Playback not working on Linux

[beefmasterj]

Just purchased a Placeshifter license to use on my Kbuntu PC.

Everything connects to my server fine, however video playback does not work - at all. Simply boots me back to the menu after a short pause.

I'm running this on my local LAN and have a number of other clients connecting without issue to the server. Kbuntu is running the latest kernel and updates.

I tried re-installing the Java runtime and also changed video drivers without any success.

Any assistance would be great!

[gplasky]

Placeshifter is going to make use of OpenGL for video. You may want to make sure you have turned off any 3D acceleration and any post processing.

Gerry

[beefmasterj]

Thanks for the ideas. I know in the Placeshifter I've tried running with both the 3D acceleration on and off. When it's turned ON the client fails to start.

I've also tried turning off the post processing and it doesn't seem to make a difference.

So, this could be an issue with my video drivers. I'll see if I can't change to a different driver and test again.

[vikingisson]

I'll guess it is the video driver or video card. Mine works but I've seen the same symptoms you describe depending on the initial settings. I'd suggest making sure you can play a copy of a sage recording directly on the box first. The beta placeshifter seems to work better however .ts files from an HD-PVR aren't good yet.

[beefmasterj]

I can play files from my server through VLC and the web UI.

No HD PVR, straight MPEG2 and some XVID.

I've tried changing to the fglrx drivers for my ATI Radeon, however this doesn't seem to help.

The way the symptom presents itself, I'm guessing now that it's something to do with the media player that Sage is using to playback on my system. I don't know though .. I'm by no means a Linux guy, and everything else I've got from Sage just works out of the box.

[stuckless]

I know you mentioned that you were not a "linux guy", but you may want to try running the Sage mplayer command against a video and see if it fails with some error message that may give some indication as to why it can't play the video.

# /opt/sagetv/client/mplayer videofile.avi

And going out on a limb here.... but is your placeshifter registered with the server... It's so long since I did mine that I can't remember how/where you do it, or if this would even be a symptom of a placeshifter that is not registered.

[beefmasterj]

So, it's been a couple days. I ended up rebuilding my PC with a fresh install of Kubuntu.

Still having the same issues. I try to start playing back a file (either imported avi or recorded mpg) and don't get any picture or sound. This is better than before I rebuilt the PC as it just errored out as soon as I tried to play the video. Now it appears to think the video is playing, but I get nothing but a black screen.

Tried typing the /opt/sagetv/client/mplayer command with a local file and it plays the file perfectly. So, I'm not sure what that means, but I'm getting very frustrated now ..

If anyone's got any other ideas please share.

Jason