XBox360 Skip Freeze

Troubleshoot and discuss the XBOX 360, XBOX One, Linksys, and other extenders.
slaingod

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#21

Post by slaingod » Sun Feb 25, 2018 5:41 pm

Well, good to know I am not going crazy. I am surprised that I couldn't find any other threads discussing this specific issue previously, as it seems like a showstopper, lol.

Obviously the question is now, if there are any setups with Comcast where it is actually working, since it seems like this specific discussion hasn't happened before (or my googlefu failed me)? Are there extenders that do work with the Comcast h264? Ceton Echo? HP X280N? Linksys?

If people have moved on, what are you using? I guess the HDHomerun DVR looks interesting, though it seems protected playback may have some issues on some platforms, and it seems like it is missing a true program guide grid due to patents or some such horseness.

It has always been to my utter frustration that we couldn't just use another PC as an extender.And what is the point? Is there some TV show out there that isn't available to be pirated? As usual DRM has only inconvenienced legit customers.

Windom

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#22

Post by Windom » Fri Mar 23, 2018 5:16 pm

I can confirm the same behavior on my system. It only happens for shows recorded on my Comcast H264 channels.

It often happens for me on E! News. I usually 30-skip through most of the show and it often locks up at around the 45-50 minute mark. I think it happens if I hit the skip too many times in a row without letting the video play. If I'm careful with how I skip near the the end of the show, it usually won't lock up. Other shows won't play after that until I restart the WMC extender on the Xbox 360.

It seems that Comcast is starting to convert broadcast channels (in my general area at least) to H264 so this might become more of an issue for me.

jriker1

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#23

Post by jriker1 » Tue Apr 17, 2018 12:17 am

Wow, so this is either really refreshing or really annoying. I have been spending months automating my commercial removal with MCE and been noticing issues with framerate errors that I couldn't understand. Then I tried using MCEBuddy, even paid for it, to try and re-encode all the videos back to the Legacy MPEG2 format as they call it. But half the videos were fine and half were jerky as if there were frame rate issues. Of course no one would admit to anything. Then comskip would complain on some shows and not others about fixing framrates. Enter VideoRedo. I used that tool to pull up info on the WTV files as nothing else is reliable with them INCLUDING ffmpeg. The files are MPEG2 when they are fine and H.264 when having framerate and jerkiness issues. I have not tried converting the H.264 files to MPEG2 with VideoRedo yet as I have just been using it to splice the files back together after comskip identifies the breaks. So in the end I finally figured out that H.264 format WTV is all my issues. And by the way, yes my Xbox 360's have been having the lockup issues and they ARE only on the H.264 format files. Still trying to figure out if we can force the MCE box to record the shows all in MPEG2 format. I see shows on the same channel that are sometimes MPEG2 and sometimes H.264. Even the same physical show switches over time.

And wow, big issue, what happens if a station starts encoding in H.265? We are out of luck.

JR

slaingod

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#24

Post by slaingod » Wed Apr 18, 2018 5:41 pm

It may be possible to do a super-fast repackage/rencode for the h264 (doesn't help with watching while recording, but maybe cut the WAF anger factor down a little)? Not sure, haven't felt like spending another weekend on this...

Or if there is a way to create a custom h264 decoder WMC plugin for the XBox360 to homebrew/side-load.

Yea, I don't know what people have moved onto really. I may give the HDHomeRun DVR a try just to see where it is for my usages. I know it has limitations, just don't know if they affect me (I don't have premium channels so not sure if the current lack of DRM recording is an issue for me).

johngray

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#25

Post by johngray » Sat May 26, 2018 6:22 pm

There is a new XBOX360 update out with "minor bug fixes". https://www.geekwire.com/2018/xbox-360- ... two-years/
It's going to be hard to prove the issue is gone, but if anyone gets the update and still gets skip freeze, then we know it's not fixed.

https://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-360 ... ing-system

OS version: 2.0.17526.0
DASHBOARD: 2.0.17526.0
Release date: 5/22/2018
> Minor bug fixes and improvements

jachin99

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#26

Post by jachin99 » Wed May 30, 2018 2:27 am

I think a lot of people are accrediting this to a compliance update. I'm pretty sure MS stopped creating new XB360s in 2016 but I still see them in stores.

SalmonSurprise

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#27

Post by SalmonSurprise » Mon Jan 23, 2023 6:35 pm

Sorry to necro this thread. I am running into this issue as well with my Dad's setup. He has Win7 WMC + 4 xbox extenders on Comcast. Would using a xbox 360e (the final xbox360 version) remedy this? Has anyone tried? Has anyone discovered any good workarounds since? Help appreciated.

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