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Knowledgebase: Beyond TV
MPEG-2 recordings do not play outside of Beyond TV; may play audio but not video or display 'codec' error
Posted by - NA - on 28 December 2005 07:52 AM

DESCRIPTION:

MPEG-2 recordings created by Beyond TV do not play in Windows Media Player (or other players) on local or remote machines. If you cannot play back the video in other players on the Beyond TV machine, it is usually because a DVD software or MPEG-2 decoder is taking precedence over Beyond TV's MPEG-2 decoder, and cannot properly play back the MPEG-2 file. If you cannot play back the video on other computers, it is likely that they simply do not have a capable MPEG-2 decoder installed on the other computers.

ARTICLE:

The ideal solution is to use the Windows Media (WMV) format, which can be played on any PC running a sufficiently updated copy of Windows Media Player. This can be achieved in one of two ways.




  1. Modify your settings so that all future recordings will be created in the Windows Media (WMV) format. (Note: This ability is not available on systems using a hardware-encoding capture device.) To do this, navigate to SETTINGS --> RECORDING SETTINGS in the ViewScape interface.. Change the "Recording Format" value to "Windows Media" and back out of the screen.

  2. Use the ShowSqueeze feature in Beyond TV to recompress an existing MPEG-2 recording into the Windows Media (WMV) format. To do this, copy the MPEG-2 recording into one of Beyond TV's Video Folders. Then, select the recording from "Recorded Shows" in the ViewScape interface, hit ENTER or OK, and select the "ShowSqueeze" option. Beyond TV will ask you if you wish to delete the source file after recompression is complete. Once you have made a selection, the ShowSqueeze job will be queued. When complete, the resulting WMV file, placed in the same Video Folder, is ready for transport to other computers.





MPEG-2 decoders are not free, and Windows Media Player cannot download them. If the recording must stay in the MPEG-2 format, but be playable outside of Beyond TV, there are two options.




  • First, if the MPEG-2 file plays audio, but not video, we suggest making future MPEG-2 recordings in one of the "DVD ready" recording quality profiles set in SETTINGS --> RECORDING SETTINGS. This may solve the problem, especially if a DVD-playing software is installed on that machine.

  • Second, if the MPEG-2 file does not play at all, the machine may not have an MPEG-2 decoder installed. In this case, installing a commercial MPEG-2 decoder should solve the problem. Alternately, we suggest suggest installing a DVD-playing software and making future recordings in a DVD comptible quality profile as mentioned above.





Additional suggestions for solving this problem are complex, system-specific, and should be given on a case-by-case basis by a professional. If the above does not solve the problem for you, please write SnapStream Technical Support by completing and submitting the form located here.
SnapStream Media, Inc.