Has AppleTV conversion on 6.4.8 changed?

[Gabriel]

I have been converting SD videos with SageTV to AppleTV-High Quality for quite some time. Until version 6.3.9 I could convert and play them fine. I recently upgraded to 6.4.8 and I can still play the previously converted videos, but not the new conversions. When I try to, I get a playback exception error and Sage crashes. They do not play on WMP either, while the others do. I am using Haali and ffdshow.
When I render the conversions with GSpot, the only difference I can see is that the 6.4.8 conversion's User Data/Metadata box is empty. The other data looks the same as that of previous ones. Of course, the main difference is that in the new ones, Rendering Fails with error code 0x70008000e: (Unknown).
GraphStudio directly crashes.

Before I go crazy with codecs and merits, can somebody please help me out? What has changed in SageTV transcoder since 6.3.9 and earlier? Is it something that may be fixed in a new version? Or is my setup to blame? Has anyone else noticed this?
I am reluctant to mess with my codecs because all other files play fine on SageTV or WMP, including YouTube, mp4 podcasts and so on. This problem seems exclusive to my new SageTV conversions.

[phelme]

Hmm interesting. What I've noticed with 6.4.8 is that the AppleTV profile produces H264/MP4 files that while playable under SageTV, crash *every other* video player I've tried: VLC, Zoom, MediaPlayer Classic, WMP etc. Something is awry somewhere that's for sure.

[Gabriel]

Phelme, I believe it is the same thing. Unless I change the settings in the properties file to use Dshow, SageTV will use its own decoder, which still plays 6.4.8 H.264 conversions, but the picture quality is lower and every time I FF/RW the image will get pixelated for a few seconds, which I find annoying. This doesn't happen with other decoders, like ffdshow, but now they crash.
In your case, it looks as if SageTV is still using its own decoder for H.264.

[phelme]

Originally Posted by Gabriel

...
In your case, it looks as if SageTV is still using its own decoder for H.264.

yep, I'm using the SageTVPlayer on all my clients for MP4's.

[tmiranda]

I tried converting an .MPG to Apple format last night and it does not play at all on the HD100. I get a black screen and no audio.

[phelme]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I tried converting an .MPG to Apple format last night and it does not play at all on the HD100. I get a black screen and no audio.

my current irrational fear is that this will get fixed and any currently converted file won't play in the future.

[Gabriel]

Originally Posted by phelme

my current irrational fear is that this will get fixed and any currently converted file won't play in the future.

It does not seem irrational to me.

Is MPEG4 avi conversion working for you? I tried it as an alternative, and when I try to play it I get an eternal pause.

I am surprised more people are not picking up on this. Perhaps the thread title is wrong?

[phelme]

Originally Posted by Gabriel

It does not seem irrational to me.

Is MPEG4 avi conversion working for you? I tried it as an alternative, and when I try to play it I get an eternal pause.

I am surprised more people are not picking up on this. Perhaps the thread title is wrong?

Yeah, could be people are ignoring the thread because AppleTV is in the title. Maybe transcoding or converting, being more generic, would catch more eyes. It could be that many people just don't convert or use the more complex tools available with the SageMC Video Tools instead.

To answer your question, I did do an MPEG4 AVI conversion just the other day as a test and then stupidly blew it away before I remembered it was a test. I've got another one running now and I'll let you know.

Do both DirectShow and the SageTVPlayer give you the pause? Have you tried playing the .avi with the SageTVPlayer itself, outside of Sage?

[Gabriel]

Originally Posted by phelme

Do both DirectShow and the SageTVPlayer give you the pause? Have you tried playing the .avi with the SageTVPlayer itself, outside of Sage?

Only DirectShow gives me the pause (using ffdshow). SageTVPlayer plays it. VLC player can play it too. In that respect, it looks better than the H.264.
But the point is that my setup can still play older avi conversions with DirectShow, so there is something different in the new avi conversions too, not only the H.264.

[phelme]

I converted an episode of "House" into an AVI using the High Quality HD MPEG4 option and while the video is fine, the 5.1 audio is screwed up. The right front channel is now mixed in the subwoofer.