MBC won't play without Pause

[jaydunning 0]

Long-time MB user - very WEIRD and frustrating issue. Been running MB Server off a home server windows box for years, with a separate Media Browser Classic client on our WMC TV box, which controls our TV. Recently moved the MB Server app onto the TV box itself, now running both MB Server and MB Classic (within WMC).

 

The server box has been repurposed for Linux, and I can't get MB Server Linux versions to run without stability issues on the MB Classic client. But the media files are still shared from the server using SMB. But the MB Server / MBC Classic applications are now both on the TV box. Setup involved using all UNC paths in the MB Server configuration, connections are wired ethernet, my router is uPNP, Windows Firewall is allowing all MB programs and both required ports.

 

Everything worked perfectly up until this change. Now with MB Server on the same box as MB Classic, any video (TV / Movie) I wish to play within MediaBrowser just shows the play screen with the time counter at the bottom, and remains stuck at 0:00 indefinitely. What works to unstick this:

1) Restart the MB Server while MB Classic is stuck on play screen. (non-starter)

2) Press Pause, wait 2 seconds, press Play. (WAF is only "meh")

 

Videos play fine in Chrome Browser.

Videos play fine in Windows Media Player opening from folder

Videos play fine when I reinstalled the server box windows drive, and started up MB Server, and re-linked the MB Classic to this instead of the same-box version.

 

I've checked the windows event log (nothing)

I've checked the MB Server log (nothing of note)

I've checked the MBC log, again nothing of note.

I've tried both release and Beta versions of both Server & Client apps

I've tried uninstall, reinstall of MB apps multiple times

I've tried codec uninstallation, reinstallation

 

Does this issue ring a bell with anyone?

 

I have few other programs installed on the client box, it's a WMC-only computer.

MBClassic-19720146f3319fc56fe40b28f3672bdd12eb6b8.log

server-63541325298.txt

[ebr 14959]

I don't see anything of note in that log either.  It looks like everything is working fine.  WMC even reports to us that playback has started.

 

You only waited 5 seconds before doing the pause/play thing though.  Sometimes, it can take WMC a few seconds to get going.  You said you've waited longer than that though, right?

[jaydunning 0]

Yes - I have waited up to 5 minutes. The thing is, playback starts immediately after the "Pause - wait 2 seconds - Play" operation. So it's not the lag of the network (which is gigabit wired, through a gigabit router, connected to SATA III drives on SATA III controllers).

 

And it's maddening how switching back to the remote MB Server solves the problem. I really want to use that server as either a Hackintosh or Ubuntu server. The beta MB Server for those OSs causes playback glitches, and screws up FF / RW. If nothing else works, maybe I could create a server VM JUST for the Stupid MB Server. What a waste, though.

 

That's why this has me grinding me teeth. Might try a bare metal restore. (backup first!)

Edited July 19, 2014 by jaydunning