HBO black screen with audio, all other fine

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MarkJohnson

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HBO black screen with audio, all other fine

#1

Post by MarkJohnson » Mon May 16, 2016 3:56 pm

I just built a new HTPC rig for recording HBO in the living room. It is the new Skylake system (i5-6500 with HD 530 GPU that I'm using for WMC7, GA-Q170M-D3H, 8GB Ram, HDHomeRun Prime HDHR3-CC)

After painstakingly installing win7 (Lack of Win7 support for Skylake). I finally get everything setup. I setup windows as normal, activate digital cable and I watch all TV channels just fine, until I go to the HBO channels. Then the screen goes block, but still plays audio. I do not get any protection error messages, which usually occurs with black screens with NO audio.

Any advice for this issue?

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Scallica

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#2

Post by Scallica » Mon May 16, 2016 3:58 pm

MarkJohnson wrote:Any advice for this issue?
Change the video card.

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=6&t=9635
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spanner

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#3

Post by spanner » Mon May 16, 2016 4:13 pm

the thread above also applies to some Video cards especially Intel onboard graphics. Comcast and maybe others switched file formats to H.264' which works fine except for their Protected premium channels like HBO. I had to replace mine with this as a inexpensive option.
http://www.amazon.com/XFX-Low-Profile-P ... ge_o06_s00

DOS4EVER

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#4

Post by DOS4EVER » Mon May 16, 2016 4:26 pm

Avoid Intel HD Graphics for Windows Media Center; their GPUs have never played well with it. NVidia or AMD is the way to go.

MarkJohnson

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#5

Post by MarkJohnson » Mon May 16, 2016 4:28 pm

Scallica wrote:
MarkJohnson wrote:Any advice for this issue?
Change the video card.

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=6&t=9635
Bummer, I just upgraded this because my previous HTPC had it's GT-620 go out and the integrated Intel for the I3-540 (1st gen) would do the same thing. I assumed the old one was, well old and not supported. You'd think this would be fixed by now.

My Replacent GT-710 is on the way, I'll test on here first and maybe order another one for this one.

Any suggestions? If I recall correctly, nvidia no longer has HW acceleration? I ran some tests on my nephews system and the nvidia card had high CPU usage, I then switched out for an ATI 5450 and the CPU went down to less than 10% and played much better as the CPU is no longer being overloaded.

Is this still true?

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mcewinter

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#6

Post by mcewinter » Mon May 16, 2016 5:18 pm

I believe nVidia cards above the GT210 model all use hardware acceleration.

adam1991

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#7

Post by adam1991 » Tue May 17, 2016 12:17 am

DOS4EVER wrote:Avoid Intel HD Graphics for Windows Media Center; their GPUs have never played well with it. NVidia or AMD is the way to go.
My i3 Clarkdale disagrees with you.

stuartm

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#8

Post by stuartm » Tue May 17, 2016 4:16 am

My i3 Clarkdale disagrees with you.
Including playing MPEG-4 protected content? (I would be quite surprised if that were so)

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DavidinCT

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#9

Post by DavidinCT » Fri May 20, 2016 1:52 pm

DOS4EVER wrote:Avoid Intel HD Graphics for Windows Media Center; their GPUs have never played well with it. NVidia or AMD is the way to go.
Someone who has built tons of custom WMC systems over the years, Agree 100% on this...and I prefer Nvidia over AMD...
-Dave
Twitter @TheCoolDave

Windows Media Center certified and WMC MVP 2010 - 2012

MarkJohnson

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#10

Post by MarkJohnson » Tue Jun 14, 2016 7:56 am

I forgot to post back. I never got any emails from message replies from here.

I got the GT 710 in and it runs fines.

I replaced the system though, as my system kept going to perma-sleep and wouldn't wake up. I even had all sleep modes disabled in windows 7. It stops recording as well.

It's a weird sleep mode. The power is on. I tap the power button to try and wake it, but it shuts down then powers up to a woken sleep state. No BIOS or booting. It wakes up from sleep.

I am now using my old i3-540 with a R7 360 video and 4GB ram and all is fine. Maybe I'll figure out the sleep issues.

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Scallica

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#11

Post by Scallica » Tue Jun 14, 2016 10:07 am

MarkJohnson wrote:I forgot to post back. I never got any emails from message replies from here.
Click the "Subscribe topic" link on the top left corner.
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