VLC Not Working With TV-Out!!


Kumaki

Kumaki

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OK, I have a weird situation:

VLC used to work for me, I have one video loaded in there, just to test it out, and it always worked fine.

Ever since I got TV-out working, VLC now gives me only a black screen playing the video. I get the sound, but not the picture. Even when I go and disable TV-Out...it still does not come back on Pandy screen, I still get the black screen with sound. But no picture.

Can anyone help solve this mystery, or point me to a different video player...one that DOES work with TV-Out...preferably with Composite NTSC, as that is what I currently have plugged in the back of my TV. And since my TV is a huge boxy piece of shit, I'm not eager to turn it around and change plugs, so I do not want to go with S. Video.

Now the WEIRD part...Once I re-boot...The video plays right again, and I can see the picture on the Pandy screen...as long as TV-Out is not enabled.

For informational purposes

1. I am using a ReBirth model Pandy, overclocked to 800 Mhz

2. I am using OPP5

3. I am using Booting Kernel 3.2

4. I am using Super Zaxxon Version 1.52 Firmware

5. I am running XFCE

Help, anyone?
 
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Tried this ? It's about mame4all maybe it works

1st open tv-out config and i set to composite ntsc (or pal) main layer and leave the window open
2nd then run mame 4 all it will show on pandora and tv will be blank
3rd pick a game and get it running
4th hit the pandora button and set to hw scaler/ overlay and click write settings
5th click the mame icon on your toolbar to get control over it and will turn pandora's screen dark
 
Hello Kumaki, glad you have resolved your previous TV Output dilema.

Since I do not yet have a OpenPandora video out cable myself, I am unable to say for certain how to resolve this issue. Perhaps something in VLC`s configuration got changed/altered last time that you used it? Have you tried altering some of the settings listed under Tools->Effects and Filters or Tools->Preferences-> Video and play around with the different options for any improvement? Have you tried rebooting the "Pandy" :D and test if VLC`s video mode returns to normal for you? Btw, you do have the Community Codec Pack already installed, correct?

Maybe someone reading this with a similar experience could shed some light and/or a solution for all. Optionally, you probably could remove VLC (including its appdata folder) then try reinstalling VLC again to see if it resolves your issue. But wait for someone with more knowledge/experience to answer here before that step is taken.

Alternatively, why not give SMPlayer2 a try? It is my main media playback software on my OpenPandora. Once in a while I use VLC, but I find SMplayer2 more convenient on my OpenPandora, whereas VLC is my preferred choice on my WindowsXP desktop PC and my laptop. Give SMPlayer2 a try at least. It can`t hurt.

...Patnik.
 
I read too quickly. I now see you said that VLC works normally for you once you do a reboot. So no need to go deleting VLC and its appdata folder. But try and fiddle around with some of the settings for troubleshooting curiosity. Or like TrashyMG had previously suggested, try SMPlayer2 for a bit. I`m curious to know if SMPlayer2 works well with output via cable.  Let us know when you can if possible.

...Patnik.
 
If you don't have any joy, it might be worth getting dusty just one more time behind that old TV and plugging the S-Video in too, there's no reason you can't have both connected at the same time since they don't conflict - they're separately selected inputs. That way you can double check if you're getting a picture from one but not the other.
 
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OK...SMPlayer2 did not work for me either...same result as VLC.

I DID get MAME4ALL running using the trick above, the same trick did NOT work for VLC or for SMPlayer2.

Repeatedly dialing in Channel 00 did not change from composite to S. Video, I had other stuff up on the TV screen, and dialing in 00 when they were up did not change them. And SMPlayer2 gave me the same problem VLC did.

This is a major bummer, since my main purpose in wanting a TV Cable, really, was to watch movies. Games were secondary to this.

There has GOT to be some solution, but I do not know what it is...I know we got some smart peeps out here! Anyone?
 
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Kumaki said:
Repeatedly dialing in Channel 00 did not change from composite to S. Video, I had other stuff up on the TV screen, and dialing in 00 when they were up did not change them.
Click to expand...
No, not by typing 00, that just happens to be a shortcut to composite (the manual refers to 00 as VCR input) - you should be able to cycle from one input to the next by pressing the 'input' button repeatedly, and it should go through the three available sources, RF (regular channels) Composite, S-Video and then back to RF - but if that doesn 't work, which is the normal response for a selector of that type, then if when you press it a choice comes up in an onscreen message, you should be able to use the up/down/left/right buttons on the remote - the little ones at the bottom, it says are for menu use - to choose the input selection. You want "S-Vid" if that's what it labels it, as the manual does.

If I'm reading the manual correctly, it will always display the channel as 00 for an external input, but will prefix it with "S-Vid" if it's getting the signal from S-Video rather than composite.

IIRC there was a time when one or other output from the Pandora was not working for this purpose (media players), but that was back when dinosaurs were walking the earth so I forget the details, I presumed others had been using it for this purpose since, but tbh so few have the cables I can't recall anyone talking about it since. Someone will chime in with a Eureka moment I'm sure soon - someone with a TV out cable used their unit to play video in smplayer2 or VLC? Via composite and/or S-Video?

EDIT: totally random notion, pending a guru dropping by, but have you tried other video files?
 
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Yes, and same result on the other video files.

There HAS to be an answer, but I'm goddamned if I know what.

Please, somone, tell me a video player I can USE with TV-Out.
 
I knew I remembered there was some discussion about an issue with media playback via TV-out:

http://boards.openpandora.org/index.php/topic/5316-movie-players-shows-black-screen-using-tv-out-connection/

I'm also sure there were earlier discussions, but I'd assumed this problem had been resolved or clarified in later Pnd/OS versions. You'll note that by the end of it the (notorious) poster says they'd resolved the problem and got it to work - without saying what worked for them.

You could try one thing pointed to, changing the video output setting of the media player seems to be necessary. It is usually found under 'preferences' - so with SMPlayer2 as an example, my preferred player, on the drop-down menus you go to 'Options' and choose 'preferences' there. Go to the 'Video' tab.

The default output driver is 'omapfb' - without a cable to test myself, I'm going to assume what you want is to change that to 'X11' (if that fails, try the two higher XV settings, if nothing works return it to omapfb and await assistance!).

Each media player will have preference settings like this hidden away somewhere.

Two other things to note though, TrashyMG seems to understand the issue and has a cable, or you could try PMing the member who supplied yours, chances are they'll know what you need to do to get media playback working on the TV-Out.

If you do, share the secret here for future reference!
 
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You could try the vlc 2 - port I uploaded some time ago: http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=vlc2-2QDG. I'm still working on building a better version of that, but it already has a few more output plugins (see Preferences -> Video -> Output). Using XCB or Xvideo might have different results than SDL on a second display. Switching off overlay mode may also make a difference. Note you will have to stop the video after changing output options - they don't take effect while a video is playing (or paused, for that matter).

Be warned though that apart from having the additional options, this PND is broken in various ways (not possible to exit fullscreen mode for example, and I haven't found the cause for that yet). Pretty shure that options won't get saved on a FAT formatted SD card too. And default audio sample rate is wrong. Guess it's going to be another week before I manage to bundle a more sane release, but the current version should be ok for playing with the video plugins at least.
 
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Asmo said:
I knew I remembered there was some discussion about an issue with media playback via TV-out:

http://boards.openpandora.org/index.php/topic/5316-movie-players-shows-black-screen-using-tv-out-connection/


I'm also sure there were earlier discussions, but I'd assumed this problem had been resolved or clarified in later Pnd/OS versions. You'll note that by the end of it the (notorious) poster says they'd resolved the problem and got it to work - without saying what worked for them.


You could try one thing pointed to, changing the video output setting of the media player seems to be necessary. It is usually found under 'preferences' - so with SMPlayer2 as an example, my preferred player, on the drop-down menus you go to 'Options' and choose 'preferences' there. Go to the 'Video' tab.


The default output driver is 'omapfb' - without a cable to test myself, I'm going to assume what you want is to change that to 'X11' (if that fails, try the two higher XV settings, if nothing works return it to omapfb and await assistance!).


Each media player will have preference settings like this hidden away somewhere.


Two other things to note though, TrashyMG seems to understand the issue and has a cable, or you could try PMing the member who supplied yours, chances are they'll know what you need to do to get media playback working on the TV-Out.


If you do, share the secret here for future reference!
Click to expand...
OK, I sill note this and give a try...buyt it will likely be a few days befor eI get a chance to try, I'm dealing with a super shitstorm with my client - the person who contracted with this doc before me left a grand royal shitstorm behind, and I am in the process of cleaning it up.  I worked yesterday from 10AM until 2:30AM - a sixteen and a half hour day!
 
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well it has been along time since i was tv-out crazy from making them to getting a image on the dam screen. i used to have the same problem with vlc, one sec a file would play then would load it back up and get black screen with sound, other times would work only in fullscreen. love vlc on pc but hate it on pandora i use sm2 now. i too was hoping for a tiny play anything media player but gave up on that. suxs the mame trick i came up with awail back did't help any. i just updated alot of my pnds and vlc was on that list i need to dig out my pnd drive to get afew old pnds anyways (new gpsp doesn't see my cheats now:() so will get out the old vlc and dust off my tv out and try afew things with vlc/sm2. 1st i need to go water the lady's will let you know if i find anything helpful
 
well vlc still not working after alot of changing this and that, but smplayer2 worked right off the bat with default options on the player and tv out set to composite ntsc (main) then set to HW scaler/overlay that works fine for avi 624x352 data rate 772kbps,23fps. tryed a mp4 also 720x404 data rate 1130,23fps that likes to skip a frame here or there changed the cache for local files from 0 to 50000 seems to help abit and changed cpu from 800 to 900. anyways smplayer2 works

well i found that for vlc if i turn off the accelerted video output (overlay) option under video in preferences you will get video on the tv using the reg.composite nstc main setting but if you put the video into fullscreen really has some problems well i'am done for awail playing with it let me know what you find out
 
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