderer: Default (Recommended)
MPEG2 Video: ffsshow Video Decover
and the rest are Disabled (?)

Again, those are all default settings, didn't know I had to change anything. Obviously, I assume I need to make some choices here.

My options for each are:

MPEG2: ffdshow video decoder/mainconcept (HCW) mpeg-2 video decoder, arcsoft video decoder, MPC - MPEG-2 Video Decoder (Gabest)
H264 Video: Arcsoft Video decoder, ffdshow, Divx H.264, Divx decoder filter
MPEG1 Audio: ffdshow audio decoder, mpeg audio decover, Hauppauge MPEG Layer-1/2 Audio Decoder
AC3 Audio: ffdshow audio, Hauppauge AC3, Hauppauge E-AC3
E-AC3: ffdshow, Hauppauge E-AC3
AAC Audio: ffdshow, Divx AAC
HE-AAC Audio: ffdshow, Divx AAC

[sub]

Yes, you'll need to set some decoders.

Again, those are all default settings, didn't know I had to change anything. Obviously, I assume I need to make some choices here.

NPVR doesnt install any decoders, and everyone has different decoders on their machine, so all I can do is tell you to ensure you select the decoders you want to use. See attached pic.

MPEG2: ffdshow video decoder/mainconcept (HCW) mpeg-2 video decoder, arcsoft video decoder, MPC - MPEG-2 Video Decoder (Gabest)
H264 Video: Arcsoft Video decoder, ffdshow, Divx H.264, Divx decoder filter
MPEG1 Audio: ffdshow audio decoder, mpeg audio decover, Hauppauge MPEG Layer-1/2 Audio Decoder
AC3 Audio: ffdshow audio, Hauppauge AC3, Hauppauge E-AC3
E-AC3: ffdshow, Hauppauge E-AC3
AAC Audio: ffdshow, Divx AAC
HE-AAC Audio: ffdshow, Divx AAC

You dont have to enable all the audio decoder, but you need to enable the audio decoders you want you use. For example, you might only need the MPEG1 Audio decoder.

[glassvial]

Gotcha. So basically just experiment until I find ones that work. NPVR is a LOT different than GBPVR, but I guess thats a good thing

So .ts is the new recorded file format, then? Better than .mpg like it was? Is there any way to change it back to mpg or is ts the way it is now?

Thanks again for the help I guess I'm a noob all over again

[sub]

Gotcha. So basically just experiment until I find ones that work. NPVR is a LOT different than GBPVR, but I guess thats a good thing

Most people know what decoders they want to use. Many ex-GBPVR users will just select the same decoder they'd selected in GBPVR's Config app. You can probably just select the Hauppauge decoders. At the end of the day, best choice of decoders depends on lots of things (your hardware, your operating system, the type or channels you're trying to watch etc), so just use whatever works best for you on your system - in this regard, it was no different from GBPVR.

So .ts is the new recorded file format, then? Better than .mpg like it was? Is there any way to change it back to mpg or is ts the way it is now?

NPVR always records .ts files. There is no options to change this.

GBPVR used .mpg because initially it was an app for analog hardware encoder card that produced MPEG-2 program streams. Later digital support was shoe-horned into GBPVR, which would record to either .mpg/.ts/.dvr-ms depending on which BDA multiplexer you were using, and what type of channel you were watching, but digital support was always a bit rough in GBPVR because of this.

The majority of people use digital tv now, so the focus in NPVR is very much on that rather than analog. The native format used for digital television broadcasts is transport streams, so it made sense record to .ts. This also had the advantage of supporting modern codecs that are starting to be used in many countries (H.264, HE-AAC, E-AC3 etc). These types of streams cant be stored in .mpg files. I decided to also make analog use .ts files so I only had to have one recording/timeshift engine, and save myself a lot of double maintenance in the future.

[johnsonx42]

...in this regard, it was no different from GBPVR.

My observation so far is that what people sometimes don't understand about decoders in NPVR is that you MUST select a valid decoder for any media type you want to play; it will not fall back to a System Default decoder like GB-PVR would. Some people seem to think at first that 'Disabled' means "I'm not chosing, just use the system default" when of course it actually literally means "Disabled". I'm not suggesting anything should be changed, I think maintaing tight control over the decoder chain is a good thing; I'm just tossing in my observation of what appears to throw ex-GBPVR users off.

[glassvial]

My observation so far is that what people sometimes don't understand about decoders in NPVR is that you MUST select a valid decoder for any media type you want to play; it will not fall back to a System Default decoder like GB-PVR would. Some people seem to think at first that 'Disabled' means "I'm not chosing, just use the system default" when of course it actually literally means "Disabled". I'm not suggesting anything should be changed, I think maintaing tight control over the decoder chain is a good thing; I'm just tossing in my observation of what appears to throw ex-GBPVR users off.

I would agree with that assessment I'll try to do some tweaking today and see if I can find some working combinations.

[sub]

And definitely an improvement! We get a lot less problems with odd decoders being selected by the system.

[glassvial]

Hmm, maybe I should start a new thread at this point, but I setup ffdshow to be my decoder (because that's what GBPVR is using, and it works fine) but I get black screen with audio with NPVR. Some of the other video decoders in the drop-down list don't display at all, or display...um, squeezed? For lack of a better way to put it. Is this normal?