Subsonic Forum

I am having a problem streaming certain videos to a Windows 7 laptop and only to that machine. Basically, the audio plays fine, but the video is a big green mess; looks like modernist, abstract art. I can stream the problem videos to a Ubuntu 11.10 desktop, WinXP desktop and indeed other Win7 machines and they play fine. The other strange thing is that it is only some videos that are problems. Problem videos are created by MythTV as recordings of TV shows in mpeg format. Not all MythTV videos are problems. For two recordings from the same channel, one will play fine and the other won't. Also, it happens across channels; several channels give problem videos, but not all channels give problem videos. It seems like this is a problem more often with recent recordings. Also, an video ripped from a DVD (to mpeg) will stream/play fine.

The basic set up is this: subsonic 4.6 running on Ubuntu 11.10 with JW Player 5.8. I am using the default transcode command.

The fact that problem videos only fail on one machine hints that it is a problem with that machine. The problem machine is using the latest version of Adobe Flash 11.1.102.55 and plays YouTube videos fine.

The subsonic log does not offer anything that is obvious to me. The only interesting thing in the log is this:

DEBUG InputStreamReaderThread - (/var/subsonic/transcode/ffmpeg) av_interleaved_write_frame(): Operation not permitted

But this shows up for both problem videos and non-problem videos. At first, I figured the error was related to a missing codec or something related to ffmpeg, so I installed a new codec pack, to no avail. Re-encoding problem videos from mpeg format to mpeg format with ffmpeg does not help.

The machine in question is a relatively recent vintage (within the past three months).

Any hints about where to look next?

Thanks,
Eudoxus

Any hints in the Windows system logs?

Update graphics driver?

eudoxus wrote:I am having a problem streaming certain videos to a Windows 7 laptop and only to that machine.

Hi,
Given the localisation of the problem, I would absolutely check that:
-> Your graphics drivers are up to date
-> Flash Player is up to date
-> The resolution you are in is fully supported by your hardware
-> You have installed any relevant codecs (Try k-lite codec pack for a really comprehensive installation.

Do you have problems with any other video on that machine?

It seems so simple now. Updating the video driver fixed the problem. I had discounted that as a likely problem/solution because the laptop was new. As an aside, flash was up to date and I had install the k-lite codec pack to no avail.
Thanks,
Eudoxus

Because of production scedules, lead times, shipping, warehousing, and the fact that the software images for the drives on a system are engineered and mass produced long before the assembly process - it would be surprising to find up-to-date anything on a new system. I do many new system set ups and have yet to do one that took less than an hour just to do the Windows updates. Most people don't even realize that after doing updates on a fresh system you have to recheck for updates after each reboot before you it finally says there are no new updates. It usually takes about 3 reboots. Go Microsoft!

Video and audio drivers can be a whole 'nother hornets' nest. Having the latest isn't always the best, my rule is that if it ain't broke don't fix it, but if something isn't working right then check the mfgr's site for the latest driver.