Video Error, after 20-30 minutes on movies

[colotg46]

I have been using WMC for years, using a Hauppauge 2650 tuner on a Lynnfield CPU (core i7 860) based system. Recently, I had a motherboard failure, so I upgraded to a new motherboard, CPU, and memory. All other hardware in my system stayed the same.

After Win7-64 install and updates, I ran into a problem that I have not seen posted anywhere.

All my comcast channels work. However, when I tune HBO or Encore channels (any of them), to watch a movie, everything is fine for 20-30 minutes. Then, I get either Video Error: Files needed to display video are not installed or are not working properly. Or, on occasion, I get a General Exception fault popup which after about 10 seconds, kills WMC. I rarely see this error on Network or non-premium cable channels, maybe once or twice when the cable channel was playing a recent movie.

I have been working on this problem for a month now, with no success:
- I did a 2nd clean install (wipe, format, re-install). I have the latest nvidia gfx drivers installed. I ran Digital Cable Advisor and full WMC setup each install. Identical behavior.
- I have tried a number of Norton firewall programming variations for SSDP and uPNP. I returned the firewall settings to default with the required "uncheck block uPNP and SSDP".
- I have tried the various audio fixes found in other threads, no help. (2 channel audio on WMC, 5.1 on the PC, vice versa)
- My monitors are 2xDVI, and 1 HDMI. I have the HDMI audio devices installed by nvidia disabled, since my monitor on the hdmi cable does not have audio.
- I had comcast replace my cable card. No change. HBO and Encore play for 20-30 minutes, and then Video Error.
- I bought a new tuner. I am now using a Silicon Dust HDHomeRun Prime. I uninstalled the Hauppauge sw, rebooted, installed the SiD software. Same exact behavior on both tuners.
- I have performed the DRM reset I found in one of the threads here, multiple times. Still fails.
- I have tried PlayReady reset process that I got from Hauppauge tech support. Still fails.
- Internet connection sharing is off.
- I unplugged the HDMI monitor, ran only on my 2 DVI monitors. Still fails.
- I tried uninstalling WMP & WMC, reboot, reinstall, reboot, configure. Still fails exactly.

System Configuraton:
- Intel Core-i7 4770s, ASUS Z97C motherboard, 8GB DDR3. No overclocking, no special bios settings in use.
^^^ this is the new hardware ^^^ everything below is same as before the upgrade
- nVidia GeForce GTX660. Newest drivers from nvidia. I had this gfx card before the MBD/CPU upgrade, and WMC worked perfectly.
- Intel 160GB SSD primary drive, all OS and application software.
- WD 500MB spinning drive, WMC storage. I have 2 other disk drives in the system, and I get the same failure no matter which I use for WMC storage.
- Silicon Dust HD HomeRun Prime tuner. Previously used an Hauppauge 2650 tuner, which I replaced hoping to resolve this error.
- 3 monitors, all Samsung. 2 driven with DVI cables, one HDMI.
- 2 channel audio, basic Altec speaker system running off the green 1/8" audio plug. No mic. No camera.

Software:
- Win 7 64, completely updated.
- ASUS chipset drivers from disk included with the motherboard. Network, audio, and USB3.0.
- Latest drivers downloaded from nvidia.
- Latest driver downloaded from SiDust and previously Hauppauge.
- Norton 21.3.0.12 supplied by Comcast. The firewall modified to unblock uPNP Discovery and SSDP traffic rules.

Sorry for the long post. As you can see, I have been working on this a while and have tried a lot of ideas that I found here on Green Button. This is a great forum, and I am hoping someone else has seen and found a solution. Tech support from the tuner suppliers has not come up with any new ideas yet.

Thanks in advance.

[barnabas1969]

The "latest" video driver isn't always the best for Media Center.

See this thread:
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=7&t=7473

[colotg46]

Thanks to barnabas1969 for directing me to thread 7473. When I rebuilt my PC, I downloaded all the newest drivers for everything. Unfortunately, I got nvidia 337.88 in the process. Rolling back to an older driver on my nvidia GTX660 appears to have fixed my problem. I thought I had looked at every thread on win 7 green button, and missed 7473.

I was working under the misguided idea that the latest and greatest drivers for all hardware, especially graphics, would be the way to go. The bad news, it took me a month until I finally registered on Green Button and asked for help. The good news, I have it fixed and I have learned a huge amount about how WMC works and where to find help. Here!!

Thanks to everyone who contributes.

[adam1991]

I will strongly advise this: when you get it working, stop trying to fix it.

That is, quit fiddling with it. Really. You may enjoy fiddling with PCs; that's fine. Fiddle with something else. Once you get WMC stable, LEAVE IT ALONE. Just enjoy watching TV and movies.

[gsr]

I'm running into a somewhat similar issue, though my video is just going blank when playing back recordings from HBO without any error messages. Just before the video goes blank, playback pauses for some number of seconds (how long varies, but perhaps 3-20 seconds). Restarting WMC or rebooting the PC clears it up for a while and then it will happen again at some point. How long it will play fine before the problem happens seems to be random, but happened a bunch of times tonight while watching a movie recorded off of HBO a few weeks ago.

WMC has been working fine otherwise for quite a while now and there aren't any problems on non copy protected channels. We just have HBO over the summer as FIOS gave us a free summer trial of it. Though I'd like to get it working better, I don't want to resort to anything drastic like reinstalling Windows as we'll go back to having only non copy protected channels in September.

I can dig up specifics as needed, but the system has an ATI video card and hasn't had any updates installed for a while, so the video card driver is more than a year old at this point.

[DSperber]

I'm running into a somewhat similar issue, though my video is just going blank when playing back recordings from HBO without any error messages. Just before the video goes blank, playback pauses for some number of seconds (how long varies, but perhaps 3-20 seconds). Restarting WMC or rebooting the PC clears it up for a while and then it will happen again at some point. How long it will play fine before the problem happens seems to be random, but happened a bunch of times tonight while watching a movie recorded off of HBO a few weeks ago.

WMC has been working fine otherwise for quite a while now and there aren't any problems on non copy protected channels. We just have HBO over the summer as FIOS gave us a free summer trial of it. Though I'd like to get it working better, I don't want to resort to anything drastic like reinstalling Windows as we'll go back to having only non copy protected channels in September.

I can dig up specifics as needed, but the system has an ATI video card and hasn't had any updates installed for a while, so the video card driver is more than a year old at this point.

What cable tuner brand and model are you using? Internal PCIe or external USB/ethernet? Ceton? Hauppauge? SiliconDust?

What is the ATI video card you have? What Catalyst driver version?

Are you playing back to an HDTV, or PC monitor? What brand/model? Direct video connection to the HTPC, or is a Media Center Extender involved (and if so, what kind)? Since you're playing copy-protected HBO you either must be playing to an HDCP-supported monitor or through a MC extender.

Just need to get these details from you to possibly help out.

[joecrow]

I will strongly advise this: when you get it working, stop trying to fix it.

That is, quit fiddling with it. Really. You may enjoy fiddling with PCs; that's fine. Fiddle with something else. Once you get WMC stable, LEAVE IT ALONE. Just enjoy watching TV and movies.

Stoneage thinking and particularly inapropriate in this case since per the OP it was broke and needed fixing (new mobo)!?

[adam1991]

Particularly appropriate in ALL cases.

Mine is a warning for lurkers.

And not stoneage at all. ENTIRELY modern thinking. Perhaps before its time.

[colotg46]

adam1991: Yes, now that it is working, I am leaving it be. That's good advice. I archived the older gfx driver version, in case I have to rebuild my software stack. I am going to stick with the SiD network tuner, and sell my USB tuner on CL.

I am finally enjoying the new mobo, cpu, and memory. The upgrade from Lynnfield (i7-860) to Haswell is nice, along with more dram and the faster sata ports.

[blueiedgod]

I will strongly advise this: when you get it working, stop trying to fix it.

That is, quit fiddling with it. Really. You may enjoy fiddling with PCs; that's fine. Fiddle with something else. Once you get WMC stable, LEAVE IT ALONE. Just enjoy watching TV and movies.

Stoneage thinking and particularly inapropriate in this case since per the OP it was broke and needed fixing (new mobo)!?

"Don't fix it if it ain't broke" is entirely appropriate.

[STC]

Out of interest, what versions of Nvidia or ATI drivers are folks using? I'm out right now but will confirm later. Maybe nice to get general consensus and I can split topic later for easy reference. If interested to help please list GPU model and driver version.

[crawfish]

Out of interest, what versions of Nvidia or ATI drivers are folks using? I'm out right now but will confirm later. Maybe nice to get general consensus and I can split topic later for easy reference. If interested to help please list GPU model and driver version.

I can add my GT430 under Windows 8.1 x64 to the video freeze/ehshell.exe crash list when using 337.88. The previous driver, 335.23, doesn't have the bug. I too installed 337.88 in my new Windows 8.1 installation, and the screen froze and ehshell.exe crashed after 30 minutes or so watching an Encore movie. That was about three weeks ago, and I forgot about it until I saw this thread. A couple days ago, to test this, I tuned Encore, and sure enough, ehshell.exe crashed 30 minutes later. I uninstalled 337.88 and installed 335.23, and the problem no longer occurs.

[barnabas1969]

Has anyone tested 335.23 with the 29/59 issue?

[STC]

...Yes I suppose we'd better add Windows version too. I'm still old school W7, no need to change something that does what I want right now...

[colotg46]

I rolled back to 332.21, dated January 2014.

[JAJ]

Are you in duplicate (clone) or extended display mode? Disconnect all but one monitor then try.

[STC]

Okay, so no problems for me with

ATI 12.10
Win 7 64
HD6670

[joecrow]

No problems with:
Desktop:-
AMD CCC 14.4
Win 7 64
HD 6450
HTPC:-
AMD CCC 11.4 (This version has an annoying problem with the display of the UI, but does not have the "black screen on WMC start" that seems to be a feature with all later versions to date)
Win 7 64
HD 6670

I would also add that I manually install MS updates about once per week and MCE and my virus scanner update automatically.