Channel changing slow! (5-7sec) (1 Viewer)

atlaz

Portal Member
January 1, 2007
7
0
Home Country
Finland Finland
TV-Server Version: 1
MediaPortal Version: 1
MediaPortal Skin: Blue3
Windows Version: Windows XP SP3
CPU Type: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050E AM2
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200 500Gb
Memory: 4Gb kingston 800Mhz DDR2
Motherboard: MSI K9A2VM-F V2
Video Card: MSI GF 7300GS 256MB PCI-E DDR-2 SILENT
Video Card Driver: nvidia 178.24
Sound Card: integrated by Realtek® ALC888/ALC662
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card: AzureWave CP400 (twinHan)
1. TV Card Type: DVB-C
1. TV Card Driver: 20080402_MantisDriver_V1.1.0.400
2. TV Card:
2. TV Card Type:
2. TV Card Driver:
3. TV Card:
3. TV Card Type:
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec: Cyberlink Video/SP Decoder
MPEG2 Audio Codec: Cyberlink audio decoder (twinhan)
h.264 Video Codec: Cyberlink H.264/AVC decoder (azurewave)
Satelite/CableTV Provider: VLP (Vaasan läänin puhelin)
HTPC Case: Antec Fusion Remote Eu
Cooling:
Power Supply: Chieftec PSU 450W
Remote: Antec Fusion Remote Eu
TV: Thomson 32"
TV - HTPC Connection: S-Video



Hello.
Im just got my first HTPC and the channel changing is very slow. Takes up to 5-7 seconds (minimum).

Running a freshly installed windows XP with SP3. Installed ffdshow, divx and xvid codecs.
I run the hotfix (dvb-hotfix), no change there.

Also the channels YLE (finnish) don't work as supposed. The picture is "jumpy" but the audio is fine. Its like when i view the YLE channels, the whole computer is stressed, menus are slower and jumpy etc.

I updated all drivers for mobo, graphics card and tv-card.

Any ideas?
 

tourettes

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  • January 7, 2005
    17,301
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    DVB in Finland should be working pretty well, I have been using (and developing) MP for few years, so the stream itself shouldn't cause any issues.

    I even use the same video codec as you. But for audio Cyberlink is known to cause lot of issues, so I would recomend you to try ffshow codec. If that doesn't help please post all logs, maybe those will show some errors.
     

    atlaz

    Portal Member
    January 1, 2007
    7
    0
    Home Country
    Finland Finland
    Hi,

    The problem did not go away when i tried to use ffdshow as audio coded. But it did spawn another problem.
    When i start "my tv" audio is fine, but picture still jumpy on YLE-channels. If i change channel to a scrambled channel, for example Swedish TV3, audio disappears for all channels. Im using it on CAM. If I change the channel to something that is not scrambled the audio stays fine.

    Also sometimes when i change channels back and forth from the scrambled channels to the normal cable channels i get this message
    "Unable to tune
    Unable to start timeshifting
    Unable to start graph"

    I came to the conclusion that the real problem for me now isn't at all that the channel switching is slow, but mostly that the YLE-channels are jumpy. They are the only channels that send picture, audio and subtitles separated while the other channels, does this make any difference?
     

    tourettes

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  • January 7, 2005
    17,301
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    08-01-2009 14:38:09.328 [574]Video Continuity error... 6 ( prev 4 )
    08-01-2009 14:38:09.328 [dcc]Video Continuity error... 4 ( prev 2 )
    08-01-2009 14:38:09.343 [dcc]Video Continuity error... 8 ( prev 6 )
    08-01-2009 14:38:09.343 [dcc]Video Continuity error... b ( prev 9 )
    08-01-2009 14:38:09.437 [574]aud:set discontinuity
    08-01-2009 14:38:09.484 [dcc]vid:set discontinuity
    08-01-2009 14:38:10.046 [574]Video Continuity error... 9 ( prev 7 )
    08-01-2009 14:38:10.046 [574]Video Continuity error... f ( prev d )
    08-01-2009 14:38:10.046 [dcc]vid:set discontinuity
    08-01-2009 14:38:10.156 [574]Video Continuity error... 9 ( prev 6 )
    08-01-2009 14:38:10.156 [574]Video Continuity error... 6 ( prev 3 )
    08-01-2009 14:38:10.156 [dcc]vid:set discontinuity
    08-01-2009 14:38:10.250 [574]Video Continuity error... e ( prev c )
    08-01-2009 14:38:10.250 [574]Video Continuity error... 3 ( prev 1 )
    08-01-2009 14:38:10.250 [574]Video Continuity error... e ( prev c )
    08-01-2009 14:38:10.312 [574]Video Continuity error... 5 ( prev 3 )
    08-01-2009 14:38:10.312 [dcc]vid:set discontinuity
    08-01-2009 14:38:10.406 [dcc]vid:set discontinuity
    08-01-2009 14:38:11.578 [574]Video Continuity error... 6 ( prev 4 )
    08-01-2009 14:38:11.781 [dcc]vid:set discontinuity
    08-01-2009 14:38:11.843 [574]Video Continuity error... 5 ( prev 3 )
    08-01-2009 14:38:11.937 [574]Video Continuity error... 9 ( prev 7 )
    08-01-2009 14:38:11.937 [574]Video Continuity error... b ( prev 9 )
    08-01-2009 14:38:11.937 [574]Video Continuity error... 0 ( prev e )
    08-01-2009 14:38:11.937 [574]Video Continuity error... 4 ( prev 1 )
    08-01-2009 14:38:12.000 [574]Video Continuity error... 3 ( prev 1 )
    08-01-2009 14:38:12.203 [574]Video Continuity error... 1 ( prev f )
    08-01-2009 14:38:12.250 [574]Video Continuity error... 2 ( prev 0 )
    08-01-2009 14:38:12.250 [574]Video Continuity error... 8 ( prev 6 )
    08-01-2009 14:38:12.250 [574]Video Continuity error... c ( prev a )
    08-01-2009 14:38:12.328 [dcc]vid:set discontinuity
    08-01-2009 14:38:12.343 [574]Video Continuity error... d ( prev b )
    08-01-2009 14:38:12.343 [574]Video Continuity error... 2 ( prev 0 )
    08-01-2009 14:38:12.359 [574]Video Continuity error... e ( prev c )
    08-01-2009 14:38:12.375 [dcc]vid:set discontinuity
    08-01-2009 14:38:12.406 [574]Video Continuity error... d ( prev b )
    08-01-2009 14:38:12.406 [dcc]Video Continuity error... 5 ( prev 2 )
    08-01-2009 14:38:12.406 [dcc]vid:set discontinuity
    08-01-2009 14:38:12.500 [574]Video Continuity error... e ( prev c )
    08-01-2009 14:38:12.562 [dcc]vid:set discontinuity
    08-01-2009 14:38:13.078 [dcc]Video Continuity error... 5 ( prev 3 )

    Looks like the signal is not good. Lot of errors in the stream itself. Try replacing the antenna cable etc.

    As a "dirty" workaround you can create following empty text file "C:\RelaxTsReaderForBadReception.txt". It will relax the error checking and feed the broken TS packets to the codecs (so they will display some garbage on screen, but the stuttering should be reduced somewhat).
     

    atlaz

    Portal Member
    January 1, 2007
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    Duh. A real PEBKAC-error.

    Sure enough when i removed my cabel splitter YLE-channels stopped to stutter. I wonder why they worked OK with my old box?


    So this leaves only the channel changing problem. Do you know if i am able to try out some other drivers for my TV-CARD or install any other codecs?

    I tested with progDVB-software and the channel change was FAST while you change channels in the same band (kanavanippu??). But when i for example change from A-band to B-Band, the changing takes 5-7seconds.
     

    tourettes

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  • January 7, 2005
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    Duh. A real PEBKAC-error.

    Sure enough when i removed my cabel splitter YLE-channels stopped to stutter. I wonder why they worked OK with my old box?

    Sometimes the logs reveal nice things :) I would assume that the old box was not as as picky as new one when it comes to signal quality.

    So this leaves only the channel changing problem. Do you know if i am able to try out some other drivers for my TV-CARD or install any other codecs?

    I tested with progDVB-software and the channel change was FAST while you change channels in the same band (kanavanippu??). But when i for example change from A-band to B-Band, the changing takes 5-7seconds.

    For me the Cyberlink audio codec causes slow zapping (video takes ages to start to display).
     

    atlaz

    Portal Member
    January 1, 2007
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    No change in zapping speed when using MPA Decoder :/ (or any other codec in the list)
     

    mtjoernelund

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    April 28, 2008
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    I suppose you have seen this but will post anyway - just in case. In mediaportal configuration under general settings -> OSD you can set a zap-timeout, which causes MP to wait the set amount of seconds before changing the channel. I think the default value is three. If you adjust that to zero you cut of three seconds wait.
     

    atlaz

    Portal Member
    January 1, 2007
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    Finland Finland
    The default value was two (2) secs. Either way, my 5-7sec count was after the delay.

    Im having major problems now with "Unable to tune channel. Unable to start timeshift, unable to start graph".

    I have a gutfeeling that its timeshifting thats playing a trick on me here. To bad it can't be disabled.... .... .... ...
     

    kszabo

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  • December 6, 2007
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    if you want to be sure that this is not a PC/OS/software/codec config problem, consider this:

    1. make image of your C: drive (with bootable medium)
    2. make a new clean install of XP (+patches) or vista
    3. install only haali splitter, cyberlink PDVD7 or 8, DirectVobSub (maybe AC3filter), ffdsow; no divX etc!
    4. actual driver of TV-Card
    5. Mediaportal clean new install with MS SQL, set codecs of your choice (cyberlink for mpg and h264, for audio )mpa, ffdshow or AC3filter
    6. clean new scan of channels
    7. enjoy fast channel switches (first tune is always slower)

    not happy? recover your old OS from your image. This whole procedure takes 1-2 hours but not days searching for the solution/bug

    I have this several times behind me... (now I have dualboot for testing things :) ) Last time I could not play normal DVDs and .mkv files (h264). Everything else worked in MP and DVDs and .mkvs worked outside of MP. Same codecs/graph. Very strange. I would guess you have similar problem (only guessing though)
     

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