Can't get TV Server to scan channels (1 Viewer)

[textune]

I have set up MP1 .34 on Win 11 Pro.
I have a HDHomerun Expand DVB-C tuner, which I have used for about 10 years. Until about 2021 with MediaPortal, and that only. I have used MP for over 12 years.

However I can't scan channels.
When in TV-server setup, I scan for channels:

on the first of four tuners in the HDHomerun Expand box. (This, of course, is updated with the latest firmware from Silicondust).
I scan for only one "transponder", "mux" or "QAM-channel".

This is DVB-C, and I really wonder: Where to select/specify Network ID ?
Can't be found anywhere.

Result of the scan was this:

No channel number (i.e. LCN, Logical Channel Number), no channel name.

When attempting "search for transponder list",

I get this result very soon:

A look at the channels found from the single transponder scan yields:

The channels should be named "DR1" with channel number 1, "TV2 Øst" with channel number 8 and "ZDF" with channel number 18.

There is absolutely no EPG to be found. My provider delivers via the EIT-table and a full EPG (8 days ahead) contained in each QAM-channel ("transponder").

To check before HDHomerun, I made a transport stream grab via TSReader, and had a friend who has worked in that area for over 25 years to analyze it. And he phoned me and said that all tables had the correct content.

As a second check, I also set up MythTV on a Linux-pc (equipped with Mint 21.3). And it finds everything quite well. And produces the EPG as it should, and with the correct channel numbers etc. (And, btw., here I may specify Network ID)

Friends have said to me, Why don't you just abandon MediaPortal ? It is a piece of crap with really lousy documentation, where is the database specification ? They obviously don't understand DVB-C since the TV Server setup doesn't even ask for Network ID ?

Anyway, i'll still stick to Media Portal, if this problem can be solved.

The log file SetupTV.log, contains,

[2024-07-16 22:19:41,795] [Log ] [SetupTv ] [INFO ] - ---- SetupTv x64 v1.34.000.0 is starting up on Windows 11 Professional x64 [10.0.22631.0]
[2024-07-16 22:19:41,809] [Log ] [SetupTv ] [INFO ] - Windows Media Player: [12.0.22621.3810]
[2024-07-16 22:19:41,810] [Log ] [SetupTv ] [INFO ] - ---- check connection with database ----
[2024-07-16 22:19:41,885] [Log ] [SetupTv ] [DEBUG] - ServiceHelper: TVServer - Dependencies: MariaDB|Netman
[2024-07-16 22:19:41,886] [Log ] [SetupTv ] [INFO ] - SetupDatabaseForm: Read dependency for TvService - MariaDB
[2024-07-16 22:19:41,887] [Log ] [SetupTv ] [INFO ] - MariaDB / MySQL: Use the new connection string.
[2024-07-16 22:19:42,179] [Log ] [SetupTv ] [INFO ] - SetupDatabaseForm: Added dependency for TvService - MariaDB
[2024-07-16 22:19:42,181] [Log ] [SetupTv ] [INFO ] - ---- check if database needs to be updated/created ----
[2024-07-16 22:19:42,183] [Log ] [SetupTv ] [INFO ] - MariaDB / MySQL: Use the new connection string.
[2024-07-16 22:19:42,244] [Log ] [SetupTv ] [INFO ] - ---- upgrade database schema ----
[2024-07-16 22:19:42,245] [Log ] [SetupTv ] [INFO ] - ---- check if tvservice is running ----
[2024-07-16 22:19:42,495] [Log ] [SetupTv ] [DEBUG] - RemoteControl: RegisterChannel first called in Domain SetupTv.exe for thread SetupTv with id 1
[2024-07-16 22:19:46,572] [Log ] [SetupTv ] [INFO ] - Set loglevel to: Error

EPG from MediaPortal shows:

-----------------------

(A screenshot from MythTV

 

[CyberSimian]

I have a HDHomerun Expand DVB-C tuner ... However I can't scan channels.

This looks like the problem described in this thread. It seems that MP is using the wrong symbol rate for the scan. For some tuners, the value should be multiples of one thousand, while for other tuners it should be the exact value. If you look at the tuning-parameters file:

C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\TuningParameters\dvbc\Austria.Kabelsignal.xml

you will see that the symbol rates are defined using 4 digits, which means that the actual values are 1000 times bigger. I would suggest that you edit this file and suffix "000" to each symbol rate value, e.g. change:

<SymbolRate>6900</SymbolRate> to <SymbolRate>6900000</SymbolRate>

Remember to save the existing file first, in case you want to re-instate it later. You will need to use your modified file whenever you scan for channels in future releases of MP.

I have no explanation why you are getting a different result using old hardware. Possibly the firmware on the HdHomeRun has changed and now expects the exact symbol rate instead of the 1000-multiple symbol rate.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[textune]

Thank you, CyberSimian, for this advice.
That solves one question, but raises another:
I have 27 QAM-channels, i.e. 27 transponders (a term from the satellite sphere ?), and now MP sees all these transponders, and creates the channels for them.

But I am as far as I would have come, like if I had made 27 single transponder scans manually. Now I have 58 unscrambled TV-channels:
Preview yields a fine view af the channel. And the 27 radio channels are neatly recognised as radio channels.
Thats about it.

All channels have a name made up of "Unknown " plus the service-ID expressed in hexadecimal numbers, i.e. "Unknown 2711".

No LCN channel number. To me that is a logical consequence, when I haven't provided any Network Id number.

LCN means Logical Channel Number. No EPG either - the EPG data for all channels are contained in the EIT-table in the transport stream for each transponder. So, If you just have tuned in on one channel, then you should get all EPG-data for all channels. Which is meant to be, but alas, does not happen here.

So: again: Where do I specify Network ID, or make MP to use the proper one? Where is that in the 5000+ pages documentation?

But thanks for the swift answer, at least.

I could provide a 266560 lines long xml file with all the descriptors and tables.

 

[CyberSimian]

So: again: Where do I specify Network ID, or make MP to use the proper one?

I have never used TV via DVB-C, so I don't know what problems are common with DVB-C, or how to solve them . Possibly @Pablik has an idea?

DVB-C is very similar to DVB-T (which is what I use), and the EPG in the datastream can be used by MP, but it does not appear automatically. You need to use the "DVB EPG" section in "TV Server Config" to specify when you want MP to grab the EPG (my MP setup grabs the EPG once per day, at 06:00 hours).

After you have successfully scanned for channels, and setup your EPG grabber options, you can go to the "Manual Control" section in "TV Server Config" and click the "Refresh DVB EPG" button. This will cause an immediate grab of the EPG.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[textune]

To whom should that inquiry then be addressed ?

And, concerning the EPG, I got this:

i.e. nothing.

 

[CyberSimian]

And, concerning the EPG, I got this:

You will need to setup the EPG grabber, but there is no point in spending time on that until you have got a successful channel scan (a scan that has the correct channel names).

Sadly, MP no longer has a TV expert as part of the active team. If @Pablik cannot suggest a fix for your problem, I regret to say that you are out of luck, and you should probably consider using different software for your TV and media center requirements.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[textune]

OK, that is really sad to learn.
You say "MP no longer has a TV expert as part of the active team" (my emphasis).
So, not just a DVB-C expert, but TV as such ? If nothing is done about that, then the system is in ruins.

If you should consider to attract new ressources for this, then it would be a good ting, if the dish is eatable and tasty. What i found, however - is - as I think I observe it from trying - is a very messy system. And - maybe I'm just not informed about common practises here - but where in the world are the specifications, upon which the system is built? It is like if doku is reduced to how to set things up, and then when something does not work as expected, the you are left to guess or try and after some hours of error, you either give up, or reaches succes.

We have very good and close cooperation with our provider here.

I have used MP for about 12-14 years with great satisfaction. During the Covid, at some time my provider changed equipment at the headend from Appear to Harmonic Prostream. In both cases adherking to NorDig rules, which is strictly based om DVB.org's rules, as far as I know.

Maybe it was at that moment (at the Covid period), or maybe a year before or a year later - about - but I did nothing about it at that time. Until now, where I have better time. So I even set up a Linux-partition on my testing pc so a comparison with other HTPC-systems is possible.

 

[Pablik]

Please post TVServer logs(debug verbosity level) of your scanning process:

• TvService.log
• TsWriter.log

Also it would be good if you can provide sample of the TransportStream.

 

[textune]

Thank you. Please provide me an e-mail address to send to.

 

[CyberSimian]

Please provide me an e-mail address to send to.

Collect the log files in a zip file, and then click the "Attach files" button to upload the zip file to this thread.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK