Working fine until suddenly no onscreen stuff

[Legacy14]

I used to use WinTV as it came with the Hauppauge tuner card I have. Used it for years until this past winter, I switched to NPVR. Got it up and running a few months ago, and really like it. It's so much better, intuitive to use etc. I have been using 3.1.1 until today, since by random chance I saw there was a new version. I installed 3.2.9.

Anyway, suddenly in the past week or so (it predates the upgrade to 3.2.9), I've lost all the onscreen stuff, like the progress bar and info bar at the bottom of the screen. If I move the mouse during playback of a recording, or live tv, nothing. I do see the video and get the sound, just not the info and progress bars.

I noticed this when I recorded the show about Coldplay on NBC. When I went to play it, I only heard audio and saw no video. I tried playing the ts file with MPC-HC and the video is there, so the recording is ok, so I'm guessing it must have something to do with the renderer/decoder. This used to be set to EVR, but now in order to have video I set it to Overlay.

I have attached the logs and a screenshot of the Decoders screen. I am using XP.

If more info is needed, please let me know.

[sub]

I'm pretty sure this is because you've got it set to use the Overlay renderer. Try setting it back to EVR/VMR and I'm sure your graphics will return. If you're not getting any video with these options, then change your video decoder. That old cyberlink decoder might not be compatible with EVR/VMR.

[Graham]

then change your video decoder.

Lots of us use SAF http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...post414049

Send Hoborg a forum private message and ask for the unlocked version.

[Legacy14]

I'm pretty sure this is because you've got it set to use the Overlay renderer. Try setting it back to EVR/VMR and I'm sure your graphics will return. If you're not getting any video with these options, then change your video decoder. That old cyberlink decoder might not be compatible with EVR/VMR.

Yeah, EVR is what I used to have it set to when everything was fine. Tried going back to it, but I lose the video and OSD. Tried all the video decoders in combination with EVR as the renderer, same result.

I downloaded the SAF codec pack, but got the same outcome.

Tried to go back to Overlay, now that doesn't work either, gaaaa!

What's this unlocked vs locked thing?

[Graham]

What's this unlocked vs locked thing?

The SAF forum post has ...

After instalation, *unlocked* SAF should setup nPVR decoderslike on picture below:

[sub]

Yeah, EVR is what I used to have it set to when everything was fine. Tried going back to it, but I lose the video and OSD. Tried all the video decoders in combination with EVR as the renderer, same result.

Definitely don't use Overlay. There is no reason you should have to, and it comes with all sorts of limitations.

What decoders are listed for your MPEG2 decoders dropdown list?

[Reddwarf]

If you got no OSD using the EVR it might be a lack of video memory, what graphic card are you using?

[Legacy14]

Definitely don't use Overlay. There is no reason you should have to, and it comes with all sorts of limitations.

What decoders are listed for your MPEG2 decoders dropdown list?

ffdshow Video Decoder
LAV Video Decoder
ArcSoft Video Decoder
CyberLink Video/SP Decoder Dell 5.3
ArcSoft MPEG Video Decoder

Another thing I wanted to mention... it's in the back of my mind. I have Steam (game platform) on my system. I used to play Portal 2 on it but hadn't used it in quite some time. I used it recently, as in about a week or two ago, and it did all kinds of updates (Steam that is). I didn't watch it the whole time, but some of the stuff seemed to have to do with DirectX. I wonder if that buggered things up for NPVR?

Thanks for the help!

[sub]

None of those are decoders I use (except 'ArcSoft Video Decoder' but the version I have is H.264 only).

I'd maybe try the ffdshow decoder, but go into the "..." settings, and make sure you've got MPEG2 enabled. Most versions have MPEG2 disabled by default.

[Legacy14]

If you got no OSD using the EVR it might be a lack of video memory, what graphic card are you using?

Not sure of the model number, but it's an ATI Radeon with 128MB. The ATI software lists it as X300/550/1050. It's ancient, the computer was bought in 2005.

Despite that though, I've used the WinTV software that came with the tuner card for years (since 2009 I think) until I switched to NPVR this past winter. Then suddently something happened very recently and these playback issues show up. I really want to get NPVR going again as it is so much more intuitive than WinTV. My main usage is to record TV shows with it, which I then transfer onto a portable hard drive and watch on my TV (via Patriot media player). But I do occasionally watch some recordings on the PC.