Calling all users: Do you use MyTV in MediaPortal?

[mzemina]

scythelt - To help the developers out - please provide more information when to state "very unstable." Could you fill out the template for your server and client computers? also provide more details regarding the unstable nature you are witnessing.

[Verbi]

I believe that TVE3 will be very stable when first "non-BETA" release will be out. But untill that i stay with TVE2.

[scythelt]

Originally Posted by mzemina

scythelt - To help the developers out - please provide more information when to state "very unstable." Could you fill out the template for your server and client computers? also provide more details regarding the unstable nature you are witnessing.

Sure thing -

Client PC:
MediaPortal Version: 0.2-svn
MediaPortal Skin: BlueTwo-wide
Windows Version: XP-Pro SP2
CPU Type: Intel Core2Duo T5600
HDD: Seagate 250Gb
Memory: Corsair 1Gb
Motherboard: Abit IL-90MV
Motherboard Chipset:
Motherboard Bios:
Video Card: Intel GMA950
Video Card Driver:
Sound Card: Realtek TrueHD
Sound Card AC3: Optical
Sound Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec: DScaler5
MPEG2 Audio Codec: AC3Filter
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case: Antec Fusion
Cooling:
Power Supply: Antec 430w
Remote: Harmony 880
TV: Samsung R series 32"
TV - HTPC Connection: VGA

Server PC:
MediaPortal Version: 0.2-svn
MediaPortal Skin: BlueTwo-wide
Windows Version: XP-Pro SP2
CPU Type: AMD Athlon XP 1700+
HDD: Seagate 40Gb + Seagate 80Gb
Memory: Generic 256mb
Motherboard: ABit NF7
Video Card: Leadtek MX440
1. TV Card: DNTV Live Hybrid LP
1. TV Card Type: DVB-T
Power Supply: Standard ATX 230w

The two PCs are connected via a 100mbps wired connection via a router. Windows firewall on both client and server is turned OFF.

The behaviour I'm seeing involves seeking around the timeshift buffer and channel changing. If I go into MyTV and turn the tv "on", it works first go, like a charm. As soon as I try and go backwards or forwards within the timeshift buffer, the stream will start again for about 1sec, then freezes for about a minute - then finally resumes. Sometimes it never resumes the stream at all.

Much the same behaviour on channel changing - if I change the channel, it displays the new channel for about 1sec, then pauses for a minute or more, and eventually resumes playing the stream.

The side-effect of all this is that as soon as I change a channel, I'm waaaay behind livetv - and I can't "catch-up" as it were because if I seek to the end of the timeshift buffer, it pauses for a minute all over again.

I discovered somewhat of a workaround - if I change the channel, then when it pauses, I click the "TV ON" button in MyTV (so it turns the tv off), then click it again (turning the TV stream back on), it starts the stream of the channel virtually instantly.

In practical terms this bug makes it completely impractical to change channels, or move around the timeshift buffer in a pvr style. Recorded tv works very nicely, as does XMLTV and I've been using both of those features with success - but watching recorded tv is somewhat painful because I can't skip through the ads due to the 1-minute pauses.

So overall, it definitely doesn't pass the WAF test I'm hopeful this problem will have a resolution soon - it is really the only thing that is stopping me from using the MyTV feature fulltime.

I'd have to wait till I get home to check what specific SVN build I'm using - but I have a recollection it's from mid-February.

Cheers.

[Paranoid Delusion]

This whole post makes very interesting reading, so many different views\expectations.

Right now to the nitty gritty, one pc running 0.2.2.0 +svn (mine), daughters just running 0.2.2.0 and a test pc running TVE3.

can see the consistancy with TVE2, if you have the right Hardware, its reliable and very functional.

TVE3 is very forward looking and a major improvement, but what it relies on to actually work correctly, is a pretty much standardised hardware (otherwise too many side effects kick in) with the right drivers.

People expect TVE3 to be the all singing, all dancing solution to PVR of Mediaportal, in my experience its not.

The reason for this has been stated in previous posts, what do you expect a PCTV solution to provide, Watch TV, pause live TV, record, turn itself on\off, watch recorded, compress recorded, the best EPG available with easy setup.

Do not get me wrong, i am so impressed with what TVE3 can bring to people, but how many people do you know with servers in their house, for me none.

Please in no way is this a negative post, just my local knowledge of friends and family, who in the main are not technology involved with life.

[iis_iis]

Well, I will start with a little bit of history. I began using the Media Portal about 2 years ago, mainly for DVDs, pictures and music. I constantly came to read the forums and was anxious to see the TV3 engine at work.

Recently, I decided to give it a try but unfortunately my experience was not a positive one. In the past few years I –successfully- used an XP Media Center 2005 computer (I built), with two tuners (Hauppauge 150 and ATI HDTV Wonder). I am able to record, play, view, etc.. everything…. with the streaming limitation though, unless I add an expensive extender or Xbox360.

The main reason I wanted to try the TV3 engine was the Live TV streaming to multiple clients. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make the HD work. I do not want to get into the technical details here but the main problem is the HD. On a new computer, fresh build with WinXP, no matter how hard I tried I was not able to get the ATI HDTV Wonder to properly work (latest drivers, 1Gb mem, P4 3Gb, 256Mb Radeon 9550, etc..). The engine correctly found the card(s), tuned the channels and here is where the problem started. If I used the Preview channel or Media Portal I would get sound or image but never both. Stuttering was present when I had image (no sound) and after previewing several channels or changing them in Media Portal the application would crash. Viewing channels on Hauppauge worked fine (from my satellite provider set top box).
I suspected the decoders are the culprit and took action. I installed several audio/video decoders to no avail.

Well, I said, I must have done something wrong. Since everything works fine in Windows XP Media Center, I rebuilt the desktop (from XP to XP Media Center) and configured Media Center to work with Hauppauge and ATI HDTV Wonder - thinking that the video optimizations Microsoft made in Media Center may help. After everything worked fine in Media Center, I stopped all services rebooted the computer and restarted the Media Portal (TV3 engine, SQL, etc…) installation – following the video provided. To my surprise, the result was the same. I could not get the video from ATI HD to play (black image). If recorded, the image and sound were present but the image stutters badly (different decoders tested).
Since I wanted to make sure I am not doing anything wrong – although I still may – last night I installed gotallmedia. I wanted to see if Media Center is the only one where ATI HD Wonder works and to my surprise gotallmedia tuned, played the video and the sound of all HD channels (HD and SD channels) broadcasted in DVB in US in my area.

I am not sure what the problem is at this point but I will keep looking for changes in the engine that may make HD in US useable in Media Portal.

Thanks for this great piece of software, looking forward to see improvements that will make it 100% reliable and useable.

IIS

[SweMart]

First of all - I love the new engine with client/server, FINALLY I can have a small and quiet PC in the livingroom without spending to much money.

I know that work is in progress when it comes to DVB/teletext subtitles but I must stress the need for this, we people in the nordics(.SE, .DK, .FI, .NO) rely heavily on this since we don't do dubbing. Without subtitles it's crippled and the WAF factor remains below 0.

We need both DVB-subtitles and teletext subtitles since the different channels use different subtitling methods.

It would also be very good PR for MediaPortal since MCE hasn't got this feature and has received quite a lot of bad critisism for this in the Computer and Hifi/Home cinema press.

Just my 0.02$.

[f0rmula]

I use multiseat as it's the only way I can come back to MediaPortal from my current mythtv setup. I'd be much more interested in the results of the following question:

"Removing reliability from the equasion, would you use MediaPortal in a multiseat configuration?"

James

[Erbsenkopp]

Hi,

i use TVEngine 0.3 at the moment on a single seat. I only connect somtimes with a client computer to test some things. In the near future i will place a server only with the TVEngine and connect with 4 clients on it.

I start different test about the needed cpu, ram etc. to share 3 DVB-S2 cards.

The biggest problem i always have, is the CI Interface unit. I would like to love it, if i had more option about that. Thinking about Timeout setting, used CAID for the channel and thinks like that.

About the other problems there are still there. I think it´s normal. There is never a Software out, without problems - take a look at the windows update site. So many different Hardware and so many different wishes will take time to make it nearly perfect.

For me, TVEngine works fine at the moment, to use it in my living room. I can live with a neede restart or anything like that - for the moment.

Every new day make it a little bit better and more stable - so i can only say: All of you making a really good job, and i would like to say thank you.

regards,
Erbsenkopp

<< If one of the developers can give me more information about the code, i really like to help to make it better. But i have´t got the time to look what i can find where inside the code >>>

[sputnik]

I'll try TV Server once it goes to official release.

It's been ages without a official release.

Pretty much same for MediaPortal too.

SVN builds are fine but I'd like a TESTED "official" TV Server release please that I don't have to patch every few days.

[zombiepig]

i tried the tve3 engine on a standalone pc earlier this week, and was very impressed with what i saw. channel changing was very responsive, much more so than in 0.2. i ran a few tests like recording two programs on the one transponder (one dvb-t card in pc), and all worked like expected. however, i'm back to running the 0.2 engine because of the lack of scheduling options in tve3 currently.
Can't wait till i can change over to the new engine permanently - it's really shaping up to be a fantastic product!