CableCARD tuner support for MediaPortal 1 (3 Viewers)

[PABeaver]

@PABeaver

After further investigation a "real fix" for the tuner locking issue may be much easier than I thought.

Please can you try this:
1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Copy and paste c:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\ into the address bar and hit enter.
3. Open MPIPTVSource.ini in any text editor.
4. At almost the bottom of the file there should be an [RTSP] section with a parameter RtspTeardownRequestTimeout set to 100. Please add a zero to make the value 1000, then save and close.

After restarting the TV service (so that the config change is picked up) you should be able to enable the firewall and everything should "just work". Please let us know if this works for you.

I finally had a chance to try this today and I would say that it is half working. The first tuner I tried worked exactly as expected and turned off after hitting the Stop TimeShift button. The next two tuners did not and when I went back to the first one again, it also did not turn off. If I change the channel and start and stop again, they turn off as expected, but if I leave it on the same channel, start and stop they remain on. It was a short test, so I don't know if it was a coincidence that they would turn off if tuned to a different channel. I can post logs if you want.

 

[breese]

I can tell you right now it would be best to post the logs...
They will need to see the sequence of events

 

[mm1352000]

breese
Something really interesting may be happening with WOW: they seem to now be including the channel info that is normally carried out of band (ie. not receivable by a clear QAM tuner) in band. In other words, you may be able to get channel details for all WOW cable channels now by scanning a single frequency!
Please try the attached patch and see what happens. You may find that all channels are added when the tuner locks onto the first frequency. It may also be necessary to bump up the SDT/VCT timeout in order to give TV Server enough time to receive all the channel info.
In other words, this is what I'm recommending:
1. Increase SDT/VCT timeout to 600.
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_...n/TV-Server_Configuration/06_General#Scan_Tab
2. Delete all cable channels.
3. Stop the TV service.
4. Install the patch (make sure you take a backup).
5. Start the TV service.
6. Start a "QAM standard" scan.
7. When the tuner locks onto signal for the first time, cancel the scan. Cancelling won't stop the scan immediately - TV Server will finish grabbing all available channel info before stopping.
8. Post log files.

Does that all make sense?
PS: You might want to keep this information quiet. In other words, don't complain too loudly to WOW. This change has huge benefits for you. If WOW didn't intend to make the change then you definitely don't want them to change things back to how they were before.

 

[breese]

I do understand....
I am watching the logs for each lock to see if there is any channel info.
So far on the second lock and nothing yet.
More to follow...

On the 3rd signal lock it found 4 channels.
Scan continues but here is the log.

 

[mm1352000]

Scan continues but here is the log.

Could I please have the TsWriter log. TVService.log is important, but the TsWriter log is actually more important in this case.

 

[breese]

Up to 3 locks

I also tuned off the schedules direct and others to make an easier read

 

[breese]

MM,
It took a long time for the scan to complete but, here is is.
There is also a screenshot of a number of red / locked channels
Good news, there are a lot of Named Channels

I unlocked channel 2 and tried to timeshift.. it failed
TVService log might help with this...

 

[PABeaver]

I can tell you right now it would be best to post the logs...
They will need to see the sequence of events

Sorry, had a small window of time yesterday, so just wanted to get a quick note out and I wasn't really sure how much my previous logs were helping in this firewall issue, anyway.

I can post logs if you want.

@mm1352000 here ya go ...

Fresh log files. Here is what I did and what I saw with the tuners
Firewall on. Start TV Service.
I started time shifting the first tuner (13), then hit stop time shifting. The tuner was still locked.
I repeated with the other two tuners with the same results.
I then changed the channel, started the last tuner (15) timeshift, stopped, and the tuner became available.
Repeated for middle tuner (14) and the tuner became available.
Accidentally started the middle tuner (14) again on the same channel , stopped and the tuner became available.
I went to the first tuner (13) timeshifted the original channel, stopped, and the tuner was still locked.
Changed the channel, timeshifted the first tuner (13) again, stopped, and the tuner became available.

It seems pretty consistent that when the time shifting starts and stops, the tuners are still locked. They do come available each time I change the channel and stop. If I start the tuner on the same channel that it was locked on, it may or may not become available, but mostly not. I have zero problems when the Windows private firewall is off.

Thanks again for all of your time and work on this.

 

[mm1352000]

It took a long time for the scan to complete but, here is is.

Yeah, I'll bet - thanks for your patience.

There is also a screenshot of a number of red / locked channels
Good news, there are a lot of Named Channels

Yep, so I see.
The trick will be figuring out how to get those names without the scan taking 12 hours. It will take me quite some time to go through your log files and figure out what WOW are doing...

I unlocked channel 2 and tried to timeshift.. it failed
TVService log might help with this...

The tuner is simply not locking on signal. At first glance it looks like that is because the frequency has been saved as 465000 kHz instead of 463250 kHz. Please give me some time to investigate and figure out what is going on.

 

[mm1352000]

Hmmm, okay I think I'm starting to get the picture...

First with the channel 2 thing (because it is easier ): that is a bug. Now fixed, updated TVLibrary attached. Please test. [edit: to be clear, I mean you'll need to rescan according to the details below]

With the channel info...
This is exactly the kind of info you'd get if you were using a CableCARD tuner.
There is info available for 91 channels. It looks like that covers WOW's "basic cable" lineup.
Unfortunately WOW only seem to be broadcasting the info on physical channels that carry one or more of the basic lineup channels. In other words:

• the info is available on physical channel 32 because it carries Comcast SportsNet Chicago (QAM channel 32-65), which is part of the basic lineup
• the info is not available on physical channel 34 because it carries "basic with digital or ultra TV" or "signature" cable channels

Make sense?

So, in order for you to make the most of this information...
When scanning cable (SCTE):

• use tuning mode "Clear QAM Cable"
• use frequency plan "QAM standard"
• set SDT/VCT timeout to 120
• scan up to channel 32

When scanning OTA (ATSC):

• use tuning mode "ATSC Digital Terrestrial"
• set SDT/VCT timeout to 10 or 20 seconds or whatever your preference is
• do a full scan

Comparing the previous best cable scan results with this new approach:

• New approach will take about 18 minutes. That is a smidge quicker than the previous full cable scan which took roughly 21 minutes.
• You get all the channel names and numbers with the new approach.
• The channel numbers received with the new approach are not the QAM channel numbers (like x-y)... but that is better, right?
• With a full scan you do get all the "Unknown..." placeholders for the signature cable channels. Previously that would take 21 minutes. Now I estimate it would take over 3 hours. However, since you can't watch those "premium" channels with a clear QAM tuner that is probably unnecessary, right?

Although it is really awesome that you're now getting this channel info, the challenge from my perspective is to make grabbing it even more efficient. By that I mean theoretically you should be able to scan only channel 32 and have the lineup info that you care about in 2 minutes rather than ~20. Problem is that "magic" channel 32 will be different for other people, and it is not optimal to have to know how to deal with the SDT/VCT timeout setting. I want it to "just work". I'll have to think really hard about what we can do to have better automatic configuration. Note I'm thinking more in the long term (ie. next generation TV engine) - there is no quick and easy solution.

mm