ASF and WMV files will not playback over network

[JBurgin]

Howdy all,

I posted in another topic (see "Problem with importing ASF files") about my issues with ASF files. I have been able to solve that problem. But now I am having a somewhat larger issue. Although the files will import just fine now, the video files will not play through the clients.

We have our one server. If you try to play the files on that server, they run fine. But if you try and play it through a client, you get this error:

sage.playbackexception: ERROR (-4,0x80040218) (I cannot type out the rest as I'm having to do it from memory)

I'm assuming it's got something to do with my video encoders. The video will play fine if you play it as a local file, but they will not play over the network.

I'm also noticing in my System Information this line:

media player asf plugin class: none


Could that have anything to do with it?

Any help is appreciated.

[garcia21]

Its me again. Might want to check and make sure you have an MPEG2 decoder installed on the client. Have you tried different decoders on your client? If you're not sure what you have installed you can always download and install this:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

[dvd_maniac]

Windows media player should play ASF files fine, even across network.
I had a similair problem with ASP .mp4 files playing fine on the Sage server but not on Sage clients. My workaround was to use a custom STV that allows external video players. Now I use Zoomplayer to play my asf, mp4 and other obscure media files on my clients.

[Opus4]

A guess, but I'm wondering whether those file types just can't be streamed through the SageTV server. Perhaps try changing the import dir to use a UNC path & make sure the client has permission to access the location. If you use a UNC path & the client can get to the file directly, it will try to play it by itself rather than streaming the data through the server.

- Andy

[JBurgin]

Thanks for sticking with me Garcia. I checked the decoders, and they were working properly. I could "stream" mpeg files over the network just fine. But WMV or ASF files didn't play nice.

Dvd_maniac, thanks for the info on custom STV's, could you possibly link me to a doc or post so I could get some information?


Opus, you rock. That solution works perfectly. Here's my question, I read alot of things about using UNC's in SageTV, will this cause any issues that I should be aware of?


Thanks for all your help guys, you're great.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by JBurgin

Here's my question, I read alot of things about using UNC's in SageTV, will this cause any issues that I should be aware of?

I don't think so... other than if you are using service mode for the server -- then the service will have to be logged in as a user w/a password, or else it can't access UNC paths.

- Andy

[JBurgin]

And we're using service mode. At least in our test mode we are. Thanks for pointing that out. We'll have to tweak that. Thanks!

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by Opus4

I don't think so... other than if you are using service mode for the server -- then the service will have to be logged in as a user w/a password, or else it can't access UNC paths.

- Andy

Is this still true? I reinstalled my system using unc paths this time. I haven't noticed an issue with recording, etc. I am logged on as localsystem using 5.0.4 and java 1.4.2_12.

TIA

B

[CollinR]

Your shares are probably world writeable then. If you lock them down to specific users you'll need to make the service run with a user account.