Problem Report: MBC Beta 3.0.214 - Video Not Found

[Kent 91]

Hi, I had just updated to the latest MBC beta this evening and post update none of the videos are playing (movie, TV) due to an error from WMC saying it cannot locate the video, path is not set or source is offline (paraphrase, i'll get the exact message and post it).

 

Prior to the upgrade (just minutes prior in fact) videos were a-ok.  Post upgrade, immediately after in fact, this symptom occured.  MBT is fine (on same PC), all other players are fine.

 

Logs attached, let me know if you need anything else.  I'll probably uninstall MBC, wipe the directories and re-install tomorrow. I'll check back prior to starting this.

 

Edit: Exact Message:

 

Cannot Play Video

 

Windows Media Center cannot find the specified file.  Be sure the path is typed correctly. If it is, the file does not exist at the specified location, or the computer where the file is stored is offline.

MBClassic-4102014832cbe0192b443b187fde4afbb1bb2c6.log

mbc-install.log

server-63547977599.txt

Edited October 4, 2014 by Kent

[Kent 91]

Quick update, tracked it down to just MKV files. All others are playing fine in MBC.

[ebr 14959]

Sounds like a codec problem. Did you update those too?

 

Unfortunately, that is WMC's message when pretty much anything goes wrong playing something.

[Kent 91]

Hi, no updates to Codec no.  Only change was installing MBC beta.  As mentioned, MBT is running fine. 

[Kent 91]

Spent a few hours on this, uninstalled MBC and reinstalled, no joy. I uninstalled and reinstalled MBT and MBC, no joy.

 

So I looked around the eventually followed Cheesegeezer's guide on setting up LAV and ffdshow. A bit of a pain but it's all working now. http://mediabrowser.tv/community/index.php?/topic/4305-mbc-and-codecs-understanding-the-media-foundation/

 

Just as a side note, this PC was a fresh install with nothing on it other than Windows and Mediabrowser software.  Having to manually install LAV and ffdshow to get MBC working again just doesn't appear as a simple product for majority of users.  IS MBC designed to be a stand-alone or are we expected to manually install and setup these filters? 

 

That last question is rhetorical, considering MBC was working perfectly before the upgrade to the latest beta release, so something in that upgrade broke the codec pack that it was using.

[AgileHumor 123]

This is normal.  You re-installed your PC, and those files wouldn't even play in Windows Media Player.

 

If they don't play in Windows Media Player, then they won't play on WMC/MBC which depends on you setting up the filters so it's available to all apps...they don't come preinstalled with Windows (some of them do, but not most).

 

There is plenty of guides on the internet about codecs.  This is not MediaBrowser specific.

[Luke 37260]

Spent a few hours on this, uninstalled MBC and reinstalled, no joy. I uninstalled and reinstalled MBT and MBC, no joy.

 

So I looked around the eventually followed Cheesegeezer's guide on setting up LAV and ffdshow. A bit of a pain but it's all working now. http://mediabrowser.tv/community/index.php?/topic/4305-mbc-and-codecs-understanding-the-media-foundation/

 

Just as a side note, this PC was a fresh install with nothing on it other than Windows and Mediabrowser software.  Having to manually install LAV and ffdshow to get MBC working again just doesn't appear as a simple product for majority of users.  IS MBC designed to be a stand-alone or are we expected to manually install and setup these filters? 

 

That last question is rhetorical, considering MBC was working perfectly before the upgrade to the latest beta release, so something in that upgrade broke the codec pack that it was using.

 

 

The guide you used is good but it based on older tools. Nowadays all you need to install is LAV Filters. Default settings should be fine. We'll update the guides accordingly. This is a good one:

 

http://www.thehtpc.net/htpc-tips-and-tweaks/media-center-lav-filters-and-external-subtitles/

[Kent 91]

@@Luke , I appreciate the response and the guide you referenced is the one I followed first.  I guess i didn't have to setup ffdshow.  

 

I just wanted to make the MBC team aware that when I upgraded to the new MBC beta, it destroyed my ability to playback MKV containers in MBC/WMV (with no impact to MBT).  I had to work-around this by following the LAV guide, but most people will not bother and just report the application is broken.

 

I would imagine that the vocal majority on these forums are those who have codec packs installed, fine tuned and working correctly prior to Mediabrowser.  So for me, I wanted to ensure you all heard a voice from a user who does not (or did not) have any external codec packs or anything installed , and was just a clean install of Win7 and MB3 software.

[Luke 37260]

I think it was something else because MBC does not make any system changes, and it doesn't install anything that would affect video playback. It is just a plugin for windows media center, and windows media center is the application that has the responsibility of playing the video. It is just like the Roku app in a sense that when you play content, we are just feeding it to the roku player just like MBC is to the windows media center player.

[ebr 14959]

Yes, it is unfortunate that this happened but the MBC upgrade had to be coincidental since, as Luke pointed out, we don't do anything with your codecs.

 

If it was working before, perhaps you had LAV installed and didn't realize it.  For instance, if you had installed MBT it would have installed LAV for you.  Then if you un-installed all of that then video wouldn't work any more.  That is just one possibility, not sure exactly what happened in your case.

 

We have thought about installing LAV along with MBC but that carries with it its own set of problems.  Unfortunately, with a player as old as WMC's you simply have to do something more to get most modern video formats to play.

[Kent 91]

You know, it's possible I never had WMC working with these file types. I have been spending more time in MBT than MBC and just now getting around to trying it out. 

 

An interesting scenario though, if a user never sets up codecs to get WMC working, he blames it on MBC.  Perhaps there is a way to fool proof this by wrapping LAV into the MBC installer to ensure there is some basic support in case the user never set it up.  Or at the least give people a heads up in the MBC downloads page that they need to have a codec pack installed that supports their common media types.

 

Any way, thanks for the feedback, i'm really enjoying MB3 and will continue to support the project.

[ebr 14959]

Yeah, for a brand new user it is more difficult than it should be.  But the issue is very few "new" users are using WMC/MBC.  If someone wants to use that combination it is usually because they have been using WMC for quite a while and want to continue doing so.  Those people also have usually painstakingly setup and configured their codecs to work how they want them to so we don't want to do anything that would mess up or override that.  And there are so many possible codec installations that it would be tough for us to be sure we weren't messing up an existing install.

 

We do take a different approach with MBT since it is a stand-alone player - attempting to be sure everything is in place to playback from the get go.

[Kent 91]

Eric, i'm really hoping you all will see a lot more of the brand new users out there.  I'm one of them (just moving away from cable boxes / WDTV Live combo).  I had originally thought I'd go with Plex but with Mediabrowsers Live TV integration, I'm fully on board with MB3 as it has allowed me to get rid of my cable boxes (cable entirely is next, but one step at a time). 

 

I hope this thread helps others who are in similar situations as myself.