[djfiii]

I posted in another thread (Ripped DVD playback: no video, OSD doesn't display duration correctly) but thought I might be hijacking the original poster's subject, as his issue seemed to be slighty different than mine. In any event, I am essentially getting no video playback. I have all of my video codec's set to ffdshow (after trying every other option). I have DVD's ripped to a hard drive, which when navigated to via MP, do nothing. It just sits on the navigation screen. This happens with both an encoded xVid AVI file, and raw VOB / IFO dvd rips. I've tried the default codecs as well, no luck. There are entries in the error log which I am unable to decipher. I attached a zip file with my logs in the link above. I am running WinXP Pro SP3. I have a phenom 9950 quad core on gigabyte 790gx chipset mobo w/ onboard ATI Radeon 3300 HDMI out. Photos works fine, weather is working like a charm. Just video playback is non functonal. No black screen, no audio - it just makes the normal clicking sounds as I click on movie title (VIDEO_TS folder or AVI file) but does not navigate any deeper. It also does not freeze up, i.e. I can navigate out of that particular folder. It just does nothing other than create the noted entries in the error log. Although the same AVI's and raw rips play back fine on players outside of MediaPortal. Any ideas on what might be wrong?

[bingweb]

I have the same problem so also would appreciate any feedback on this. Does media portal support all video files? My ripped DVDs are showing in Motion Picture (fantastic plug-in by the way) as having a length 0 min 0 sec!!?

As Difiii says, videos play fine outside of Media Portal.

Its really frustrating because this is a seriously good program

[djfiii]

No luck still - I've uninstalled all codecs that I installed, just trying out the defaults. I'm now going to reformat / reinstall winXP and try again. we'll see

[globaldonkey]

Please post some logs and system specs

[djfiii]

AMD Phenom 9950 quad core 2.6GHz
GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-DS4H AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
4GB G.Skill RAM
WinXP Pro SP2 (also tried SP3) + all current updates from MS

I tried the default codecs, ffdshow, and a few others from a codec pack I installed when the previous didn't work. same effect with each. you can see based on the log, that I'm trying to play straight DVD rips, but the same happens with an encoded AVI. It doesn't hang or crash MP, no black screen, no audio, it just does nothing. I can continue to browse back to other directories within MP, but when I click on a movie title it just doesn't do anything.

This was a completely new build, so I just reformatted, reinstalled WinXP, reinstalled all patches hotfixes updates, etc. Brought it up to SP2 this time instead of SP3 (just in case?). I refrained from installing any codecs other than those defaults that come with MP, in case that was the issue? Still the same behavior however. The other modules work - i.e. photos, weather, etc.

here is a clip from error log. the rest are attached.

2008-10-12 10:27:51.171875 [ERROR][MPMain]: Control has invalid animation type
2008-10-12 10:27:56.125000 [ERROR][MPMain]: DVDPlayer9: Exception while cleanuping DShow graph - Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at MediaPortal.Player.DVDPlayer9.Cleanup()
2008-10-12 10:27:56.125000 [ERROR][MPMain]: DVDPlayer:Unable getinterfaces()
2008-10-12 10:27:56.125000 [ERROR][MPMain]: DVDPlayer9: Exception while cleanuping DShow graph - Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at MediaPortal.Player.DVDPlayer9.Cleanup()
2008-10-12 10:27:56.125000 [ERROR][MPMain]: DVDPlayer9: Exception while cleanuping DShow graph - Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at MediaPortal.Player.DVDPlayer9.Cleanup()
2008-10-12 10:27:56.171875 [ERROR][MPMain]: PlaylistPlayer: *** unable to play - C:\Media\Movies\Series\THE OFFICE\THE OFFICE S1\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO - skipping track!
2008-10-12 10:27:57.390625 [ERROR][MPMain]: DVDPlayer9: Exception while cleanuping DShow graph - Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at MediaPortal.Player.DVDPlayer9.Cleanup()
2008-10-12 10:27:57.390625 [ERROR][MPMain]: DVDPlayer:Unable getinterfaces()
2008-10-12 10:27:57.390625 [ERROR][MPMain]: DVDPlayer9: Exception while cleanuping DShow graph - Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at MediaPortal.Player.DVDPlayer9.Cleanup()
2008-10-12 10:27:57.390625 [ERROR][MPMain]: DVDPlayer9: Exception while cleanuping DShow graph - Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at MediaPortal.Player.DVDPlayer9.Cleanup()
2008-10-12 10:27:57.421875 [ERROR][MPMain]: PlaylistPlayer: *** unable to play - C:\Media\Movies\Series\THE OFFICE\THE OFFICE S1\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO - skipping track!
2008-10-12 10:27:57.593750 [ERROR][MPMain]: DVDPlayer9: Exception while cleanuping DShow graph - Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at MediaPortal.Player.DVDPlayer9.Cleanup()
2008-10-12 10:27:57.593750 [ERROR][MPMain]: DVDPlayer:Unable getinterfaces()
2008-10-12 10:27:57.593750 [ERROR][MPMain]: DVDPlayer9: Exception while cleanuping DShow graph - Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at MediaPortal.Player.DVDPlayer9.Cleanup()
2008-10-12 10:27:57.609375 [ERROR][MPMain]: DVDPlayer9: Exception while cleanuping DShow graph - Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at MediaPortal.Player.DVDPlayer9.Cleanup()
2008-10-12 10:27:57.625000 [ERROR][MPMain]: PlaylistPlayer: *** unable to play - C:\Media\Movies\Series\THE OFFICE\THE OFFICE S1\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO - skipping track!

[globaldonkey]

Any particular reason why you are using the GPL MPEG encoder?

2008-10-12 10:27:55.750000 [Info.][MPMain]: DVDPlayer9:Video Decoder = GPL MPEG-1/2 Decoder

Go into DVD settings in select MPV (video) / MPA (audio) decoders for DVD playback to test. This is the default config for MP.

MediaPortal does not install the GPL MPEG codec to my knowledge (unless something happened with RC3 which I have not upgraded to just yet), so I'm at a loss to explain how that has got on your system if you just rebuilt it. Something you did in the rebuild added this codec at least.

Generally speaking, codec packs are a bad idea, as most are full of crap. The less codecs you have in your system the better. Read the codec section in the Mediaportal wiki and use the guide Goose wrote to install just what you need (after removing any codecs and codec packs you have already installed.)

[djfiii]

sorry, posted the wrong log file - that was from the first build, where I had installed a codec pack. Now, I have installed no codecs at all, not even ffdshow, xvid, divx, etc. here is the current log.

the error is exactly consistent with what I was getting on the first build, both in behavior and in what I see in the error log. Could it be my new hardware drivers (790GX Chipset?)?

[globaldonkey]

That's a possibility. What version of Catalyst are you running?

Did you install WMP 11, per the requirements? GeneralRequirements - MediaPortal Wiki Documentation

The avi's are not playing for a different reason to the VOB's. Probably because you have no xvid decoder now, and you should follow the codec guide to get ffdshow setup, but focus on getting the VOB's playing first, because that's straight up MPEG2, and your problem does look to be "down the stack" towards VMR9 or your video driver. I'm thinking VMR9 at this stage.

UserGuides/codecs_and_containers - MediaPortal Wiki Documentation

EDIT:

Just checked into your logs further, and it definitely looks like:

1) You only have WMP 9 installed
2) There are some errors with some of the ATI drivers loading in the system event log. You should uninstall / re-install the ATI drivers.

[djfiii]

Originally Posted by globaldonkey

That's a possibility. What version of Catalyst are you running?

Did you install WMP 11, per the requirements? GeneralRequirements - MediaPortal Wiki Documentation

The avi's are not playing for a different reason to the VOB's. Probably because you have no xvid decoder now, and you should follow the codec guide to get ffdshow setup, but focus on getting the VOB's playing first, because that's straight up MPEG2, and your problem does look to be "down the stack" towards VMR9 or your video driver. I'm thinking VMR9 at this stage.

UserGuides/codecs_and_containers - MediaPortal Wiki Documentation

EDIT:

Just checked into your logs further, and it definitely looks like:

1) You only have WMP 9 installed
2) There are some errors with some of the ATI drivers loading in the system event log. You should uninstall / re-install the ATI drivers.

thx for giving me some direction. I'll start figuring out how to read / interpret the logs pretty quickly. In the meantime it's nice to have a few people that can disect the relevant stuff.

Observation #1 is that I do in fact have WMP 11 installed, and every other requirement from the requirements page, but somehow MPortal is only detecting v9? During the MP install, it required a manual download for WMP 11, which I did, and placed the executable download in the directory MP install was looking for it. However, I had to change the exe name to what MPortal was expecting (wmp11-windowsxp-x86-enu.exe changed to wmp11-windowsxp-x86.exe) in order for the install to continue. So perhaps MSFT has released some newer subversion of WMP11 that MPortal isn't expecting? Not sure what that "enu" portion of the file name denotes. Maybe I downloaded the wrong version of WMP 11? In any event, MP installer wasn't expecting the filename I got. Despite that though, once I changed the exe name MP install continued fine. Not sure why it doesn't recognize that WMP 11 is installed.

I agree about the lack of xVid causing the decoding error on the avi - however on the previous build, playing an avi resulted in the same error as the VOBs, so I'll focus on the VOB's first. Once I get that figured out, I'm sure installing xvid will fix that avi issue. I'll check for new drivers, the chipset is pretty new though so I don't know what will be out there yet. Not sure on the version of catalyst (that's the ATI video card config interface right?). I find it hard to believe I'm the only one with this problem on this chipset, if it's the drivers. This chipset has been hyped as the perfect HTPC board so I was assuming I'd find half of this forum setup on it already

[globaldonkey]

I had that problem on an RC3 install I just did too. It did however install WMP 11. You can check by running WMP and do help | about. I may have been mistaken about what I saw in the logs.

Yes, Catalyst is the ATI software / driver. I've only heard good things about the 790GX (in fact I'm thinking of getting one of the boards you have, hence the interest).

Your system is throwing an error at startup that it cannot load ativvaxx.dll, which is the video acceleration driver.

0/15/2008 6:15:28 AM;"Application Popup";"(0)";"Information";"Application popup: : \SystemRoot\System32\ativvaxx.dll failed to load";"1073741850"

If you've got WMP 11 installed, then this, I would suggest, is the next problem you need to solve.

Also, just check you have Direct X installed - pretty sure you do, but MP didn't grab a dxdiag output in the logs you posted for some reason. Please post the dxdiag output.

One of the big differences between MP and other players is that by default, other players will use VMR as the video renderer. MP by default uses VMR9, and your system definitely looks like it has some VMR9 problems.