After watching full episode in ext player all text is gone (1 Viewer)

[mattwakeman]

The same thing that happened every other time that I have tried and it hasn't worked. If I use an external player and start a file then exit straight away the file is marked as watched. But it is still there. Watch the whole episode and the the list disappears. Just like every other time when I have posted about this issue. Really, I'm not trying to be a dick about this. I really want this to work and loved using Mediaportal and TV-Series. But it doesn't work with an external player. And I have found that MP simply doesn't work as well as XBMC to play video types (for me, clearly others are using it just fine). So as I said, I will keep trying it and checking in but I don't need to guess what will happen, I can clearly see that it isn't working.

 

[TheRipper7]

Have you found the experience with XBMC as enjoyable as using MP-TV Series? Can you setup XBMC in a way that handles episodes/guide/fanart etc? The one time I tried I didn't like it very much so I returned to MP but with the problem everyone is having with using an external player. Maybe MP 2 will work for us...

EDIT: Sorry, just remembered. One thing I didn't want to deal with was that I could not use an external player with XBMC without editing some scripts. It's not like MP that you just point the player within the configuration.

 

[RoChess]

The same thing that happened every other time that I have tried and it hasn't worked.

Just keep in mind when you are testing a fresh install that you need to go over all the settings to make sure they do not conflict. By default if memory serves me MP-TVSeries will only show unwatched episodes. So if you import 1 episode, and you watch it... the result is that there is a conflict, because there is nothing to show. There are no unwatched episodes, so you get nothing in return, or in programming terms NULL. This could then cause MP-TVSeries sort of freaking out and indeed showing no text, infact nothing at all (but still functional in bringing up hidden menu to adjust options/filters/etc).

If however you import 2 episodes and only mess with the watched status on 1 episode (watch them both and you are back to the empty screen problem), then you are testing it more accuratly with default settings. Another solution would be to simply enable the option to show all episodes. This used to all be easy, but there are a gazillion options now, some causing different behavious depending on another setting that it can end up a rather complex matter. For as many options as MP-TVSeries has, I must admit that it is still very easy to understand each of them if you take the time to look at all the MP-TVSeries configuration tooltips when you hover over each option.

And I'm not trying to underplay your troubles, but making 'watched' status work on an external player is just impossible, because no feedback is made easy. It is not like MP-TVSeries goes 'Play' and gets back an answer from that external player that it only played 24% or 100%. When you tell MP-TVSeries to play an episode it then asks MediaPortal to play the file, who then opens up the external player to play the file. There is no reply back on how many % it played. The only semi-accurate way would be to keep track of the time the external player was launched and when it was stopped and compare that to the MediaInfo runtime of the episode. As it stands there is just no reliable way to stop/resume playback on an external player, because all it knows is launch/close.

You must have reasons for sticking with an external player, but unless you have specific reasons that you can eleborate on; it can also be that you never gave the internal player a proper chance, which brings me to:

And I have found that MP simply doesn't work as well as XBMC to play video types (for me, clearly others are using it just fine).

Have you tried it with just LAV yet? If MediaPotal is unable to play something it *IS* because you do not have a DirectShow compatible codec installed (DirectX is what is used for all the GfX stuff) *OR* have a conflicting setup (codec pack hell, etc).

LAV has made this easy and comes as an MPE1 package now so one-click install and easy to update from within MediaPortal as well. Infact it is so easy for most people that it is now the default codec support way in MediaPortal v1.3.x. The only slight problem however is that it still requires a user to read the manual and do those silly extra configuration step to match their hardware and preferences. So all the hardware accelleration will *NOT* work, until you activate it. I've actually submitted an enhancement request to the LAV developers that got accepted to enable hardware decoding out-of-the box, and it was 'accepted', so one of the next versions will make it even easier. Also verify that LAV got properly activated inside MediaPortal codec settings as well. It is supposed to go smooth, but it might be respecting an existing change you made.

Of course you can always do a fresh install of MediaPortal v1.3.0 Alpha, do a fresh install of MP-TVSeries and import 3 episodes, then test the watched status on 2 of them.

PS: The new option to only show unwatched episodes is done via a filter, you can bring this up via the context menu (F9) and then selecting "Filters". If you see "UnWatched Episodes" then you are in the right filter view, as it means you are seeing *ALL* episodes. If you see "All Episodes" then you better select that, or you would only be able to see the UnWatched ones, causing you to experience the exact problem you are reporting when you import *only* one episode and then watch it.

 

[TheRipper7]

RoChess thanks for trying to help with this problem. I have setup my mp-tv series exactly as you described (i.e. see all episodes, in fact I have a setup to see all seasons) and I still get to have the same problem. Actually just now I've watched an episode and I have about 10 more unwatched on a season and it still happened. Also, I have tried various skins other than streamedmp which uses the "watched" function and I got the same problem everytime. Reading through your long post I got to wonder whether the confusion emerges when MP is trying to mark the episode as "watched" at the same time that the external player is exiting...

 

[RoChess]

RoChess thanks for trying to help with this problem. I have setup my mp-tv series exactly as you described (i.e. see all episodes, in fact I have a setup to see all seasons) and I still get to have the same problem. Actually just now I've watched an episode and I have about 10 more unwatched on a season and it still happened. Also, I have tried various skins other than streamedmp which uses the "watched" function and I got the same problem everytime. Reading through your long post I got to wonder whether the confusion emerges when MP is trying to mark the episode as "watched" at the same time that the external player is exiting...

The last time I saw an issue with an external player not properly setting the watched status in MP-TVSeries was due to bad syntax on the external player parameters (was MPC-HC for madVR usage). A slight messup in the order of the parameters caused the external player to behave just slightly different where on the face of things everything worked, but inside MP-TVSeries it went horrible wrong. Fixed the params and all was well.

Sometimes it is very hard to debug these things though, because multiple things are happening at the same time, and a ton of additional conditions are unique to your setup versus others, so it is not always easy to reproduce by somebody else (especially the developers themselves) to make finding a solution possible.

Are you perhaps able to capture the event in a short video that you can post on Youtube/Vimeo/etc? There are many free (open source, etc) tools available that allow you to record your desktop activity, and eventhough recording at 720p or 1080p can add up quick in video-size, you should be able to edit it down to a small video.

Right now it is more a needle in a haystack search on what it causing the problem. MP-TVSeries, MediaPortal the external player or a ton of other things can be at fault. What also does not help is that it works fine for some people as well. So aside from shipping your HTPC that has the issue to a developer that can then repeat the issue and fix it, we are left with log-files and visual helpers such as videos.

Seems nobody is able to provide the log files that capture the before/during/after events that show exactly what is going wrong, so perhaps a video will finally provide some insight.

 

[TheRipper7]

No problem. Looked for a couple of free screen capture apps. Hypercam seems to work well. Will capture the video as soon as I play the next episode.
Thanks again for your willingness to help.
Anthos

 

[Edalex]

Nothing special in logs, my only guess is wrong sql. Didn't find where are debug log checkbox to look at sql request.

Spoiler

00000001 - 27.07.2012 0:42:57 - This episode counts as watched
00000001 - 27.07.2012 0:42:59 - Episode not rated yet
00000001 - 27.07.2012 0:42:59 - Clearing play image for property #TVSeries.Play.ClearArt
00000001 - 27.07.2012 0:43:00 - OnPageLoad() started.
00000001 - 27.07.2012 0:43:00 - LoadFacade: ListLevel: Episode
00000043 - 27.07.2012 0:43:00 - Begin Loading of Facade
00000001 - 27.07.2012 0:43:00 - Disabling native autoplay.
00000001 - 27.07.2012 0:43:00 - Asking to rate
00000043 - 27.07.2012 0:43:00 - View: Get Episodes
00000043 - 27.07.2012 0:43:00 - View: Get Episodes: Executing SQL
00000043 - 27.07.2012 0:43:00 - View: Sorting Episodes
00000043 - 27.07.2012 0:43:00 - Displaying 6 episodes from Континуум
00000043 - 27.07.2012 0:43:00 - Adding episode Континуум - 1x1 - Петля времени to list
00000043 - 27.07.2012 0:43:00 - Adding episode Континуум - 1x2 - Время летит быстро to list
00000043 - 27.07.2012 0:43:00 - Adding episode Континуум - 1x3 - Трата времени to list
00000043 - 27.07.2012 0:43:00 - Adding episode Континуум - 1x4 - Вопрос времени to list
00000043 - 27.07.2012 0:43:00 - Adding episode Континуум - 1x5 - Испытание временем to list
00000043 - 27.07.2012 0:43:00 - Adding episode Континуум - 1x6 - Время вышло to list
00000043 - 27.07.2012 0:43:00 - LoadFacade: Finish
00000001 - 27.07.2012 0:43:00 - Element Selection: 0

UPD. Or maybe I have another problem? My case is episode disappearing from "all" view after watching in internal player

 

[TheRipper7]

Ok, first of all sorry for the 1 month delay My computer was misbehaving and I ended up formatting and re-setup everything. After I had a fresh install of MP and MP2, I uninstalled MP2 and the problem with MP disappeared Until last week when it started doing it again so I loaded up hypercam 2 and tried to record the damn thing. Well, it took me 22 tries to do it! I've downscaled the video and it's here View My Video You can see that the video finishes, KMPlayer exits and MP screen with the series episodes appears and then it disappears. Hope this video helps...

 

[RoChess]

Ok, first of all sorry for the 1 month delay My computer was misbehaving and I ended up formatting and re-setup everything. After I had a fresh install of MP and MP2, I uninstalled MP2 and the problem with MP disappeared Until last week when it started doing it again so I loaded up hypercam 2 and tried to record the damn thing. Well, it took me 22 tries to do it! I've downscaled the video and it's here View My Video You can see that the video finishes, KMPlayer exits and MP screen with the series episodes appears and then it disappears. Hope this video helps...

Definatly shows the problem.

So I've got good news and bad news.

Bad news is that I talked to one of the main developers and the C# code that handles the Facade part to draw the MP-TVSeries interface when focus is back is very old and written by a programmer no longer involved with the project. It needs to be like totally rewritten, so that might happen for a MP2 compatible version in the future, but I don't think nobody has the time or energy right now to do it for this MP1 version. It also more then likely has to do with MediaPortal itself as well, so fixing MP-TVSeries might not even solve the issue.

Good news is that this problem does not occur for the large majority of users of MP-TVSeries, because they either use a different external player (such as MPC-HC) or simply rely on the internal player. The only valid reason I know for an external player is for example when you want to use madVR for extensive manipulation of the codecs, usually setup via MPC-HC. Other then that all the explanations I've heared from users as to why the internal player sucks usually boils down to their MediaPortal setup not being configured right for the mediafiles they have.

Not the answer you were hoping for I'm sure, but at least you have some options if you care to explore.

If you are really stuck to KMPlayer for some inexplicable reason, are you sure there is no MePo action code to get you back to a workable GUI when the Facade goes bonkers? The obvious 'Escape', but you also have hidden menu, context menu, or jump to home, etc. Try all of the default keyboard map entries otherwise or map some new ones on your remote. It's not a proper solution, but at least a workaround then.

 

[tourettes]

Ok, first of all sorry for the 1 month delay My computer was misbehaving and I ended up formatting and re-setup everything. After I had a fresh install of MP and MP2, I uninstalled MP2 and the problem with MP disappeared Until last week when it started doing it again so I loaded up hypercam 2 and tried to record the damn thing. Well, it took me 22 tries to do it! I've downscaled the video and it's here View My Video You can see that the video finishes, KMPlayer exits and MP screen with the series episodes appears and then it disappears. Hope this video helps...

Try to check if you are able to reproduce the same issue under MyVideos plugin.