Placeshifter blank screen on playback

[gtallan]

I'm sure this must have come up in the forums before, but I couldn't find anything from a couple of searches. I had been running the placeshifter beta versions (4.1.x) and while it worked fine within my home lan, I never tried it from outside. Now I have v5 installed, and am trying to access it from outside - more out of curiosity than anything else.

At home I am forwarding external port 1 to the SageTV server placeshifter port. I have the v5 placeshifter client installed on a laptop at work, and am able to connect back by hostname/port. I do successfully connect to the server, am able to log in and get the SageTV menus. But, when I try to play a recorded show or watch LiveTV, I get a blank screen (other than the "TRIAL" text) and no sound. Also, the progress bar doesn't progress - the green "recorded" part does move ahead, but the red line and time don't change.

Any idea what I am missing? A codec which isn't installed, perhaps? The laptop is a pretty bare Windows XP system, though I did install DirectX 9.

Graham

[Nadim]

I have exactly the same thing and the same problem on v5. I am using a laptop with a Nvidia 5200 to Go. I get the blank screen and no movement in the time. One curious thing happens, If I switch off in the Video Overlay Settings menu in the Display Properties of the card the option called "Enable VRM" then I get sound, but still no Video. So I figure is a driver, overlay, or codec problem.

I hope you can help us fix this.

Thanks

Nadim

[gtallan]

Originally Posted by gtallan

Any idea what I am missing? A codec which isn't installed, perhaps? The laptop is a pretty bare Windows XP system, though I did install DirectX 9.

When I think about it, I realise I didn't give enough information to eliminate some possible problems. The SageTV server is a 3GHz P4, which I think should have enough power to transcode the video. The bandwidth should also be enough - I think uplink speed from home is 370Kbps or so (the stats display in the placeshifter title bar was showing around 200Kbps when "playing" the blank display).

[Narflex]

Please submit a bug report on this to betatest at sagetv.com. We'd like to work with you to figure out what's causing it so we can resolve the issue.

[gtallan]

Originally Posted by Narflex

Please submit a bug report on this to betatest at sagetv.com. We'd like to work with you to figure out what's causing it so we can resolve the issue.

OK, thanks, I'll do that. I hesitated because my default assumption was that I was doing something wrong!

[Narflex]

Originally Posted by gtallan

OK, thanks, I'll do that. I hesitated because my default assumption was that I was doing something wrong!

I thought the user was always right.

[JellyBean]

Don't know about the sound, but for the video, make sure your laptop's monitor screen refresh rate is set at 60 herzt. I just wasted 4 days configuring my only placeshifter client. Sound was fine but the screen was blank. After placing it on the same subnet, reloading codecs, updating drivers, etc., I changed the monitor's screen refresh rate in Windows to 60 herzt, and voila! Good luck.

Originally Posted by gtallan

I'm sure this must have come up in the forums before, but I couldn't find anything from a couple of searches. I had been running the placeshifter beta versions (4.1.x) and while it worked fine within my home lan, I never tried it from outside. Now I have v5 installed, and am trying to access it from outside - more out of curiosity than anything else.

At home I am forwarding external port 1 to the SageTV server placeshifter port. I have the v5 placeshifter client installed on a laptop at work, and am able to connect back by hostname/port. I do successfully connect to the server, am able to log in and get the SageTV menus. But, when I try to play a recorded show or watch LiveTV, I get a blank screen (other than the "TRIAL" text) and no sound. Also, the progress bar doesn't progress - the green "recorded" part does move ahead, but the red line and time don't change.

Any idea what I am missing? A codec which isn't installed, perhaps? The laptop is a pretty bare Windows XP system, though I did install DirectX 9.

Graham

[thatdude90210]

Another thing to look for is updated video drivers. When I first built a new PC a couple few weeks ago, it initially had only the MS XP standard video drivers. I got the sound-but-no-video thing. I updated all the drivers using the motherboard's own driver CD, then Placeshifter worked fine on that PC.

[band80]

I have this problem too... Just got the $100 package and it's not working

[gprichardson1]

I too experienced this same problem, and at least for my case I found a simple solution. When the video was playing I right-clicked in the black screen which brought up a menu. The aspect ratio was set to "Fill". I changed it to "4x3" and the video appeared. I probably could have tried changing it to "Source", but 4x3 worked so I stuck with it.

Don't know if this'll cure this problem for everyone but it cured it for me!

-Gary

[amg]

I had a similar problem at one point. I found a post that said to try setting color quality to 32-bit. That fixed it for me.

[band80]

Originally Posted by amg

I had a similar problem at one point. I found a post that said to try setting color quality to 32-bit. That fixed it for me.

amg you rock - completely fixed the problem

[band80]

ok - so now I am trying to run placeshifter on what will be a permanent client: a laptop running in my dorm room (it's a P3 running XP and Placeshifter).

In any event, the recorded shows load fine, but when I try to play one (I assume the same will happen with Live TV), the screen goes black, the time slider stands still (even though there is a Pause button and not a Play button) and there is no audio.

Any ideas? 32bit color is enabled.

[gtallan]

Originally Posted by amg

I had a similar problem at one point. I found a post that said to try setting color quality to 32-bit. That fixed it for me.

Yup, that fixed it for me too. Although I also had to disable post-processing to get the video working.

Graham

[billvan]

I had the same problem and tried all the suggestions like setting the video to 32bit but nothing worked. I then updated to the most current DirectX drivers and that did the trick. Just a suggestion to anyone who still hasn't found their cure yet.

Bill

[rschiffman]

I was having no sound and blank screen on my Dell Latitude D610 with INTEL 915G chipset. I already had the most up to date directX. I tried 60hz, but it didn't work.

If I removed the check on the Enable Video Post processing, I got sound, but no picture.

I went to the Dell website. The newest video driver was version 6.14.10.4396. The version on my PC was 6.14.10.4410. I gambled and installed the older drivers. At that point everything worked fine. Any resolution and refresh rate works fine now. I'm testing this on my external monitor, so that's why the refresh rate stuff matters to me. I hate 60hz on a large external monitor.

[rschiffman]

Ok, no real joy. Things are working on my external monitor, but I'm still back to the same problem on the internal LCD display, and that's the one that really matters since I use it when I'm not at home.

[gplasky]

I get audio but no video on a Compaq PC Tablet with the transmeta processor. It has a geForce2go video display but I'm not expecting much. In an earlier version of Placeshifter I was able to get both video and audio. Now, no matter what settings I use no picture.

Gerry

[Narflex]

Originally Posted by gplasky

I get audio but no video on a Compaq PC Tablet with the transmeta processor. It has a geForce2go video display but I'm not expecting much. In an earlier version of Placeshifter I was able to get both video and audio. Now, no matter what settings I use no picture.

Gerry

ahh, you're using a GeForce2go.
Go into your display settings for NVidia. There'll be a setting in there to 'Prefer VMR' or something like that. It basically disables the overlay so you need to uncheck it.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by Narflex

ahh, you're using a GeForce2go.
Go into your display settings for NVidia. There'll be a setting in there to 'Prefer VMR' or something like that. It basically disables the overlay so you need to uncheck it.

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll check it out tonight.

Gerry