TV Server - No Signal all of a sudden (1 Viewer)

[thekiwi]

Hi

Have a headless Win7 server running Mediaportal 1.14.0 which has run flawlessly for so long. Literally over night it has stopped working giving "No Signal" for all channels and both cards.

* Cards are 2 x DVB-S Nova-S-Plus PCI
* Only plugins are ComSkip, XMLTV and Kodi. None have been changed.

Prior to it stopping all I had done is a rescan for some channel changes we have occuring here in NZ, and all of that went well. Next day ... all gone to custard.

Ive tried most things I can think of:
* Checked dish and all looks OK with LNB and cabling
* Reinstalled Mediaportal
* Updated drivers for Hapuppage cards to Version 2.126.30325.0
* Rebooted

One thing I do note when in the TV server config window , under Manual Control, there is a red bar continually cycling between one card and the next? EPG?

Is there some easy way to test the integrity of the cards? I guess there is a chance (since we dont watch a lot of live TV) that whilst I have 2 x cards, that maybe weve been operating of 1 card only for a while, and now the 2nd card has failed ...?

Ive checked the boxes Windows logs and there is nothing that stands out in terms of errors.

Cheers

Craig
PS. If the cards need replacing, what would people recommend as a replacement for DVB-S PCI?

 

[mm1352000]

Hi Craig

It's really really unusual for tuners to just up and die overnight as you described. Did you have extreme weather (eg. high winds, thunder/lightning, heavy rain, very hot/cold temperatures) on that night?

One thing I do note when in the TV server config window , under Manual Control, there is a red bar continually cycling between one card and the next? EPG?

Yes, probably.

Is there some easy way to test the integrity of the cards?

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for any consequences of performing the procedure described below.

If you have a multimeter then you could attach a short cable to the tuner input and very carefully check the voltage between the inside core and outside braid/shield/socket. The voltage should be between 12 and 14 V when the tuner is trying to receive a transponder that broadcasts a vertically polarised signal, or between 18 and 20 V when the tuner is trying to receive a transponder that broadcasts a horizontally polarised signal. Note:

1. All Freeview and Sky transponder signals in New Zealand are horizontally polarised.
2. You must perform the measurement while the tuner is trying to tune (eg. while scanning, EPG grabbing etc.). When inactive, most tuners will shut off the power supply to the LNB in order to save power.
3. Only some tuners have short-circuit protection.

Take great care (!!!) due to (3). If your tuner doesn't have short-circuit protection (there's no way to know in advance) and you make the mistake of short-circuiting the core and shield then you may damage the circuitry [on the tuner board] that supplies power to the LNB. Damaging the aforementioned circuitry would greatly reduce the usability of the tuner. It may not be 100% unusable, but it'd be a real pain in the backside because you'd have to find an alternative mechanism for supplying power to the LNB. If extremely unlucky, your motherboard and/or power supply could also be damaged. In practise the chances of that happening are probably slim, but it can happen.

maybe weve been operating of 1 card only for a while, and now the 2nd card has failed ...?

I can't say due to the limited log files provided. Your MediaPortal reinstallation got rid of all of the log file history.

Ive checked the boxes Windows logs and there is nothing that stands out in terms of errors.

Nothing stands out in the TV Server log files.

Regards,
mm

 

[thekiwi]

Thanks mm

Nothing out of the normal weather wise here, and the dish looks to be in the same alignment for both the dish and the lnb.

I think I'll go the line of getting new cards. There is a chance we had only been on 1 card for a while, since had the odd occasion where "Card unavailable" was shown when doing recordings and watching TV .... but just presumed there was maybe a couple of programmes on different transponders.

GIven that, and that you are in NZ/familiar with NZ setups, what would you suggest for DVB-S cards - as there doesnt seem to be a lot available within NZ.

Cheers

Craig

 

[mm1352000]

Quite frankly Craig, if you're asking for my suggestion then I would suggest you spend just a little more time to confirm whether your cards are really busted or not. Availability of replacements in NZ is low, non-existent, or unreasonably costly. Also, if something's wrong in the LNB or cabling, you can kill the replacements as quickly as your current cards appear to have been killed.

Do you or a mate have a set top box that you could use to check the dish, LNB and cabling?

 

[thekiwi]

Quite frankly Craig, if you're asking for my suggestion then I would suggest you spend just a little more time to confirm whether your cards are really busted or not. Availability of replacements in NZ is low, non-existent, or unreasonably costly. Also, if something's wrong in the LNB or cabling, you can kill the replacements as quickly as your current cards appear to have been killed.

Do you or a mate have a set top box that you could use to check the dish, LNB and cabling?

So just a little further with this.
Been too busy to really fault find, so have been watching via streaming. HOwever, gave it some time last week and thought I had found the problem.

Disconnected the cards from the 2 x leads from the splitter ... and fed the aerial directly into one of the cards. Boom .... got a signal straight away. Plugged it into the other card ... all good and able to stream.

So presumed it was the splitter .. which at the time I found strange, but apparently they can fail. So ordered a new one.

Expectantly set it up yesterday thinking it would be all good .... nope ... "no signal". So unplugged again and fed the aerial direct into each card ... and all good again. SO what now?

The splitter sits under the stairs so its not weather contamination. Ive checked the LNB and there is no water ingress (and its actually only a couple of months old after the cover on the previous perished in the light). Brushed off a few cobwebs etc.

Could it still be the LNB, ie signal is too week for some reason? Signal appears really good in TV Server config as well as when viewing ... and the weather isnt all that flash at the moment.

Both times the loss of signal was associated with pretty crappy weather ... but the dish and LNB look fine.

 

[mm1352000]

Hmmm, interesting developments...

Tell us about this splitter.

How many STB/TV outputs does it have?
How many of those outputs are "power-pass"?
How many aerial/LNB inputs does it have?
Is it really just a simple splitter, or does it do other things?
For example, does it mix terrestrial/aerial and satellite/LNB signals?
What do you normally have connected to the splitter? (Please list everything - the smallest detail may be important.)

 

[thekiwi]

Hmmm, interesting developments...

Tell us about this splitter.

How many STB/TV outputs does it have?

Its a 2-way splitter, so aerial feeds the 2 cards

How many of those outputs are "power-pass"?

Both. THe new one and old one are both the same.

How many aerial/LNB inputs does it have?

one.

Is it really just a simple splitter, or does it do other things?

I think is all it does

For example, does it mix terrestrial/aerial and satellite/LNB signals?

Nope ... single 90cm dish with single LNB feeding into the splitter, going two identical sat cards

What do you normally have connected to the splitter? (Please list everything - the smallest detail may be important.)

Just the two cards in Mediaportal server.

Here is a photo. The smaller DishTV one is the new one. ONly difference is the 5-2400Mhz


--- Post updated ---
Ohhh ... one thing I didnt mention.

After my 1st post above, approx 1 week later, literally overnight it all started working again on the old splitter. Same cables, same cards .... all working perfectly (as it has for about 7 years since we finished the house build). Then we got the bad weather and within a day or so we were back to no signal.

So thats the very weird thing. On the face of it, it would seem weather dependant (ie rain). but right now we have overcast, and its been raining off n on for a good week ... and I have perfect reception ... be it without the splitter under stairs!.

 

[mm1352000]

Well, that's a neat setup. Should be nice and reliable, all other things being equal.

It sounds like you may need to get the dish alignment checked. A dish which has moved to borderline alignment over time would explain what you've seen very nicely. Note that local weather conditions aren't always a good predictor of satellite signal strength/quality. It's a long way from the satellite to the ground, with many layers of differing weather, air pressure, etc. in between.