Analog TV-Card stopped working, setup app hangs (1 Viewer)

[osksa]

Hi, I I am a new user migrating from windows media center. I had my two analog TV cards working since installation. Now one of the cards, Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1100, won't work anymore. If i start recording one channel using my other card and then try to view an analog channel, I get "unable to start time shift". The setup application for the TV server will hang if I click on the card (under its TV-server) and the click on any other card. CPU usages high for tvserver.exe, constant page fault, eats memory at about 1 mb per 10 seconds for a long time, > 3 minutes.

I tried to disable the card in device manager, disable in TV server config and re-enable, did not resolve. Tried reverting my graphics card driver to windows default version since it seemed to start about the same time as I upgraded it (Nvida, to latest) plus I saw something about Nvidia card in an error log:

[2015-10-04 22:10:34,798] [Log    ] [25       ] [ERROR] - Exception   :System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at TvLibrary.Implementations.DVB.FilterGraphTools.GetFilterName(IBaseFilter filter)
   at TvLibrary.Implementations.Analog.Components.Tuner.IsNvidiaCard()
   at TvLibrary.Implementations.Analog.Components.Encoder.CreateFilterInstance(IFilterGraph2 _graphBuilder, Tuner _tuner, TvAudio _tvAudio, Crossbar _crossbar, Capture _capture)
   at TvLibrary.Implementations.Analog.TvCardAnalog.BuildGraph()

Did not help. Another theory is that it might have started to happen after I went to the quality control tab of the card, and pressed "check". I tried to fix bad analog TV quality. My other card, PVR 150, said it could change quality settings, and I believe the quality improved clearly when i changed quality to "high" from "default". The not working card, the HVR 1100, hung the setup program for minutes first time I pressed "check", and finally it said settings cant be changed. And stopped working, I believe.

Wanted to remove the card and re-add, but the "remove" button is inactive.

Any suggestions? Adding some tv server error logs. Any more logs needed? Thank you in advance. I did not try to re-install the TV-server yet, since setting up TV and plugins as wanted has taken a loooong time and I would like to try to solve it some time more before resorting to reinstallation.

 

[mm1352000]

Hello osksa

I tried to disable the card in device manager, disable in TV server config and re-enable, did not resolve.

Yeah, that won't help.

Tried reverting my graphics card driver to windows default version since it seemed to start about the same time as I upgraded it (Nvida, to latest)

Very unlikely to help.

Another theory is that it might have started to happen after I went to the quality control tab of the card, and pressed "check".
...
And stopped working, I believe.

No, checking for quality control support couldn't have caused this problem.

Wanted to remove the card and re-add, but the "remove" button is inactive.

Removing and re-adding in TV Server would not help either. The button is only enabled if the tuner is not detected (enables people to clean up old tuner information).

Any suggestions?

Yes.
Please post full log files, collected using the watchdog tool. The log files you've posted are insufficient to help you.
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_MEDIAPORTAL_1/16_Support/3_Forums/2_Log_Files

Start the Watchdog (shortcut on your desktop or in your start menu).
Select option 2 and click "proceed" to start MediaPortal.
Do whatever you have to do to reproduce the problem.
Close (or terminate) MediaPortal.
The Watchdog will then generate a zip file for you to attach here ("upload a file").

Regards,
mm

 

[osksa]

Sorry, of course I should have enclosed full logs. Didn't get that the watchdog also gathered logs from the TV-Server. Here they are. Started MediaPortal via watchdog option 2, started to record an analog channel and then choose to view a second analog channel. MediaPortal hung, TVServer.exe went to 50 % CPU as above. Killed MediaPortal after about 10 minutes of black screen. But maybe you see that from the logs =) Thx for responding, I really appreciate that you take the time. /Oskar

 

[mm1352000]

Thanks

The problem is occurring when TV Server attempts to load encoders for your HVR-1100 analog tuner. In the process of attempting to find appropriate encoders, TV Server is attempting to use the PVR-150's encoders... and it is at that specific point that the problem occurs. It isn't TV Server itself that is locking up. Rather, it is DirectShow (a Windows media framework) that is running into problems.

TV Server could avoid the problem if it knew not to try to use the PVR-150 encoder with the HVR-1100... but it doesn't. Until TVE 3.5 is available, the only possible workaround that I can suggest is to try to enable preloading for your HVR-1100. This suggestion is based on the theory that the problem may not occur if the HVR-1100 is loaded while the PVR-150 is not in use.

Regards,
mm

 

[osksa]

Thank you very much for looking into this! Tried to set it to preload, but that did not help, crashed the settings application and locked the TV Server as above.

I did some more fiddeling with settings, and once I just let the settings application run wild for about 10 minutes. And then it started working. With and without preload. Before I had let staty in "not responding" mode for about a minute or two. Then I killed. Now it seems that I caused the problems myself by killing the settings app and TV Server prematurely. I just thought that full CPU ussage on two cores and steady rising memory must meen eternal loop. May be, but somehow something finally returned, and set it right, I suppose.

Im sorry to have taken your time. However, if this behaviour is common, the GUI might need a note or something that it can block for minutes and that you should let it be. Or a fix. But maybe it's only on my system.

Thanks a bunch for you time.

 

[mm1352000]

and once I just let the settings application run wild for about 10 minutes. And then it started working. With and without preload. Before I had let staty in "not responding" mode for about a minute or two. Then I killed.

I'm surprised, because you waited more than 10 minutes when you produced the log files.

Now it seems that I caused the problems myself by killing the settings app and TV Server prematurely.

That seems unlikely to me.
In the past I've personally experienced similar problems when I had certain sets of analog tuners connected. The lock-up time varied, but if I recall correctly it was never more than 30 seconds or so. Because the lock-up is internal to DirectShow (ie. outside MediaPortal's control) it is not possible to determine what DirectShow is doing that takes so long.

I just thought that full CPU ussage on two cores and steady rising memory must meen eternal loop.

Often it does!

May be, but somehow something finally returned, and set it right, I suppose.

Are you saying that the problem doesn't happen even after restarting the TV service (or PC)?
I mean, once the tuner is loaded, I'd expect it to work fine and without excessive delay... but as soon as you have to load it again (ie. after stopping and restarting the TV service) I would have expected the same loading delay to occur.

Im sorry to have taken your time.

No need to apologise! I'm happy to have been able to [try to] help.

However, if this behaviour is common, the GUI might need a note or something that it can block for minutes and that you should let it be.

As far as I am aware the behaviour is very uncommon. It only seems to occur when loading analog tuners (the vast majority of people are using digital tuners these days) on a small percentage of systems which have at least 2 analog tuners. Like I mentioned above, I've experienced similar delays... but never anything so extreme as 10 minutes.

Or a fix. But maybe it's only on my system.

It isn't only your system... however, your system is in a very small minority.
With regard to a fix...
I mentioned TVE 3.5 in my previous post. I'm pretty confident that the problem won't occur in TVE 3.5 due to significant improvements in the analog tuner loading process. TVE 3.5 takes more control over tuner loading... which leaves less room (ability) for DirectShow to lock up. Unfortunately the changes are too large to "back-port" to TVE 3 (current MediaPortal TV Server)... and TVE 3.5 itself is not complete/stable.

 

[osksa]

I'm surprised, because you waited more than 10 minutes when you produced the log files.

Hmmm, maybe the theory is incorrect. But what I did when I collected the logs was to start MediaPortal and wait for a long time, and the kill it. What I'm saying I did later was to let the settings application run without killing it. I'm thinking that maybe if I kill the settings app when it's not ready it will end up in some bade state.

Are you saying that the problem doesn't happen even after restarting the TV service (or PC)?
I mean, once the tuner is loaded, I'd expect it to work fine and without excessive delay... but as soon as you have to load it again (ie. after stopping and restarting the TV service) I would have expected the same loading delay to occur.

I am saying just that. Multiple restarts of the tv-server and the computer, still working. First time after I tested without preload, it took a long time for the card to start producing image, but it did after a minute or so.

Ok, yes few people use analog TV these days, I would like to not have to too, but I'm too cheap to start paying for channels I already get included in my rent in analog format.

One thing that sounded strange about your initial theory is that one card, the PVR-150, has an on board hardware mpeg2 decoder, but the HVR-1100 uses software decoding. So it seems a little strange that the HVR-1100 tries to use the other ones encoding software, since according to my understanding there are none?

Just posting to try to understand what was/is going on here, seems a little bit like vodoo problem solving I did =)

Oh, and by the way another theory I had was that when it started working, I was fiddeling with some settings regarding codecs, like changing the merits of ffdshow and other codecs using shark007:s gui. I thought that some decoding codec merit change could have fixed the problem. I tried the theory by setting all settings back as before thinking that it would stop working again, but it did not so I discarded the theory... Maybe coincidence, but maybe something was not right there that got set right when I fiddled with it.