FloppyDTV-S (FireDTV): Multiple problems watching TV

[skr-home]

Hi,

some days ago I got my FloppyDTV-S (DVB-S) card and now I am testing a lot.

At first a was only able to find a few channels with Autotune. Some hours later I checked the whole config and unselected "enable hardware pid filtering". After that the first problem was solved and I was able to find all the channels.

Then the main and persistent problem occured. When switching between channels (zapping) I get a black screen and also audio is off. This only occurs when switching between some special channels (german Pro7 and Kabel1 etc.). In some other topics I have read that there is a difference regarding the audio stream, which is the reason for the black screen. I already tried other codecs etc. without success.

Additionally video and audio gets shortly stuttering about 2 seconds after a channel is displayed. On my AV receiver (via spdif) I can see that audio mode get switched at this moment.

Switching between channels also takes more time in MP then in MyTheatre, which was delivered with the dvb-s card. In MP it takes about 2-3 seconds to switch (depending on codecs). In MT it is only one seconds.

I just tried the current subversion build mediaportal-svn-06-11-2006--15-11 on RC4 and all my problems are still persistent.

In the current build I saw in the setup that under "decoder filters" it is no more possible to change the settings for the codecs I use. Why this? Ok, for me all the behavior is still the same. But what if I want to change something?

Video Codec: Mpeg2Dec
Audio Codec: MPEG/AC3/DTS/LPCM

At all I am not really satisfied with the current situation watching tv in MP. All the other things I do in MP and watching tv should become one of it.

I hope so much that someone can help me with that.

Thanks a lot.

Sebastian

[mPod]

For those channels like Pro7 & Kabel 1 set the AC3 PID to -1 in the channel editor. This should work around your black screen on zap problem.

You can speed up zapping if you disable timeshift.

Why aren't you able to change the decoder settings?

[skr-home]

Thanks for your help!

I will test the AC3 PID settings today evening.

Timeshift is disabled and anyway it takes 2-3 seconds to switch.

With newest svn in "decoder filters" there is no more "Mpeg2Dec" and "MPEG/AC3/DTS/LPCM" entry!

In addition, for everyone who got a FireDTV/FloppyDTV card with FireDTV remote and is unable to get it working in MediaPortal, first check if the RC Tool delivered with the card is running.
When RC Tool is running MP is unable to receive the signals.

Thanks

Sebastian

[skr-home]

Yesterday evening I got the black screen problem solved!

At first I tried to set the AC3 Pid to -1 without success. I also tried 0 and multiple combinations. At all I couldn't find any relationship between the settings and results.

Then I discovered that the screen only get black when I switch between channels within one "TV Channel Group" (maybe transponder?). After that if I switch into a different "TV Channel Group" the picture and sound get back again.

After a while I enabled "Hardware Pid Filtering" again and since then switching between channels in one channel group works fine for me. Also the zapping speed improved a lot. Maybe it is even faster then in MyTheatre.

As a summary...
It is necessary to have "Hardware Pid Filtering" in the card settings disabled to find all channels with autotune. But for watching it has to be enabled to switch between channels in one tv channel group and to improve zapping speed.

Maybe this should be verified by the developers and placed somewhere in the documentation or a trouble shooting guide.


So almost everything works great now except this....
---
Additionally video and audio gets shortly stuttering about 2 seconds after a channel is displayed. On my AV receiver (via spdif) I can see that audio mode get switched at this moment.
---
I already tried different codecs and also change its settings to normal stereo speaker to ensure that it does not directly communicate with the spdif. The stuttering does always occur. Does anyone know how this can be solved or what I can test further?


@mPod: Were you able to reproduce that the codecs "Mpeg2Dec" and "MPEG/AC3/DTS/LPCM" disappeared in "decoder filters" settings using the new svn build?`


Thanks
Sebastian

[skr-home]

Any news???

Sebastian

[petteram]

@mPod: Were you able to reproduce that the codecs "Mpeg2Dec" and "MPEG/AC3/DTS/LPCM" disappeared in "decoder filters" settings using the new svn build?`

Those codecs is replaced with MPA and MPV codecs instead.

[infinityloop]

Originally Posted by skr-home

At first a was only able to find a few channels with Autotune. Some hours later I checked the whole config and unselected "enable hardware pid filtering". After that the first problem was solved and I was able to find all the channels.

hardware pid filtering has been enabled with latest frimware from digital everywhere. but i found out that this firmware has some issues. i am allready in contact with digital everywhere.

and the developers are working on the "no signal" black|mute MyTV issue
see -> http://www.testteam-mediaportal.com/...read.php?t=623

[skr-home]

Hi,

thanks for your replys...

Today evening I will look for that MPA and MPV codecs and will do some tests. Haven't seen them untill now.

I don't have any more issue with black screen when zapping. Hardware Pid Filtering solved this for me. The first thing I did with FloppyDTV was upgrading the firmware.

Except my problem that there is a short video/audio stutter 2-3 seconds after I switched to a channel, I don't have other issues regarding MyTV. In the german forum somebody had the suspicion that maybe the audio stream get switched to ac3 (if present) at this moment. There are also some channels without this stutter.

Yesterday evening I discovered another issue regarding FloppyDTV. Some buttons on the remote are sending exactly the same codes like my Andersson R1 (AV receiver). So for example if I press ChUp also the volume is touched. I think I should place this issue at digital-everywhere.

Thanks
Sebastian

[skr-home]

Yesterday evening I tried to set this new MPV and MPA codecs for MyTV but I do not have them in the list of codecs!!!

I also upgraded to the latest svn build from yesterday and replaced the TVCapture.dll with the one from the test plan, but I absolutely can't find MPV and MPA! Do I need to install or configure something special to get it?

Strange...

Thanks
Sebastian

[infinityloop]

Originally Posted by skr-home

I also upgraded to the latest svn build from yesterday and replaced the TVCapture.dll with the one from the test plan, but I absolutely can't find MPV and MPA! Do I need to install or configure something special to get it?

easy, you have not followed the instructions on the downloadpage of SVN-Snapshots. just read. :roll:

5) execute the start.bat to reregister some needed files