Re: Video freezes after 30secs - 20mins... Media centre still resp


I am using a full screen at 800x600 resolution on a TV only. There is no monitor connected but I assume the output is still active. I've tried looking though the settings to see if I can disable the monitor output port but couldn't find anything.
I will try running video in windowed mode and repost prob tomorrow when I know whether that works. I'm fairly certain that I removed the old drivers before installing 66.93 but I'll double check and try them again.

Antonio

palamangelus wrote:
I'm actually using two different setups. One, I custom built which has an MSI Geforce FX graphics card with a hauppauge 150 tuner. The other is an HP n260 (or whatever the brand is) of which I upgraded to an eVGA Geforce FX card with a hauppauge 250 tuner. One has a fresh install of MCE 2005, one has an upgrade to MCE 2005. The custom built PC is connected via sVideo to a 65" projection screen, the other is dual connection to a 19" flat screen monitor split with a 35" screen via DVI.

I just installed the 66.93 drivers after reading the other posts on the custom built pc, and it so far has worked well (at least it hasn't frozen within the time frame it normally freezes). You can get the drivers here : http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_66.93.html.

Either way, I'll repost - but looks like that might have solved the problem.

"JW" wrote:


What displays/monitors do you have connected, using what resolution? If more than one try using only one at a low resolution like 800x600.

"palamangelus" <palamangelus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:E0DA9B4B-9AE1-4F6C-80B2-BA22174F492F@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Antonio,

I have the same issue as you - I was wondering if you are running in
full screen mode? Everything seems to work fine for me if I'm not using full
screen (even if I stretch the window to just about fit the full screen), but
as soon as I maximize it to full screen and wait for a short amount of time,
the same thing happens.

Dave

"Antonio Argentieri" wrote:


I will try the latest Nvidia decoder and see how I get on. I don't think
it's a thermal problem as the PC is running cool, it's brand new with
good ventilation. It has two tuners and I've already moved them about
but it made no difference. If it was a thermal problem I would expect
general graphic corruption and system lockups which I don't get.

I know it's clutching at straws but I'm also going to update the
motherboard drivers to the latest version and check the BIOS version etc.

I've also had a play with GBPVR to see if it responds in a similar
manner... but it doesn't it works fine.. so I'm inclined to think it's a
config problem rather than a hardware problem. I might install a game on
it and run that to check system stability outside of the Media Center app.

Thanks for your help,

If I still cannot get it resolved I'll be back and hopefully some more
people will respond with more ideas.

Antonio

Dana Cline - MVP wrote:

I can think of only two other things...you mention an old nVidia
decoder...can you update that and try the newest one? The only other
possibility I can think of is a thermal problem. Is your system well-vented?
Fans dusty? Does the video card have a fan? Does the problem occur with the
case off? Can you change the tuner to a different slot?

Dana Cline - MVP

"Antonio Argentieri" <antonio.argentieri@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote in message news:e45Oq1wSFHA.2756@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Thanks for the info Dana.

I've now tried 71.84, 71.89 and 66.93 drivers all giving the same
results. I noticed that the audio does continue although the picture
freezes. I also installed the latest Power DVD trial and set it as the
preferred decoder still no change. I then re-installed winDVD and set
that as the preferred decoder still no change. I also checked that the
video card was running in 'Single' mode and not 'Clone' or 'Span' modes
as recomended by the Nvidia release notes for MCE.

Now it appears whilst watching live TV it seems to consistently work for
about 1 minute before freezing.

Does anyone else have any further ideas?
Could it be that although MCE has a preferred decoder it could still be
using my old Nvidia DVD decoder? (Not sure asked the deinstaller to
delete all the shared dll's when prompted... so there could be remnants
of it on my system)

There is some other decoder installed on my system that's not MCE
conpatible according to the MCE decoder check utility. Could this
interfere with things? How would I go about removing it if it's been
bundled with some other drivers I've installed in the past...?

I would really like to get to the bottom of this. MCE is a great
application as long as it works!

Antonio.

Dana Cline - MVP wrote:


Check your nVidia drivers for version number...there were problems with 

the


71.84 drivers but I hear there's a newer 71.89 with some bugs fixed. You
might also try the older 66.93 drivers.

Try Microsoft's decoder check utility at


http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=de1491ac-0ab6-4990-


943d-627e6ade9fcb&displaylang=en to see which one is enabled for Media
Center.

Dana Cline - MVP

"Antonio Argentieri" 

<antonio.argentieri@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

wrote in message news:#L6$FemSFHA.3788@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



Hi all,
I'm running MCE 2005 and am trying to get to the bottom of the following
issue. Basically Live TV/Playing a DVD works fine for 30 seconds
sometimes up to 20 minutes but then freezes. Pressing the media center
button on the remote brings up the main menu and the application and PC
functions as normal but the video is frozen.

I'm using a Gforce FX5200 card with the latest drivers.
The supplied drivers caused the PC to reboot each time the pc attempted
to play video.

I'm also currently using the Nvidia DVD decoder but also have Power DVD
and WinDVD. I'm not sure that they all behave in the same way but I do
know that whichever is installed the media PC is 'unreliable'
I've also tried knocking down the hardware acceleration in windows but
this has made no difference.

The time difference between 30 secs and 20 mins may be due to me
installing different sets of drivers (Desktop PC/MCE drivers).. I'm not
sure it varies when I stick with the same drivers... although I know
once it has gone wrong once the time till it screws up again is reduced.
So the first time you play video after a reboot it may last 20 mins...
but subsequent trys it only lasts a couple of mins maybe...

I've run out of ideas so if anyone has any idea of what could be wrong
I'd appreciate a little help.

Regards,

Antonio.







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