No Audio/Video on xbox extender

[tschwicht]

I have read pages upon pages in this forum and elsewhere, and I can't seem to find a solution to this issue.

I finally got my HTPC running nicely with WMC and my HDHomerun Prime. Guide works, live Tv works, was able to record and view recordings on the HTPC.

I have two xbox 360s to use as extenders. Both of them linked up with the HTPC WMC with no issues. There is one big problem though, and it happens on both of them.

The live TV guide shows up, but when you go to a channel it is just a black screen, no audio. When you go to recorded shows, it will show the recorded shows and let me play them. It even shows the bar at the bottom with the duration of the show like it is playing. I can pause, fast forward, etc. It doesn't lock up on me, but it is also a black screen with no audio.

Anyone have any ideas? Both xboxes do this. There is no issue of the xboxes locking up/freezing, and it seems to function completely normal except for there is no video/audio playing. I would think if it was buffering it wouldn't act like it was playing.

I know the xboxes are capable of streaming video/audio from the HTPC, as I run plex server on there and stream video to both systems.

I saw one or two threads on this forum with a similar issue but never saw a resolution. Any ideas from anyone would help.

[Scallica]

I would start by deleting one of the two Xbox extenders from WMC, factory resetting it, and rejoining it to WMC.

How are the Xboxes connected? Wired or Wireless? If wireless, try a wired connection.

What type of networking hardware do you have? Router? Switches?

[tschwicht]

Thanks Scallica. I will give that a try.

They are currently wireless. I am running cat6 this weekend. The network is as follows:

HTPC -> Switch (Trendnet TEG-S81g Gigabit) -> Router (ASUS AC66U 802.11ac) -> Xbox

I thought it may be a bandwidth issue, but two things stuck out to me. The fact that the network test shows decent speeds (and I'm able to stream media via plex with no lag), and that there is no video/audio at all. I figured with a decent connection, a bandwidth issue would have some video/audio with lag or bad quality but in this case there is none. I also figured recorded media would work better than live tv, but they both show absolutely nothing. What's even weirder is the fact that it looks like it is playing, and when you fast forward you can even see thumbnails of that section of the video yet nothing ever comes up.

I'll give the above method a try tonight. One Xbox I bought and did nothing with so there is nothing on there significant anyway. I'll try to report back any findings. Thanks!

[tschwicht]

Well, I couldn't get the cabling to run through the wall how I wanted to a few days ago so I bought a 200mbps powerline adapter (TP-link). Plugged one end into my switch which is in the basement near my htpc and has my prime on it, the other upstairs in the room with one of the xboxes, and everything is working perfectly. Even though I purchased the N wifi adapter awhile ago and speeds were good, tv was just not working over wifi. It's flawless now. I'll have to pick up one or two more for other rooms.

What a great setup the xbox is for a media center. With Plex now being free plus WMC and all the other apps like Netflix/Amazon Prime/etc., the 360 seems like the best option out there. So much more happy with this and a 360 media remote than a cable box and another device for streaming apps. DVR is amazing when you're not paying $20 a month per box for it.

Thanks again for all the help.

[adam1991]

I will say it again: the first rule is, don't do streaming video wireless. If you do and it doesn't work, the very first thing you do to troubleshoot is wire it up.

Just because you technically can do something, doesn't mean it's workable.

[tschwicht]

I will say it again: the first rule is, don't do streaming video wireless. If you do and it doesn't work, the very first thing you do to troubleshoot is wire it up.

Just because you technically can do something, doesn't mean it's workable.

Yeah, I definitely agree. I thought it would work even with lag, just to test it. I had planned to wire up anyway just wanted to see if I could get it working at all before I went through all that trouble. The worst would have been to go through the wiring process and then it still didn't work. Since I couldn't get guide data to work in the first place, I wasn't very confident.

Then again, the powerline made it literally plug and play. So that made it a lot easier.

It's flawless now. Watched the Sunday night football game last night with no hiccups, clear picture. Still getting used to the xbox 360 media remote, have a few complaints on it but overall this is kicking my cable box into the ground.

Now it's probably time to sell that N wifi adapter I bought. That cost more than the powerline adapter kit used!

[tschwicht]

Don't know if this adds anything to the conversation, but I also recently installed the HDHomeRun software on my macbook so I can watch TV in my home office. It was not able to find the tuner at all, even though I could go to the HDHomeRun Prime's IP address and clearly see the device. Went to their forums, they said the device has to be on the same subnet.

I just connected the macbook to the same router I connect wirelessly with cable. Instantly picked up the tuner and is working great.

So I'm thinking that the extender problem had nothing to do with WMC and everything to do with the HDHomeRun requiring wired connection.

Maybe someone else has had a different experience and has used that device with wireless, but I am unable to. Pretty awesome I just added a TV to my home office though.