Weird Problem

mbrown3 · #1 10-10-2005, 02:14 PM

Last night I tried watching some shows I had recorded over the last week, only to find a black screen. The progress bar moved, I could fast forward and rewind, but just a black screen. I checked all shows, black screen. So I went to live TV, all black screen. There's just nothing being recorded. It's not fuzzy or anything, just a totally black screen. Anyone seen this, or have any idea what's happening? The connection seems OK and other sources work OK with the same line. This one is all black, on all channels and recordings. Thoughts?

Wheemer · #2 10-10-2005, 02:19 PM

When I get this it means my digital cable box has been turned off... I don't suppose it's that easy in this situation though.

mbrown3 · #3 10-10-2005, 02:23 PM

Nope, I don't have digital cable. I don't have any cable box, in fact. I've tried removing and re-adding the source, but still no luck.

naln · #4 10-10-2005, 05:35 PM

Check your decoder selections again- I've seen this while playing around the video/audio decoders- but nothing on the scale that you are seeing.

mbrown3 · #5 10-10-2005, 06:14 PM

Yeah, I've tried switching them and switching back, to no avail.

night · #6 10-10-2005, 08:48 PM

i get this kinda crap every time i try to get my setup going and leave it. but not with recording, just with it tuning but not showing anything. not that i tried watching a recorded when it was doing that...
its been so long since i messed with it though i couldnt really help yet. gimme a bit though, im getting back into it and it will be f*cking up in no time

michelkenny · #7 10-11-2005, 08:20 AM

Try opening the bad recordings in Windows Media player. If it works in WMP then you know it's a playback issue in Sage. If not then it's a recording issue.

mbrown3 · #8 10-11-2005, 09:34 AM

Nope, doesn't work in anything. Not in WMP, not in mplayer, nothing. I'm tryign to figure out what particularly is wrong with the recording process. I can't think of anything that I haven't tried, but am open to suggestions. The thing I keep thinking is that it must be the source, but when I try it on another "output" (plug it in to TV, etc.), it works fine. Very odd.

naln · #9 10-11-2005, 10:10 AM

If your recordings and stuff are anyway kaput for the moment- maybe worthwhile trying a reinstall over the old sage directories. Beats me why it should not play in WMplayer at least- unless the recordings were corrupt to begin with.

I would try playing an old recording (one that you know to work)- in both WMplayer as well as add it as a video dir in sage- that should tell us something more about what is going on.

mbrown3 · #10 10-11-2005, 11:02 AM

Yeah, old recordings play fine. It's just everything from the last week or so, plus live TV that are black screen only. Everything prior to that was working fine. And I didn't change anything on the system, so I'm not sure what could have happened to cause it.

Opus4 · #11 10-11-2005, 11:07 AM

Did that tuner go bad? What kind is it? I would see if the manufacturer's software works with it as another attempt to narrow down where the problem is.

- Andy

mbrown3 · #12 10-11-2005, 11:33 AM

That's an idea...I'll try that tonight. It's a Hauppauge 250. I'm not sure if I still have the original software, but I'll try to download a copy and see if that works.

naln · #13 10-11-2005, 11:35 AM

I agree with Andy - you should definitely verify that the tuner works using the original or some other software- if the tuner works- then I would try to restore sage properties file to some earlier saved version that you might have. If that does not work- back up wiz. file and try to overwrite the sage directories with a new sage installation.

Also- it may be worthwhile to just "soft" reinstall the tuner- via control panel/Hardware setup wizard.

mbrown3 · #14 10-11-2005, 12:18 PM

Yep, I'll try both this evening. Thanks for the suggestions. I'll post back the results.

kpsmith · #15 10-11-2005, 01:51 PM

Any chance the signal source for the tuner card got switched. Say from Coax to s-vid?

naln · #16 10-11-2005, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kpsmith

Any chance the signal source for the tuner card got switched. Say from Coax to s-vid?

Definitely worth checking- specially for a "Black Screen" problem....

mbrown3 · #17 10-11-2005, 02:49 PM

Definitely not. I've removed and re-added the source several times with the proper info, and it hasn't helped, so even if that happened once, it's not the ultimate cause. I just got home so am going to check the other possibilities in a few minutes.

mbrown3 · #18 10-11-2005, 05:15 PM

OK, so I checked all connections, installed the most recent Hauppauge decoders AND WinTV, turned on WinTV and poof, I get signal fine. So then I try reinstalling Sage over the existing installation thinking something got corrupted. This time, when I go into the guide and try to open live tv to watch something that's on currently, I get this error: There was a playback error in playback. Details: sage.playbackexception:ERROR (-4,0x80040217): there was a problem rendering the video portion of the content for playback. Does anyone know what's happening? I did a search and saw some other posts on this, but no resolution that I could tell.

naln · #19 10-11-2005, 10:04 PM

This is most definitely a software- decoder issue. I've seen this error on my setup very frequently.

You can try to look up your old sage properties file and check the decoders you were using. Another way is to try one codec after the other- generally I would leave the audio as it is- first try to get the video back on- be sure to close Sage completely between those tries. I would start with SageTV MPEG decoders and default first. If you want you can also download the InterCSS video decoders from Hauppauge website. Between these- you should have your setup running fine.

Good luck!

mbrown3 · #20 10-12-2005, 06:20 AM

I've tried each of these. I've had the intervideo ones running for a couple of years with no problems. Now I've tried the default, Sage, and Sonic decoders but none seems to help.

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