More Awesome Than You!

I have problems with the television and computer sequences not displaying.  I just get a black screen when they are on.  It does make the sounds of the tv programs, but no picture.  Has anyone had the same problem?  I know for sure that they haven't worked at all since BonVoyage, but I am not sure about before, I wasn't letting many of my sims have tv for awhile.

I have all the expansions and stuff packs, and none of the custom tv channels.

Have you checked your graphics options since installing BV?  EAxis is sometimes too conservative on what they think a video card can handle, and installing a new EP/SP sometimes resets your graphics options to lower settings.

I have checked, and my settings are maxed.  Looks very nice too, except for the wierd lack of tv shows :)

I still have found no solution to this problem.  Is there supposed to be any files in the documents/EAgames/TheSims2/Movies folders anywhere?  I assume you only have files in there if you have custom movies, but I just thought I would ask.

You said you have no custom t.v. channels, but what about custom televisions?  Are you using the vanilla sets that come with the game or a custom set?

Can't help you with the files question right now; will check my rig later if no one responds by then.

I have no files in that directory, although I do have folders. One is called Broadcast, which has an empty folder for each channel, for commercials, and tv_weather_summer (and the other 3 seasons of course), and one labeled "static". The other folder is Games which also has empty folders in it. If you go into C:\Program Files\EA Games\Any EP that added tv stations or games\TSData\Res\Movies you will find folders with files inside of them.

 :-\ Have you tried playing any video files lately ? Try playing some avis and mpegs if not and see if they play ok . The default videos in the game have the .MOVIE extension although I'm wondering if they're avi based seeing as they are the types of custom videos that the game plays . If your avis don't play correctly it could be a damaged codec possibly ?  :-\

Yes, I've ruled out any normal codec being corrupt, I can play avi files with no problem.  I have tried without custom content, with no luck.  All tv's base game or custom and all computers don't display any moving pictures, just a black square.  I too have vista, but I did have tv's working fine under vista when I first installed (90% sure about that anyway). 

I just had a look in the Movies folder for my (Seasons) game.  Both folders (Broadcast and Games) are there, but they are not exactly empty, as there are a number of empty folders in each one.  I can't exactly see a reason for them being there, but there they are, and maybe they need to be there for tv and computer screens to work properly.

I should have been more clear in my original post I think :)

I do have plenty of empty folders inside both broadcast and games (in my documents folder), all the ones that would be expected.  The same file structure is in place in the installed files (on C: drive), with the .movie files present, which would seem to rule out any install errors. 

Are the .movie files supposed to be playable outside of the game?

What type of graphics card do you have? Mine is an ATI Radeon HD 2600, and I've got the very same problem. I've tried it both under Vista and XP, and with both ATI and Omega drivers. My TVs and computer screens still stay black, no matter what I change.

There's a similar thread in a German sims forum, and all the people posting there have the same graphics card (that Radeon 2600), so my guess would be it's the graphics card's fault! :-[

I have the same problem and I have a Radeon 2900XT. I have the newest driver, so that can'tbe the problem. So maybe it is not the 2600 alone, but Radeon in General?

Not all Radeons, as my X1600 works fine. You could try downloading the On2 VP6 codec that the game uses, and installing it again:
http://www.free-codecs.com/VP6_download.htm
http://www.fourcc.org/codecs.php
Or else try forcing the game to use a different codec. This is from the readme:


Probably the most sensible thing to try first would be to delete that ini file so that the game recreates it from scratch, in case that is the issue.

I can create movies just fine, just the ones that would displayed in game don't show up.  I tried taking the config file out, and it regenerated, but it didn't change the situation.  I also installed the codec, but that doesn't seem to help either.  If the codec was working should my computer recognize .movie files as video?

I have vista and a radeon 2900XT as well.

This is such a wierd problem  ???

Got a new computer for Christmas (Santa was very nice to me this year).

It came with dual radeon 3850 video cards.

Finally got it to the point where I could install and op-check the game last night.

The game was crashing every time it tried to 'touch' the custom content files (such as when you're trying to change appearance in a mirror) and my tv and computer screens are black.

So I have a super duper fast high-end gaming computer that won't run this game properly...heavy sigh. At least it's great for my work...whee.

No, it sounds like you have a bad piece of custom content, so you should go through your downloads and do a binary search until you find out the offending item.

all content in the downloads folder is the same on both my old computer and my new computer.

Old computer TV works just fine and I'm not having the issues with the change appearance (more on that in a minute).

New computer - tv is black.

Now as for the issues where the change appearance causes the crash.  I think I've figured that out.  The game is trying to touch every file in my downloads folder and for the very first time... so I restarted the game and in CAS I just paged through every hair, make-up, clothing item.  Yes it was tedious as all Hell.  BUT, after that the crashing when a sim goes to change appearance stopped.

For some reason though, this computer seems to have a touchier constitution and the game has crashed to the desktop over odd things - like sims making a phone call, etc.  Hoping that I can sort this all out soon...

My husband (that would be Santa) wants to look tonight and see if he can find updated drivers and is hoping that will solve the black tv/computer screen problem - I'm not holding out much hope, but truthfully, so long as THAT doesn't cause a crash, I can live with it - would be even happier if I didn't have to listen to it as well...

Check for video codecs, especially if the computer and TV aren't working properly.

is that this ccc.exe thing that keeps saying it can't shut properly when I shut the computer off or restart it?

No idea mate. Google it, just as it is.

hubby did...he says it's something to do with the video cards.  He knows all that techno-speak.  Me?  I just use and abuse computers. He's talking about fixing that and also fixing the fan speed on these video cards - something about they don't run fast enough when you're playing high end games (I think this would be something with much higher refresh rates than sims2? or not?)

I was finally able to get all the way through having the computer 'touch' every stinking file in the downloads folder (only took 3 tries as it would go so far and crash). 

So about an hour ago, I restarted the computer and started the game and was able to play a family for an hour without the thing crashing.  I didn't let any of my minions watch TV and even with the birth of a baby, toddler growing into adulthood and the father getting a promotion, there was no crashing.  So Whew! I think I'm past the worst of it. May just have to have a TV FREE neighborhood.  sure wouldn't hurt my feelings.  If I hear that sports channel noise one more time...

I'm glad for you.

That sport TV noise is so irritating! I don't like it in real life and I don't like it in the sims. Most of my sims don't own TVs.  :D

Hi guys

With me happend the same problem and i have the same graphic too(Ati Radeon 2600 XT).

Anyone solved this problem??? I had tried everything, including i reinstalled the codec "VP6"  and it is not working

Plz anyone help us!!

I send a email for support to EA, but i'm not hope they respond with a solution!

This is a "known problem" with the game and 2xxx and 3xxx cards. If there's a solution, I haven't found it yet.  :P

add yet another one waiting for a way to cure this. got a 3XXX card, and no tv.

I don't know how new/old these particular graphics cards are (I use a Radeon X1600, myself), but with some of the older cards, it often proved helpful to roll back to an older driver, because the newest one was causing problems. If these are very new cards, however, there might not BE an older driver to roll back to. If there are older drivers, you could possibly try one to see if it works.

These are new cards, and it's been a problem since the very beginning, so I gather. Definitely neither an older or newer driver solved it for me when I went looking.  There's supposed to be a fix in the drivers that will be out later this month. (generally around the 20th)

KatEnigma, maybe if we try to contact support with the Ati about this bug with this cards, can be more fast, or u think they know this problem?

I say that because i have a known and he's work in EA GAMES, and he say to me about they don't have a "most friendly" with the "Ati", but with Nvidia" EA have a partnership. And so I'm more concerned that they do not see this very important.
 
Guys sorry for my poor english... But i really really be angry about this bug on TV in my games  >:(   

I suspect SIMS players have annoyed the hell out of them...

8.3 was released today. I am installing to see if it fixes.

Looking forward to your report. :)

That's a negative there.
I can see the computer screen for "desktop" interactions (bloging /chatting so on) but if it has to play the .movie file no luck. black screen of doom.

-sigh-

<sigh>  I was looking at the readme for the new drivers, and didn't see anything there about it, either.  I'll have to poke around the ATI board a bit and see if there's any further info there.

EA may have (finally) gotten Nvidia to come down the highway and help them fix those issues, but the game is still DESIGNED to be friendly to ATI cards. Just not the DX10 ones, apparently.  :-\

The driver is out way early- they almost always stick to releases around the 20th.  It fixes 3 WoW issues and a Blu-Ray issue, so maybe this was a Rush job, and we're put off until later. We're not a "real" game, after all. Bah!

Folks, we need to make a petition and send to ATI. If we join a number of reasonable people, they would give more importance to this shit that happens only in The Sims 2 and the cards 2xxx 3xxx.

Any offer is to make this petition?

ATI will always prioritize newer games with the most of players. If we don't make this petition, they'll never get this fixed  :-\

And we need to do this petition for EA GAMES too!

Petitions tend to piss off the companies. A well written or technical trouble ticket may do more for our position.

Petitions are either worthless or hurt the cause.

Made sure you're card is registered, and then submit a ticket to ATI.

Idiot ATI!!!!!!

I submitted a ticket. The response with their "solution"?


Hello, I didn't claim I HAD hang or lockup issues.  ::)

Needless to say I went back and updated the ticket to tell them NO, that was not helpful.

you got "tier 1" tech support there...
just keep plugging either they will get annoyed or you will get someone who has a clue

Yeah, this morning it was update the Bios and make sure you have a good enough power supply.  ::) I'll be updating the ticket again shortly.

Whem I talk with a support of ATI by phone, the man who answer me told me if i update my bios maybe it's work.

Is that really a solution??

No. He's an idiot.

Lol!!!

Yeah u right ! That's so funny!!

But so, KatEnigma, u think the next driver of Catalyst this can be changed?

Sure, it CAN be changed. It's just a matter of when. It took Nvidia over a year to fix their driver/TS2 issues, and then they fixed it and new ones cropped up.  ::)

This "no ingame tv video on ATI HD2600 cards" issue indeed appears to be driver related.

For eight months now, I've been using an iMac and had been playing "The Sims 2" under Windows XP (installed via BootCamp) and had the very same problem: no ingame tv video. I thought it to be some Mac incompatibily problem...but...

I finally moved to the Mac version of "The Sims 2". So I'm playing the game under Mac OS X now and guess what: everything works perfectly!

Definitively, this IS a driver issue!

Hey you ATI guys: If Apple can do it for Mac OS X, so you should be able to do it for good old Windows XP, right? YOU built the hardware!

It's a shame, really.

Yeah u definitively right!!

Damn!! We need to send a lot of emails!!

They need to fix this in the next driver!!!  >:(

You don't need to send a lot of emails, everyone who legitimately has the problem needs to file a support ticket and keep at it. I'm up to the "install this utility so we can see your system configuration" point.  ::) Which I understand, since people lie about their system configs all the time "I have the latest drivers" when the drivers are really a year old.  :P But I hate doing it, nevertheless, especially over something that has NOTHING TO DO WITH MY MACHINE.  ::)

update--
there is a sticky at maxis that indicates they are aware of the issue.

now if we get a fix is entirely different

Update:  AMD/ATI has finally acknowledged that this is a problem.  They have a knowledge base article open here (http://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=33055), but no solution yet.  Worth keeping an eye on.

Also, they have a hotfix for 3D stuttering issues; doesn't explicitly mention the sims, but it might solve some of the occasional screen freeze/lag issues.  You can get it here (http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=33055).

Installing ..........

and thanks er... Baaaa

-necroing-

Note for those who have not seen.. the new 8.5 drivers for ATI did fix my not showing TV/Computer screen issues

The new version of the FT patch also claims to fix the non-showing TV picture issue related to a couple of ATI card series.

Yea, so ATI and EAxis pointed fingers at each other, and then both fixed it in their own way. :P