H.264 woes

someperson

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H.264 woes

#1

Post by someperson » Sun Nov 20, 2016 1:03 am

Comcast recently flipped a bunch of their channels here in Houston to H.264. I am having problems with these stations on both of our HTPCs.

One of them has Intel video, with the TV connected over HDMI. On this machine, I get a black screen on the H.264 channels. This was hardly a surprise given various posts I've read.

The other one has an Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS, with the TV connected over S-Video, and its behavior is odd. It will decode the H.264 channels. However, if I flip from an H.264 channel in particular to an MPEG-2 channel with DRM, I get either a black screen or totally corrupt video. Sometimes restarting WMC fixes it, other times I have to reboot.

For now, I have disabled all H.264 channels on both boxes, so we have to watch them in SD. I suspect the solution here will be to get new video cards for both machines. Does anyone have any suggestions?

maseline_98

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#2

Post by maseline_98 » Sun Nov 20, 2016 12:49 pm

I'm getting audio, black screens on all my extenders (1 echo, 2 xboxes) for all hbo, max, and staz. The showtime shows seems to work. Strangely, my htpc is being affected with similar results, but hbohd seems to be working on my htpc, but none of the other channels. I did recently installed the latest firmware on my homerun primes. Not sure if that caused it or not.

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maseline_98

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#3

Post by maseline_98 » Sun Nov 20, 2016 12:51 pm

Oh I should mention that my htpc is running amd a10 apu with integrated graphics.

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soapdishbandit

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#4

Post by soapdishbandit » Sun Nov 20, 2016 6:29 pm

Our area switched over Nov 11th (Western Connecticut). Only 2-3 channels I've noticed are h.264, and at first they were copy-once. Now, they are copy-freely (with exception to HBO). Having an issue on extenders AND main HTPC. Anytime switching between h.264 and mpeg 2 channels, I get grey or black screen. Have to restart WMC and START with an mpeg 2 stream OR dvr mpeg 2 stream to get it to work again. Is there any fix/solution to this? GFX card is an Nvidia 1070.

crawfish

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#5

Post by crawfish » Sun Nov 20, 2016 10:41 pm

Sounds like the problem I first encountered with Cox in 2011. Much more on it in this message from 2013:

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 705#p60705

I posted in 2015 that it was silently resolved by Cox:

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 641#p99641

Sorry, no workaround that I know of beyond tuning a "good" channel or restarting WMC or even ehrecvr.

sgbroimp

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#6

Post by sgbroimp » Mon Nov 21, 2016 7:03 pm

Here in Clinton,CT Comcast also announced a move to MPEG-4 as of 11-10. Since then I have sound only on HBO and other premiums. When I run the debug on HBO-HD, instead of seeing MPEG-4 or H.264 (which is what I now see for ESPN), I get "unspecified" for the video codec. What kind of card is going to decode unspecified codec? Seems like they may have goofed up somewhere.

jziggity

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#7

Post by jziggity » Tue Nov 22, 2016 12:20 am

How does one tell if a channel is being sent in H.264? I am on TWC (Milwaukee area market) and I'm wondering if TWC has made a recent change, as I am having problems streaming one particular channel to XBox's. I tried the debug info screen, but I'm not seeing anything there. Thanks!

webminster

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#8

Post by webminster » Tue Nov 22, 2016 12:31 am

Easiest way is press sequence 4-1-1-info on your remote. The debug screen is displayed, and if you right arrow all the way over (maybe 5 clicks) you'll see the screen with video codec, bitrate, and source dimensions. On converted channels, you'll see codec H264, source dimensions 1280x720. E.g., the MPEG4 conversion, their downrez to 720P, and woefully inadequate bitrate. Non-converted channels will show a codec of MPEG2.
-Alan

sgbroimp

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#9

Post by sgbroimp » Tue Nov 22, 2016 2:39 pm

webminster wrote:Easiest way is press sequence 4-1-1-info on your remote. The debug screen is displayed, and if you right arrow all the way over (maybe 5 clicks) you'll see the screen with video codec, bitrate, and source dimensions. On converted channels, you'll see codec H264, source dimensions 1280x720. E.g., the MPEG4 conversion, their downrez to 720P, and woefully inadequate bitrate. Non-converted channels will show a codec of MPEG2.

If you have an actual Channel 411 active, it will be much easier if you disable it so the tuner does not try to tune it when you are opening the debug screen. 411-Info may or may not work depending on the remote you are using. What does work on a keyboard is 4-1-1 Ctrl (hold down), then press the letter "D", and release. The screen is very detailed and you will have to keep scrolling through it to get to the video codec info.

Having finally gotten the debug screen open, I am still very puzzled to see "unspecified" as the video codec on my copy once premium channels.

maseline_98

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#10

Post by maseline_98 » Wed Nov 23, 2016 12:56 am

I'm seemong to get "unspecified" as well..

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coolwhip

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#11

Post by coolwhip » Wed Nov 23, 2016 4:02 pm

I've seen "unspecified" on extenders but not on HTPC.

sgbroimp

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#12

Post by sgbroimp » Wed Nov 23, 2016 5:34 pm

coolwhip wrote:I've seen "unspecified" on extenders but not on HTPC.
I looked again last night. I goofed a bit. It says "not specified", not unspecified. Either way it makes we wonder if they are sending something goofy or if it is my equipment not being able to decode anything other than the sound. Still, even on copy once h.264 material shouldn't it show h.264 like the other channels where I see that designation?

coolwhip

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#13

Post by coolwhip » Thu Nov 24, 2016 1:00 am

sgbroimp wrote:
coolwhip wrote:I've seen "unspecified" on extenders but not on HTPC.
I looked again last night. I goofed a bit. It says "not specified", not unspecified. Either way it makes we wonder if they are sending something goofy or if it is my equipment not being able to decode anything other than the sound. Still, even on copy once h.264 material shouldn't it show h.264 like the other channels where I see that designation?
I have seen "not specified" on channels that are not completely tuned in or not displaying video for some other reason. Once I get them to put video on the screen the codec information shows up.

batpot

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#14

Post by batpot » Thu Dec 01, 2016 2:58 pm

I recently upgraded my Intel i3 integrated graphics with an Nvidia GT 710, and noted 2 things, one of which is a major drawback:
1. You have to re-run Digital Cable Advisor, or many old recording would not play, and HBO wouldn't play at all
2. All "copy once" recordings (for me, that's just HBO, but applies to most premium channels with Comcast) will no longer playback, because the HTPC is treated as a different device now.

I haven't tried plugging back into the integrated graphics, and seeing if that allows old recordings to work again; I suspect not.

Thanks for the tip on the diagnostics screen; will have to try that.

someperson

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#15

Post by someperson » Wed Dec 21, 2016 6:39 pm

I am still struggling with this. Tried an old Radeon 4670 in the machine with S-Video, but it crashed when switching from a protected H.264 channel to a protected MPEG-2 channel after a bit of stuttering.

Is there a list of cards anywhere that actually work?

someperson

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#16

Post by someperson » Fri Jan 20, 2017 9:12 pm

I stuck a GT 710 in the machine connected to a TV over HDMI. Having problems there when switching between H.264 and MPEG-2 channels, especially with DRM involved.

I'm really wondering now if it's even possible to get this stupid thing working. Any ideas?! I'm starting to regret banking on the HDHomeRun last year.

someperson

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#17

Post by someperson » Sun Jan 22, 2017 11:53 pm

I noticed today that when it's failing to view a protected MPEG-2 channel, the 411 debug info incorrectly shows H.264 for the codec. I guessed that maybe it isn't switching codecs properly when switching from copy once MPEG-2 to H.264, but the behavior is inconsistent.

I have been doing testing using the following channels, using the GT 710:

Code: Select all

2   KYAZ  MPEG-2 copy freely Can change from here to any other channel.
81  HSN 2 MPEG-2 copy once   Can change from here to any other channel.
445 HBO-W MPEG-2 copy once   Can change from here to any other channel.
460 HBOHD H.264  copy once   Can change to 2, 81, or 664. Cannot change to 445.
664 HSNHD H.264  copy freely Can change to 2, 81, or 460. Cannot change to 445.
This suggests that there is something different about 81 compared to 445 (along with the rest of the SD HBO channels), even though they have similar flags.

Not sure if this helps anyone figure this out?

stuartm

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#18

Post by stuartm » Wed Jan 25, 2017 12:04 am

Is 81 HSN 2 really copy once? (otherwise it sort of looks like the problem is when you switch from H.264 to MPEG-2 copy once)
Similar problems were reported before when switching channels after switchover to H.264 resulted in failures. IIRC they could get things to work by switching to an intermediate channel that worked before switching to one that would fail if a direct switch was tried. Obviously some bug in WMC and of course it will never be fixed.

someperson

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#19

Post by someperson » Wed Jan 25, 2017 5:00 pm

stuartm wrote:Is 81 HSN 2 really copy once? (otherwise it sort of looks like the problem is when you switch from H.264 to MPEG-2 copy once)
Yes, HSN 2 really is copy once. I have no idea why.
stuartm wrote:Similar problems were reported before when switching channels after switchover to H.264 resulted in failures. IIRC they could get things to work by switching to an intermediate channel that worked before switching to one that would fail if a direct switch was tried. Obviously some bug in WMC and of course it will never be fixed.
This does indeed work, but it's a pain in the butt.

artm

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#20

Post by artm » Fri Feb 03, 2017 7:35 pm

I had the same issues with Comcast and Intel 3000 graphics. Switched to a Dell SFF, AMD 5450 discrete and hardly any issues now.

DRM channels tune in. Switching between DRm/non-DRM channels works fine, mostly; maybe a rare glitch and then I switch back and forth or to another channel.

Going fast back and forward at speed in a live buffer, rarely glitches with a freeze of WMC, needing to close it and reopen. Again, this has happened once.

All in all, much better than my old setup. Although I couldn't care less for DRM movie channels, I fear Comast will eventually go DRm on all channels, which prompted me to change.
-Art --
Win7 Ultimate x64 (NO UPDATES!), EPG123 v1.1.19, Schedules Direct, HDHomerun Prime,
Dell 980 SFF, i5, Nvidia GT710
Dell 780 SFF, i5, HD4000

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