This one has me completely stumped !!

[Taipan]

I don’t believe that this problem has anything to do with MediaPortal, since the same problem occurs in Windows Media Player and in GraphEdit. But I am hoping that there is someone out there who can advise me…

The problem is, that sometimes when I play a “wmv� video file, the image will have coloured dots or partial lines like this:-



This is a particularly bad example, most times it is just the coloured dots that appear, and many “wmv� files will play just fine – no coloured dots or lines at all.

I first noticed this with the My Trailers plugin, when watching a movie clip.

Now, this is the weird thing – I have 2 other PCs running Windows XP Professional SP2 (same as my MediaPortal PC) and they do not display this behaviour at all!! :?

So, I have been trying to figure out what is different about my MediaPortal PC that causes this problem, and the only things I can think of are:-

1. It’s an oddity with my ATI Radeon 9550 video card/drivers in the MediaPortal PC. I have installed the latest ATI drivers (5.13) and the problem is still the same.

2. The filter used to decode this image is corrupt or an old release. This is what it looks like in GraphEdit:-



I am assuming that the culprit here is the DirectShow video filter “WMVideo Decoder DMO� – but I have no idea what the corresponding file is that contains that filter. The WMVideo Decoder DMO does not appear in the RadLight Filter Manager, but it appears to be a “DirectX Media Object� – hence the DMO in the name.

Before I go through the hassle of swapping video cards around, I would like to eliminate the software side.

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

Can anyone throw some light on these DMO filters?

[Elvar]

I have also had some problems with corrupted wmv files. I haven't had exactly the same kind of problems as your screenshot shows but some terrible blocks and stuff.

I realised that it only occured when the hardware wmv acceleration was turned on in ati drivers. Disabling harware acceleration fixed the problem for me.

I don't know if that really is the cause of your problem but I think it's at least worth trying.

[mPod]

That's PacMan, isn't it? :mrgreen:

[wishywashy]

Originally Posted by mPod

That's PacMan, isn't it? :mrgreen:

haha... I know this is no help, but it does look like pacman

[Taipan]

Originally Posted by wishywashy

haha... I know this is no help, but it does look like pacman

Yes, it does look like PacMan, but it doesn't respond to the arrow keys on my remote or my keyboard....so it is not even useful as a game... :lol:

[Taipan]

Originally Posted by Elvar

I realised that it only occured when the hardware wmv acceleration was turned on in ati drivers. Disabling harware acceleration fixed the problem for me.

I have tried a few more things, but to no avail, the problem persists....

1. I have disabled WMP 10 hardware acceleration in both the Radeon driver and in WMP 10.

2. I have swapped the video card to a completely different type.

3. I have uninstalled the WMP hotfix for DxVA (888656)

and none of the above have resolved this "PacMan" lines on the WMV files..... :cry:

I am still open to any suggestions to try.....

[wishywashy]

I couldn't find much on google, but have you tried reinstalling the Microsoft codecs for WMP? This was the recommendations in "worse case scenarios."

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...cdownload.aspx

[Taipan]

Originally Posted by wishywashy

have you tried reinstalling the Microsoft codecs for WMP?

Yes, I reinstalled the MS codecs, and once again, no change.... :cry:

I think that the only way that I am going to cure this problem is to do a fresh install of the whole PC - something that I was really trying to avoid.... :|

[Taipan]

This is probably not of any interest to anyone else, but I finally found the cause of this "PacMan" effect in my ".wmv" videos.

It turns out that my CPU is faulty.... :?

Which was the very last thing that I suspected, and of course, the very last thing that I tried.

The CPU (an AMD Athlon XP 2400+) has not displayed any other strange behaviour - no hangs, no BSODs - just this PacMan effect. So, now I hope that AMD will replace it under warranty......

[jawbroken]

That is strange. That would have been the last thing I would suspect as well, considering everything but playing WMV files was working.