unable to play SageTV mpegs in other players?

[Purple]

This should be a simple question but i havent been able to find the answer yet...

When i try to play an mpeg file that SageTV has recorded with a Hauppage card, it wont play. Windows media player, dscaler and quicktime all fail.

powerDVD is able to play the files.

I thought these mpeg files were standard, so what gives? Is this a quality setting issue?

[ke6guj]

You need an MPEG2 codec installed so the media player can play them, that is, if you are recording in MPEG2 format.
If you record in MPEG1 format, the default windows codec should play them fine.

[Purple]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

You need an MPEG2 codec installed so the media player can play them, that is, if you are recording in MPEG2 format.
If you record in MPEG1 format, the default windows codec should play them fine.

Ahhh, that explains a lot of things. Thank you!

Is there a way to tell from teh file what version of MPEG it is? So far I have heard of MPEG1, 2 and 4.

[ke6guj]

Normally I like G-spot to figure out what audio and video codecs a video file is rendered with, but it is geared towards AVI files, not MPEGs. A future version is supposed to fully support MPEGs.

AFAIK, Sage defaults to MPEG2, so unless you specifically changed it to record in MPEG1, the MPEG files should be MPEG2.



Found another video inspector program, VideoInspector that does currently support MPEG files, so you could use that to figure out what codecs a file needs.

[nielm]

If PowerDVD or Sage v2.2 is installed, that same system should be able to play the files in Windows Media Player -- both PowerDVD and Sage install an MPEG-2 decoder on the system that all other programs can use.

Also hauppage cards themselves come with a limited MPEG2 decoder that can be optionally installed.

[steingra]

Is there a list of free mpeg decoders that anyone knows about?

I finally decided to try to watch some of my SageTV recordings on another Windows XP machine. And ecountred this same problem. Windows Media Player said a codec was needed but didnt give any specific details. I thought WMP had something to play mpeg2 files...but obviously it doesnt. Neither does Quicktime.

I use PowerDVD on my SageTV box (already was using it to watch DVD's on my HTPC before I got *into* the SageTV world. And it plays all my SageTV mpegs just fine.

So now I am curious by what magic that PowerDVD seems to have no problems playing the mpeg2 files, when the other players all complain about missing codecs.

[mdmint]

Originally Posted by steingra

So now I am curious by what magic that PowerDVD seems to have no problems playing the mpeg2 files, when the other players all complain about missing codecs.

No magic. PowerDVD can play back mpeg2 because mpeg2 is basically a DVD format file IIRC. Other players like WMP can't playback a mpeg2 unless a DVD codec is installed on the system and they are designed to support DVD file playback.

[steingra]

Originally Posted by mdmint

No magic. PowerDVD can play back mpeg2 because mpeg2 is basically a DVD format file IIRC. Other players like WMP can't playback a mpeg2 unless a DVD codec is installed on the system and they are designed to support DVD file playback.

Thats quite a setup you have there in the pictures. Cool.

My HTPC is currently both the client and server. It is also my gaming machine. basically all in one for everything. It is the same board Asus A7N8X-E deluxe. I like this Motherboard. Had it for a while now, been very good to me. In fact I would buy another one if I needed it.

[steingra]

Originally Posted by mdmint

No magic. PowerDVD can play back mpeg2 because mpeg2 is basically a DVD format file IIRC. Other players like WMP can't playback a mpeg2 unless a DVD codec is installed on the system and they are designed to support DVD file playback.

So I wonder how Windows MP *knows* when an mpeg2 codec is installed? Or if you have to install it using some tools inside of the Windows Media Player application itself?

Or is it smart enough to just know that I installed an mpeg2 codec, and start using it. I would doubt that...but what do I know :-O

And I guess my curiosity is the same with any *media player* whether its Zoom Player, WMP, Real Player, Quicktime. How do they know/find out if I have a new codec that they can use. Like lets say I find a free mpeg2 that I install. Wonder how they will deal with it...

It seems that none of them (WMP, Real Player, Quicktime) know how to play my SageTV mpeg video files by default. I guess I was surprised.

BUT THEN AGAIN, I have been playing them on the HTPC itself, and never tried accessing and playing them (from a different machine) until recently when I setup nielms web server addin.



PS
And I did some googling of free mpeg2 codecs, and there isnt a whole lot that I found so far.

[Narflex]

MPlayer is one of the things we test in on Windows for playback. That's free.

[briands]

For a free MPG decoder search for DSCALER 5. Also VLC (Video Lan) will play MPGs without installing a decoder (I think).

If you install a decoder, it is registered with Windows and the players check this registration to see what is available and using the assignes merit decide what to use. Some players (SAGE and ZP for instance) let you select which decoder to use in their setup utilities.

I'm no expert, but this should get you started.

BTW, look on the ZP (inmatrix) for a primer on decoders and merit.

[steingra]

I bought the Zoomplayer...have not had a lot of time to play with it yet. But seems like a lot of people recommended it. So I bought it not too long ago. It does have a LOT of options. I like options...just takes time to figure them all out