Black screen when starting TV (1 Viewer)

[bodiroga]

MediaPortal Version: 1.2.1
MediaPortal Skin: Avalon
Windows Version: Windows 7 Pro SP1
CPU Type: AMD Athlon II 240 X2 2.8 Ghz
HDD: Mushkin Callisto Deluxe 40Gb
Memory: 2Gb DDR2 800 Mhz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H
Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 6570
Video Card Driver: ATI Catalyst 11.9
Sound Card: Realtek
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card: Hauppauge TD500
1. TV Card Type: DVD-T
1. TV Card Driver:
2. TV Card:
2. TV Card Type:
2. TV Card Driver:
3. TV Card:
3. TV Card Type:
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec: CyberLink PDVD 11
MPEG2 Audio Codec: LAV Audio Decoder
h.264 Video Codec: CyberLink PDVD 11
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case: SilverStone Grandia GD05
Cooling: Scythe Big Shuriken
Power Supply: Be-Quiet L7 350W
Remote: Logitech Harmony 900 (HP Remote Receiver)
TV: Panasonic X10 37''
TV - HTPC Connection: HDMI

Hi guys!

I have noticed that sometimes, when I start TV on my HTPC, I get a completely black screen in fullscreen. In this situations MediaPortal is not freezed, as I can bring up the mini tv guide or stop TV simply pressing the stop button and clicking Ok. I can also press "info" button and the information about the program is shown and furthermore, I can change the channel with the same result: black screen. I'm in a multiseat configuration and if a open the stream in my desktop PC (TV Server is in a different PC, I have an HTPC, server and desktop) with MPC-HC I can view the channel.

The strangest thing comes when, in the black TV screen situation, if I enter to the server with remote desktop then the sound of the channel appears on the HTPC. Stopping TV and turning on any channel again work perfectly.

I've attached logs of the two situations, please have a look at them and if you need more details don't hesitate to ask.

Many many thanks for your help and hard work.

Best regards,

Aitor

PS: mm, yes, it's me again with the same problem, I don't know how to solve it

 

[mm1352000]

Hi bodiroga

I struggled for awhile to remember where we had talked about this issue, then I remembered PMs.
Okay, well it seems pretty obvious to me that this is some kind of network or firewall issue. It seems to me (from the TsReader log) like TsReader is simply not receiving any stream data (PMT, video or audio) from the server. As I said to you via PM, the first thing to check is the firewall - I've seen situations with 64 bit Windows before where the firewall is silently blocking the connection and the symptoms are exactly like this. The classic issue is that MP has access to public ports (which allows it to connect to the server, get the list of channels, EPG, send request to start timeshifting etc.) but the private ports are blocked. The video and audio data for an RTSP session is on the private ports and if MP does not get access to those ports then you will see exactly what you are seeing now. Sometimes firewalls can also get confused with their rules. Please remove all the firewall rules for MP on the client, and then re-add them to give MP access to public *and* private ports.

One question also: when you say that you RDP into the server and that makes the audio start, which computer (HTPC or desktop) are you using to connect?

mm

 

[bodiroga]

Okay, well it seems pretty obvious to me that this is some kind of network or firewall issue. It seems to me (from the TsReader log) like TsReader is simply not receiving any stream data (PMT, video or audio) from the server. As I said to you via PM, the first thing to check is the firewall - I've seen situations with 64 bit Windows before where the firewall is silently blocking the connection and the symptoms are exactly like this. The classic issue is that MP has access to public ports (which allows it to connect to the server, get the list of channels, EPG, send request to start timeshifting etc.) but the private ports are blocked. The video and audio data for an RTSP session is on the private ports and if MP does not get access to those ports then you will see exactly what you are seeing now. Sometimes firewalls can also get confused with their rules. Please remove all the firewall rules for MP on the client, and then re-add them to give MP access to public *and* private ports.

On the server I'm using Comodo Firewall and I've marked MediaPortal as a trust application, but I will disable it for a couple of days to see if that solves the problem or not. On the client I'm not using any firewall and I have disabled Microsoft's one. Anyway, if the problem is the firewall, shouldn't I see the error more often? Can a firewall rule be "broken" aleatory? It seems really strange to me. Also, if you have a look at TsWritter.log file (Server.zip) you can what they seem to be some "stream rejected" and "flush" errors. Is this normal?

One question also: when you say that you RDP into the server and that makes the audio start, which computer (HTPC or desktop) are you using to connect?

I use the desktop PC to connect to the Server, the HTPC is meanwhile running MediaPortal with the black screen to see what happens.

Many thanks for your help mm, your work here on the forum is awesome.

Best regards,

Aitor

PS: If only I could replicate the problem more often... I can't reproduce it when I want, it's really strange.

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again

On the server I'm using Comodo Firewall and I've marked MediaPortal as a trust application, but I will disable it for a couple of days to see if that solves the problem or not. On the client I'm not using any firewall and I have disabled Microsoft's one. Anyway, if the problem is the firewall, shouldn't I see the error more often? Can a firewall rule be "broken" aleatory? It seems really strange to me.

Okay, thanks for the info. It does seem strange to me too. Recently somebody reported having problems with a client that were solved by deleting and re-adding the firewall rules/exceptions. I can't remember who that was or which firewall it was (don't think it was Comodo), but sometimes strange things happen.

Also, if you have a look at TsWritter.log file (Server.zip) you can what they seem to be some "stream rejected" and "flush" errors. Is this normal?

Those are completely normal. The "stream rejected" messages are rejections of streams that are not audio, video or subtitles. You can see the PIDs of those streams listed slightly above and check that the corresponding PIDs are not rejected. The "flush" messages are just messages about the buffer size increasing gradually.

I use the desktop PC to connect to the Server, the HTPC is meanwhile running MediaPortal with the black screen to see what happens.

Right, okay. This says to me that the problem is surely on the server side since nothing on the HTPC changes to make the audio start (except that data starts to be received from the server). The reason the video doesn't start is that there is no video codec ready to decode the data until you restart TV or change channels. I still can't explain why connecting via RDP from another PC would trigger things to start working but I more and more suspect the firewall. If it happens again, be sure to note the time that you make the RDP connection.

One other thing to confirm about this: is it true that you don't have to do anything except login via RDP to make the audio start working? In other words, you don't have to load up MP in the RDP session or anything else... (?)

mm

 

[bodiroga]

Hi mm!

Many thanks for your help

One other thing to confirm about this: is it true that you don't have to do anything except login via RDP to make the audio start working? In other words, you don't have to load up MP in the RDP session or anything else... (?)

Yes, that's correct, the only thing that I have to do is simply login via RDP to the server and then the audio comes.

Today while I was watching TV I saw another problem, I was switching between channels and suddenly the image freezes. I wait some minutes to see if the image came back but the only thing that I could do was to stop TV and restart.

Logs are attached.

Many thanks for your help and best regards,

Aitor

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again Aitor

The issue you saw yesterday was a strange one. It looks to me like the PMT was constantly changing between:

15-11-2011 17:23:04.331 [25c]New channel found (PAT/PMT/SDT changed)
15-11-2011 17:23:04.331 [25c] pcr pid: 30
15-11-2011 17:23:04.331 [25c] pmt pid: 20
15-11-2011 17:23:04.332 [25c] video pid: 30 type: H264
15-11-2011 17:23:04.332 [25c] audio pid: 40 language: spa type: MPEG1 - audio
15-11-2011 17:23:04.333 [25c] audio pid: 41 language: v.o type: MPEG1 - audio
15-11-2011 17:23:04.333 [25c] Subtitle pid: 50 language: spa type: DVB subtitle 2

...and...

15-11-2011 17:23:04.527 [f54]New channel found (PAT/PMT/SDT changed)
15-11-2011 17:23:04.527 [f54] pcr pid: 30
15-11-2011 17:23:04.527 [f54] pmt pid: 20
15-11-2011 17:23:04.527 [f54] video pid: 30 type: H264
15-11-2011 17:23:04.527 [f54] audio pid: 40 language: spa type: MPEG2 - audio
15-11-2011 17:23:04.527 [f54] audio pid: 41 language: mul type: MPEG2 - audio

It was changing so quickly that it basically hung TsReader. If you tune that channel again on the client do you have the same problem?

mm

 

[bodiroga]

Hi mm!

It was changing so quickly that it basically hung TsReader. If you tune that channel again on the client do you have the same problem?

If I press "stop" on the remote and then turn on TV again all works fine, but if I start changing channels heavily I can reproduce the problem (sometimes I need 10-15-20 changes, but it seems to be arbitrary). I will try to reproduce the problem this weekend and send you some new logs.

Thanks again for your great support and best regards,

Aitor

 

[Rage12]

I don´t have this problem after disabling tcp/ip v6 (with MicrosoftFixit50409) and changing the streaming port to 5554

 

[bodiroga]

I don´t have this problem after disabling tcp/ip v6 (with MicrosoftFixit50409) and changing the streaming port to 5554

Thanks for your help Rage!

But what problem did you solve disabling tcp/ip v6? The first one that I posted or the second one? Did you have the same problems as I have? Same logs?

Many thanks for you tip, I will try it as soon as possible

Best regards,

Aitor

 

[IanJ]

Hi,

I have this same problem, however, I have no clients etc, just the single HTPC.

In the mornings when I first try to open a Tv channel I sometimes get the blank screen with no audio, and sometimes with no video but audio is ok. I can still access the TV Guide or press Info etc. What I also notice is that if I successfully get audio & video then from that point onwards MP is fine...........i.e. it only happens if I leave MP at the main menu (no tv stream) for extended periods, i.e. overnight, or, if I go off and play MP3's and then try to go back to TV. Once it's up & running with that first channel then I can change channels continious and it's always fine.
I also notice that if I don't get off the blank screen quick enough (say 15 secs) then it crashes MP completely. Task Manager reports MEDIAPORTAL FULL SCREEN - NOT RESPONDING. I have to End Task to get back to desktop. I notice at that point I can't manually stop the TvService (batch file), it just sits there waiting for it to stop. At this point I have to re-boot Win7.

Other notes:-

1. This NEVER happened with 1.2RC. This is only since I upgraded to 1.2.1 (fresh install).
2. I'm using an SSD for the OS, and a normal HDD for TS & recording etc. The HDD is set never to sleep.
3. Win7 is configured never to sleep or hibernate.
4. This happens with different skins.
5. DVB-S2 card is set to PAUSE, but I have tried STOP also, no apparent difference.
6. Intel i7, 4gb ram, fast ATI card etc etc etc.

For me the problem isn't so bad as I know what to do, but for the wife it's a show stopper as she's not PC literate.

Ian.