PVR 150 - My TV channel changing and timeshifting problems

[soliver25]

MediaPortal Version: 0.2.0.0 RC1 (2005-11-24)
MediaPortal Skin: mce
Windows Version: Windows XP (SP2)
.NET CLR Version: 2.0.50727
DirectX Version: 4.09.00.0904 (9.0c)
Audio Codec: InterVideo NonCSS Audio Decoder for Hauppauge
Video Codec: InterVideo NonCSS Video Decoder for Hauppauge
CPU Type: Intel Pentium 4 - 2.60GHz
Memory: 1 GB
Motherboard: SiS-648FX
TV Card Model: Hauppauge PVR150MCE
TV Card Type: Hardware
TV Card Driver: 2.0.35.23297
Video Card Model: Radeon 9600 Series (128 MB)
Video Card Driver: 8.18.0.0
Video Card Resolution: 1280x1024
Video Render Type: VMR9
Audio Card Model: Creative SB Live! Value (WDM)
Audio Card Driver: 5.1.2535.0

The TV Tuner that I have came in a box labelled WinTV-PVR 150 Media Center Kit, Model 1062. It does not have a Radio Tuner, nor is it labed PVR-150MCE, but MP picks it up as PVR-150MCE.

Starting from the CVS posted around November 11th, I'm having strange problems with my My TV. When I try to change the channel with timeshifting on, the channel says it changes in the MP channel description, but the channel stays the same on the tuner, and the video and audio start to jump erratically, until it finally freezes up and says no TV tuner available.

Also when I turn timeshifting off, the TV plays perfectly, but MP completely freezes up, I have to end the task to close it.

As a side note, when I downloaded the CVS from 11/13, I opened MP up just after copying the files over, and everything was working smoothly, but then I closed it and ran the configuration program, then opened MP again, and it was displaying the same problem.

[Taipan]

Originally Posted by soliver25

As a side note, when I downloaded the CVS from 11/13, I opened MP up just after copying the files over, and everything was working smoothly......

Did you run "start.bat" and reboot before you launched MP?

[soliver25]

Yes, I did that. I figured out why it was still working before I ran the config. The CVS builds only have VMR7 and VMR9, which sets the VMR9 option under the MyTV section in mediaportal.xml to either 0 or 1, but I was using whatever set it to 2 in RC1, sooo, I changed the setting to 2, and now it works perfectly.

 
<section name="mytv">
    <entry name="deinterlace">3</entry>
    <entry name="autoturnontv">yes</entry>
    <entry name="defaultar">normal</entry>
    <entry name="vmr9">2</entry>
    <entry name="audiocodec">InterVideo NonCSS Audio Decoder for Hauppauge</entry>
    <entry name="videocodec">InterVideo NonCSS Video Decoder for Hauppauge</entry>
    <entry name="ffdshow">no</entry>
    <entry name="channel">9 USA</entry>
    <entry name="group">All Channels</entry>
    <entry name="tvon">yes</entry>
    <entry name="timeshifting">yes</entry>
  </section>

I'm not sure why the 2 different types of VMR9 renderings were taken out, Renderless and Windowless, but it seems that my PVR150 will only work with VMR9 set to 2.

[MediaTobiPortal]

Only for your information

The difference from 1 to 2 is:

1 vmr9 windowless
2 vmr9 renderless

I don´t know what that (windowless, renderless) actually means, but when I choose windowless, MP displays in overlaymode, why .... ??????
However the best choice is VMR9 renderless, as long as it works everything´s ok...

keep testing, Tobi

[soliver25]

According to your information:

1 vmr9 windowless
2 vmr9 renderless

Which means VMR 7 is 0?


In the latest CVS builds, you can only choose 0 or 1, there is no 2. Perhaps the configuration is supposed to write 0 or 2 to the XML file? As it is now, your stuck with 0 or 1.

[MediaTobiPortal]

I just tried that, vmr7 is 0, yes.
But i have to correct, that VMR9 renderless is 2, it´s 1 now.

So vmr9 is 1
vmr7 is 0

There´s no possibility to activate vmr9 windowless with MP configuration.
VMR9=1 means vmr9 renderless an this is the only option to activate vmr9.

Maybe, vmr9=2 means windowless, but I don´t know. I swear, yesterday I had vmr9=2 in mediaportal.xml. But I can´t get this setting using configure.exe today. Setting vmr9 to 2 in mediaportal.xml doesn´t change anything. Everything looks the same.

Can you explane the difference between window- and renderless ?

[soliver25]

The Video Mixing Renderer 9 (VMR9)
This is the latest technology in Video Rendering. It's completely based on Direct3D, requires DirectX-9 and recent hardware to operate. It can potentially give the best image quality (depends on the rendering mode and the display card hardware). VMR9 gives access to hardware color controls (if the card supports it) but not to Gamma controls as Microsoft didn't include support for it. VMR9 also has the best Aspect Ratio controls.

VMR9 supports three distinct rendering modes:


VMR9: Windowed
This is the most basic mode. It is available for backward compatibility. It does not give you access to Frame Capturing. One thing about this mode is that there was a bug in Windows XP-SP1 and DirectX-9b which made this mode the only mode in which DVD Menu navigation works. With Windows XP-SP2 and DirectX-9c the DVD Menu navigation bug was fixed.


VMR9: Windowless
This mode is slightly more advanced than the Windowed mode and is the best mode in which to conduct screen captures.


VMR9: Renderless
This is the most complex VMR9 rendering mode. It can work in Direct3D exclusive mode which means the entire machine is set to fullscreen and no background application are allowed access to the video hardware. Under Direct3D Exclusive Mode, less CPU is required to play videos and depending on the resolution of the video, playback may be smoother. The downside is that in Direct3D Exclusive mode, your computer is wholly dedicated to video playback and you won't be able to perform any other tasks.

[soliver25]

So 2 is Windowless?

Apparently it's the only mode that my PVR150 will work with, with an ATI 9600XT.

When I'm in Renderless mode, the channels change almost instantly, which causes the audio and video to start jumping and skipping. I checked my settings in plain RC1, and I was using windowless mode in that one as well, because renderless made my audio/video go out of sync.

[MediaTobiPortal]

Thank you so much for explaining the differences between all these VMR9 modes. Very interesting !!!

We use the same graphiccard and nearly the the same tv-card (I use PVR 250).
I have no problem changing channels or playing back videos. No jumping or skipping.
But since mediaportal-cvs-11-08-2005--22-53 I have the audio/video out of sync problem too.It´s really not much, so I can nearly live with it. But there´s no doubt, after about 10 minutes of playback I can see an audio delay.
It´s interresting that changing the overly mode has effect on the audio delay. I thought these are completely independent "functions".
I will try other overlay modes to see if the delay problem is solved be using windowless.
How did you find out that 2 is really still windowless ? I can´t see any difference between 1 and 2 and CPU usage is just the same.

Have you ever tried to dis/enable "use exclusive directx mode for fullscreen" in configuration ?

What ATI driver do you use ?
What video / audio codecs do you use ?
The Dscaler video codec allows to set an value for audio offset. But whatever value I enter, there´s no change in playback.

Thanks, Tobi

[MediaTobiPortal]

I just tried the absolute latest CVS and now I can confirm all you problems.
Jumping sound and picture, no channel changing, black video after disabling timeshift.
There´s nothing working anymore in MyTV. Maybe they are playing around with the new TV engine ( you know, real transport stream recording is planned ).
I think the best we can do is to use an old CVS, I prefer mediaportal-cvs-11-08-2005--22-53 if also there´s the little audio delay problem.