[mythtv-users] MythDora 4 recordings playback problems on Win MCE2005

[Gert van der Knokke]

Gert van der Knokke wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> This is a very strange problem what has occured since I moved to MythDora 4.
>
> I have setup a complete new MythTV backend as a replacement for my older
> MythTV backend.
> Installation went fine and the new system records happily without problems.
>
> However... a friend of mine is connected (by a long cable...) to my
> network with Windows MCEand can view the linked recordings directory.
> Upto the change to my new backend he could view mythtv's recordings just
> fine but now 99% of the recordings  give stuttering or no picture at all
> and have distorted audio. Only a few of the very first recordings made
> on the new system play without problems.
>
> I can view the recordings on 3 frontends (2 standalone machines based on
> the older setup but they connect without problems/errors to the new
> backend and one frontend on the backend machine itself). They all play
> flawless.
>
> The new backend has 2 PVR500 cards and one satellite card. The first
> recordings (of which 3 do playback on MCE) were made with a single (new)
> PVR500 card,  the other PVR500 and satellite cards from the old backend
> were added to the new backend a week later.
>
> I can not find anything wrong with the recordings, alle are exactly the
> same format: 720x576 MPEG-PES 192 kbit audio. Mplayer plays both the old
> and new recordings. Only difference I found is the bitrate for video
> which I had at 7 Mbit on the old system and 6 Mbit on the new system but
> the 3 recordings which do play on MCE are 6 Mbit also.. Every other
> player on Linux and Windows (mplayer, vlc, powerdvd etc.) plays the
> files without problems just MediaPlayer 10 on MCE seems to dislike (most
> of) the new recordings. (the MCE system uses the PowerDVD codec,
> PowerDVD itself on the same MCE system plays the recordings just fine)
>
> I am completely stumped and have no clue to what has changed with the
> new setup or where to look.
> AFAIK mythtv just dumps the stream coming from the PVR cards straight to
> the harddisk.
>
>   

And the conclusion:

I swapped the shiny new PVR500 with another (older) version of it 
(identical to the one I already had) and presto! All recordings are 
perfectly playable again under Window$ Media Player.


Gert