No Video w/ Windows Media Player

[Fazul]

I'm sure this has been asked before but I can't find the answer anywhere.

Which codec(s) do I need to install on my PC in order to play files recorded by SageTV? This PC does not have Sage installed on it, and I'm not using the media client. I just want to open the file as I would any other video clip.

[olyar15]

You need an mpeg2 decoder. A lot of people here use the nvidia purevideo decoders, but you have to pay for those. I think Dscaler5 is a free mpeg2 decoder.

[Fazul]

That's odd. VLC will play them, but not Media Player. I installed DScaler with no luck either. Other suggestions?

[dexterdom]

I'm having a similar problem, but with shows recorded in
DivX Home Theatre High Quality format using a Plextor ConvertX.
I recently rebuilt my machine from scratch and went from
v5 to v6.0.19. Now I notice that any new shows recorded under
v6 will play fine within sage but not in any other external programs I've
tried (WMP, VLC player, DivX player, Ulead VideoStudio, PowerDVD). I have the latest DivX codec installed and I can play older files recorded under v5 fine in the external programs mentioned above.

One curious thing I noticed is that the v5 shows are in MPG format
but the v6 shows are in AVI format. Is v6 doing something differently than v5under the covers?

I've been wanting to burn some kids TV shows onto DVDs using Ulead VideoStudio but the program won't read these v6 files.

[Fazul]

Originally Posted by dexterdom

One curious thing I noticed is that the v5 shows are in MPG format but the v6 shows are in AVI format. Is v6 doing something differently than v5under the covers?

Well, AVI is the default extension for DivX recordings so that makes sense. Still stuck on getting the proper codec for Windows Media Player though...

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by Fazul

Well, AVI is the default extension for DivX recordings so that makes sense. Still stuck on getting the proper codec for Windows Media Player though...

Gspot is a good program to run "unknown" video files through to find out exactly what codecs, audio and video, are in use for a specific file.

[dexterdom]

Originally Posted by Fazul

Well, AVI is the default extension for DivX recordings so that makes sense. Still stuck on getting the proper codec for Windows Media Player though...

Actually I got it reversed in my original post - I was getting AVI files with v5 and now I'm getting MPG files with v6. So it looks like v5 was writing DivX files but v6 is not (??), even though I have DivX Home Theatre High Quality selected.
I'll give gspot a try...

[Fazul]

Try this:

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/...EG_2_Codec.htm

After that was installed I can (finally!) use WMP to watch video recorded by SageTV.

[Being]

I have a similar problem as the opening post. I record HD shows with SageTV 6.0(MPEG2) on one PC and am able to watch it with PowerDVD on that same PC. But when I try watching it on a second PC I get nothing. I am also able to record shows with WatchHDTV and play them back on the other PC with PowerDVD and it works great. Do I need a special codec installed to play back SageTV recordings on a this second PC even though it plays other MPEG2 files just fine?

[Fazul]

Try the link one post up. This fixed my problem as I was missing an MPEG2 codec. If that doesn't work, grab gspot. It will tell you what type of video/audio codecs are used in a given file and also if your system has an appropriate codec installed.

[dexterdom]

Originally Posted by Fazul

Try this:

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/...EG_2_Codec.htm

After that was installed I can (finally!) use WMP to watch video recorded by SageTV.

OK I figured this out. I was not getting AVI files because had mpeg4 timeshifting turned on. I turned it off and started getting AVI files that are playable outside of sage. I use timeshifting occasionally so I have decided to switch to using DVD quality instead of DivX.

Thanks for pointing out this codec, I'm going to try it to play the files I already have recored before I switched to mpeg2 format.