United States of America
So I just bought a DELL XPS 410 with the Luminate Angel II Dual Tuner card. I needed a TV tuning program since I ditched Vista (ugh!) in favor of XP Pro, and MediaPortal (MP) was “recommended” by Lumanate’s web site. So the following detail describes my travels in trying to make the Angel II work with MP. Unfortunately the journey has not concluded yet, and maybe this contribution will spur someone else to offer possible solutions to my remaining hurdles (mentioned at the end, before the corrected configurations).
To make a very long story shorter, I had SinkGraph error code 80040217 in my MP log files. This thread ( https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/no_signal_detected-t19572.html?t=19572&highlight=angel ) suggested some luck with MS’s graphedit tool and the MSDX SDK. So I located both online and installed them. No luck.
Curious about graphedit’s purpose, I looked it up online and read someone’s crash course in how to use to manipulate A/V streams. Someone even had a nice tutorial in setting up a stream with MPEG demultiplexing.
I also saw in the above thread a mention about the commented section of Angel tuner configuration. I tried uncommenting and doing some basic manipulation on that to no avail.
So back to graphedit. I poked through the filters and discovered that there were a number of items named for my tuner card. 10 in fact (5 items per tuner). So I toyed with placing these modules on the screen and hooking them up. It took some trial-and-error but I finally got a marginally working chain – no errors from start to finish at least. But no video either. More cursing and playing, and suddenly I had what looked like an interference pattern on the graphedit video screen. Almost like it was trying to tune something but couldn’t find a signal.
I finally poked into the properties of all of the tuner modules and discovered that one allows you to change video inputs from the tuner to the S- or composite video ports. Voila! Set the input to tuner and video!!
But MP still didn’t work. I had thought that maybe graphedit would somehow set the tuner components up correctly to work. A longshot, and apparently off target.
The next thing that bothered me was my test in graphedit had video but no audio. Strange. I played with the MPEG demux and the audio modules, but nothing. A little more pondering in the MP tuner config XML file and my eye settled on the Windows device IDs for the tuners. On a whim I went back to graphedit and confirmed that the device modules had corresponding ID information. I also noted that in graphedit, Tuner 2 was listed before Tuner 1. So I rebuilt my test setup, this time being very careful to take only tuner 1 devices. Viola II! Video and audio!!
So now what about MP…. Attempting to follow in the footsteps of those from the above thread, I tried modifying the Angel II Dual Tuner 1 (AIIDT1)configuration, changing the “connection” lines to match what the Angel Dual Tuner had set at some time.
I had no luck initially. So I continued to stare at my graphedit diagram and the XML config file. Suddenly it dawned on me that the XML config listed filters and connections. The graphedit tool called the media modules filters, and I “connected” them together. Looking at the detail for one of the graphedit Angel filters I saw the connection pins were numbered as well. I followed the XML configuration file and it described the first part of my graphedit configuration. Hmmm… I tried to draw in graphedit what I saw in XML, but that wouldn’t work. Eventually it dawned on me that XML described four Angel filters, but with graphedit I needed five.
Checking back to the commented version of the older config in the XML file, I saw that there were five filters listed there with connections. So I carefully copied that setup into the AIIDT1 section, tracing in the XML what I had drawn and working in graphedit. Success!!
So now I had to update Tuner 2 right? Easier said than done. I copied the AIIDT1 config for Tuner 2 and changed the device IDs. Now MP was telling me it couldn’t make a graph for Tuner 2 and so it refused to use it. But Tuner 1 still worked. Odd.
Finally I got fed up and decided to build a graph in graphedit for Tuner 2. Everything worked fine, so that confirmed Tuner 2 was visible and functioning. A look at the MP log file showed an error code similar to the original error at a different location. I could see MP connecting filters in the log, and then it failed to connect the Angel II MPEG Device to the Angel II Decoder. I traced the log file through the graphedit version and it seemed like everything was lining up, but things kept failing when MP connected the MPEG Device to the Encoder.
The Tuner 1 and Tuner 2 devices seemed identical, but for kicks I lined them all up in graphedit and started to “wire” them in parallel to make two systems. Having completed Tuner 1, I hit the MPEG Device for Tuner 2 and noticed there were less pins on the “output” side of the device for Tuner 2 than Tuner 1. Less pins!! With that in mind, a quick check of the log file made things perfectly clear.
There’s an extra pin for some advanced function on Tuner 1 that’s not present on Tuner 2. I copied the Tuner 1 filter and connections XML directly to the Tuner 2 section, not knowing about the difference. Adjusting the connections settings for the correct pin numbers fixed the problem!!
So now I have MP working with both tuners (or at least I’m not getting complaints from the software…).
I didn’t need either MSDX SDK nor graphedit, nor the MPEG codecs I downloaded to try to make this work. But graphedit was invaluable in helping me, without the benefit of any MP configuration documentation, work to this solution. It provided an environment to help understand how things should work together and a tool to compare what was going on in the system versus what was listed in the configs.
Perhaps this detailed account will help someone make the Angel II Dual Tuner card work with MP for them. And the details might help someone else with a different card by providing an avenue to try.
So for the record, the corrections for the Angel II Dual Tuner require adding a fifth filter that the Angel needs into the MP XML configuration for both tuners. Add the additional connections for both tuners, and finally adjust the config to “look” at the encoder filter instead of the capture filter for a handoff (the capture filter needs to hook to the encoder filter before the media stream can be used by MP). Tuner 2’s connections (not filters) then need to be adjusted to account for one less pin on the Tuner 2 Angel II MPEG Device.
Before I lose you on the configs, my remaining problem:
After a few minutes of watching one channel, the audio starts to skip. Meaning it just blanks out for a split second. I can make it go away by changing the channel, but it always comes back. Every channel is affected. Any ideas on this?
The corrected Tuner 1 config is then
<capturecard commercialname="Angel II Dual TV Tuner (Tuner 1)" capturename="Angel II MPEG Device" devid="ven_1033&dev_013a&subsys_001b1809&rev_0c">
<capabilities tv="true" radio="false" mpeg2="true" mce="true" sw="false" bda="false"/>
<tv>
<interface cat="encoder" video="" audio="" mpeg2="0"/>
<filters>
<filter cat="tvtuner" name="Angel II TvTuner" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="tvaudio" name="Angel II TvAudio" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="crossbar" name="Angel II Crossbar" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="capture" name="Angel II MPEG Device" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="encoder" name="Angel II Encoder" checkdevice="true"/>
</filters>
<connections>
<connection sourcefilter="tvtuner" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="crossbar" sinkpin="%tvtuner%"/>
<connection sourcefilter="tvtuner" sourcepin="1" sinkfilter="tvaudio" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="tvaudio" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="crossbar" sinkpin="%audiotuner%"/>
<connection sourcefilter="crossbar" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="capture" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="crossbar" sourcepin="1" sinkfilter="capture" sinkpin="1"/>
<connection sourcefilter="capture" sourcepin="1" sinkfilter="encoder" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="capture" sourcepin="2" sinkfilter="encoder" sinkpin="1"/>
</connections>
</tv>
</capturecard>
The corrected Tuner 2 config is then
<capturecard commercialname="Angel II Dual TV Tuner (Tuner 2)" capturename="Angel II MPEG Device" devid="angel2_ch2_rev0">
<capabilities tv="true" radio="false" mpeg2="true" mce="true" sw="false" bda="false"/>
<tv>
<interface cat="encoder" video="" audio="" mpeg2="0"/>
<filters>
<filter cat="tvtuner" name="Angel II TvTuner" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="tvaudio" name="Angel II TvAudio" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="crossbar" name="Angel II Crossbar" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="capture" name="Angel II MPEG Device" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="encoder" name="Angel II Encoder" checkdevice="true"/>
</filters>
<connections>
<connection sourcefilter="tvtuner" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="crossbar" sinkpin="%tvtuner%"/>
<connection sourcefilter="tvtuner" sourcepin="1" sinkfilter="tvaudio" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="tvaudio" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="crossbar" sinkpin="%audiotuner%"/>
<connection sourcefilter="crossbar" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="capture" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="crossbar" sourcepin="1" sinkfilter="capture" sinkpin="1"/>
<connection sourcefilter="capture" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="encoder" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="capture" sourcepin="1" sinkfilter="encoder" sinkpin="1"/>
</connections>
</tv>
</capturecard>
Special thanks to BriniMav, whose posts in the above-referenced thread lead me significantly to this resolution.
This sounds bad, but I won't be able to help you in fixing your specific card or using graphedit. I'm not an expert, only an intrepid explorer and experimenter applying some practical experience and the power of Google to search for examples and solutions.
-Brad
To make a very long story shorter, I had SinkGraph error code 80040217 in my MP log files. This thread ( https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/no_signal_detected-t19572.html?t=19572&highlight=angel ) suggested some luck with MS’s graphedit tool and the MSDX SDK. So I located both online and installed them. No luck.
Curious about graphedit’s purpose, I looked it up online and read someone’s crash course in how to use to manipulate A/V streams. Someone even had a nice tutorial in setting up a stream with MPEG demultiplexing.
I also saw in the above thread a mention about the commented section of Angel tuner configuration. I tried uncommenting and doing some basic manipulation on that to no avail.
So back to graphedit. I poked through the filters and discovered that there were a number of items named for my tuner card. 10 in fact (5 items per tuner). So I toyed with placing these modules on the screen and hooking them up. It took some trial-and-error but I finally got a marginally working chain – no errors from start to finish at least. But no video either. More cursing and playing, and suddenly I had what looked like an interference pattern on the graphedit video screen. Almost like it was trying to tune something but couldn’t find a signal.
I finally poked into the properties of all of the tuner modules and discovered that one allows you to change video inputs from the tuner to the S- or composite video ports. Voila! Set the input to tuner and video!!
But MP still didn’t work. I had thought that maybe graphedit would somehow set the tuner components up correctly to work. A longshot, and apparently off target.
The next thing that bothered me was my test in graphedit had video but no audio. Strange. I played with the MPEG demux and the audio modules, but nothing. A little more pondering in the MP tuner config XML file and my eye settled on the Windows device IDs for the tuners. On a whim I went back to graphedit and confirmed that the device modules had corresponding ID information. I also noted that in graphedit, Tuner 2 was listed before Tuner 1. So I rebuilt my test setup, this time being very careful to take only tuner 1 devices. Viola II! Video and audio!!
So now what about MP…. Attempting to follow in the footsteps of those from the above thread, I tried modifying the Angel II Dual Tuner 1 (AIIDT1)configuration, changing the “connection” lines to match what the Angel Dual Tuner had set at some time.
I had no luck initially. So I continued to stare at my graphedit diagram and the XML config file. Suddenly it dawned on me that the XML config listed filters and connections. The graphedit tool called the media modules filters, and I “connected” them together. Looking at the detail for one of the graphedit Angel filters I saw the connection pins were numbered as well. I followed the XML configuration file and it described the first part of my graphedit configuration. Hmmm… I tried to draw in graphedit what I saw in XML, but that wouldn’t work. Eventually it dawned on me that XML described four Angel filters, but with graphedit I needed five.
Checking back to the commented version of the older config in the XML file, I saw that there were five filters listed there with connections. So I carefully copied that setup into the AIIDT1 section, tracing in the XML what I had drawn and working in graphedit. Success!!
So now I had to update Tuner 2 right? Easier said than done. I copied the AIIDT1 config for Tuner 2 and changed the device IDs. Now MP was telling me it couldn’t make a graph for Tuner 2 and so it refused to use it. But Tuner 1 still worked. Odd.
Finally I got fed up and decided to build a graph in graphedit for Tuner 2. Everything worked fine, so that confirmed Tuner 2 was visible and functioning. A look at the MP log file showed an error code similar to the original error at a different location. I could see MP connecting filters in the log, and then it failed to connect the Angel II MPEG Device to the Angel II Decoder. I traced the log file through the graphedit version and it seemed like everything was lining up, but things kept failing when MP connected the MPEG Device to the Encoder.
The Tuner 1 and Tuner 2 devices seemed identical, but for kicks I lined them all up in graphedit and started to “wire” them in parallel to make two systems. Having completed Tuner 1, I hit the MPEG Device for Tuner 2 and noticed there were less pins on the “output” side of the device for Tuner 2 than Tuner 1. Less pins!! With that in mind, a quick check of the log file made things perfectly clear.
There’s an extra pin for some advanced function on Tuner 1 that’s not present on Tuner 2. I copied the Tuner 1 filter and connections XML directly to the Tuner 2 section, not knowing about the difference. Adjusting the connections settings for the correct pin numbers fixed the problem!!
So now I have MP working with both tuners (or at least I’m not getting complaints from the software…).
I didn’t need either MSDX SDK nor graphedit, nor the MPEG codecs I downloaded to try to make this work. But graphedit was invaluable in helping me, without the benefit of any MP configuration documentation, work to this solution. It provided an environment to help understand how things should work together and a tool to compare what was going on in the system versus what was listed in the configs.
Perhaps this detailed account will help someone make the Angel II Dual Tuner card work with MP for them. And the details might help someone else with a different card by providing an avenue to try.
So for the record, the corrections for the Angel II Dual Tuner require adding a fifth filter that the Angel needs into the MP XML configuration for both tuners. Add the additional connections for both tuners, and finally adjust the config to “look” at the encoder filter instead of the capture filter for a handoff (the capture filter needs to hook to the encoder filter before the media stream can be used by MP). Tuner 2’s connections (not filters) then need to be adjusted to account for one less pin on the Tuner 2 Angel II MPEG Device.
Before I lose you on the configs, my remaining problem:
After a few minutes of watching one channel, the audio starts to skip. Meaning it just blanks out for a split second. I can make it go away by changing the channel, but it always comes back. Every channel is affected. Any ideas on this?
The corrected Tuner 1 config is then
<capturecard commercialname="Angel II Dual TV Tuner (Tuner 1)" capturename="Angel II MPEG Device" devid="ven_1033&dev_013a&subsys_001b1809&rev_0c">
<capabilities tv="true" radio="false" mpeg2="true" mce="true" sw="false" bda="false"/>
<tv>
<interface cat="encoder" video="" audio="" mpeg2="0"/>
<filters>
<filter cat="tvtuner" name="Angel II TvTuner" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="tvaudio" name="Angel II TvAudio" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="crossbar" name="Angel II Crossbar" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="capture" name="Angel II MPEG Device" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="encoder" name="Angel II Encoder" checkdevice="true"/>
</filters>
<connections>
<connection sourcefilter="tvtuner" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="crossbar" sinkpin="%tvtuner%"/>
<connection sourcefilter="tvtuner" sourcepin="1" sinkfilter="tvaudio" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="tvaudio" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="crossbar" sinkpin="%audiotuner%"/>
<connection sourcefilter="crossbar" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="capture" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="crossbar" sourcepin="1" sinkfilter="capture" sinkpin="1"/>
<connection sourcefilter="capture" sourcepin="1" sinkfilter="encoder" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="capture" sourcepin="2" sinkfilter="encoder" sinkpin="1"/>
</connections>
</tv>
</capturecard>
The corrected Tuner 2 config is then
<capturecard commercialname="Angel II Dual TV Tuner (Tuner 2)" capturename="Angel II MPEG Device" devid="angel2_ch2_rev0">
<capabilities tv="true" radio="false" mpeg2="true" mce="true" sw="false" bda="false"/>
<tv>
<interface cat="encoder" video="" audio="" mpeg2="0"/>
<filters>
<filter cat="tvtuner" name="Angel II TvTuner" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="tvaudio" name="Angel II TvAudio" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="crossbar" name="Angel II Crossbar" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="capture" name="Angel II MPEG Device" checkdevice="true"/>
<filter cat="encoder" name="Angel II Encoder" checkdevice="true"/>
</filters>
<connections>
<connection sourcefilter="tvtuner" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="crossbar" sinkpin="%tvtuner%"/>
<connection sourcefilter="tvtuner" sourcepin="1" sinkfilter="tvaudio" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="tvaudio" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="crossbar" sinkpin="%audiotuner%"/>
<connection sourcefilter="crossbar" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="capture" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="crossbar" sourcepin="1" sinkfilter="capture" sinkpin="1"/>
<connection sourcefilter="capture" sourcepin="0" sinkfilter="encoder" sinkpin="0"/>
<connection sourcefilter="capture" sourcepin="1" sinkfilter="encoder" sinkpin="1"/>
</connections>
</tv>
</capturecard>
Special thanks to BriniMav, whose posts in the above-referenced thread lead me significantly to this resolution.
This sounds bad, but I won't be able to help you in fixing your specific card or using graphedit. I'm not an expert, only an intrepid explorer and experimenter applying some practical experience and the power of Google to search for examples and solutions.
-Brad