XCARD DVD Playback problems

[jptaz]

I just reinstalled my XCard in my Client PC so that I could watch the Rose Bowl. I decide to try some DVDs on it to se how it compared to the my regular DVD player. I went into X Media Player to see how the LOTR The Return of The King looked and it was as good if not better than my DVD Player. I then exited the X Media Player and launched SageTVClient and set it up per the 2.1 Manual. I was able to watch "LiveTV" or other SageTV Recordings without a problem, but when I tried to watch a DVD and no menu ever came up, just a blank screen.

I verified that the DVD setup section for the Decoders were setup correctly for the XCard.

I am using Beta 2.2.2 of SageTV and SageTVClient. I have the latest version of the XCard Drivers (2.1). I need to play with it a bit more to see if the problem is also present when using my InterVideo Decoders on the PC.

For now I am playing with TVedia on this PC since it has OSD and full supports all the options on the XCard, Video Control (brightness, Contrast, saturation), Changing aspect ratios, setting the audio output and volume, and great DVD player control.

I tried GBPVR, but it only supports the OSD and none of the other features and the DVD Control is still not great.

Unfortunately TVedia can not play a LiveTV file from SageTV and GBPVR had problems playing it - Lots of hiccups, pausing and then just hangning. For now I may just use TVedia for playing back DVDs and Recorded items from SageTV. I just wish the DVD Control worked in SageTV on the XCard, I don't even really care that much about the OSD since I have my TV next to it and once I am watching a DVD I don't look at the OSD at all. If I can Pause that is all I care about after navigating the DVD Menu.

John

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by jptaz

... I then exited the X Media Player and launched SageTVClient and set it up per the 2.1 Manual. I was able to watch "LiveTV" or other SageTV Recordings without a problem, but when I tried to watch a DVD and no menu ever came up, just a blank screen.

SageTV cannot use the Xcard for DVD playback. (There are some old posts from SHS that explain why, but I don't remember the exact details -- perhaps something about the Xcard drivers not providing a DirectShow filter for DVD playback?)

The v2.1 manual should not be suggesting a DVD setup for the Xcard; if it does, let me know where & I'll change it.

- Andy

[jptaz]

Thanks Andy,

The manual did NOT suggest that the XCard would work for DVD Playback, I just used the same settings that it said to use for Regular Playback. So it was a poor assumption on my part.

For a future release of the manual you may want to make a note in the DVD configuration section that the XCARD can not be used for DVD Playback.

Thank you again for the quick response.

John