Windows 8 - no video

[ArchPrime]

Hi - I have an RTM version of Windows 8. Possibly my first mistake.
I have done a clean install of nPVR 2.5.9 & set up channels

I can hear audio for each channel, see programs listed on the EPG, but get no video, with any combination of video renderer and decoder settings.

Logs attached

I tried installing WinTV - and got the same result - sound but no video.

I understand that windows 8 RTM is missing h.264 codec out of the box (or that it is crippled), and so installed the LAV decoder - but this makes no difference, and should not be affecting all the channels we have here anyway - to my knowledge only TV3 uses it.
(I can also play back h.264 encoded mov files with no problem)

My location is Christchurch, New Zealand, and recently the Freeview frequencies broadcast in our city changed (frequencies seem not to have been updated in Device Setup - though , doing a full scan of New Zealand frequencies still seems to have populated all the channels ok - though I only get audio from any of them).

Can any kind soul take pity on a poor benighted Windows 8 user ?

[pcostanza]

I don't have W8 installed yet but understand that it can play h.264 but I think it may be for Metro apps only. I didn't read much of this but there is some info here about it.
Can you play the file with the default Windows Media Player?

[sub]

I've never had any luck with the LAV decoder for H.264. I usually use either ArcSoft H.264 decoder, or the Microsoft decoder (I'm on Win7).

If your Nova-DT came with WinTV7, you could install that to get the ArcSoft decoder installed.

[Petrovski]

I've never had any luck with the LAV decoder for H.264. I usually use either ArcSoft H.264 decoder, or the Microsoft decoder (I'm on Win7).

If your Nova-DT came with WinTV7, you could install that to get the ArcSoft decoder installed.

Sub: I've found that although NPVR gives no video with LAV Video Decoder and UK Freeview H264 HD recordings , ZoomPlayer does. I wonder why?

[sub]

Sorry, I dont know. I dont use the LAV video decoder.

I dont do specific stuff for different decoders. Usually they're just interchangeable, but for some reason the LAV video decoder doesn't work when slotted into the same spot.

[Petrovski]

Sorry, I dont know. I dont use the LAV video decoder.

I dont do specific stuff for different decoders. Usually they're just interchangeable, but for some reason the LAV video decoder doesn't work when slotted into the same spot.

Yes just had a play around checking how Zoomplayer does it. The difference seems to be that it uses LAV Splitter instead of the MS Demultiplexer

[Reddwarf]

The LAV video decoders are horrible with regard to jump/skip, very often the video freezes or goes black for several seconds. My experience is that the Cyberlink (PDVD12) is the decoders that works best both for MPEG and H.264.

[cauldwell]

Windows 8 doesn't include an MPEG 2 decoder. Installing CCCP and using some of its decoders worked for me.

[ArchPrime]

Thanks guys

Installing WinTV did not solve the problem for me,

Although I had already tried various implementations of h.264 from various codec packs, which all worked for movie playback but failed with nPVR, installing the Cyberlink h264 dll for windows 8 did the trick.

I first installed the latest [url=(http://shark007.net/index.html),]Shark 007 codec pack[/url] which had forum link leading to a dll installer

Screenshot of my current (so far working) video & audio renderer settings attached:
Note I have the DXVA mode set for Cyberlink decoder under adjacent extra settings - am guessing this uses GPU rather than CPU? Can't say I have noted any particular performance difference.
LAV codecs don't seem any good for uPVR as a video renderer as mentioned above, but seem fine for audio.

Strangely enough, using the same settings in WinTV got that working too - though uPVR is better!

EDIT(apart from the crashing part when user experimentally selects 'use this PC as Client')