Music Stopped Working

[Brent]

UPDATE WITH COMPLETE INSTRUCTIONS:
If you have installed ArcSoft Total Media Extreme Software (comes with HD-PVR), it likely will break your MP3 playback in SageTV. Here's how to fix this problem:

If you use Microsoft VISTA:
There is no need to install/uninstall anything. Vista's built-in mp3 decoder is named "MP3 Decoder DMO".

1. Shut down SageTV (and SageTV Service if running as a service)
2. If using SageTV Client (if you're running SageTV as a service then this is you!), Open up SageClient.properties. If just using SageTV and not client Open up Sage.properties in a text editor.
3. Search for this in your properties file:

videoframe/mp3_audio_decoder_filter=

4. Change that line to:

videoframe/mp3_audio_decoder_filter=MP3 Decoder DMO

5. Save the properties file and exit
6. Start SageTV again & you should be able to play MP3 music in SageTV again.



If you use Windows XP:

To figure out what MP3 decoder is installed on your PC
1. Uninstall Arcsoft TME
2. Open SageTV & play a MP3 in SageTV
3. Open the client log (Instructions on turning on logging can be found here) and search for the line that starts with:

DShowGraphFilters=

After the = you should see the proper decoder - write down what you see after the =.

To fix the problem in XP
4. Then reinstall Arcsoft TME
5. Shut down SageTV (and SageTV Service if running as a service)
6. If using SageTV Client, Open up SageClient.properties. If just using SageTV and not client Open up Sage.properties in a text editor.
7. Search for this in your properties file:

videoframe/mp3_audio_decoder_filter=

8. change the line above so that after the = is the new decoder you wrote down from step 3.
9. Save the properties file and exit
7. Restart SageTV again & you should be able to play MP3 music in SageTV again.

Thanks to Jeff @ SageTV for the original help on this. And thanks to GollyJer for pointing out the easier Vista instructions. If anyone sees an error or thinks I need to improve these instructions let me know in this thread. Thanks,


Original Post Follows:
I'm experiencing a strange issue in SageTV the last few days. When I play any song it acts like it will play it, but the timeline skips to the end of the song and never plays it. If I try to play a playlist it just skips through each song in the playlist one-second each without playing any music at all. This happens in both the standard SageTV STV as well as SageMC. I've tried re-importing my music collection and that doesn't work. I can play these same mp3 files in Windows Media Player, Winamp and many other programs on the same PC. Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this?

It looks like it's trying to use Arcsoft audio decoders for some reason.

[Brent]

Anyone? If anyone has any ideas on what to do here I'd appreciate it. Missing my music and not knowing where to look for it - sounds like a bad song.....

[mistergq]

Hey Brent...

Bad news...not happening for me. Just tried it. Played a song for 10 seconds, playing perfectly fine. Clicked to skip to next song, that played fined. Could not play the entire song because I needed to get to US Open (watching it live on FIOS. Probably should be watching it on Sage, but we are watching it through the FIOS HD box.

I am now watching the open on the HD Extender...just so you know.

Also, I have the archsoft installed from the HD PVR disc. If you want me to post anything or look at anything...let me know and what to look for.

[attaboy]

I'm having the same problem with my music. Hmm... I also have Arcsoft loaded on my machine too.

[Eckwell]

I found on Saturday that my MVP is having issues with music too. It plays for about 10-15 seconds and then stops. I have to reboot the MVP to try again, but repeatedly it happens with different songs. None of them would play...

I am running 6.4.3, with an HD-PVR and the arcsoft drivers as well... I have not tried to trouble shoot yet, but if I figure something out I will post it.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Eckwell

I found on Saturday that my MVP is having issues with music too. It plays for about 10-15 seconds and then stops. I have to reboot the MVP to try again, but repeatedly it happens with different songs. None of them would play...

I am running 6.4.3, with an HD-PVR and the arcsoft drivers as well... I have not tried to trouble shoot yet, but if I figure something out I will post it.

Do you have any problems playing music from the SageTV clientPC or server PC?

[attaboy]

Originally Posted by Brent

Do you have any problems playing music from the SageTV clientPC or server PC?

For me, I don't see the problem on clients using PlaceShifter. No sure if I have tried my MVP or not, but I'll try it when I get home this evening. Just got my RMA'ed HD-PVR back so I'll be testing that out tonight too.

[attaboy]

Uninstalling Arcsoft fixes the music not playing issue for me. Now if I could just get my HD-PVR working...

[gtdave]

EDIT: I found a solution! Unregister the ArcSoft Audio Effect HD filter using RadLight Filter Manager. It seems to do nothing except mess up the audio for multiple media sources. Leave the videoframe line blank for the mp3 setting. Everything works like a top...except I still have quite a bit of stutter watching HD-PVR shows...but at least my mp3 playback capabilities have returned!

"This is intolerable!"
--Henry Jones, Sr.

I'm having the same issue as Brent. Try using the videoframe setting to select different decoders to find one that works--I found a couple, but playback isn't quite right yet, see below.

ArcSoft fixed HD-PVR playback (almost, still a bit of stutter that actually IMPROVES with VMR9 and is worse with Overlay, but that's a different story/rant) but broke music playback on my SageTV Client.

I've tried setting videoframe/mp3_audio_decoder_filter to SageTV MPEG Audio Decoder, NVIDIA Audio Decoder, ArcSoft Audio Decoder, Snapstream Audio Decoder, Nero Digital Audio Decoder, CyberLink Audio Decoder, CyberLink Audio Decoder(ATI), and MPEG Audio Decoder (the ol' quartz.dll). Yes, I have nearly every decoder known to man installed on my system.

Only Nero and MPEG (quartz) work to stop the constant scrolling through the songs in the playlist, but when playing through AC3Filter, the files are playing back at a faster-than-normal rate. Sounds like the Chipmunks are singing my mp3s now. PITA.

PLEASE post if you find a mp3 decoder and AC3Filter combination that works for your system and I'll give it a try on mine.

Thanks!
Dave

[Brent]

UPDATE:
This issue (music not playing) is only happening on the SageTV Server PC and my SageTV Client PC. My MVP's and HD100 Extenders handle the music just fine as before. So it's obviously something to do with the Arcsoft music codec taking over mp3 playback on PCs it is installed on.

I wonder if SageTV admins have seen this behaviour?

[tdanco]

I am having the same problem as well. Music just skips to the end, not a peep out of the speakers.

[Brent]

I'm going to submit a trouble ticket on this issue tonight.

Has anyone else had this issue or even submitted a ticket yet?

[Eckwell]

I am having the same issue. I uninstalled the drivers for the HD-PVR but ran out of time to test. I had to send my HD-PVR in for replacement (heat) so now is the time to test without it.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Eckwell

I am having the same issue. I uninstalled the drivers for the HD-PVR but ran out of time to test. I had to send my HD-PVR in for replacement (heat) so now is the time to test without it.

Thanks for the response. Good to know (or bad to know depending on how you look at it) that there are others seeing this issue as well. I'll point to this thread when I submit my trouble report so they can see that others with HD-PVR's are seeing it as well.

[jakep_82]

Same problem for me. Music plays fine on my HD100, but nothing on my server PC. I never tried playing music prior to installing my HD-PVR so I can't say if it ever worked.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by gtdave

EDIT: I found a solution! Unregister the ArcSoft Audio Effect HD filter using RadLight Filter Manager. It seems to do nothing except mess up the audio for multiple media sources. Leave the videoframe line blank for the mp3 setting. Everything works like a top...

Dave,
I'm not seeing the ArcSoft Audio Effect HD filter. Where does that show up in RadLight?

[civerson4]

Strange problem...

I recently installed the HD PVR (which appears to be workign fine, with just a fe wminor hiccups).

I just sat down to listen to some music and Sage skips thru any music file in MP3 format. I can play FLAC and WMA files just fine--but not any MP3 files. All recorded TV (HD and SD) plays fine with audio as well as DVD's in both Dolby and DTS formats. It is just MP3 files that will not play....

This is on a Sage Server running an AMD Quad 6600 processor, 4 GB RAM, Auzentech Prelude Sound Card (out via SPDIF) to a recevier. Vista SP1.

I've tried switching audio decoders (tried the Sage decoder, Arcsoft, Nvidia, AC3, etc) and they all do the same thing.

The only thing I've changed recently is to add to the sage properties file to use the Arcsoft Decoder for H.264 video--but I did not add anything about audio decoders.

I can play the MP3 files in Windows Media player--just not in Sage.

Any ideas where to start looking? Thanks in advance for any assistance.

* merged *

[Brent]

Originally Posted by civerson4

The only thing I've changed recently is to add to the sage properties file to use the Arcsoft Decoder for H.264 video--but I did not add anything about audio decoders.

I can play the MP3 files in Windows Media player--just not in Sage.

Any ideas where to start looking? Thanks in advance for any assistance.

I think it's related to an Arcsoft Audio filter. I've submitted a bug report with SageTV, but the more who report the better. This issue should only affect your computers that have the Arcsoft software installed on them. So your extenders (if you have any) should work fine still for music.

[civerson4]

Thanks. I'll submit a trouble ticket.

[civerson4]

I uninstalled Arcsoft Total Media Extreme and can now play MP3 files...but not HD PVR recordings. Are there any free h.264 decoders I can use with Sage?