make Xvid work (1 Viewer)

[mrkaras]

I have Xvid installed
if I play one of the TV server tutorial videos with media-player it says contacting codec server...then error downloading codec then plays the video fine.
if I try to play the video in media portal it just does nothing at all (just makes the selection squeak and nothing else happens)

also why would you need that commercial software to encode recordings to Xvid format, that makes no sense to me?

TV-Server Version:
MediaPortal Version: 0.2.2.0 - svn
MediaPortal Skin: BlueTwo Wide
Windows Version: windows 2003 sp1
CPU Type: core 2 duo 2.1
HDD: western digital 400Gb
Memory: 1Gb
Motherboard: Asus P5L-VM 1394
Motherboard Chipset:
Motherboard Bios:
Video Card: Asus Gforce 6200 LE
Video Card Driver:
Sound Card: onboard (ASUS)
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card: kworld
1. TV Card Type: DVB-T (PCI)
1. TV Card Driver: 4.0.108.4
2. TV Card: ASUS My cinema U3000 Mini
2. TV Card Type: DVB-T (USB)
2. TV Card Driver:
3. TV Card:
3. TV Card Type:
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec:
MPEG2 Audio Codec:
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case: thermaltake motzart
Cooling: CPU fan / passive on other
Power Supply:
Remote: iMon
TV: Samsung LA37R7
TV - HTPC Connection: VGA, (not DVI->HDMI, mis-led by samsung)

 

[iascoot]

Try installing and using FFDshow, i find that supports things easier and its all i use to play any XVid Files these days


http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/codecs_and_filters/ffdshow.cfm

 

[Deco]

Hi Iascoot,

I had a similar problem.

I try to avoid filter packs (like FFDshow) whenever necessary.

It may just be a filter merit problem (Windows priortises which filter it will use for particular file types). I have found that recent installs of MediaPortal lower the merit of the Xvid and AC3 codec's, so an incorrect codec gets used. You can read how I resolved the problem, with the help of fellow MediaPortal users, here:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/problem_playing_xvids-t11355.html?t=11355

Hope this helps.

Deco.

 

[diehard2]

I have found that recent installs of MediaPortal lower the merit of the Xvid and AC3 codec's

Not that I'm aware of. Its more a quirk of microsoft technologies. All merits being equal, the last installed filter will be used. Unfortunately, that would be dscaler and mpa. I've argued against them being included in the default, but got nowhere.

 

[Deco]

I've argued against them being included in the default, but got nowhere.

Suppose these are normally the most robust/easy to set up codecs, it seems lots of people use MPA, so hard to argue against including them for most 'clean' or new installations, particularly for newcomers to MediaPortal. The rest of us are constantly dabbling and breaking things anyway!!

I should have said that the relative merit of existing codec's is lowered when MediaPortal is installed, due to codec's included with MediaPortal becoming 'preferred'. Once you've figured out how to do this once, using Radlight filter manager or similar, it's not so bad!

Deco.

 

[diehard2]

The problem with them is that neither one is particularly good. Especially the MPA filter can cause serious problems. The commercial solutions are leaps and bounds more sophisticated than the open source decoders. Its like comparing the space shuttle to a Toyota. DScaler is essentially a project that's stopped, and MPA hasn't been updated in quite a while. My point is that they should not be the default. Even if you haven't installed them in the stable MP solution, the svn installs them for you.