Blank TV Screen - Other programs work well (3 Viewers)

[HanziHefti]

MediaPortal Version: 0.2.2.0
MediaPortal Skin: Blue
Windows Version: Windows XP SP2
CPU Type: Intel P4 3GHz HT
HDD:
Memory: 1Gb
Video Card: Intel
1. TV Card: Hauppauge PVR-350
Cooling: Fan
Remote: Hauppauge 45 button
TV: JVC 32" WS
TV - HTPC Connection: S-Video -> SCART

Ok, here goes.

I recently reinstalled WinXPSP2 on a pc, and followed the Media Portal installation guide to the point, including the 'requirements' section. I installed the newest Hauppauge drivers for my card, the newest driveres for every possible device connectes to the pc and even dusted off the keyboard for good measure.

After the initial installation of Media Portal, I ran the configuration, making sure that I read about every possible setting, before making a decision on how to set it up. I ended up pretty much following the defaults, which I expected since there is nothing fancy about my setup.

When I started MP for the first time, I was pleasently surprised to see the super cool interface (this is my first installation) but a little concerned that I didn't have a signal on my TV. The Hauppauge PVR-350 has a composite video out as well as a S-Video out. I'm using the S-Video out and has connected it to an AV SCART input on my TV.

Since MP wasn't giving me a picture on the TV, but showing up perfectly on my monitor, I dediced to run WinTV2000 that comes with the Hauppauge card. This ran without a problem and showed a flicker-free sharp picture on my TV. So apparently the TV Card worked.

I realized that it must have something to so with the settings in MP, so I ran the configuration again, and made sure that everything was setup the way it was supposed to be, but with no luck. MP started up nicely but I still didn't get an picture on the TV. Now I was a little fustrated, so I started to go through the forum as any good first-timer should do. I found a lot of similar issues that other people had had, but none of the solutions that were posted worked for me (mostly changing the aspect ratio to something other than 'normal'). Other people had problems with the Audio codec screwing up the picture, so I started to fundle with that too, without any luck.

After reading stuff and trying it out for over a week, I made a desperate decision. I installed GB-PVR, the 'alternative' media center.

To my total surprise, it worked the first time I started it. After a quick setup I ran it, and, voila, a picture appeared on the TV. So the issue had to be with MP. Since I like MP so much more than GB-PVR (which is strange since I can't get it wo work) I decided to reinstall the pc and try again. This time connecting it to my newer TV since I figures it could have something to do with my old TV not 'understanding' the signal it got from MP.

So this morning I spent a few hours reinstalling the pc and installing all the newest drivers and everything, hoping for a solution. I reinstalled MP and set it up, and guess what... Absolutely no luck at all.

So here I am, at a total loss, starting to wonder if I've completely missed the point of MP. Please tell me that MP should be able to show the nice menu on the TV... Please tell me that I'm not alone in this dark hour, and please PLEASE help me find a solution to my problems.

If the problem is obvious and I've just stared myself blind, please be nice and refreign from flaming me. I am but a simple man trying to get, what appears to be a superior media center, to work for me.

Btw; It appears that I have no error log file, which I interpret as a good thing.

Hope that someone out there, will be able to reach out and help me.

With crossed fingeres and lots of hope,
HanziHefti

 

[risen]

if I read your post correctly, it seems we are having the same problem.

I saw the channels appear correctly during an "autoscan", have the zap2it plugin grabbing my channel lineups, etc. tv guide works fine now.

But i see no video at all (just black square) where the video should be in the menu. And clicking the "Tv On" button has no effect, the little light glows for a split second then goes off again.

Hope someone can help. This is a pretty standard setup here and BTV and GBPVR both work fine. I'm considering a full switch to MediaCenter but a blank screen will never do ;-)

Obviously others have gotten it to work so something must be configured incorrectly. Hopefully someone can chime in + help.

Tuner card: hauppauge 150
Video: ATI Radion x1300

TIA

 

[Taipan]

The Hauppauge PVR-350 has a composite video out as well as a S-Video out. I'm using the S-Video out and has connected it to an AV SCART input on my TV.

If I understand you correctly, then this is the source of the problem. The video output from MediaPortal is via your video card only. MediaPortal does not use the composite or S-Video outputs of the PVR-350.

Also, the TV must be the "primary display" device on your video card (since it uses VMR9). I assume that you have a regular PC monitor connected to the video card output, and this is where all the output from MediaPortal (skins, menus, Tv, video, etc) will appear.

 

[Olivier-h]

-deleted-

 

[HanziHefti]

Thanks Taipan,

Suddently everything seems to make an odd kind of sense.

So I need to purchase a DirectX 9 graphics card with a TV out. Any suggestions?

I've been looking at a Sapphire RADEON X550. It's cheap and appears to live up to the requirements. Good or bad choice?

Regards,
HanziHefti

 

[algee]

MediaPortal Version: 0.2.2
MediaPortal Skin: BlueTwo wide
Windows Version: Windows XP SP2, as up-to-date as possible
CPU Type: Intel Centrino Duo T2300 1,6GHz
HDD: 2x Fujitsu 40 GB SATA150 - Performance Raid
Memory: 1024MB DDR2 VRAM
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 7600 Go
Video Card driver: 84.69 (latest version for my card, modified so it runs on my laptop - downloaded from laptopvideo2go.com)
TV Card: AverMedia H/W MPEG Card M115 (DVB-T, analog cable/antenna)
TV Card Driver: 3.3.23.20
Sound Card: Realtek High Definition Audio ALC883
Sound Card Driver: 5.00.10.5242
Remote: Acer RC-802

i guess i have kind of the same problem.
until yesterday late night, everything worked fine (at least i could watch tv), i watched a movie and then did something else on my comp, with MP still in background. like half an hour later, i was going to close MP and headding for bed. well i didnt even notice that i didnt hear any sound from tv, and when i saw the black tv window i was like "hmm, something is not right here"
i did a new scan, it looks like MP does find all the channels, just the screen is black and i can't hear any sound too.
i checked my settings and everything looked ok, except the fact that MP sometimes likes to switch my language back to english for some reason.
video playback is fine, audio playback is fine, cannot check if tv is shown correctly in other apps (since i have no other apps right now) but since MP does find my channels, i guess TV is fine as well - so i'd take a step in the blue and say it must be a problem within MP :?

any idea what might have happened to my system, or even how to fix it

 

[Taipan]

This might be a clue (from your Configuration.log file):-

2007-01-27 01:17:00.015625 [Info.][7]: DirectshowUtil. Failed to add filter: Default DirectSound Device to graph :Klasse nicht registriert (Ausnahme von HRESULT: 0x80040154 (REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG)) mscorlib bei System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.BindMoniker(IMoniker pmk, UInt32 grfOpt, Guid& iidResult, Object& ppvResult)

I can't read German, but it looks like a DirectShow filter (Default DirectSound Device) is not registered.

What did you do on your PC prior to the fault occurring? Did you re-register any filters, delete any files, install any new software?

The solution might be as simple as finding the offending DirectShow filter, and re-registering it with "Regsvr32.exe" ...

This Microsoft article might help you too ?

 

[diehard2]

Hi Taipan, I don't see that line in any of the logs. Did someone change their log? Please post the full log after everything fails and I'll take a look at it. You can't really unregister that particular filter, however another filter could be interfering.

 

[Taipan]

I don't see that line in any of the logs.

Its in the Configuration.log file - about 25% of the way down at time stamp = 2007-01-27 01:17:00.000000.

 

[diehard2]

That can't be good...

First things first. If you have any codec packs installed, uninstall them. If you have reclock installed (now or ever). Find the file and open a command in that directory (should be reclock.ax) type regsvr32 /u reclock.ax. If you have installed anything that could change the audio, uninstall it. If you still have the problem, I'll take a closer look at it, but this is something that doesn't typically fail