Blackgold BGT3595 (3 Viewers)

[ce6at]

Dear mm135200
i have the following screens for you.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2676185/graphstudio4.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2676185/graphstudio5.jpg

i tried your tv.dll but a cant scan for analog channels with the BGT analog tuner. I get an ffdshow error and the following warning:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2676185/error.jpg

here are the tv logs.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2676185/error (2).log

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2676185/tv (2).log

Thankd in advance.

 

[Bagal]

i tried your tv.dll but a cant scan for analog channels with the BGT analog tuner. I get an ffdshow error and the following warning:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2676185/error.jpg

I got the same error as you initially, if you do a search in the forums you'll see others have had the same problem, it seems that installing a trial copy of WinDVR 3 installs an appropriate encoder that solves the problem.

 

[Bagal]

Unfortunately I haven't had time to perform all of the steps you asked however I have attached a screenshot of the CrossBars on my system and I've attached logs when attempting to preview a channel in the TvServer config app.

You should note that I'm only attempting to use the Composite and S-Video inputs of the tuner.

I've got SageTV installed as well and that does successfully tune to both the Composite and S-Video inputs, so I at least know that the tuner does actually work.

Thanks.

 

[mm1352000]

Hi ce6at

Thanks once again for the screenshots and logs!

Bagal is right. The reason TV failed is that you don't have any software encoders installed. Nobody (Intervideo/Corel, Cyberlink, Mainconcept etc.) seems to sell reasonably priced software encoders for consumers like us. They do sell them, but they are *very* expensive and come in production codec bundles or SDKs, or as part of large and expensive video editing applications. If you already have one of these large and expensive applications then you are fine, but for those of us that don't there are a few other ways to get what you need:
1. Install the ATI Avivo package. I think this is best option, however you *may* need to have an ATI card.
2. Install Windvr 3 (Google will help you find this).
3. Install Twinhan's DigitalTV application (Google will help you find this).
4. Install Pinnacle's TVCenter application. This can be found on there support site. Not really recommended.

Once you have installed one of these, please email me new logs.

Bagal:
Excellent advice
Did you manage to grab logs in the evening? I'm going to need to figure out why the stream didn't start. It may be because of incompatible encoders. You may want to try another of the ones I listed above...

[Edit: just seen your logs! I'll take a look.]

Bagal,

Your logs only seem to contain one attempt to tune to an analog channel, and it looks like everything succeeded. I have to admit that I hadn't tried the svideo or composite inputs on my tuners (which, as I said earlier are very similar to Blackgold BGT3540s) before now. When I did, I only got 1 channel of sound and 1 channel of buzz. The video was black...

There could be specific reasons for that occurring on my system. Without getting into too much detail, I used to have another tuner which was also similar to the BGT3540. Through lack of knowledge and carelessness I managed to damage both satellite tuners bitch. Anyhow, I eventually managed to get my current tuners from Ebay Germany. The only thing is that neither of them came with a remote or analog breakout cable. I still the the breakout cable from my old tuner, so I've plugged that in and assumed everything would work like it used to. Perhaps I'm wrong and the pin configuration is different...

There are a few things I'd suggest that you try:

1. When I add the svideo channels on my cards I get 2 svideo channels and 2 CVBS (composite) channels per card. You only have one card, but there should still be more than one svideo channel. I'd recommend trying *all* the inputs. Even the composite ones. If I'm going to try and fix this then it would be helpful to know what channels are added.
2. Try an actual analog TV or FM channel if possible and see if that works. If it does then we know that the issue is with the svideo/composite inputs. The root cause of something like that could possibly be crossbar related. I know of one minor compatibility issue with non-tuner inputs and the BGT3595 crossbars but I haven't done anything about it since I was focussed on getting tuner signals to work. Perhaps I need to try and address that...
3. I've found encoders to be quite temperamental. My system has four hybrid tuners. I've found that none of the encoders I have installed can be used more than once at a time (ie. I can't use the same encoder for 2 active tuners). I patched MediaPortal to fix that, however I've still got issues with the Pinnacle and Intervideo encoders. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

Let me know how you get on...

 

[mm1352000]

Well, I've figured out that my s-video and composite inputs both work. It is just that the cable from the old card has a slightly different pin configuration than the 7010ix. Very annoying as neither of the 2 breakout cables that I have match the 7010ix pin configuration! I assume the 7010ix is the same as the BGT3540 (I'm using the bgt3540 driver) and I don't see any reason why the BGT3540 would be any different than the BGT3595. Here is the pin diagram (perspective: looking at the socket on the card):

1   2   3   4
   5  6  7

1 = ground
2 = audio right
3 = audio left
4 = ground
5 = intensity (luminance)
6 = ground
7 = colour (chrominance)

Regarding the BGT3595 crossbar: I'm guessing that the reason that there are so many inputs is that there is a pair/group of inputs for each video format that the crossbar supports. From ce6at's earlier logs I can see:

2010-10-26 22:42:20.276525 [(6)]: crossbar pin:0 type:Video_Composite, related:1
2010-10-26 22:42:20.292125 [(6)]: crossbar pin:1 type:Audio_Line, related:0
2010-10-26 22:42:20.292125 [(6)]: crossbar pin:2 type:Video_SVideo, related:1
2010-10-26 22:42:20.292125 [(6)]: crossbar pin:3 type:Video_Composite, related:4
2010-10-26 22:42:20.292125 [(6)]: crossbar pin:4 type:Audio_Line, related:3
2010-10-26 22:42:20.292125 [(6)]: crossbar pin:5 type:Video_SVideo, related:4
2010-10-26 22:42:20.292125 [(6)]: crossbar pin:6 type:Video_YRYBY, related:7
2010-10-26 22:42:20.292125 [(6)]: crossbar pin:7 type:Audio_Line, related:6
2010-10-26 22:42:20.292125 [(6)]: crossbar pin:8 type:Video_RGB, related:9
2010-10-26 22:42:20.292125 [(6)]: crossbar pin:9 type:Audio_Line, related:8

Translated, this means:

Input 1: composite/s-video, pins 0, 1, 2
Input 2: composite/s-video, pins 3, 4, 5
Input 3: yryby (???), pins 6, 7
Input 4: rgb (component???), pins 8, 9

The issue that I mentioned earlier is that MediaPortal currently only supports up to 3 pins of each kind per crossbar. As you can see, the BGT3595 crossbar has 4 audio line pins. I don't think this should be a problem for s-video but it might be if you were trying to get audio for the 4th input. Like I said earlier, it would be helpful to know what channels are added when you add the s-video channels.

In the process of investigating the 7010ix pin configuration I discovered that I'd only see one still frame if I tried to preview the inputs in TV Server. This must be some sort of bug or codec issue because the timeshifting file was generated correctly and could be played fine in VLC. For this reason I would recommend attempting to "preview" your inputs in MediaPortal, rather than using the TV Server preview feature.

 

[Bagal]

Hi mm1352000,

Sorry I was in a bit of a rush when I posted last night.

1. I should have said that when I add the svideo and composite channels I get 3 svideo and 3 composite connections available to me, I have already tried all of them without success.

2. I vaguely remember trying an analog TV channel, but not sure I spent long looking at this, so I'll try again.

3. I'm assuming I'm going to have to uninstall the existing encoders as I'm not aware of a way to specify which encoder to use in the TV Server? I haven't checked the logs, but do they show which encoder is being used?

I'm aware that sometimes the preview in TV server can fail, so I have previously tried timeshifting the channel from within MediaPortal and recording the channel, in both cases I ended up with blank video.

I should emphasise that I haven't had much time to test the various options so it's quite possible that I've screwed some of my testing up! I've got some free time this weekend so I should be able to spend some time properly testing this.

Many thanks.

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again Bagal

1. I should have said that when I add the svideo and composite channels I get 3 svideo and 3 composite connections available to me, I have already tried all of them without success.

Okay, interesting...

2. I vaguely remember trying an analog TV channel, but not sure I spent long looking at this, so I'll try again.

Thanks

3. I'm assuming I'm going to have to uninstall the existing encoders as I'm not aware of a way to specify which encoder to use in the TV Server? I haven't checked the logs, but do they show which encoder is being used?

- you're right that there is no way to prioritise the encoders in 1.1.1... but there is in 1.2.0 alpha. A good reason to upgrade If we need to then I should be able to hack priorities into a test build if you tell me what encoders you'll be trying. I'd try tuning the TV channel first before you do this test.
- yes the logs show the encoder

I've got some free time this weekend so I should be able to spend some time properly testing this.

Okay. I look forward to the logs...

 

[mm1352000]

Bagal, ce6at

Any updates? Did you manage to get the s-video input working?

 

[Bagal]

Unfortunately after saying I should have some time to look at this, I then ended up not having the time, pretty typical really

I will eventually get around to testing this properly, after all it is for my own benefit, but I think I'll hold off on saying when I should be able to do it!

 

[mm1352000]

No worries - I fully understand!