Calling all MP New Zealanders (Both of you!!) (7 Viewers)

[mm1352000]

hmm.. this is interesting.. I never looked before, but I do see a red link and a black one ("power pass" listed on the red one.. it's a 'hills' brand).

The LNB has to be getting power from somewhere. If the only thing connected to you dish is your two cards, then the card connected to the power pass port has to be providing the power. That means it has to tune first, else the LNB can't provide signal to the other card. The quick solution is to make the card connected to the power pass port the higher priority of the two cards.

my gut is pointing to an OS and/or driver and/or codec issue

Partially right. The issue appears to be a codec issue - for some reason MP is attempting to use the FFDShow DXVA codec for MPEG 2 when your configuration says to use the MPC codec. Unfortunately the restart of MP wiped the TsReader log so I can't tell for sure why MP did that. You could try changing the h.264 video codec to the vanilla FFDShow in case that is why MP tried using the DXVA codec (the vanilla version definitely supports MPEG 2), else I'd need some more logs that only show the error.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

I'd need to install XP first, then upgrade again).

Should just ask you to insert your XP cd during clean install of 7.

 

[rocklander]

I'd need to install XP first, then upgrade again).

Should just ask you to insert your XP cd during clean install of 7.

thanks very much for that I was basing my statement on the info I got over the phone from M$ support (when I was having problems upgrading windows starter with this method), but I should have known better than to accept what they said since the support person I spoke to was a complete muppet, and pretty much any of the advice he gave me was completely wrong lol..

hmm.. this is interesting.. I never looked before, but I do see a red link and a black one ("power pass" listed on the red one.. it's a 'hills' brand).

The LNB has to be getting power from somewhere. If the only thing connected to you dish is your two cards, then the card connected to the power pass port has to be providing the power. That means it has to tune first, else the LNB can't provide signal to the other card. The quick solution is to make the card connected to the power pass port the higher priority of the two cards.

okay, I'm unsure how I tell which card MP considers which card is in which PCI slot, but I've swapped the priority order of them, and will attempt the process again to see what happens.. need to restart the tv service, and it's in use right now recording for mrs rocklander (I honestly record some stuff for me.. honest I do)

my gut is pointing to an OS and/or driver and/or codec issue

Partially right. The issue appears to be a codec issue - for some reason MP is attempting to use the FFDShow DXVA codec for MPEG 2 when your configuration says to use the MPC codec. Unfortunately the restart of MP wiped the TsReader log so I can't tell for sure why MP did that. You could try changing the h.264 video codec to the vanilla FFDShow in case that is why MP tried using the DXVA codec (the vanilla version definitely supports MPEG 2), else I'd need some more logs that only show the error.

one thing to consider is that I get this same issue on my XP client that connects to the mp (win7) server.. (the bedroom Dell is still XP).
does that mean that this is actually a server issue rather than client? I mean, exact same error appearing on the two different OSs attaching to the win7 server?

well so far so good. I've swapped the priority order and done some extensive channel swapping, rebooted and done it again, and it's yet to fail.
went to the bedroom and tested there, same results. all good

will test tomorrow local mp client on the server itself at the same time as recording another channel and watching different channels on the bedroom client, but at this stage I think it's pretty promising.

many thanks to mm1352000 and Bleazle for the advice here.. you're on fire doods.


now to mess it all up again with an install of the winfast HD card over at this thread ha ha

 

[Bleazle]

....perhaps my mp likes to take out a couple of hours for dinner?

Haha - you could be on to something there!

hmm.. this is interesting.. I never looked before, but I do see a red link and a black one ("power pass" listed on the red one.. it's a 'hills' brand).

The LNB has to be getting power from somewhere. If the only thing connected to you dish is your two cards, then the card connected to the power pass port has to be providing the power. That means it has to tune first, else the LNB can't provide signal to the other card. The quick solution is to make the card connected to the power pass port the higher priority of the two cards.

That sounds like what I was saying? Whenever I pull my HTPC apart I make sure that the card with the highest priority is marked so that I know to connect it to the "power pass" on the splitter - I think it was mcraenz that gave me this pointer a long time ago.

.. need to restart the tv service, and it's in use right now recording for mrs rocklander (I honestly record some stuff for me.. honest I do)

... I don't believe you... I think you're under Mrs Rocklanders thumb

.....well so far so good. I've swapped the priority order and done some extensive channel swapping, rebooted and done it again, and it's yet to fail.

went to the bedroom and tested there, same results. all good

OK, I'm just going to assume it was MP you were testing in the bedroom

Hope it's all sorted for your sake, Mrs Rocklander must be getting p!ssed with all of this and the WAF must be pretty low at the moment! .... maybe one day you'll record something for yourself... if Mrs Rocklander lets you

Bleazle

 

[mm1352000]

That sounds like what I was saying?

Yep, credit to you for that one.

@rocklander: It might be an idea to get an all-ports-power-pass-splitter next time you're out buying a splitter. Makes things much more flexible.

 

[rocklander]

it'll likely become redundant anyway once I go HD. wont need more than one satellite signal, and that'd only be for the EPG. with that in mind, I'm guessing if I only have one card (and therefore one cable) I wont need to worry about priority? I mean if/when I get the winfast working properly on this I'd prolly want that to be the higher priority so that I get HD content by preference?

 

[mm1352000]

with that in mind, I'm guessing if I only have one card (and therefore one cable) I wont need to worry about priority? I mean if/when I get the winfast working properly on this I'd prolly want that to be the higher priority so that I get HD content by preference?

What you'd have to do is:
1. Disable EPG grabbing on the DVB-T tuners.
2. Increase the priority of the DVB-T tuners above the DVB-S tuner(s).

You may even want to go to the extreme of only mapping TV One, TV 2 and TV 3 to the satellite tuner for EPG grabbing (I *think* that can be done).

mm

 

[rocklander]

thanks again mm.. further testing has revealed this to be very stable now, although after 1700 hours tonight I'll be totally comfortable that it's all good ;-)
I will hold off making any calls about the next move.. think it may be best to see if I can get the EPG working with some epg grabber software cos it'd be nice to not need a card specifically for the EPG if I can.

I've played round with the winfast tuner too and got good results -> see this thread

Bleazle.. no way.. I don't want anything recorded.. that would mean that my viewing schedule is prioritised lower than hers!

and no.. she doesn't read this forum or I'd be up the proverbial

 

[mm1352000]

think it may be best to see if I can get the EPG working with some epg grabber software cos it'd be nice to not need a card specifically for the EPG if I can.

You could use the EPG Collector to get XMLTV format EPG from your Winfast tuners. EPG Collector can detect whether tuner are in use to avoid disrupting any viewing or recording that TV Server is doing. Highly recommend it and use it myself... -->link<--.

mm

 

[rocklander]

think it may be best to see if I can get the EPG working with some epg grabber software cos it'd be nice to not need a card specifically for the EPG if I can.

You could use the EPG Collector to get XMLTV format EPG from your Winfast tuners. EPG Collector can detect whether tuner are in use to avoid disrupting any viewing or recording that TV Server is doing. Highly recommend it and use it myself... -->link<--.

mm

yup thanks for that. I've been looking at that one already and not had much success. I think it's cos I'm unsure as to what freq to use.

wrt the actual tuner cards, when I use the 'rotorua' (pukepoto) tuning to actually tune into channels it fails. I have to use the "all regions" selection in the drop down list.

cos of that I'm unsure what I should be selecting to 'grab' the epg. remembering that vegas has only just gotten terrestrial and it's not even 'prod' as yet.. the epg is being broadcast for sure cos the TV is getting it, just not sure what I need to do to make it happen on that particular epg grabber.