Windows Media Player Crashes after Tivo Desktop 2.3a install

[Rapid Fire]

After upgrading Tivo Desktop to the newest version Windows Media Player crashes every time I try and play a .tivo file. I have attached a Picture of the crash analysis. As you will see i did upgrade to Media Player 11 beta to try and resolve the problem without success. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[abeagler]

I just installed the desktop software for my Tivo which arrived tuesday. I have version 2.3a, and like you WMP simply crashes when I try to play any file

[abeagler]

Well, IZ tried installing Cyberlink PowerDVD to get a good codec. Didn't work. I called TiVo support. After 40+ minutes on hold in one form or another I was told it must be a problem with Windows and so they won't help, but that I probably needed to format my hard drive and reinstall and that should fix it.

So, so far I'm out $15 and the better part of an hour of my life and still can't play a lousy .tivo file without WMP just crashing.

[cejay]

I am having the same problem.. i transferred over a hand ful of .TIVO files to my hdrive and cant play them via tivo desktop 2.3a (with wmp 10)
or just by clicking on the .tivo file itself and launching WMP 10. .

says 'connecting' for about 2 seconds and closes WMP10 completely.

Did the tivo directshowfilter get damaged? i tried to install diff codec paks (core codec pak)
and that didnt seem to fix it.

Can I uninstall 2.3a desktop and all will be normal?
this kinda sucks.
I wanted to get these shows off my tivo and archive them on my pc, but now what good are they if i can't watch them on my pc.

help
cj

[abeagler]

Well, I solved my problem. I clicked on a link in the WMP error window, and somewherre there or after one more link I had a small amount of info. One of the things listed was a .dll file. I found it on my hard drive, it was related to Orb Networks software. I temporarily renamed it, and now I can play the files. So look to see if you have an offending file and maybe just rename one letter to see if that fixes the problem.

[ckasabula]

I also ran into this wmp crash when attempting to play a program transferred w/ Tivo Desktop 2.3a. I was able to get past it by using the hint provided by abeagler in this thread. Thanks!

It was Orb Networks software. The specific dll is mpegvideo.dll, which was located in a subdirectory of \Program Files\Orb Networks\bin. Renaming it, as abeagler suggested, worked. I was able to play the transferred program. However, I got another when I closed wmp.

I ended up just uninstalling the Orb Networks software on my PC. Orb came free w/ a Creative Labs webcam, and I never used it.

[karld1]

I had a similar issue. Windows Media Player 11 Beta would crash when I tried to play a .tivo file. This thread made since because I did have orb installed, but un-registering / renaming the orb dlls did not help me. It was actually tivodirectshowfilter.dll that was crashing me.

Then I realized it wasn't just WMP 11. Media Player Classic could not play the files, nor could I create a graph for a .tivo file in GraphEdit.

This led me to believe my tivo directshow filter was damaged, so I unistalled and re-installed TiVo Desktop.

Finally I discovered the problem was something in the file name. The Tivo Transfers the files and gives them long names that include the date recorded and a lot of special characters.

I renamed the file to something_simple.tivo and it played fine in all 3 above mentioned applications.

I'll have to remember this so I don't spend hours researching at some point in the future.

[pkb00512]

I had the same problem as abeagler above with WMP 10. I tried his fix and it worked. Now I can play my Tivo files fine. I upgraded to WMP 10 Beta 2 and it still works fine. Thanks :)

[karld1]

Yep, just wanted to confirm, my issue is definatley with the file names. Looks like the WMP 11 Beta can't handle the long filenames that TiVo Desktop gives the files by default. I just had it happen a second time, and making the name of the .tivo file short and simple fixed it.

[Softail95]

I just had this problem. I removed the Orb software and the problem went away! Thanks!!!

[EvilMidniteBombr]

I've been having this problem for a while, too. Finally got fed up with it. I found this thread, unistalled Orb and WMP was fixed right away. I emailed the Orb folks and told them that I would not reinstall Orb until this was fixed.

[Ewmond]

I too was having Media Player crash when playing a tivo file. I found that my Orb was part of Winamp Remote. I uninstalled winamp remote, and all is well. :)