3.0.7 and PlaybackException problems all of a sudden

[RedCoat999]

Been running with Sonic decoders with Overlay and Sage V2 for ages ok. Just upgraded to 3.0.7 and was running for a day fine. Then enabled comskip in SageMC16x9 (using Showshifter), and started doing some minor tweaking with the properties file for the mlbdude folder views stuff. Tried to play a recorded show, and boom:

"Playback error, sage.playbackexception: ERROR (-4,0x88848217): There was a problem rendering the video portion of the content for playback"

Tried changing the decoders from Sonic to Sage and Intervideo, still the same error. Tried VMR, works ok, but extreme stuttering due to my slow PC. Back to Overlay, error.

Incidentally, I cannot select the Sonic decoder anymore, it doesn't appear on the list to select from.

I've read on the forum about nvidia problems creating this error with trial software or something like that. But I don't have any of that. All I did was install 3.0.7, and waited a day.

Thanks for any ideas.

[bgorrell]

I'm having a similar problem. Wierd thing is, I initially fixed it by changing to the SageTV MPEG decoders. It worked fine for a while, but the next day it stopped working again. Now I can only get rid of the "error rendering video" message by changing to VMR9, but that gives me blank video and a seperate ActiveMovie window (and would probably be too slow anyways). I've tried all the following decoders:

Cyberlink
Intervideo NonCSS
nVidia (not working at all)
SageTV
Sonic Cinemaster

I have restarted windows and Sage several times and can't even get Sage decoders to work now. Zoomplayer and Windows Media Player work fine. Looks like an overlay initialization issue.

Anyway, I'll keep plugging away at it. I plan to uninstall all the third-party decoders and upgrade my video card drivers. I'm currently on Catalyst 5.4. I don't upgrade them that often anymore because my old ATI Radeon 8500 rarely gains anything from updates anymore. I think they've tweaked it as far as it can go.

I don't think it's the ATI though since you don't have one.

[Enormous]

I am having a similar problem switching from VMR9+FSE to Overlay. No matter what decoder I choose, when I select Overlay I get the following error: "Playback error, sage.playbackexception: ERROR (-4,0x80040217)". Have also tried rebooting to no avail. Will submit a bug report referencing this thread.

[hoep]

get the same but with vmr9
overlay works fine

[blade]

I assume you've tried rebooting? I sometimes get an error, especially if I've been changing codecs or switching between VMR and overlay. Mine always clears right up after rebooting.

[Enormous]

Have rebooted mulitple times, enabled/disabled 3d acceleration, enabled/disabled overlay color keying. Same error. Prior to the betas, switching back and forth was no problem. When I went to the newest beta, I did go to the latest NVidia display drivers, latest java, and latest Purevideo... so any of those could be causing the problem, but danged if I know which.

[bgorrell]

I am only able to get video by choosing "Default" Video Renderer now. So it is using VMR7. VMR9 and Overlay won't work with any of my codecs right now. I tried rebooting as well.

So, the problem is only with Overlay for Enormous and RedCoat999, VMR9 for hoep, and both VMR9 and Overlay for me. Very wierd.

[Kanati]

I got the same issue when I was messing about with the nvidia decoder and nielm's fast forward / rewind import. Once I found out that the sage decoder was happy with it but the other three decoders I had installed caused odd stutering and lack of screen updates when using neilm's tool, I started fiddling and tweaking trying to get them to work right. About half the time I wound up getting those errors. When it would happen I switched to windowed mode, killed sage, and restarted sage. The error went away after that.

[edit] overlay or vmr9 (or default for that matter) made no difference. The error appeared irregardless, and went away after restarting sage in all cases.

[frogger90]

I got a very similar problem with my setup.

When chaning channels from the TV Screen, I get a black screen, no audio. By right clicking on the screen and choosing "Close File", I can then go through the LiveTV Guide, select another channel and it comes up right away. From the display, when changing channels, the black screen comes back. What is odd is if I leave it there for 5-10 minutes, the audio and video mostly comes back... not always, but mostly.

Because recording involves changing channels, I am missing many of the scheduled events... *sad*

Problem appears to be related to the automatic record function of LiveTV Programs. The ability to play/pause is disabled when the black screen is displayed. As soon as audio/video is displayed again, these features are then available, but only from that point forward for that channel. (Can't rewind that 5-10 minutes to catch the missed content while waiting for channel change event to finish)

Running latest Beta.
Doesn't matter which Video or Audio encoder I use. (Happens with all)
Have to run with 3d acceleration disabled, otherwise I run into the video corruption problem.
Video card: ATI 3d Prophet 9700
Tuner: ATI HDTV Wonder using the standard coax cable input for Basic Cable (No cable box) for analog connection. Also using built-in tuner.

[frogger90]

BTW, when getting the black screen, I sometimes get the Playback exception error mentioned above (--can reproduce by flipping channels back and forth while continuously getting black screen(eventually error will occur).. -- sometimes audio/video flashes for an instant --same Playback Exception error as above although different number: -4,0x80040111). Happens on both windowed and full-screen instances.

Running latest ATI video card drivers and HDTV Wonder drivers.

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by Enormous

Have rebooted mulitple times, enabled/disabled 3d acceleration, enabled/disabled overlay color keying. Same error. Prior to the betas, switching back and forth was no problem. When I went to the newest beta, I did go to the latest NVidia display drivers, latest java, and latest Purevideo... so any of those could be causing the problem, but danged if I know which.

I'm having the same issues, with the latest NVidia drivers, and I had an issue even getting SageTV to run, that might have been related to having the latest Java. Haven't figured that out yet. See my Can't uninstall, install thread.

[Karyl]

I have the problem where I can't use VMR9 from within SageTV. I can, however, from TheaterTek. I bought TheaterTek with the nVidia decoders plus the audio decoders because I used to get an error about not being able to decode the audio stream due to my audio output being analog RCA. So, I don't get the audio error now, but if I try to run the DVD player from within SageTV, I get the following:

There was a Playback Error in playback. Details: sage.PlaybackException: ERROR (-1, 0x0): There was an problem using DirectX for playback. Please install the latest version of DirectX. If you already have it installed, please reinstall it.

I reinstalled DirectX 9.0c, although I'm not sure it actually did anything. (The setup program is 300k and it returns within a few seconds of running saying that the system is ready.)

I have an nVidia 6600GT card with the latest drivers. I have TheaterTek set up for VMR9 and it works fine. The only way I was able to get DVD playback to (sort of) work is to set the video mode into Overlay and make sure that the hardware acceleration setting is off. The problem now is that the DVD playback width is smaller than the standard 4:3 view. (I have a 16:9 TV with a digital DVI connection.) If I change the aspect ratio from "Source" to "16:9", the video covers the entire screen, but it looks "blown up" (i.e. visible blocks instead of a smooth picture like I get when using TheaterTek).

I'd sure like to be able to play DVDs from within SageTV and have them look as good as when using TheaterTek...

[mbrown3]

Any updates on this? This is what's happening on my system...

[R_Andersen]

I had the same problem and switching to 16 bit color depth solved the problem for me. Try changind to 16 bit in the display properties and let me know if it works for you too.....

-Rob A.

[djssage]

I have the same problem - I have an older nVidia card with 16 MB - new one is on the way - hope it clears up the problem.

[Mike Young]

I have posted an issue like this as part of another , I would call it 'random instability in codec implementation' - I dont think its just Nvidia and I belive Sage is not properly implementing the codecs (have you noticed sometimes the reload media player button exists and sometimes it doesnt.
I get the playback exception error from time to time after messing with settings, the only way I have found to fix it is delete the sage dir. and reinstall. even then sometimes it doent work right.
I once had a perfect picture using Nvidia Purevideo and VMR in 3.0.11, changed the setting to overlay to test another issue and since then have never been able to get back to where I was with it, despite hours of work, a couple reinstalls, driver upgrades etc.
I dont know what happens, but it definiitley gets messed up.
I really almost seems like its pure luck when you can get it to work right.

mike/