Black screen when watching live/recorded TV on XBOX extender

[poqui]

I have two Xboxes, an elite and a slim. Both came down with this issue at the same time. I have a HDHomerun connected to an antenna so I can receive OTA signals. That is connected via my router to my Win7 PC. The xboxes are set up as extenders so that I can view all the content that's on the PC. Xboxes are connected to TV's via HDMI. All network connections are wired. Everything worked perfectly up until a few weeks ago. Now whenever I try to play live or recorded TV on an xbox extender I get a black screen. I can still hear audio, but even that is choppy. It does this for SD as well as HD programs. Avi video files play fine, seems its just wtv files that are the problem. A few shows that I recorded a while ago and have watched via the xbox before with no problems are now giving me that black screen.

Everything plays perfectly on the PC. I've checked network speeds by hooking up my laptop to where the xboxes are plugged in and running a LAN speed test, everything is 60+ Mbps between the xbox and the PC, which I think should be more than enough for HD content. Tried connecting the slim over WiFi and had the same problem. I've disconnected and then set up media center on the xboxes again with no luck. Can anyone help me out with this one?

[Scallica]

What video card is in the PC? Can you view live TV on the extenders?

[poqui]

I have a GeForce GTS 250 video card in the PC. Black screen problem is with both live and recorded tv on the xbox extenders. Everything else on the xbox is fine. It doesn't freeze up or anything, I can even turn on subtitles and change audio tracks while the screen is black. Just no picture, and occasional choppiness with the audio.

[Scallica]

Do you have a system restore image prior to the issue appearing?

[poqui]

Unfortunately no, my oldest restore point is 10/8. Tried that and that didn't fix it.

[Scallica]

What video driver version are you using?

[poqui]

314.22. I see the current version is 331.58. Downloading that now.

[poqui]

OK, this time I actually got a pixelated image on the screen and the "network issue" notification in the upper right corner.

[poqui]

Swapped out the win7 PC for my vista laptop. When I did that, everything worked fine. Turns out the problem was some citrix VPN software I had to install to connect to servers at work... even though I wasn't connected. Once I uninstalled that from the win7 PC, everything worked fine again. I don't know if this is a common problem or not but if anyone has a solution so that I can keep the VPN running while not messing up my media center, I'd love to hear about it.

[Scallica]

Turns out the problem was some citrix VPN software I had to install to connect to servers at work... even though I wasn't connected. Once I uninstalled that from the win7 PC, everything worked fine again.

Interesting. Thanks for the follow-up. I am sure many members here will remind you, never install anything on your HTPC that doesn't belong there. If you need to use VPN client software, use another PC or run the VPN Client software in a virtual machine.

[poqui]

Right, unfortunately this isn't a dedicated HTPC, it's the main PC we have to use for everything. This setup kind of just evolved this way when we decided to cancel our cable subscription a few years ago and then realized how much we missed the DVR. It sure would simplify things if I didn't have to do it that way. Next time I decide to upgrade our PC I'll dedicate this one for home theater. For now I guess I'm back to lugging my laptop back and forth to work.