CableCARD tuner support for MediaPortal 1 (4 Viewers)

[twemperor]

Thanks @mm1352000! Between the complexity of Ceton vs. SiliconDust, different CableCard manufacturers, and customization of networks by service providers, I'm impressed you're tackling this feature so well. Thanks for your persistence and time.

I'll try out this patch tonight, and post some updated logs tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'm puzzled by this:

Second, I see a lot of continuity errors in your TsWriter and IPTV source log files. At first glance there appears to be a correlation between these errors and the timing for attempting to stream (either timeshift or record) two channels at once. That along with the consistently slower tuner detection and persistent but random tuner communication issues... that is why I suspect issues with your network or network configuration.
...but since you're using Argus and shares for timeshift/record... there are many possible contributing factors to work through.

I'll take another look at my network setup, but I have the PCIe version of the Ceton, so I wouldn't imagine that the network is getting in the way. I'm also afraid that my recording drive may be slowing things down, or perhaps something else.

 

[breese]

MM,
Here is the Wow cable scan. I let is go all the way thru instead of stopping at channel 32 incase there is something there you might need.
I will do the OTA scan when I get home tonight and add those logs to this post.

Here are the OTA Channels
Found 52 this time with complete names

 

[mm1352000]

I'll try out this patch tonight, and post some updated logs tomorrow.

Thanks, looking forward to it.

In the meantime, I'm puzzled by this...
I'll take another look at my network setup, but I have the PCIe version of the Ceton, so I wouldn't imagine that the network is getting in the way. I'm also afraid that my recording drive may be slowing things down, or perhaps something else.

When I say "network", I mean it in a general sense as well as the literal. So to be clear, I mean firewalls and other applications (such as Argus) running services from the PC, the reliability of the connection to your router via the 100 Mb/s cable (which can impact the performance of TV Server even in a single-seat environment), and even the recording/timeshifting shares. I also note that all CableCARD tuners - even the Ceton PCIe and USB models - present a network interface to Windows. That interface is the channel for all communication and streaming...

 

[twemperor]

Hello again everyone

So, attached is a patch to fix some of the issues that have been reported for MP 1.5 PR. This patch contains:

1. The original fix that I made for Sigpi007's slow tuning.
2. The changes that breese has been testing for clear QAM tuners.
3. The promised tweak to the slow tuning (ie. twemperor's locked tuner fix).
4. A fix for the Cisco CableCARD message parsing as promissed to Sigpi007.

This patch is designed to be installed over top of MP 1.5 PR. I don't intend to provide backports to MP 1.4 or MP 1.3 at this stage (if at all).


I'd consider some of the fixes in here to be really worth having if you want a reliable setup. I want them to get into MP 1.5 [final], but that will require plenty of testing from the community to confirm (a) that the fixes work and (b) that they don't cause issues for working setups. So everybody running MP 1.5 PR is welcome to test.

Note:

• I've removed patches posted in the last few pages to avoid confusion about patch versions - the one attached here is the one to use
• [for team members reading this] I consider the patch to be work in progress, meaning further fixes may be required depending on feedback

mm

so far, so good... Thanks!

 

[Sigpi007]

Yeah, right around the time when SchedulesDirect was updating your database.

Any thought on whether I would be better off switching to mce2xml + xmlTV?? I'm not terribly happy with SD.

I think if you disable the HTPCInfo plugin you'll have MP running a lot more smoothly.

Disabled HTPCinfo... and it does seem to have corrected the sluggishness of the menu/guide. Will monitor for further confirmation. Thanks!!

For example, Sigpi007 I think the HTPCInfo plugin may have been quite a big factor in the laggy/sluggish MP behaviour that you noted, but I think your wireless network may also be contributing to unreliability in communication with the tuner which could also introduce delays at times. Then there was the [minor] CableCARD firmware upgrade message all through the log files making it difficult to spot the key important errors.

While the HTPCinfo plugin seemed to be the culprit... just wanted to mention that I am not running the TVserver over wireless. It's hardwired and doesn't even have a wifi card. Not sure if you saw conflicting info. The unreliability issue is something I want to make sure is corrected.

Then there was the [minor] CableCARD firmware upgrade message all through the log files making it difficult to spot the key important errors.

I'll see if I can update the firmware of the Ceton to remove this from future logs. May also help with the tuner communication issue with the TV server.

 

[mediacowboy]

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/hdhomerun-and-epg-grabbing.120907/

There is this forum that talks about schedules direct and mc2xml. Ya might have a look at.

MediaCowboy

 

[breese]

From what MM was saying about Network issues, is it possible your Internet connection is the issue?
I can tell you that my server can grab all 300+ channels in 20 seconds
11:21:18 Starts the SD update
11:21:38 SD is done and the channels are sorted

The other possibilty would be the drive the database is being written to...

 

[Lyfesaver74]

I use mcx2ml myself. Have never used anything else. Works perfectly.

 

[mm1352000]

Any thought on whether I would be better off switching to mce2xml + xmlTV?? I'm not terribly happy with SD.

No experience => no comment.
...but I'm sure others in this forum (if not this thread) will be able to advise.

Disabled HTPCinfo... and it does seem to have corrected the sluggishness of the menu/guide. Will monitor for further confirmation. Thanks!!

Excellent.

While the HTPCinfo plugin seemed to be the culprit... just wanted to mention that I am not running the TVserver over wireless. It's hardwired and doesn't even have a wifi card. Not sure if you saw conflicting info. The unreliability issue is something I want to make sure is corrected.

I thought you said you were using wireless N:

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...for-mediaportal-1.112585/page-36#post-1012257

Was that only in testing?

I'll see if I can update the firmware of the Ceton to remove this from future logs. May also help with the tuner communication issue with the TV server.

It is the CableCARD itself that was generating the firmware messages, not the tuner. Updating the Ceton firmware would be cool if you're running old firmware, but I wouldn't expect it to stop that message.
...and on that note, would it be possible to provide fresh logs from the server?
I'm just interested to see if that message has gone away, if I solved the problem that was causing the error, if there are new errors etc.

 

[Sigpi007]

I thought you said you were using wireless N: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/t...for-mediaportal-1.112585/page-36#post-1012257 Was that only in testing?

LOL... yes... that was only a test box. Main setup is hardwired via gigabit router. Nice thing about having a standalone Ethernet TV tuner... you can use it across several PCs. Hmm... I wonder if I ever disabled the TV service on that test box? Probably a good idea to ensure no conflicts with the tuners, especially if they are both running Schedules Direct at the same default time.

From what MM was saying about Network issues, is it possible your Internet connection is the issue?

With WOW internet... I would not be surprised if there was some goofy routing issue. But my my complaints with SD is not about download time, but more so about the hassle it is to configure it with WOW cable. I have had the same issues you had with it Breese, but as I former DB programmer, I just tapped into the database tables and manually updated everything via scripts and good old fashion typing. There was so much garbage in the "channel" db table it was amazing. I vaguely remember that the channel numbers were populating in the wrong column, which is at the source of your issues I bet. Once the SD service threw the error this week that led to the service stopping, that's when I was ready to throw in the towel with it.

It is the CableCARD itself that was generating the firmware messages

Oh hell... how do I update THAT? The last thing I want to do is call WOW cable service again. (In their defense, I hate calling any cable company to come out. You just have to love watching their eyes glaze over as you try to explain that... YES... I want to use a CableCard... and NO... its not going into a Tivo.)

Will post logs tonight.