Media Manager Audio Playback Issues

[KaLin]

This thread is for posting issues with the Media Manager Audio Playback.

[randyfoss]

I am able to view photos on my TV through Media Manager but whenever I attempt to play any music files (including the sample files), the tv  screen shows a progress bar for the music file but no sound is played.  Anyone else encounter this problem?

[Jim785]

Hello Randyfoss,

What operating system are you running on the pc that you have media manager installed?

[randyfoss]

Windows XP

[Pyao]

Installed new media manager this morning on x64 Win7 RC, video/pic showed, but when I tried the sample music, it locked up my FIOS DVR.   I had to power it off completely to get it back.

[Weekender]

Similar behavior, although I don't see a progress bar.  I see the song name and album artwork, but that's it.  No sound.  "Exit" or "Stop" will eventually back me out.  I un-installed and re-installed and it worked immediately after.  Next time I tried to play any music, I was back at the same behavior (not working).  I am experiencing the same behavior on XP and Vista.

[surgey]

Same here...it finds my server just fine, I can browse files and display pictures but cannot play music.

The progress bar goes, but no sound.

Videos won't play at all either.  It says timed out.

I have no firewall.

My server is Vista x64 ultimate connected to a gigabit ethernet switch, which is connected to the verizon Actiontek router.

I can ping the STB fine, and I can do netstat -a and see that the STB connects to me fine on port 18001.

Any ideas?

I run ORB 2.0 on the same box, which can stream my media over the internet and to my cell phone.

Never had any problems with ORB.  I wish ORB could stream to the STB so we wouldn't have to use this crappy (no offence) media manager program.

Edit:

 Almost positive this is a codec problem.  I can see that media manager attempts to open ffdshow then it closes right away.
If ffdshow is screwing it up then oh well, I guess I can't use media manager because I rely on ORB to use ffdshow.

 What a shame.

Message Edited by surgey on 07-21-2009 08:39 PM

[queen427]

Can anyone from Verizon comment or anyone at all on the ETA for Media Manager to support Vista 64 bit?  Thanks in advance.

[Recky]

Dito on the same problem, photo's-slideshows function but no audio for mp3 music files. I an able to select songs and the progression bar appears and moves as though the song is playing but no audio. (XP, wired network, HDMI from DVR to AVR to Plasma screen).

Video has not been tried-tested.

[Serpo]

Was this issue ever solved? I am having the same problem. Just installed media manager on my laptop with Win XP pro. No firewall. I tried to play a song and it see the song, the progress bar but no sound at all.

At one point i had to unplug the DVR since it froze on me.

Anyone called the tech support?

[Serpo]

Just to clarify my previous post. I was trying to play the songs which were on my laptop onto the TV.  see the song name, progress bar but no sound.

Any help much appreciated.

[VZ_Frank]

Is your DVR box a 7216, if so are you using the coax out from the stb to the TV.  If you are this is an know issue. The work around is to use the audio out or the hdmi as the audio out instead coax output.  This issue will be resolved when the new img (interactive media guide) is released. 

[DFS]

Same problem as others reported, photos display fine, no sound thru HDMI.  The only difference is this is using a MAC and the latest version of Media Manager just released.  In addition, the firewall is disabled.  Contacted first level Verizon support and they said we don't support MM on a Mac because it's Beta which I don't understand since I received a message on the TV saying it was released.

Tried uninstall/reinstall, firewall has been turned off, not connected to work using VPN, rebooted router, still no luck.  Periodically the DVR shows 25 then what looks like a raised zero then 25 then the zero again.  Other times click OK on song does'nt do anything...no 25's, no zero's, nothing. 

[mdsbuc]

I've been toying with media manager during the 90 day trial period.  Photos seem to run without a problem, but when I send music files my computer will lock up.  This can happen anytime between the first song played, and almost surely by the 10th to 15th song. After this comes the lengthy process of a hard boot. Very frustrating.  I converted all of my music files from 320kbps to 192kbps thinking that the lower bit rate might correct the problem, but the only difference I can see or hear is in the quality of the sound.  The lock up still occurs.   I like the potential of the media player and would surely sign up for it if I can get past this glitch.

[mdsbuc]

Quite a coincidence that I posted my issue yesterday and today the new upgraded version comes out.  So far I have no more lockups with the newer issue of media manager, only an occasional hiccup while playing a song.  It seems like a big improvement so far.  I hope this holds up and is not that I have been "lucky" so far today.

[mkgator2]

I would love to stream my music collection but every time I try the dvr box locks up solid.  I have a large music collection (over 10k) songs and I think that may be the problem.

I noticed in this new software it gave the option to import from iTunes.  Do you think this would help?  How is this different from just having the Media Manager do this?

Is anyone else having problems?

Thanks in advance.

[mkgator2]

Does anyone stream music from Media Manager?

[surgey]

If you look on this forum, and on the internet, alot of people are having the same problem.
This software is very, very, veryyyyy poorly coded -- and don't bother calling tech support, {please keep your posts courteous} 

I've been researching this problem all day, and still can't find a solution...however, it's either one of two things:

1.) Codec problem.  The proper codec isn't registered to decode mp3s from the media manager program.
2.) Problem with the temporary file directory (which seems to be the issue for me).

Post this log for me, and I'll see if I can help you:

If on XP, C:\Documents and Settings\yourusername\Application Data\Verizon\Verizon Media Manager\AudioTranscoder.log
If on Vista, C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Verizon\Verizon Media Manager\AudioTranscoder.log

Here's what mine says (the problem line anyways):

2009/07/23 18:15:00.105 Transcoding Complete!!! Input File: C:\Program Files (x86)\Verizon\Verizon Media Manager\Sample Media\Sample Fios Music\Vision of Persistence.mp3 Output File: C:\Users\Nick\AppData\Roaming\Verizon\Verizon Media Manager\\MMCache\Vision of Persistence. 192.168.1.4.wav

Notice the output file path...it's wrong.  
I installed this on an XP box and it seemed to work OK, except that on Vista it's missing the FIOSMMC folder (which should be in that line between the two slashes).

It seems as though on Vista, the program did not correctly create the temporary directory properly.

I am trying to find out if the location that it stores the Temp files is stored in the registry so I can change it, but I can't find the proper Key (if it IS in fact stored in the registry somewhere).  I am going to keep digging, but I have been at this all day -- have a big headache and I am about to give up.

Conclusion:

A high school AP Computer Science student could write better software than this.
Get real verizon.

Message Edited by surgey on 07-23-2009 03:40 PM

Message Edited by surgey on 07-23-2009 03:40 PM

Message Edited by ElizabethS on 07-23-2009 04:59 PM

[kevinb]

Hooooold on

Hooooooooooooold on

Hooooooooooooooooooooold on there...

Are you trying to insinuate that Verizon probably didn't spend much money, time or effort on a best effort, provided as-is FREE media program? (Yea, that "FREE" part is begging for flames)

Or that a telecom company who is trying to grab a piece of that sweet, sweet content provider profit pie should?

You get out of town!

[surgey]

It's not free... it's a feature that comes along with the home DVR service or whatever it's called.
I can assure you that I pay for this service and would like the software to work.
In fact, this is pretty much the ONLY reason I got the home DVR package.
The lame **bleep** DVR has it's storage ports purposely crippled by verzion, rendering the unit completely and utterly useless -- EXCEPT for the Media Manager feature -- now this is actually something cool.

I didn't want to get into the reasons why it's coded this way -- frankly I don't care, I am just trying to figure out how to make it work.

I have been unsuccessful in locating the exact variable in the registry where MM stores the transcoded temp files, which leads me to believe it's *not* in the registry.

Next step is hex editing the DLL's and software itself -- hopefully I can find it.

If anyone else has any ideas...?  By the way, is there a mac\linux version of this?
[keep it legal]

Message Edited by surgey on 07-23-2009 04:14 PM

Message Edited by ElizabethS on 07-23-2009 04:58 PM

[surgey]

Got video streaming to work, and it plays the audio along with the video!
If you have FFDShow, or the Combined Community Codec Pack (which uses FFDShow anyways) installed on your computer, you will have to disable the Mixer.

I also suspect if you use Ac3filter, you will also have to modify the settings or outright disable it to get MediaManager to work.
I know ac3filter also interfered with Orb.  Not sure why -- I am a software engineer but I am not too knowledable about media codecs and exactly how they work.

Open up the FFDShow Audio Decoder config, and in the left hand column there is a checkbox for Mixer.
Uncheck it.  This doesn't seem to affect orb, or VLC in any way.
I can still stream HD videos with orb, and I can still watch and listen to HD videos with 5.1 audio in VLC.

Now I need to figure out how to get audio streaming working.
After disabling the Mixer in FFDShow, I can get videos to stream, with audio, but not regular MP3 audio files.

Same thing -- progress bar goes, but doesn't play anything.
Same crap in the AudioTranscoder log file...tries to put the .wav output into a directory with two slash marks...

I suspect that issue is not due to a codec problem, but due to the Media Manager installer \ configuration's temporary transcoding directory not being set properly.  Still looking into a way to fix this.

Message Edited by surgey on 07-23-2009 06:21 PM