playback error

[pgman]

I know this has probably been asked before but I spent the last hour looking and I can't find anything about it.

I can not watch DVDs with Sage v5 (the latest one). I get a playback error

"sage.playbackexception: ERROR (-4,0x80040217): There was a problem rendering the video portion of the content for playback"

I also get this error when I try to use Cyberlink MPEG / SP video decoder to play my Sage TV recordings.

I was trying to use the Cyberlink decoder to fix some other issues I was having with playback (tearing and occasional dropped frames).

I e-mailed tech support about this but I wanted to throw it out here, too.

Can someone suggest something to try?

[mike1961]

Start by going into Detailed Setup and in your DVD as well as Video/Audio selections try setting the Video Renderer and Audio Renderer to DEFAULT.

Mike

[pgman]

Thanks. I am going to go and try that.

[pgman]

Okay, I tried what you said and now everything plays. Thank you very much.

I can't figure out, however, why the volume is SO much lower on DVD playback than it is on Sage TV recordings or Live TV. It might be something to do with my audio configuration but I don't see why. I am using a Creative Labs Audigy 2ZS and I want IT to do the 5.1 decoding because I do not have a home theater receiver - just a five channel amplifier. Any ideas on what settings I should use? I just want Sage to pass the raw PCM data stream directly to the sound card where it will be decoded in the sound card's hardware.

I am sorry for the stupid newbie questions but I appreciate your time very much. I know I have a LOT to learn about this but I look forward to the day when I will be able to help someone else.

[mike1961]

Originally Posted by pgman

I am sorry for the stupid newbie questions but I appreciate your time very much. I know I have a LOT to learn about this but I look forward to the day when I will be able to help someone else.

I'm glad that worked (I too struggled with that one for a long time).

Are you kidding...I'm very much a newbie and I'm the champ at asking the stupid questions....Seriously speaking, I love the forum and everyone has been really helpful so as they say "fire away..."

Regarding your DVD voume it could be one of a few things. First, try playing it out of a regular DVD player straight to your TV. I've noticed that the volume on many DVD's is unbelievably low compared to the TV and I have no idea why. Second, there may be a separate Volume control in your computer for the DVD (that may or may not work but that is not a Sage issue). Double click the volume icon on the task bar. Then click Options, Properties and see if there is a checkbox for a slider for CD or DVD so that you can adjust the volume of the DVD. Again, this may or may not work but I've noticed that some DVD's just happen to be recorded such that you have to turn the volume way up. You could always convert it to an mp4 and adjust the amplitude of the conversion but that's probably a subject for another topic.

Mike

[pgman]

Thanks again. I was afraid of this. I was thinking that it may be a factor of how the DVDs are recorded. When compared to the seemingly always over-processed audio you get over the air ('cause that's how I still watch television) I suppose DVD audio is bound to have a much lower avereage amplitude. I just wish there was some way to balance it in the software - I know this is not possible with my current setup. The Audigy driver doesn't have seperate controls for DVD audio and, even if it did, I am sure it would apply to an analog input. I really don't like the Audigy drivers at all. The hardware seems to be decent but their drivers seem rather bloated and irrelevant to one of its most logical applications (home theater). I guess it really is just biased toward the gamer's market.

I am trying to pass the AC3 bitstream directly to the audio chip on the Audigy and so the only volume control that does anything is the master (output) amd the "WAVE" volume slider. I have selected AC3 as the audio decoder in Sage. I am assuming that this will just pass the audio info on to my sound card with no decoding. I hope that is correct.

I do not know how useful the SageTV manual is - I really should sit down and read it. Thanks again for the input.