[solved] Client wont start Live TV (1 Viewer)

[Old_Newbie]

Hey all. Hopefully there is a simple fix to my problem...I just cant find what's the issue.

Symptom: fresh client installation (connected to dedicated TV server) wont start live TV. I open mediaportal click TV, then click the 'TV on' button but it just makes the click noise and doesn't start.

The dedicated TV Server (separate computer) installed with no issues, found all typically available ATSC channels and can preview each channel on the server.

The client can see the server in client config (both by hostname and IP). The TV plugin is enabled on the client. Windows firewall is off and LAV filters are loaded/configured on both client and server.

With VLC, i CAN see the server timeshifted RTSP stream with the client computer.

The TV just wont turn on. What am I missing? I know its got to be something easy/dumb.

Thanks in advance.

 

[mm1352000]

Hello

Please could you use the watchdog/debug-tool to collect and post full log files:
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_MEDIAPORTAL_1/16_Support/3_Forums/2_Log_Files

The log file you've provided isn't sufficient to tell me what is wrong.

Regards,
mm

 

[Old_Newbie]

Thanks for the quick reply. Here is the MP .zip from watchdog.

 

[mm1352000]

Perfect, thank you.

The log file says:

TVHome.ViewChannelAndCheck(): channel==null

In other words, you're trying to turn TV on, but MP doesn't know which channel you're trying to view. If you select a channel (use the "channels" menu item instead of the "TV on" item) then TV should start fine.

Regards,
mm

 

[Old_Newbie]

Uh Oh. When I click Channel, MP semi-freezes (cant move to any other selection, but can hear the menu sounds). Only way out is to use mouse to bring up the top menu and close.

I did get another clue. When I try the other tv options (like "guide") it pauses, then brings me to the TV setup menu for changing the server IP or hostname. When I reenter the server IP (already correctly displayed) I get a message "Connected to Server. Unable to connect to Database. All ports seem fine."

Does that help at all?
Thanks again

 

[mm1352000]

Hmmmm, it sounds like the client is having trouble connecting to the database on the server.

Do you run security software (particularly firewalls) on either the client or server? (Don't forget the Windows Firewall.) If so, they could be preventing the client from connecting. Try disabling them temporarily and see if it helps.


The other possibility is that the database connection credentials don't work from the client. By that I mean...
In the MediaPortal configuration, I see you've entered "192.168.75.1" as the hostname of the PC that has TV Server installed on it. That setting is used for the control connection, which I think is working.
In the database connection configuration, I see you've entered "ServerPC" as the hostname of the PC that has TV Server's database installed on it. That setting is used for the database connection, which seems to be not working.
If the client can't translate "ServerPC" to "192.168.75.1" (this translation is known as DNS resolution) then that would explain the problem.
You can check this by opening a Windows command prompt on the client and checking if the command "ping ServerPC" works.

If this is the issue, there are a couple of ways you could resolve it.

• create an entry for the server's IP address in the client's host file
• change the database connection configuration on the server (because the server config is copied to the client) to use the IP address instead of the hostname; the DB config file is found at c:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\gentle.config and can be edited with any text editor

 

[Old_Newbie]

Sorry for disappearing act. To catch up:
- The client is able to resolve the server name to the IP address.
- I disabled the windows firewalls and the AV temporarily during each client/server connection each attempt.

I am using MS SQL Express 2005. Is there anyway to check its server logs to see if its "being accessed"? I am clueless about SQL.

 

[Old_Newbie]

[SOLVED!!!!!]
The final piece, which probably should have been the first piece, was version incompatibility. My TV server version was way older than my client versions, and I guess there were too many changes in between those two that it couldn't read the database. Updating the TV server to the latest stable release (same as the clients) fixed it...with a few additional changes.

Confession time. My MP TV server is on a Server 2003 box (yes, I know it goes unsupported by MS next week and not officially supported by MP). I got it free with my Technet subscription years ago and its worked great for me as a NAT firewall, router, and DHCP server. Since that box is on all the time, it made the most sense to serve live TV to 3 other MP clients that are intermittently on. The point is that I was afraid to use a newer version of MP on this old OS. I can now verify that MP 1.11 Dedicated TV Server works with Server 2003 Enterprise w/ SP2 and MSSQL Express 2005.

--Things I learned/did to get it working--

TV Server setup:
- Install all latest OS updates and service packs.
- Install all latest working chipset and component drivers.
- Install Windows Media Player 11
- install DVB fix for server 2003.
- install MP TV server (same as client version)
- Rename TVSetup.exe.config & TVServer.exe.config to TvSetup.config & TvServer.config

Check for issues (important for multiple network adapter servers):
- Ensure TV server name resolves to correct IP.
- Ensure SQL ports are open on firewalls (if any are present between server and client)
- Ensure TCP/IP is enabled is SQL
- Ensure proper adapter is active in SQL
- Ensure SQL is listening on the correct IP/port

Tools to check/troubleshoot:
-Server name resolution -> Ping <Servername>
-SQL Server is listening on proper adapter/IP/port -> netstat -an
-Connection of client to SQL database -> telnet <server IP> 1433
-TCP/IP is enabled and adapter active in SQL -> use SQL configuration manager protocol properties
-Edit hostfile on server and client with hostname/IP entry -> C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\

Tip: After any changes to SQL or MP TV server, ensure you Stop and restart the respective service! Also reboot server after any installation/update/change to OS.

After update, I am having issues with channels some are showing red, saying tv card not available. A channel rescan found all of my channels again but also kept the old unavailable card channels. I will have to go in TVServer config and manually delete the non-functional "red" channels.

Other than that, Live OTA TV WORKS! This has been a year long fight I have been trying to win, that i have FINALLY got working. Thought I would share what I did to get running.

Big thanks to mm1352000 for taking the time to help above. Hope this thread helps someone else searching the forums.

Old_Newbie