Experiences with TVEngine 0.3

[chrispi]

Hello,

Today I installed MediaPortal with TV Server (most current SVN) on a fresh install of Windows Vista Ultimate because I had some problems with the TVEngne and my old XP installation. My system has 2 FireDTV-S, one Technotrend 3200-S2 and a ATI 1650 grapic card.

I installed the most current BDA drivers (not the Beta 5.x from Technotrend).

Here are my experiences:

1) My MCE remote did not work as expected. When I use the "Guide" or "LiveTV" buttons, the Vista MCE is started in the background. Switching channels also did not work.

2) The channel "Das Erste" works from the "Preview" button of the server config UI but in the MediaPortal client I get the message "No video/audio" detected". Manual time shifting also does not work. The same happens for other channels from the provider "ARD".

3) The HDTV channels did not work. This was the major reason for trying the new TV Engine. It might be related to the missing H264 codec.

4) When I turn off my Plasma TV and turn it back on again I did not get the picture back so I had to restart. I installed the newest ATI drivers and they work a little bit better. At least I get a picture but in the wrong screen resolution.

I know that not all of this problems are related to Media Portal (especially 3. und 4.) but as a result I turned back to MediaPortal 0.2 and my old XP installation, which runs very stable for allmost a year now.

Unfortunately I have to abandon HDTV because this is not supported in 0.2.

I would appreciate any help to solve the problems because I really want to use the new TV engine.

Is there a time frame, when a stable version of the TV Engine is avalable? I do not want to get a specific date but it would be nice to know if we are talking about days, months or years.

Thanks,
Christoph

[chrispi]

I found this in another forum:

* Disable the MCE Services (credit Motofreak75)

1. Open MMC
2. Load the group policy object editor
3. Open the Local computer policy
4. User config
5. Admin templates
6. Windows components
7. Windows Media Center
8. Do not allow Media center to run : Enable

Removing ehtray.exe form the autostart does not work in Vista, because the settings are restored on every start. This has solved my remote problems and now MediaPortal 0.2 works fine under Vista.

But the major problem with some missing channels under 0.3 is still a show stopper for me. In another thread a user reported the same problem but he did not get any feedback.

BTW under 0.2 these channels work without any problems.

Christoph

[chrispi]

Today I gave it another try. The result:

- Stuttering picture with HDTV, sometimes only one still frame per second
- Server crashed several times
- Client crashed several times
- Missing channels during Sat scan
- EPG grabbing stopped working after some server crashes
- XMLTV import is not working
- Sometimes Message "Channel is Scrambled" and I get no picture, but the correct CAM and Smart Card is inserted. Sometimes it works.

I can see some improvements in the last month, especially when using the new tsReader. Channel Zapping is very fast and I really like to use the new TVEngine. But for me it is by far not stable enough.

Main focus for me is HDTV beacuse SDTV is running fine on my machine with MediaPortal 0.2.

I will try it again in 4 Weeks.

Christoph

[Muldini]

Originally Posted by chrispi

1) My MCE remote did not work as expected. When I use the "Guide" or "LiveTV" buttons, the Vista MCE is started in the background. Switching channels also did not work.

2) The channel "Das Erste" works from the "Preview" button of the server config UI but in the MediaPortal client I get the message "No video/audio" detected". Manual time shifting also does not work. The same happens for other channels from the provider "ARD".

Please fill out the needed information. (A ticket is included every time you answer)

Also attach logs.

Regards,
Muldini

[chrispi]

@Muldini:

Thanks for your feedback. The two problems (MCE remote and "Das Erste") are solved in the latest SVN.

Christoph

[chrispi]

Ok, its now 3 weeks later and I bought new components:

Asus P5W DH Deluxe Mainboard
2 Gig of RAM
Core 2 Duo E6750 CPU
ATI X1650 Graphic card
2 FireDTV DVB-S
1 Technotrend S2-3200 DVB-S
500 Gig SATA HD
Fresh install of Windows XP Prof with all fixes described in the WiKi

Before this I had a AOpen board with a Core Duo (Yonah) and a fresh install of Vista Ultimate.

The result: The TV-Engine 0.3 runs perfectly now (with the new TSFilter). So for me it is ready for prime time.

HDTV has some problems with stuttering pictures but I think this is related to the graphic card and the codec I currently use (PowerDVD and CoreAVC). I will try to figure this out. Also the Technotrend BDA driver seems to be unstable, because the card sometimes stops working so I will replace it soon by the new FireDTV DVB-S2.

50$ donation for the good work is allready on it's way :-)

Thanks,
Christoph

[Laban]

Also the Technotrend BDA driver seems to be unstable, because the card sometimes stops working so I will replace it soon by the new FireDTV DVB-S2.

OT: I read that Technotrend will release a new driver within 1-2 weeks. Hopefully that will fix the instability problems. I'll still get a new card since i want a dual tuner setup and that will definitely not be a TT card. And i'll replace the TT card if the new driver doesn't work much better then the current.

[pmcguire]

The Floppy DTV S2 can't come soon enough, absolutely can't wait to put this Technotrend card exactly where it belongs.

[haystak]

Originally Posted by chrispi

* Disable the MCE Services (credit Motofreak75)

1. Open MMC
2. Load the group policy object editor
3. Open the Local computer policy
4. User config
5. Admin templates
6. Windows components
7. Windows Media Center
8. Do not allow Media center to run : Enable

Does anyone know what the equivalent registry setting would be for this? Apparently there is no Group Policy Editor in Vista Home Premium.

Thanks.

[Paranoid Delusion]

Did you try the add\remove snapin, under file.