Media Player for non-mpeg files=Directshow not working for TS and M2TS

[mkanet]

Edit: I have double-checked, have EnableSageTVStreamDemux=0 in the registry already; and have associated LAV splitter to: TS, M2TS, MKV, MPLS in the registry as well.

Could someone please be kind enough to tell me how I can force M2TS and TS files to use Windows system filters/respective system-defined filtergraphs when Media Player for non-MPEG Files=Directshow? It seems directshow works great for MKV files (and all other non-mpeg media files); which shows that this setting is enabled. However, when I playback TS and M2TS, its very obvious the same audio filter defined by the system isn't being used (same DTS-MA audio stream in all containers; with no other audio streams). Is there a setting I can force explicitly M2TS and TS files to use directshow defined audio filters (or filters in general) created by the system?

In graphedit and all other external directshow players, they are 100% consistent based on merit levels and associating containers to LAV splitter. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what I did (if anything) to cause M2TS and TS files to be treated differently than other non-mpeg files. This happens even when playing back a single M2TS/TS file using the sageTV media browser under the Main Menu: Search options.

Maybe there's something I can put in the below setting?
media_player_plugin_class/*

Thanks in advance!

[panteragstk]

This is from sage support.

You can set this registry value as a string to be the GUID of the DirectShow demux filter you want to use:

HKLM\Software\Frey Technologies\Common\DirectShow\CustomDemuxGuid

Then it'll use that filter instead for any MPEG content (which includes TV
recordings and BDMVs, except DVDs). What will not work is if you try to
watch anything while it is recording; playback will end up stopping early if
you do that.

And usage of this setting is not supported in any way aside from us (SageTV)
indicating that it exists.

[mkanet]

Thanks so much, would it be asking too much for a sample?

Edit: Below was my best guess. But, that causes a, "There was a Playback Error in playback. Details: sage.PlaybackException: ERROR (-3,0x80004005): There was a problem accessing the filesystem for playback." error for TS/M2TS files.

EDIT: It looks like I did it correctly based on an example I found on the forum. Is there a known 3rd party splitter that's compatible with this setting? I'm curious what that error means.

Originally Posted by panteragstk

This is from sage support.

[panteragstk]

What filters are you trying to use? I can play .m2ts just fine by going to detailed setup and specifying ffdshow as the audio decoder and video decoder. You also need to enable HD audio. What of these things have you done?

[mkanet]

I can play m2ts files just fine as well. But, its not 24bit sound.. only 16 bit (when checked against Reclock).

Im using CoreAVC for video and Arcsoft HD decoder for the HD audio decoder; however, I've tried other H.264 decoders and FFSshow HD audio. They dont seem to make any difference to the problem.

It seems like no matter what I do, sageTV treats TS and M2TS files differently than other containers with an HD audio stream.

If I use Reclock to see what ultimately ends up reaching my sound device, I can see that TS/M2TS files are usually downmixed to 2 channels/16 bit.... while MKV containers (with the exact same video/audio stream) gets full 24bit bit audio with 5.1/7.1/8.1 audio. I'm pretty sure there's a sageTV filter trying to force itself into the filtergraph thats causing the problem (specific to TS/M2TS).

This seems to happen regardless of what video/HD audio decoder I end up using.

Also, if I turn on HD-Audio in sageTV, MKV's are still fine, but TS/M2TS get intermittent sound... with a little bit of stutter.

All I want to know is how to get sageTV to treat ts/m2ts containers the same way it would handle MKV containers with the same contents.

I've tried disabling/enabling the sageTV demuxer. That doesnt make any difference either; except for introducing some playback issues with various files... hence, I have it set to disabled so it uses the splitter I use in directshow... LAV (which handles all containers with hd audio very nicely).

PS: I'm not using SPDIF.. just analog 5.1 out on my soundcard.

Thanks for any useful tips you can offer,
-M

Originally Posted by panteragstk

What filters are you trying to use? I can play .m2ts just fine by going to detailed setup and specifying ffdshow as the audio decoder and video decoder. You also need to enable HD audio. What of these things have you done?

[mkanet]

I narrowed down the problem to "SageTV MpegDeMux" MpegDeMux.ax. Apparently, despite specifying “EnableSageTVStreamDemux”=0 and setting sageTV to use directshow for non-mpeg files, sageTV is hardcoded to use "SageTV MpegDeMux" for TS/M2TS media files; with no way to use the your directshow splitter for these filetypes. It looks like unregistering the filter or using "CustomDemuxGuid" produces the same error.

I contacted sageTV support asking for a fix so “EnableSageTVStreamDemux”=0 applies to "SageTV MpegDeMux" as well.

[MrKrabs]

Originally Posted by mkanet

I contacted sageTV support asking for a fix so [/FONT]“EnableSageTVStreamDemux”=0 applies to "SageTV MpegDeMux" as well.

Same problem here with constant crashes and MPEGDEMUX.AX showing up as the faulting module. So far my experience with tech support has been simple suggestions. This V7 has become too unreliable and I'm going to have to switch back to MCE 2005 if I have to.

Any solution from Tech Supt yet?

[doncote0]

There was a thread somewhere about the Native recording patch that touched that offending file (if it was necessary).

I am not sure it's even needed anymore (with Service Pack updates and other patches), but it might not hurt to do a file compare.

Just be safe and rename any files that you are replacing so you can go back to the original setup if it doesn't work.

[panteragstk]

Sage won't use anything but it's built in splitter. What the OP is asking for is for a totally different reason. If you have playback issues it isn't sage, it is your system config. Trust me. I started so many playback error threads I almost gave up. I finally figured out that codec packs are the enemy (no matter if you think they are or not). Install only what you need separately and your issues should go away.

[Malfunction]

Some MKV files play for me in SageTV, some play in DirectShow. It would be nice if everything played in DirectShow. I changed my non-mpeg player to Directshow and configured H.264 to Microsoft DTV-DVD video decoder. The Microsoft decoder solved a lot of problems. This narrowed it down to 3 files that won't play. All three were MKV files with both 2-channel and 5-channel audio tracks. I wasn't able to run "justfix" transcode on them. I was able to transcode them, which resulted in files that bulked up to double size, but looked just as good as the original.

[Malfunction]

Originally Posted by Malfunction

Some MKV files play for me in SageTV, some play in DirectShow. It would be nice if everything played in DirectShow. I changed my non-mpeg player to Directshow and configured H.264 to Microsoft DTV-DVD video decoder. The Microsoft decoder solved a lot of problems. This narrowed it down to 3 files that won't play. All three were MKV files with both 2-channel and 5-channel audio tracks. I wasn't able to run "justfix" transcode on them. I was able to transcode them, which resulted in files that bulked up to double size, but looked just as good as the original.

Using the Microsoft decoder for H.264 now.

[guho]

For anyone who still cares about this: I had the same problem as mkanet in post#3 when setting CustomDemuxGuid to {B98D13E7-55DB-4385-A33D-09FD1BA26338} but I got it to work by setting it to {171252A0-8820-4AFE-9DF8-5C92B2D66B04}. The difference is that the former refers to LAV Splitter Source, whereas the latter GUID refers to LAV Splitter.

I also found that AC-3 Dolby Digital bitstreaming to my denon over HDMI did not work with 0.77.2 LAV filters but works fine with 0.73.1 (version that comes with SageTV).