BTV won't play mythtv recordings?

[rwiese]

In addition to BTV, I have Knoppmyth R5B7 box that I use in a different room. I tried adding the Knoppmyth recordings directory to BTV, and BTV will list the Knoppmyth recordings, but not play them. Any attempt to watch the Knoppmyth recording gets the infamous "This file is corrupt ..." message.

Media player, Theatertek, Zoom Player, etc. all play the Knoppmyth recordings without any trouble; only BTV chokes on them. As much as possible, I've made the Knoppmyth recording settings identical to BTV; both use a PVR150 and use identical bit rate settings, etc.

Has anyone had any success getting BTV to play mpg files recorded by another program, in particular mythtv?

I sure wish the "This file is corrupt ..." message would be replaced by something more accurate so that one could debug issues like this.

[MickP]

Maybe GSpot http://gspot.headbands.com/ will point out some differences between the files.

Mick.

[Bigbird999]

You could also try a quick run through VideoReDo. This often fixes this problem. Not sure but I think is has something to do with the mpeg header.

BB

[merrypig]

is the file local or remote? if it's remote - has myth got an exclusive file lock on it perhaps?

[PaulF]

Maybe BTV is expecting episode info in the MPG user data(wild guess).

OT: Out of curiosity, how does mythtv do on captioning? I heard captioning works fine for all Hauppauge cards. I may do exactly what you did by coverting one box of mine to Linux.

[bnflaherty]

Originally Posted by PaulF

Maybe BTV is expecting episode info in the MPG user data(wild guess).

Doubtful -- it simply displays Channel 0 -- for recordings that don't have the normal meta-data.

What format are these files in?


For the sake of argument -- what Video Decoder are you currently set to use?

Go into Settings -- Playback -- change the video decoder to an alternate and see if that makes any difference.

[crush157]

Do you have MythTV configured for the nupple video containers? That is the default for MythTV and would cause BTV or Windows MediaPlayer to choke.

[Rich A]

Originally Posted by bnflaherty

Doubtful -- it simply displays Channel 0 -- for recordings that don't have the normal meta-data.

What format are these files in?


For the sake of argument -- what Video Decoder are you currently set to use?

Go into Settings -- Playback -- change the video decoder to an alternate and see if that makes any difference.

I can confirm that missing "meta-data" information in the video mpeg headers doesn't affect playback. I often add "foreign" video to my BTV folder as well as regular BTV video that has had that data stripped and it works just like bnflaherty says.

There are many intrinsic setting in the Hauppauge PVR-x50s' encoders. Most are set specifically by the application using the hardware encoder. If you snip a few seconds of the affected video and attach a copy here, I'm pretty sure I can tell you what is different.

Or better yet, rather than parsing the sample through some editor (which may change things) set up a manual record in MythTV for a minute or two and attach that.

[rwiese]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

The old version of gspot that I used didn't detect any differences, it was able to render the mythtv recording. I may try installing a later beta to see if it tells me anything new.

I don't own VideoReDo, but may give that a try. It would kind of defeat the purpose of what I'm trying to do though if I had to insert that step to watch a show.

The recordings are remote. I use Samba to export the /myth/pretty folder from Knoppmyth. This works for Windows mediaplayer, Theatertek, and Zoom Player. Only BTV chokes on it. I've tried copying a recording to the local BTV recordings folder and it still won't play. The fact that it's remote doesn't appear to be a factor.

The files are .mpg and are in 'program stream' format. I've also changed myth to try 'transport stream' as well as 'dvd'. Nothing has helped so far.

BTV is set to use overlay playback with the snapstream video/audio codecs. I've tried changing to nvidia decoders, no joy. Also changed to 3D, no joy.

If I figure something out, I'll post results. Otherwise, additional suggestions?

P.S. Paul, I haven't tried captioning on the myth box yet. I'll have to experiment with that.

[Bigbird999]

What about other windows players like VLC or WMP, will they play the Myth files?

BB

[crush157]

Originally Posted by rwiese

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.
The recordings are remote. I use Samba to export the /myth/pretty folder from Knoppmyth. This works for Windows mediaplayer, Theatertek, and Zoom Player. Only BTV chokes on it. I've tried copying a recording to the local BTV recordings folder and it still won't play. The fact that it's remote doesn't appear to be a factor.

Did you see what MPEG decoder BTV is using? Above, you state TheaterTek works, so you can assume that you have thed MPEG decoder workign. Select that decoder in BTV and try it.

[btvfreak]

Theatertek comes bundled with, and uses, the nvidia purevideo decoder, so I doubt that's the problem. What extension are the mpegs recorded in? Myth does record them to mpeg, but I believe uses another extention. If it's not mpg, then try changing the extention of the files to .mpg.

[rwiese]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm on vacation this week, and won't be able to continue debug until I return. I'll let you know what I uncover next week.

[Paul S]

The file extension is different, depending on what version of MythTV you may have. Up to version .18 it used the .nuv container (NuppleVideo). In the latest version (.19) the developers have discarded NuppleVideo and all the files just have the .mpg extension.

That being said, the Hauppauge cards always record in the mpg format, even if the extension says nuv. You would just have to rename them to play them in Windows.

If you haven't yet, you should upgrade to version .19.

On a side note, I'm using my "Linux Only" pcHDTV HD-3000 card in Windows and BTV4. I got tired of the constant tinkering the MythTV system required.