No video, but only on the first play

[vonpoon]

MediaPortal Version: 0.2.2.0
MediaPortal Skin: BlueTwo wide
Windows Version: Windows XP SP2
CPU Type: AMD Athlon XP 1.8GHz
HDD: 2x 500GB SATA
Memory: 2GB
Motherboard: ASUS A7N8X
Motherboard Chipset: Nforce2
Motherboard Bios: v1008
Video Card: MSI Geforce 6200
Video Card Driver: Nvidia Detonator 93.71
Sound Card: onboard sound
Sound Card AC3: ?
Sound Card Driver: Nvidia Nforce2 v5.10
1. TV Card: n/a
MPEG2 Video Codec: ffdshow 2007-02-11
MPEG2 Audio Codec: ffdshow 2007-02-11
Satelite/CableTV Provider: n/a
HTPC Case: Ahanix MCE 601
Cooling: Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu
Power Supply: Ahanix 350W
Remote: Logitech Harmony 880 pretending to be a Sigma Designs Hollywood+ remote
TV: Toshiba 34HF83
TV - HTPC Connection: DVI

I've been having this problem for a while now, and I'd like to ask about it here before I reinstall Windows. When I select a video to play under My Movies, I get audio but no picture. If I stop the video and start it again, or if I select a different video to play after the first, everything is fine. It almost seems like it fails to load the video decoder the first time I play a video, but has no problems the second time. I've tried uninstalling MediaPortal, uninstalling ffdshow, rebooting, and reinstalling the latest versions of both, with no change. Any suggestions as to how I can fix this, short of reinstalling Windows?

[Andreas]

You are not alone.
I have the same problem on my newly installed HTPC.
I hope for a positive answer on this.

Andreas

[simulant]

I've had this problem for several versions including the latest RC and today's SVN.

Screwing around w/default video players in the Movies setup section seem to fix it before , (can't recall exactly what I did) but on a clean install w/latest version today, the problem is back.

Even when this particular problem was fixed I always had an issue where random videos (probably not really random but I never figured out what they had in common... though usually w/ hd aspect ratio) would not display video until I changed the aspect ration to zoom.

(tweaking screen calibration has some effect but I could never get 100% of my files to show video 100% of the time)

It would be nice to get basic things like this resolved or explained. Alas, most dev focus (and understandably so) seems geared toward tv record/playback.

Personally, I only use MP to play files that I download. Never setup or use TV record features. Why record when it's already out there, commercial free?

Downside is, of course, lots of different formats. I can't really expect them all to play flawlessly.

[kersonan]

I had this issue for awhile and it went away after i changed the DPI setting in my graphics options (right click on screen->properties->settings->advanced->general), it had somehow become set at 120 and when i set it to 96 it now plays normally. worth a try I guess.

[xurr]

I have a similar problem and I found both the likely cause and a workaround: it looks like MP doesn't always recognise the actual screen resolution, eg.:

2007-10-14 22:51:05.453125 [Info.][MPMain]: PlaneScene: crop T, B : 0, 0
2007-10-14 22:51:05.453125 [Info.][MPMain]: PlaneScene: crop L, R : 0, 0
2007-10-14 22:51:05.453125 [Info.][MPMain]: PlaneScene: video WxH : 576x324
2007-10-14 22:51:05.453125 [Info.][MPMain]: PlaneScene: video AR : 9:5
2007-10-14 22:51:05.453125 [Info.][MPMain]: PlaneScene: screen WxH : 1292x780
2007-10-14 22:51:05.453125 [Info.][MPMain]: PlaneScene: AR type : Normal
2007-10-14 22:51:05.453125 [Info.][MPMain]: PlaneScene: PixelRatio : 1
2007-10-14 22:51:05.453125 [Info.][MPMain]: PlaneScene: src : (0,0)-(576,324)
2007-10-14 22:51:05.453125 [Info.][MPMain]: PlaneScene: dst : (0,31)-(1292,749)

The size reported above (1292x780) is wrong, my screen resolution is 1280x768!

In order to fix the problem and be able to never get a black screen on first movie play, I had to create a file named "ScreenCalibration1292x780.xml" (copying the "ScreenCalibration1280x768.fs.xml" file). Now everything seems fine.

I think we have two issues here:
- black screen when no screen calibration file found for a given screen resolution
- screen resolution is not calculated correctly on first movie or fullscreen TV (12px more than the actual size)

I also got DPI settings to 120 as reported in the previous post, don't know if this has really something to do with the problem...

[Bear84]

I can confirm that this probleem occurs when the dpi is set to 120.

I had the following problem:

Mediaportal 2.3.0 RC2 was set up to start in full screen

When first started, I would get a black screen when trying to play any file (but I could hear the audio).
I tried playing other files, stopping and starting the files, .... nothing helped
except... switching to windowed mode and back to full screen. After I did this, video always works, even after hibernate of S3 sleep.

pretty annoying when you control Mediaportal with a remote control.

So after reading this thread, I switched the dpi back to 96 and everything works fine now.

[patricon]

I've DPI settings to 96 and i've this problem, so DPI settings is not the problem...

regards,

[infinityloop]

sorry but all this is absolutely useless, if you do not add logs which are exported by the testtool -> MediaPortal Debug Shortcut.

[Tomy]

dude i had this problem maybe similar REGARDE:

when i play with myself MOVIE FILES: ok

then SWITHCHED VMR EXCLUSIVE is give me pain problem: BLACK SCREEN only view video to SWITCH ASPECT RATIO NOT ALL WORKS in VMR EXCLUSIVE

other problem is maybe not the same DUE TO CODEC PROBLEM is maybe

THANKS I LOVE AUSTRIA

[infinityloop]

@Tomy sorry but i do not understand a single word you posted there.
no clue whyt you switched where and what this caused then.

a good old step by step description (1., 2., 3., ... ) is a good way to describe what happens when you do something