BlackGold BGT3600 Picture & Audio breakup on Live TV in MediaPortal but NOT in 7WMC (1 Viewer)

[EditBear]

I had hoped that MediaPortal was the sanctuary at the end of a very long road. I still hope it can be - with a little help from you all.
I have a library of many videos –at various frames rates from 23/24/25/29/30/50fps
As a film editor I notice frame dropping - so my monitor must be set to the same refresh rate at the material I am watching.
It began with Win7 64bit & i3 onboard graphics - but the Intel 3 second freeze & catch-up problem meant that soon got changed.
I upgraded to an I5 with separate graphics card. Using Mediabrowser within 7/64WMC to launch MPC-HC as an external player. MPC-HC being 32 bit could use Reclock as a renderer & an external script to change refresh rate. That was ditched as the changeover from WMC to MPH-HC was messy.
For a more integrated system I installed Win7/32bit this time –playing everything within 7WMC using Sharks codecs & Reclock to change refresh rate.
This worked well – except Reclock killed live TV – and there was no way of enabling it just for Video.
So finally a move to Mediaportal – with separate Codecs for TV and Video –and an internal refresh rate changer!
But now I have severe picture and sound breakup watching live TV.
The Red line (shift1) is largely flat – then dips right down below the green and yellow.
The logs mention “bad signal” (the DVB-T signal did show low when tuning), but I get breakup on Satellite channels too? Also the Blackgold BGT3600 card works flawlessy when tuned within MediaCentre directly and using DVBLink on both T and S?
The other more minor problem is the green button on my RC6 remote will not launch Mediaportal even with services stopped in both server and client, and tray loaded –any ideas?
As I say – a long road where I have also changed graphics and tuner cards to arrive where I am now.
Please help – I really want to stay with Mediaportal.
GA-H55M-UD2H/i5 latest Bios
Sapphire HD6870 VaporX
BlackGold BGT3600 DualDVB-T2 and Dual DVB-S2 Tuner

 

[johanj]

You could try a amplifier for the bad signal. I had to add an amplifier when I added a anysee tv-card. Different cards seems to behave differently with a bad signal. Earlier i had three floppy-dtv cards without any problems. One of them broke and was replaced with a anysee e7 and I could no longer get a god signal with all cards without an amplifier. The later card seems to be more sensitive, It is now connected first after the amplifier.

I could agree that MP should behave better with a bad signal but I guess that the easiest solution to your problem would be to try to improve the signal. Do you have the same problem on all channels, most often some channels have a better signal than others?

 

[EditBear]

But how can it be bad signal - if the same card, with the same drivers, performs without problems, tuned to the same TV channels in Windows Media Centre?
Also the same breakup happens on the Satellite channels as the Terrestial channels - they both cannot have signal problems!

 

[HomeY]

It doesn't have to be a bad signal, more like a suggestion for the 'Continuity error'.
Have you checked CPU load when you encounter this problem? (That's what i found out to be the problem for my discontinuity errors after a loooong search)

 

[johanj]

I noted that you mix codec for video and audio. Have you tried different codecs for tv?

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Can you check your motherboard manufacturer for a BIOS update, I know you have a separate graphics card now, but there was a update involving fixing bad video, this may or may not help, but it is worth a try, especially if it relates to the pci-e bus itself,

You should then find a new Intel driver update available for download.

Why you are getting a problem could be network related, try running either DPC latency checker or latencymon, see if they show any errors with live streaming.

 

[EditBear]

Many thanks for your quick replies - much appreciated! - I really DO want to make Mediaportal work for me.
I like the video playback facilities - and I have NO problem with AV breakup or frame dropping on anything other than the live TV!

In response to Home Y - What is a continuity error?
I have checked CPU load running MP Live TV in windowed mode - when the breakup happens the load DROPS from around 5% to 1%.

Thank you Johanji - but I have tried different codecs - including MS DTV-DVD and Cyberlink PVD-12 but no difference to breakup.

And finally in response to Paranoid D, I did think it may be a PCIe/Mobo problem - especially as my GA-H55M-UD2H is a close relative of the one mentioned in your MediaPortal Wiki under Intel 23.976 problems -
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_MEDIAPORTAL_1/16_Support/2_FAQ/Stuttering_Playback
But I have the latest Gigabyte Bios (F11 20th August 2010).
I thought it might be a PCIe problem – since a previous Tevii S480 card kept disappearing from Device Manager (this Black Gold Card does not do that).
Tevii recommended changing the PCIe clock from Auto to 100 - I have done this (in fact changed it from 90 to 110) all without effect.
I have tried reducing the CPU clock from 21x to 15x – but still no difference.

If it is hardware related it must be PCIe – as video playback is fine.
But if it is hardware - how comes Windows Media Centre TV is ok?
Please can someone take another look at my logs and see if they can help – its driving me mad!

 

[EditBear]

I have just downloaded the DPC Latency Checker. All green (less than 1000) - even during the break up - no change.

 

[HomeY]

In response to HomeY - What is a continuity error?
I have checked CPU load running MP Live TV in windowed mode - when the breakup happens the load DROPS from around 5% to 1%.

I was referring to the errors in your log:

03-05-2012 14:10:13.648 Recorder:Pid 258 Continuity error... 1 ( prev d ) - bad signal?
03-05-2012 14:10:13.649 Recorder:Pid 259 Continuity error... c ( prev 5 ) - bad signal?

5% CPU load can't be the problem.
- Do you have Anti-Virus software running? If so, exclude your timeshift & recording folder.
- Try to set the timeshift folder on another drive than your OS drive.

 

[EditBear]

Thank you Home Y.
It is only a few days since I did a clean install of windows to try and sort this out - and havnt got round to any anti-virus software yet -so that can't be the problem.

I use an SSD as my C drive - so it should be fast - but I did try a RAMdrive for the timeshift folder on the last install - but that did not cure the problem either :-(