Strange Playback of Sage recordings in Windows Media Player

[cncb]

Is there something peculiar about Sage recording files as far as WMP is concerned? These are ATSC recordings that play perfectly in Sage but when I try to play them back in Windows Media Player on the same PC (Windows 7) the files play back almost as if they are corrupt - the video jumps around, playback stops unexpectedly, audio comes in and out. Is there some setting in WMP that I have wrong? Thanks for any help.

[korben_dallas]

If the file is a .ts file, then WMP will likely be using DirectShow to split / demux the file and then find an appropriate video decoder and an appropriate audio decoder.

Splitters, demuxers, and decoders can widely vary from system to system, depending on what you have installed. For example: DivX, PowerDVD, Nero, Quicktime, xyz hacked codec pack, etc.

The only way to know for sure what is happening is to use GraphEdit (download link) and let it automatically construct a playback graph for one of the files where you are having an issue. Then you can see which splitters, demuxers, and decoders are being used.

If you need to make changes, like changing merit values, DirectShow Filter Manager (download link) is very handy.

You may have to get into uninstalling software, and worst-case scenario registering & unregistering filters manually at the command line.

[cncb]

Thanks for the reply. They are just "standard" .mpg files produced by Sage from the HDHR. This is a newer install on Windows 7 so I don't really want to mess with filters. I guess I will try to convert the files if all else fails.

[Rico66]

I've seen this some time ago back on Vista as well. And I typically don't have any extra codecs installed, so I don't think it's related to that.
Once moving to Windows 7 I also switched from .mpg to .ts for ATSC recordings, and I don't recall having seen this problem anymore. So you may want to try this out as well.

[VCRUser]

I use XP on my server and 2K on my client, and neither will play hidef MPG files very well in Media Player. They also tend to play with some difficulty (but better) in the Sage gui and in Placeshifter on my client. This is, I assume, due to the fact that both machines are on the older/slower side. I now routinely convert just about everything I record for more compact storage and better playback my somewhat PCs. The hi-def files play just fine uncompressed on the extender, though.