XBMC won't play videos on WHS
#1
I recently purchased an HP Proliant MicroServer and eventually managed to install WHS on it. It is set up with 1 system drive and 2 other drives one backing up.

I then installed XBMC on it, and it would not work at all to start with, and then I read about hardware acceleration, so I did that and now it runs.

But, it won't play any videos. It opens them and shows a black screen. I can fast forward and pause and then it shows the video, but at normal speed nothing.

I then tried the same videos in VLC and they work fine, no stuttering, no problems at all.

So, does anybody have an idea what is going on please? Thanks ;o)
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#2
Help us out! Post what version of XBMC you're running, along with system specs (especially graphics card and driver version). I run XBMC on WHS myself, so I might be able to help.
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#3
Yes, sorry, I shall ;o)

AMD Athlon™ II NEO N36L
AMD RS785E/SB820M chipset
Graphics: Radeon HD4200 GPU
Latest driver (sorry the exact number is at home)
1Gb RAM
Latest version of XBMC 10.0

And as I say it works with VLC...

Now, this set up does not have sound, so I am going to have to buy another graphics card with HDMI out and sound anyway, but I want to be sure this actually going to play films ;o)

Thanks.
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#4
Sad 
SadSadSadSadSad

I have a similar problem as you but found that pressing pause / play will make the movie play for 8 s and stop again. Rewind and fast forward plays fine. I am trying to play DVD backups (SD Mpeg2) from a server. I have another machine with Phenon x2 and it plays everything fine. Also have a dual xeon (daul P4 Gallatin 3.2/2M/533 with 2GB ram and ati X1) 3.2Ghz and plays everything great. But my new computer (Dell 740) will not play the movies right. All movies are stored on a server (fedora) and connects with samba.

I tried downloading the movie to the desktop and playing it from the desktop but I get the same result. The download happens fast ~40MB/s which is limited by the slow HDD (80GB). Other machines on my network can download/upload up to 120MB/s to the server. So I dont think the problem is with the server.

Here is my configuration

Athlon X2 5600+
1gb ram
Win 7 64bitg
Nvidia N430/6150 chipset
Ati HD4650 video card.

If I turn debugging on I see the frame rate go from 60 frame/s to 9.9 frames (CPU at ~3%) when I want to play a movie. When I press pause/play the frame rate goes to 24 for 8 seconds and plays the movie and then stops again. If I press pause / play again it will not play it again. If I skip to another location and then press pause/ play if will play another 8s. If a FF I see the FF movie.

I tried this with 2gb of RAm but I get the same result.
Tried without the Ati card and get the same result but more CPU usage (~60%).


I tried uninstalling XBMC and reinstalling it the result was the same. Tried Nightly build Direct X - same result (but first needed Directx install from MS cause it cried about missing DLL's).

I am almost giving up on XBMC on this setup.


Any help would be great.
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#5
ought Wrote:Yes, sorry, I shall ;o)

AMD Athlon™ II NEO N36L
AMD RS785E/SB820M chipset
Graphics: Radeon HD4200 GPU
Latest driver (sorry the exact number is at home)
1Gb RAM
Latest version of XBMC 10.0

And as I say it works with VLC...

Now, this set up does not have sound, so I am going to have to buy another graphics card with HDMI out and sound anyway, but I want to be sure this actually going to play films ;o)

Thanks.

Right click the desktop and choose "Properties" then click the "Settings" tab and click the "Advanced button". In that dialog somewhere is a graphics acceleration slider. Make sure this is set to Max.

JR
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#6
I just found out the my problem was due to lack of sound. I had to connect the audio jack to the sound card for it to let Win know it has an active output. As soon as I did this XBMC started playing video - I know strange but it works fine now. As soon as i remove the jack the video cant be played any more. Windows gets way too complicated
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#7
First and foremost thanks to kawal.
I had been struggling for countless hours trying to get XBMX to play video on my WHS build.
After correcting a driver issue with the VIA High definition audio driver all is well with XBMC. I never would have related video playback issues with audio setup if not for this thread.
Thanks!!!


AMD athlon II X4 635
3Ghz 4G ram
ATI Radeon HD 3300
ASUS M4A78T-E
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