[TBlaar]

Hi there.

I reinstalled Raspbmc on my Rasp Pi yesterday, and I am running into some problems.

I have loaded videos from a uPnplayer and sometimes videos play, other times i hear the sound, but the visualiser shows. I have gone through most settings, and dont think that's a setting as it works on and off. I restarted earlier and it then played a video, then it stopped working. Rebooted again, still not working.

It feels to me like specific movies cannot be played due to codec issues, but not sure if this is the case.

Any help or suggestions would be massively appreciated. I have read some threads but cannot find help, so apologies if I missed it.

Thanks,

TBlaar

[Jönke]

You have to buy them
http://www.raspberrypi.com/license-keys/

[TBlaar]

Mmm, not the answer I was hoping for, but thanks

So there are two codecs available, an MPEG2 codec, and a VC1 codec. Is there any way to see which ones I need?

I will probably just buy both, but would like to confirm that this is the issue before I just go out and spend money.

Thanks for your quick reply.

TBlaar

[dandnsmith]

To get confirmation data, you want MediaInfo (or equivalent) which will tell you about the file packaging and codecs used. I haven't yet had to (knowingly) use a VC1 licence - all my playable files can be dealt with using the MPEG2 licence. That said, there are a number of other codecs which aren't available for various reasons (eg a lot of avi)

[nickr]

avi is not a codec.

[Baileyg]

I seem to be having a similar problem. I have installed both licence keys but am only able to see mp4 and not mp2. MP4 just plays correctly whilst mp2 just has the visualiser

Any ideas anyone?

Baileyg

[nickr]

mp2 is an audio codec. mp4 is a container.

Please be specific. Codec AND container are relevant. mediainfo will give relevant container and codec info. A debug log (wiki) will show a lot of info. Post it to pastebin or xbmclogs and post the link here. Do NOT paste the whole or part of the log into a post here. DO not put it on some filesharing site like dropbox or the next prime minster's site (mega or whatever it's called.)

[Baileyg]

I forgot to mention I am ignorant, old and a newbie a terrible combination. I will have a look and see what I can find out but I think that the answer lies in my ignorance attribute!

[RichG]

I forgot to mention I am ignorant, old and a newbie a terrible combination. I will have a look and see what I can find out but I think that the answer lies in my ignorance attribute!

I think its most likely the newbie bit File formats / codecs for video are a bit of a minefield, to say the least.

I have found with my library a number of files that had the same problem as you despite having bought both the codec licenses. After quite a bit of investigation it turned out that all the problem files were encoded using DIVX 3 (which I used for ripping DVDs for a short while a good number of years ago), and it appears that the Raspberry Pi can't play this particular format, but they can be played on XBMC on other machines... Fortunately it only amounts to about 30 films in my collection (of hundreds, mostly XVIDs), so I can live with it for now until I get round to re-ripping the films in a more 'friendly' format.

I used a windows program called GSpot to check the files, as this gives quite thorough information on what the codecs used are. There are other ways to check too.

Should just add that other DIVX encodded files (ie DIVX5) play fine on the RPi.