RC1 a step back compared to 0.2.3.0

[kkendall]

After playing around for some weeks now, I'm getting a bit worried about MP if it will ever come to a stable normal workin version.
I used to use MP without the tv server, but since it was a RC1 that was released I was confident that it would work pretty good.

I was a bit wrong there, unfortunately...

TV server 1 is a step back compared to the normal mediaportal, without this tv-server. I had it pretty stable when I used MP 0.2.3.0, now, with a clean install of RC1 I get numerous bugs!

I now get the following bugs:
- Unknown channel. clicking the channel again in the EPG and the channel works like it should.
- No free card available. But the only card that is in use is te card I'm watching tv on...so zapping to another channel should never give this message, but it does an this stays as long as youstay on the channel you are watching at the moment...only when I first go to another channel and than to the preferred channel, it works most of the time...
- Small black bars on top of the screen an on the bottom of the screen. At random, MP adds a small black bar on the top and below the screen. Zapping to another channel sometimes helps, sometimes not. Stopping and starting the channel always helps.
- Stopping a recording is buggy. There is a workaround I found out, but if you do one step wrong, the workaround stops working. You can stop a started recording by going to 'Record', hit the show that needs to stop, say yes, now hit the button that says don't record, choose yes and the recording stops (offcourse this is a stupid, silly way and can't be intended this way). Even the devs says a recording can't be stopped...but it can!
- HD channels still are buggy...running jerky...(framerate too low?)
- The channel now freezes without warning when watching tv and a recording starts.
- Sometimes MP doesn't recognise the correct aspect ratio (small black bars, caused by seemingly 4:3 letterbox screen on 16:9 screen, where "Normal" in aspect ratio is selected). I need to stop and start the channel again to reset it to the good aspect ratio.
- Plenty of random bugs that causes MP not to respond, not to start tv, or just crashes, while I never had this with 0.2.3.0 without tv server.
- Sometimes empty recordings, again, at random...(to be fair, haven't had this for quite some time now)
- One of my HD channels with AC3 (NGC HD) has it's audio out of sync...
- When starting to watch a channel, a black windowed screen comes up with "Media Portal Not Responding". Clicing the screen and it goes white with the message close program or wait for responce...
- Starting a channel from the epg when tv is not playing, MP sometimes asks if I want to watch the channel.
These are daily problems that I can come up with out of my head...

Almost ALL of these problems are newly introduced in RC1.

I've posted almost all of these problems on the forum, but since it is such a vast, unorderly forum, everything you porst gets snowed under and gets lost in all the numerous subforums. There are just way way too much subfurums to be orderly and effective. People find it really hard to find the right subforum, thread or question so it gets poted in several forms in multiple threads ad subforums...this confuses people even more... It shouldn't be this hard to find your own posts or any other in the forum, this really needs to be adressed in my opinion.

I hope there will be a new release soon that is not a big step back compared to the older version... I wish I was a pogrammer and had the time to help you guys, but unfortunatey I haven't. I can only report what I experience.

For stability reasons I ONLY use MP (and the needed codecs, etc) on my htpc and ONLY for watching tv and movies, so my system should be as clean as possible. So whatever bugs there are in powerscheduling, plugins, radio or other functions of MP, I don't know. These are only the daily bugs I experience that I've reported.

[Paranoid Delusion]

Even the devs says a recording can't be stopped...but it can!

Under scheduled, delete it and it will stop, always has afaik.

HD channels still are buggy...running jerky...(framerate too low?)

I know a while ago, we did some graphics card comparisons running at running HD, and it was decided at the time it was necessary to have a 7600GT or ATI equivalent, suspect it may still be a fairly accurate benchmark for newer gpu's to achieve for smooth HD.

Sometimes empty recordings, again, at random

Have not had a single recording fail, since decompose of tuners was fixed (affected dual recording) in the 2nd svn after MP1's release.

Most of the issues you have, I do not, nor other members of the team, so when these problems occur it is a real pig to nail down what the cause might be.

I've posted almost all of these problems on the forum, but since it is such a vast, unorderly forum, everything you porst gets snowed under and gets lost in all the numerous subforums. There are just way way too much subfurums to be orderly and effective. People find it really hard to find the right subforum, thread

I totally agree, posts i have looked at and meant to go back to, never been able to find, unless i remembered who posted it and searched by name.
Just generally look at updated posts from last visit

The good news is, if something is picked up by any of us, it does get passed around the Testers\Devs to have a play with and confirm\fix, just sometimes the shear number of reports are overwhelming.

Anyway, hope your experiences with MP improves.

Regards

[djphatic]

I've posted almost all of these problems on the forum, but since it is such a vast, unorderly forum, everything you porst gets snowed under and gets lost in all the numerous subforums. There are just way way too much subfurums to be orderly and effective. People find it really hard to find the right subforum, thread

I feel exactly the same, there are far too many subforums. Alot of subforums could be merged or deleted. I think a re-organisation of the forums would improve the community alot.

[SciDoctor]

The MPtesters scour the forums for bug reports to retest and confirm.

We take all reports very seriously.

We also want users to have the same good results as we have 'on the whole' with the code.

Of all your points the only one that has had an impact and does occur (with my testing) is with VISTA and

'When starting to watch a channel, a black windowed screen comes up with "Media Portal Not Responding". Clicing the screen and it goes white with the message close program or wait for responce...'

There is already a thread where we are attempting to get to the bottom of this and is more to do with VISTA's overreaction to programs processesing delays. I even on occasions have VISTA advise me that MP has crashed when it hasn't

Do keep updating the SVN's and post new or add to exisitng bug reports with details and fresh logs.

Let's hope your MP experience improves.

I do regular search for posts i have made and check the thread and update/reply if necessary.

[drunkmonkey0]

I tryed RC1 then went back with 0.2.3 im holding out for RC2, i see bug fixes all the time so devs are doing a good job, so ill wait for RC2.

[vvulture]

I am not experiencing any of the issues mentioned here... I left MP several months before the release of RC1 because i had problems, but since coming back to RC1 i am so glad i came back. Can't wait for RC2....
To top it all off, i am using Windows Home Server which isn't supported and all is well...

Could not be happier !!

[gibman]

Hi

Thx for your findings - we appreciate it.

Regarding AR (aspect ratio) problems, try another mpeg2 decoder, like powerDVD 7-8.x
I have similar issues using nvidia purevideo decoder.

I seem to have fixed some of the stuff u mentioned, like;
1) stopping a recording now stays STOPPED.
2) user not being notified when a recording has hijacked the card - telling the user why TV channel has stopped.

These changes are released in RC 2 - or u could grab the next public SVN.

also make sure you have the best signal Q availble.

a good audio decoder is ffdshow audio decoder - I wonder why it isnt bundled with MP installer ??
also use default directsound device.
these steps should avoid audio synch issues.

/gibman

[pvkleeff]

Originally Posted by kkendall

I now get the following bugs:
- Unknown channel. clicking the channel again in the EPG and the channel works like it should.

I have that bug too. It's a bit annoying but nothing more then that.

Originally Posted by kkendall

- No free card available. But the only card that is in use is te card I'm watching tv on...so zapping to another channel should never give this message, but it does an this stays as long as youstay on the channel you are watching at the moment...only when I first go to another channel and than to the preferred channel, it works most of the time...

Did you change the settings in TV server concerning the # of streams your card can decode ? Standard it's just 1 stream so if you try to change channels you always get 'no free cards available' error. For some strange reason I always forget to change that setting (Untill I get the error )

Originally Posted by kkendall

- HD channels still are buggy...running jerky...(framerate too low?)

Yup, that's my big problem with the current version RC1 till last SVN's as well. You already reacted in the thread I made so I know you already found it Problem with HD channels (live and recordings)
We found that the problem is in the TSReader.ax. The hardcoded 720x576 is the reason why some codecs (ffdshow, MPC-HC) do not work (With the 13-06 SVN MP even crashes completely). I made a graph with Haali as the ts-file reader and that works without a problem.
I have a ATI 2600 PRO (with dxva enabled) and the HD channels with the Cyberlink codec are still jerky (though yesterday I updated to the lastest version -patch 1730- and the soccer yesterday gave me less fps problems than before, but still I see the framerate drop from 50 to 33 on occasion), so that's why I tried the mpc-hc codec and ran into trouble.

Question for the devs: Is it possible to change filereader for ts files somewhere ? (So I could you Haali in MP for ts files)

Originally Posted by kkendall

- When starting to watch a channel, a black windowed screen comes up with "Media Portal Not Responding". Clicing the screen and it goes white with the message close program or wait for responce...

That happens with my system as well, but simply wait and MP comes back as normal. Don't go clicking anywhere, that'll only confuse Vista

I have a some of the problems you are having as well, but most of the time MP runs very stable. When I use it for watching movies, series or SD TV I have almost no problems whatsoever. (Only sometimes a lock-up or reboot)
So let's hope these issues can be solved.

[User 04]

Have now decided, MediaPortal 1.0 RC2, is the way to go.

[kkendall]

Originally Posted by Paranoid Delusion

Under scheduled, delete it and it will stop, always has afaik.

No that deletes the whole schedule, that's not an option. There is another way, like I explained:

You can stop a started recording by going to 'Record' of the tvshow,
hit 'ok'(remote) on the show that needs to stop (top of scheduleslist),
choose 'yes' when asked to delete just the recording,
Now hit the button that says 'don't record' that is still showing () in the left menu,
choose 'yes' when warned that the recording is running and that it will stop if you choose yes, and the recording stops while the schedule is still there!!!