New Zealand
I have a TV3 Engine with a client on the same PC which works OK. I have installed MP 16029 on 2 other networked PCs, but they display bad home pages. If you get past that, the video displays OK. Any idea what's going on? The clients are both XP SP2 machines with all the required updates. One is a laptop, the other a Dell desktop, both around 3MHz. The problem is relatively recent. I tried MP on these machines several months ago, and they were OK. I revisited them in the last few weeks and have had this problem with many SVN nightly builds. Other programs on these PCs work OK. On some reboots, the desktop shows a black window with just the menu bar. If you use the mouse and click blind, you can get TV displayed. Other times, it comes up with the 'bar code' (left) window. It is from this PC that the log is uploaded.
Damaged Home Page (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter ArnoldGoat
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- #2
Unfortunately, nobody has offered any comment on this. In desperation, I removed MP completely and re-installed RC1. The home page was fine. De-instal, and installed RC2 and the 'bar codes' are back. So something got introduced right from the start of RC2, and it hasn't gone away with subsequent SVN releases. I hope someone will take an interest, if RC2 is firming up to be a stable release.
The instance of the client on the same machine as the server does not exhibit the problem, but the machines with client-only do. Logs were provided on the previous post.
(Anyone would think I was a paying customer! Overall, it's a splendid product - just wish you would fix MY problems - this one and the duplicate recordings!)
The instance of the client on the same machine as the server does not exhibit the problem, but the machines with client-only do. Logs were provided on the previous post.
(Anyone would think I was a paying customer! Overall, it's a splendid product - just wish you would fix MY problems - this one and the duplicate recordings!)
Hi Ken - I think that the lack of response to your issue indicates that it is unique to your setup/s ... 
I gather that this problem only appears on 2 of 3 PCs that you have running MediaPortal - correct?
If so, what is common about those 2 PCs, that does not exist on the PC that works fine?
Is it the video drivers, the video card?
Does the problem occur in full-screen mode and windowed mode?
I gather that this problem only appears on 2 of 3 PCs that you have running MediaPortal - correct?
If so, what is common about those 2 PCs, that does not exist on the PC that works fine?
Is it the video drivers, the video card?
Does the problem occur in full-screen mode and windowed mode?
- Thread starter
- #4
Taipan: thanks for answering.
All 3 are XP SP2 with all patches. The one which works has both client and server installed, and is as per 'My System'. The 2 that don't work display the different but equally garbled screens shown in 4 Oct post above. The problem exists for full screen and window on both. Each of these 2 shows an unblemished home screen if I de-install RC2 and install RC1. The first (LH screen 'bar code') is a Dell desktop, ATI all-in-wonder 128, Ordinary CRT VGA monitor 1024x768. The 2nd (RH 'tearing') is a Sony Vaio laptop, Intel 82830M graphics, Sony LCD screen. If you fight past the damaged menus to live TV, the video image is fine on both. I hope you can suggest something. I wonder what happened between RC1 and RC2 that made this happen?
The only common thing I can think of is that the 2 that fail are 4:3 displays with Blue2, the one that works is 16:9 Blue2Wide. I tried Blue2 on the one that works, and it still works.
I have downloaded the MP source, and can compile it, but I don't have a clue about the design so wouldn't know where to start to look for the problem. (What's running is the kosher downloads, though!)
All 3 are XP SP2 with all patches. The one which works has both client and server installed, and is as per 'My System'. The 2 that don't work display the different but equally garbled screens shown in 4 Oct post above. The problem exists for full screen and window on both. Each of these 2 shows an unblemished home screen if I de-install RC2 and install RC1. The first (LH screen 'bar code') is a Dell desktop, ATI all-in-wonder 128, Ordinary CRT VGA monitor 1024x768. The 2nd (RH 'tearing') is a Sony Vaio laptop, Intel 82830M graphics, Sony LCD screen. If you fight past the damaged menus to live TV, the video image is fine on both. I hope you can suggest something. I wonder what happened between RC1 and RC2 that made this happen?
The only common thing I can think of is that the 2 that fail are 4:3 displays with Blue2, the one that works is 16:9 Blue2Wide. I tried Blue2 on the one that works, and it still works.
I have downloaded the MP source, and can compile it, but I don't have a clue about the design so wouldn't know where to start to look for the problem. (What's running is the kosher downloads, though!)
Does that mean that all the Blue2 skin screens display this "garbage" - or just some of the screens?
If I recall correctly, there were quite a few changes to the skin engine to introduce reflections, etc ... maybe these changes have caused what you see?
Have you tried any other skins that have been kept up to date for RC2?
This seems really strange, as it seems that you are the only user who has reported this problem. And I really don't know what to suggest - similar issues have been reported before, but they are usually caused by the video drivers. However, in your case the 2 PCs sufferring the problem have different video cards and drivers - correct?
Have you tried changing the VMR9 settings in MediaPortal Setup, to see if that has any effect?
- Thread starter
- #6
Blue2 screens all have the 'barcode' effect. Can you suggest a suitable alternative RC2 skin? I didn't spot one that was compatible. I tried Blue2Wide (even though it's a 4:3 monitor), but this made MP go mad. It locked up on startup and I had to stop it with Task Manager. By then it had created about 20,000 .png files in the skin cache folder of a white rectangle. I haven't tried it yet with the laptop client. I tried most combinations of the VMR9 settings, but the symptoms remain. The video card and driver on the 2 clients are completely different. The impact is different (see screen shots) but equally unusable. I saw a suggestion that it might be fonts? As it happens, the laptop had a hardware fault recently, and had to be reloaded from its recovery disk, so it should be free of any downloaded problems. (I did apply SP2 and the required MP updates since the recovery image was original XP).
This is really weird. I go back to the thing that RC1 looks OK, RC2 isn't. I might try installing TVE3, as that is the only obvious difference, but I am not sure if it will load with no TV hardware.
This is really weird. I go back to the thing that RC1 looks OK, RC2 isn't. I might try installing TVE3, as that is the only obvious difference, but I am not sure if it will load with no TV hardware.
I had an issue with the TV Guide and other graphics on my 9600XT system that I found was affected by the Video Acceleration, codecs, and I'll assume display drivers. In MY case the Blue2 worked well but Blue2Wide or any other wide skin didn't. I'm running an old Catalyst (5.4) but have sidestepped the issue by building a new system with the new BE-2350 CPU... can you say: S-M-O-O-T-H ???
BTW, there's a new RC3 out... give IT a try!
BTW, there's a new RC3 out... give IT a try!
- Thread starter
- #9
My desktop PC has MP Client on it, and exhibits the 'bar code' distortion mentioned at the start of this thread. I just got a new 26" LCD monitor, and a new video card to drive it. The problem just went away! Thanks to Taipan for the suggestion. The extended delay in response was due to lack of funds to upgrade the PC. The laptop problem remains. Maybe I'll try again when I can justify getting a new widescreen laptop!
Your problem is (at least partly) due to your hardware....
The minimum requirements for MediaPortal specifies a DirectX9 compliant video adapter....
The ATI ALll-In-Wonder and the Intel 82830M graphic chipsets are NOT DirectX9 compliant chipsets, they are DirectX7.... so they do not support many of the graphics operations required by the MediaPortal UI....
You may be able to play video with these units, but there will be nothing t5hat you can do to "fxi" the UI glitches.
The minimum requirements for MediaPortal specifies a DirectX9 compliant video adapter....
The ATI ALll-In-Wonder and the Intel 82830M graphic chipsets are NOT DirectX9 compliant chipsets, they are DirectX7.... so they do not support many of the graphics operations required by the MediaPortal UI....
You may be able to play video with these units, but there will be nothing t5hat you can do to "fxi" the UI glitches.