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Playback issues

Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 10:59 am
by alect71
I have Win10 MC running. Recently we've started having a playback issue of downloaded/copied video files - when playing the file it plays fine but at random points in the video it blacks out for 0.5-1 sec (vo video and no audio) and then starts playing again. This seems to happen randomly (ie not consistent intervals) and seems to happen equally to all video file formats (mp4, mkv, avi, etc). It doesn't happen to WMC recorded TV video files.

Any ideas of the root cause and a solution (as it's getting pretty annoying).

Re: Playback issues

Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 1:46 pm
by unclebun
Do you have this problem if you play the files outside of WMC?

Re: Playback issues

Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2020 1:57 am
by alect71
Just tested playing the same file(s) with VLC - and no it doesn't happen with VLC. So seems not to be a file issue, and seems to be WMC issue.

Re: Playback issues

Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2020 2:35 am
by Space
Make sure the HDMI cable is secure, and if you have a spare try swapping. Not having an issue with WTV files would make is seem like it is not the cable, but no harm in trying.

Re: Playback issues

Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2020 9:47 am
by alect71
Could it be a codec and Win10 update issue?

Re: Playback issues

Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2020 11:03 am
by technodevotee
This doesn't sound like a codec issue to me.

Have you tried playing the videos with WMC running in a window?

Does it still happen?

Re: Playback issues

Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2020 9:51 am
by alect71
I have confirmed that the HDMI cable is in right.

Re: Playback issues

Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2020 9:52 am
by alect71
technodevotee wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2020 11:03 am

Have you tried playing the videos with WMC running in a window?

Does it still happen?
What do you mean in a window? As in NOT full screen?

Re: Playback issues

Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2020 10:04 am
by technodevotee
Precisely.

There is a difference in how WMC 'talks' to the display adapter between full screen and windowed and that may give us a clue as to where the issue is.

Incidentally, as far as I can see, you didn't give us any details of the hardware, Windows build or version of WMC you have.

That may also help.

Re: Playback issues

Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2020 11:24 am
by alect71
WIll try.

Yesterday and today I tried to play 2 different mkv files. Starts in WMC with black screen but doesn't actually play - ie second/minute counter doesn't progress (in both full screen and in window). Plays normally in VLC.

Re: Playback issues

Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2020 12:18 pm
by technodevotee
Hmm.

I have no other ideas I'm afraid.

I don't use WMC for *anything* other than recording and watching TV programmes.

Re: Playback issues

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2020 6:28 pm
by Dkeyguy1
Just popped in here for a second, but in my experience, this type of thing occurs mostly with either display driver (rare now) issue, or codec issue, when not being influenced by lagging hardware; meaning a driver issue in the background causing too much memory or cpu usage. I am using Shark007 codecs on all platforms. Due to some functional problems and no time to troubleshoot, I recently downgraded for media center use, to version 11.6.7 ... Plays everything everywhere. By the way, I am running Media Center everywhere on my network, (copy freely helps) multiple buildings, rooms, machines, (knock on wood) still works like a charm. Roku's pick up the slack that Playon doesn't cover

Re: Playback issues

Posted: Fri May 01, 2020 12:31 pm
by alect71
So do you suggest I install the shark 007 codecs?

Re: Playback issues

Posted: Fri May 01, 2020 2:19 pm
by prsa01
Maybe one of you shark007 users may have ideas for me:

Yesterday I installed the codecs. This morning, for at least 20 minutes, ffmpeg had my cpu maxed. Probably a complete coincidence but I have never seen that before unless I was running a video conversion.

Anyone know of anything (wmc, codecs, ffmpeg itself) that would run a background process like that? I do have mcebuddy on this box but no scheduled jobs. No recordings or other obvious wmc processes were happening. My epgc guide update was running during part of the time, which downloads guide images, but that runs every morning and I've never seen the ffmpeg/cpu thing going on.

I tried killing ffmpeg but couldn't. Was going to reboot when it suddenly stopped, pretty much right on the hour.

Win7 wmc 3rd Gen i7 12gig mem

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Re: Playback issues

Posted: Wed May 06, 2020 9:36 am
by prsa01
prsa01 wrote: Fri May 01, 2020 2:19 pm Maybe one of you shark007 users may have ideas for me:

Yesterday I installed the codecs. This morning, for at least 20 minutes, ffmpeg had my cpu maxed. Probably a complete coincidence but I have never seen that before unless I was running a video conversion.

Anyone know of anything (WMC, codecs, ffmpeg itself) that would run a background process like that? I do have mcebuddy on this box but no scheduled jobs. No recordings or other obvious WMC processes were happening. My epgc guide update was running during part of the time, which downloads guide images, but that runs every morning and I've never seen the ffmpeg/cpu thing going on.

I tried killing ffmpeg but couldn't. Was going to reboot when it suddenly stopped, pretty much right on the hour.

Win7 WMC 3rd Gen i7 12gig mem

Any thoughts are appreciated.
Just to close the loop on this. It was mcebuddy. I had not seen this behavior before. Without the interface running (service only) it was launching ffmpeg jobs on its own. Uninstall resolved. Doing more research. Don't think mcebuddy has scheduler without interface running but maybe it does.

Re: Playback issues

Posted: Fri May 08, 2020 10:58 am
by alect71
Dkeyguy1 wrote: Tue Apr 28, 2020 6:28 pm Just popped in here for a second, but in my experience, this type of thing occurs mostly with either display driver (rare now) issue, or codec issue, when not being influenced by lagging hardware; meaning a driver issue in the background causing too much memory or cpu usage. I am using Shark007 codecs on all platforms. Due to some functional problems and no time to troubleshoot, I recently downgraded for media center use, to version 11.6.7 ... Plays everything everywhere. By the way, I am running Media Center everywhere on my network, (copy freely helps) multiple buildings, rooms, machines, (knock on wood) still works like a charm. Roku's pick up the slack that Playon doesn't cover
So I installed the shark07 codec. Did not resolve my problem.

Any other ideas or codecs I should try? Given that WMC recording play fine, i'm guessing it's not a hardware issue and likely to be a codec issue?

Re: Playback issues

Posted: Fri May 08, 2020 11:18 am
by technodevotee
There's an interesting post in another thread:

viewtopic.php?p=61540#p61540
barnabas1969 wrote:
You missed Richard's point. The Shark codec pack is not necessary to play MKV's.
Nor is any other codec pack. The only thing required to open an MKV file in WMC is a splitter. Personally I use Haali Media Splitter.
This might help as well:
viewtopic.php?f=32&t=11658

I don't use codecs or splitters myself so I can't comment.

Re: Playback issues

Posted: Sat May 09, 2020 10:43 am
by Shark007
If my codec pack is installed, close Media Center and open the 64bit Settings Application
press [RESET ALL]
choose to use the [x] SUGGESTED settings
go to the MKV TAB and choose to [x] disable Media Foundation for MKV
There are similar Media Foundation checkboxes for most popular file types such as AVI etc.

test your files now.

Re: Playback issues

Posted: Sat May 23, 2020 12:19 pm
by alect71
Shark007 wrote: Sat May 09, 2020 10:43 am If my codec pack is installed, close Media Center and open the 64bit Settings Application
press [RESET ALL]
choose to use the [x] SUGGESTED settings
go to the MKV TAB and choose to [x] disable Media Foundation for MKV
There are similar Media Foundation checkboxes for most popular file types such as AVI etc.

test your files now.
Thanks this seemingly worked........and then I was prompted to update my version to 990....which I downloaded and installed. And now it's happening again.

When I tried to open 64bit Settings I now get the following error:

"The utiity must reside in the Tools folder to function" (and doesn't launch).

Re: Playback issues

Posted: Sat May 23, 2020 12:34 pm
by Shark007
use of registry cleaners such as ccleaner is the usual cause of this error.
Simply re-install to fix it and stop trying to clean something that wasn't dirty.

Also know, there is a [Save ALL Settings] button on the Misc TAB.
When that is used, the default setting is to restore user preferred settings during an upgrade of the software.