SOLVED - XBMC will only play avi video files - please help - log provided
#1
Hi, first time poster, long time lurker.

The problem - XBMC will only play avi files and crashes when I select an mp4, m4v or mkv file.

Your debug xbmc.log: http://xbmclogs.com/show.php?id=132210
Your debug xbmc.old.log: http://xbmclogs.com/show.php?id=132212
Your XBMC crashlog: http://xbmclogs.com/show.php?id=132213

Background informfation that may help...

I set up XBMC a while ago on a windows vista desktop and everything has been great. I have used this forum many times to read guides and find out advice - thanks for all your hard work.

The problem - yesterday I decided to install XBMC on my windows vista laptop. I have all my video files saved on two external hard drives which are plugged into my router. This is how I watch films on the desktop.

I wasn't really interested in creating a shared library, I just wanted access to the video files that are on the hard drives, through XBMC.

For some very strange reason XBMC will only play avi files on my laptop. When I select a video file that is mp4, m4v or mkv, the 'working...' icon appears, turns for a few seconds, you hear the first two seconds of audio and then it freezes. If you then press a mouse button the windows error message tells me that XBMC is not responding. I will post the error detail message at the end of the post.

The problem is strange as I don't have any issues on my desktop, which is accessing the same video files on the external hard drives. I have also tried to play local mp4's etc and the result is the same, so it is not an issue of the laptop not liking the router. All the files will play on the laptop through vlc player.

I have tried with the latest nightly build and with Frodo 12.3 - same result

Please help!

[/code]Windows error message:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: AppHangB1
Application Name: XBMC.exe
Application Version: 12.9.11.0
Application Timestamp: 52ff166c
Hang Signature: 7cf1
Hang Type: 0
OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3
Locale ID: 2057
Additional Hang Signature 1: 6fe7270753db78eb075b2bc849417af3
Additional Hang Signature 2: 6579
Additional Hang Signature 3: 9a0482126a326ec194b2760f0de196c0
Additional Hang Signature 4: 7cf1
Additional Hang Signature 5: 6fe7270753db78eb075b2bc849417af3
Additional Hang Signature 6: 6579
Additional Hang Signature 7: 9a0482126a326ec194b2760f0de196c0
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#2
Your issue might not be an internal software problem, but the limitations of your hardware. Without delving too deep here, make a folder on the laptop, put samples of videos in that folder and add it as a local source. Try and play various files and let's see if that laptop is capable (you might have to turn off DXVA and go with software decoding which will probably bring your system to it's knees) of hardware decoding (update your drivers).If you can get all videos to play nicely out of this local folder (file mode) then the issue is your connect to your net.
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#3
Run 'em through mediainfo as well - see what's different about the file contents. Remember that .avi, .mkv is just a container - inside those you can have many variations of audio and video streams, so it's not clear whether it's those streams that are choking you or the files themselves.

If you wanted to really test, you could use ffmpeg or similar to re-wrap one of your dubious mkvs into avi, see if that plays. If it doesn't, it's the contents, not the container.
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#4
The OP mentions he has sucess with VLC, so I assume the videos are viable, I suspect he just doesn't have the decode resources (hardware acceleration vs software acceleration), but following through with my suggestion, will at least get the net out of the way and get down to the hardware or issue.
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#5
Hi, thanks so much for taking the time to reply.

I tried the following:

I moved some mp4, m4v and mkv to a local folder and they still wouldn't play - I guess it's not a network issue.

I converted an mp4 that wouldn't play to an avi and it still wouldn't play - does that mean that it is a problem with the contents not the container?

I still can't understand why the mp4, mkv and m4v's will play through vlc player but not XBMC - any ideas?

I did some more digging in the forum and found a thread where somebody else was trying to use an old Sony Vaio laptop, similar but not the same as mine and they were having problems (albeit different issues). It turned out that he had the option to switch his graphic card from a standard intel to a nvidia card. That solved his problems. Sadly, I don't have that option. Is it possible that the GPU isn't up to the job? If so, very annoying that vlc will play them, but XBMC wont.

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...light=vaio

Any more advice or ideas gratefully received.

Thanks
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#6
Have you tried with DXVA2 hardware acceleration off?
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#7
Intel® Pentium® Dual CPU T3400 should have enough power, but what is your GPU?
>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
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#8
Yes the big difference in VLC and XBMC is that VLC does software decoding out of the box, while XBMC utilizes DXVA, but both are switchable. I suspect you will discover that indeed the graphics are not hardware acceleration compatible. XBMC set for software rendering still might be possible.
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#9
Hi, thanks for the replies.

I have a Mobile Intel® 4 Series Express Chipset Family.

I can not seem to be able to change the properties within the troubleshoot menu. It is greyed out and says just says "Your current display driver does not allow changes to be made to hardware acceleration settings."

Therefore I don't know how to change DXVA2 settings.

Any help appreciated, thanks again.
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#10
Run XBMC go to settings>video>render method and see if you can effect change with the render method and kick off DXVA2;

as a side note VLC can be used as an external player from within XBMC, but it's always more efficient to use the XBMC player.
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#11
(2014-02-18, 21:18)ollyfarrow Wrote: I have a Mobile Intel® 4 Series Express Chipset Family.

I can not seem to be able to change the properties within the troubleshoot menu. It is greyed out and says just says "Your current display driver does not allow changes to be made to hardware acceleration settings."
Have you update the latest Intel driver from their website- Automatically identify and find drivers.... For Intel, you can select Software as Render Method and disable DXVA2. If it greyed out, you can keep it as is....
>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
Reply
#12
SOLVED! - So I tried to download an intel graphics driver but it wouldn't work, saying that I had to get one specific for my computer. So I downloaded one via the Sony website and it actually works! I'm a little annoyed at Sony as their auto update has been telling me for months that there are no new updates. But all's well that end's well.

I am so pleased and thankful for all your help. The fact that you guys kept replying, meant that I kept on trying different things.

I am really very grateful - keep up the good work. Perhaps one day soon, I'll be able to help out other newbies.

Thanks
Reply
#13
(2014-02-18, 22:06)ollyfarrow Wrote: SOLVED! - So I tried to download an intel graphics driver but it wouldn't work, saying that I had to get one specific for my computer. So I downloaded one via the Sony website and it actually works! I'm a little annoyed at Sony as their auto update has been telling me for months that there are no new updates. But all's well that end's well.

I am so pleased and thankful for all your help. The fact that you guys kept replying, meant that I kept on trying different things.

I am really very grateful - keep up the good work. Perhaps one day soon, I'll be able to help out other newbies.
I'm glad that your hard works paid off!

For future reference- I cannot update driver using auto detect on one of my PC too, but I was able to download it using this route- Find By Category...
>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
Reply

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SOLVED - XBMC will only play avi video files - please help - log provided0