DVR-MS file playback

[Slug]

I have copied a number of DVR-MS recording files from my HTPC to my notebook to view while travelling. A number play quite happily via WMP, however a number 'stall' on the first frame & won't play? Does anyone have any idea - all of these play fine in both WMP & WMC on the HTPC???

[StarTV]

Are you using XP on your note book. I could only play SD files but all the HD ones stopped on the first frame or I got no sound. Works fine on Vista.

[Slug]

Yes the notebook has XP loaded (the HTPC is Vista).

Interestingly, all recordings are SD

I can't see the 'common denominator' in what plays & what doesn't.
The only common thread is that the ones that don't play are ALL Underbelly episodes I'm trying to catch up on - the other few are 7 & 10 recordings??

Should I try to convert them to *avi (or whatever) & try something like Zoomplayer, or is there some other DVR-MS player that I can download??

[logifuse]

The problem is usually the sound decoding. Some of the SD channels have MPEG sound (which Windows can decode without adding a decoder), while others have Dolby Digital 2.0 (aka AC3).

If you have FFDShow installed, check that you have DD decoding enabled in that. If you don't have FFDShow, or it won't work, you might need AC3Filter.

Also, what video decoder are you using? XP doesn't include one as standard.

Justin

[StarTV]

In the end if they still don't play remove the DVR-MS wrapper and play them back as Mpeg files. Video redo will do this. Recoding will take a while but removing the DVR-MS wrapper is much quicker or you may wish to encode them to Xvid or h264.

I tried everything and still had issues with sound on HD progs. I installed vista and all is sweet. Give logifuse suggestions a go first, it may well work.

[logifuse]

Good tip - VideoReDo can also convert the audio track from AC3 to MPEG (you select it in the output options when doing a save as). It doesn't add much (any?) time to to the file output process.

Justin

[AdrianW]

Good tip - VideoReDo can also convert the audio track from AC3 to MPEG (you select it in the output options when doing a save as). It doesn't add much (any?) time to to the file output process.

May as well remove the ads during the process as well.

[Slug]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I downloaded Crunchie to my laptop & converted one of the 'errant' files to AVI (took much longer than it takes MCBuddy to achieve the same task on my HTPC - and my notebook is a much 'faster' machine???). When the file was eventually converted it would play in Zoomplayer, but with no sound.

I'll play around with your suggestions (sitting around in motel room in the evenings for the next few weeks with not much else to do), and let you know how I go.

[Slug]

Just downloaded & installed AC3Filter - all DVRMS files recorded on Vista MCE now playing beautifully on my XP laptop.

Luv ya work Justin

[StarTV]

Try a HD DVR-MS file. On XP all my SD files worked but not HD. If you can get HD to work you got further than I.

[Slug]

Sorry Star - can't help there. I don't record in HD as a rule, too big a footprint on the HDD for my liking (& to be honest, I'm no 'technophile' & find it difficult to notice any difference in viewing HD & SD broadcast on my 60"plasma )