Problems playing back Sage H.264 files with VLC

[wayner]

Prior to travelling I like to copy some of my SageTV files to my laptop to watch on my plane or in my hotel. I am having a problem playing back my H.264 files from my HD-PVR.

The problem only occurs when I playback a files that start as 480p and then shift to 1080i or 720p in VLC. These files play fine but when VLC resyncs to the HD resolution it does not expand the window size. It still thinks that is is a 480p files so I only get one quarter of the screen. I can't find where to change this in VLC. The reason that these files start as 480p is that the previous channel was an SD channel and the HD-PVR starts recording prior to the channel change being completed and my cable box resyncing to the new rez.

Anyone know how to fix this in VLC?

Note - when I try to use wmplayer classic the files play fine but I don't get audio. Note that my HD-PVR only uses the audio inputs right now - not spdif.

Divx player doesn't seem to like ts files at all.

Any other software to use to play these files back?

I have tried installing ffdshow-tryouts on my system but that doesn't help.

As an aside - can I fix this in Sage by increasing the channel change tuning delay?

[wayner]

Lots of views but no replies - has no one else encountered this or figured out how to fix it?

[VCRUser]

I have trouble playing many HD recordings in anything other than SAGE. I've tried with VLC, Windows media Player, and DivX Player. I always get heavy stuttering. This occurs both on the server (dual-core) and a client (single core). Server runs XP, client runs 2K. I've tried running the files locally & over my 1GB LAN, with no difference. Often when I down-convert (which sometimes works, sometimes not), the downconverted file plays ok. I think what makes the difference is higher bitrates are problematic for players other than Sage. I would like to be able to set a default recording quality for the HD shows that would (ideally) result in somewhat smaller files that would also be playable via VLC, DivX, or Media Player - for greater portability. The files in question tend to use AC3, not H.264.

[wayner]

I haven't had that issue and I generally play them back on laptops that are not all that powerful.

[redondo_se]

wayner,

Try increasing the value of delay_to_wait_after_tuning in your sage.properties file. You should be able to use that to prevent your HD-PVR from recording the channel change. Some discussion here:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?p=328958

[wayner]

Thanks that should solve the problem for all new recordings.

[TorontoSage]

I have had problems playing back HD videos using VLC that I recorded with SageTV.

However, Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre, the software that came with the Hauppauge HD PVR, has no problem playing any file so far. I also like it better because you can set a default file directory, a feature VLC does not have (which drives me nuts).

[ediruzza]

Originally Posted by TorontoSage

I have had problems playing back HD videos using VLC that I recorded with SageTV.

However, Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre, the software that came with the Hauppauge HD PVR, has no problem playing any file so far. I also like it better because you can set a default file directory, a feature VLC does not have (which drives me nuts).

I've tried TMT as you mentioned above but it still is slightly choppy. Are your records in 1080 or 720p?