DigitalDevices Dual DVB-S2 Testing (CAM/DiSEqC) (2 Viewers)

[MJGraf]

Re: AW: DigitalDevices Dual DVB-S2 Testing (CAM/DiSEqC)

Hi Morpheus,

after sorting out some stability problems with my RAM sticks (very nasty...), there is now one (minor) stability problem left, which seems to be connected with my Digital Devices Duoflex CT.

I'm using:
DD Duoflex CT (with old PCIe-Bridge, not Octopus LE)
DD CI Module with Alphacrypt Classic
Win 7, x64
DD Driver 2.1.1.33-x64
CAM assigned to both tuners
MP 1.1.3 with your Patch

Settings in MPServer-Config:
CAM enabled: checked for both tuners
Card used for EPG grabbing: checked for both tuners
Allow this card to be preloaded: checked for both tuners
Network provider: generic (both tuners)
DVB-EPG/always try to fill holes: checked
DVB-EPG/always try to update existing entries: checked
DVB-EPG/enable crc check: checked
DVB-EPG/EPG-Grabbing while timeshifting / recording: enabled (2 mins)
DVB-EPG/EPG-Grabbing while idle: enabled (10 mins, 240 mins)
DVB-EPG/TV EPG-Grabber only enabled for channels contained in my cable subscription.

Problem description:
Watching and recording works for all channels - scrambled and unscrambled, SD and HD. Never had any problems while watching TV. EPG-Grabbing in general also works for all channels.
However, very sporadically, my whole system freezes while grabbing EPG while idle. No BSOD, nothing, it just freezes and I have to hard reset. It does not happen while grabbing a specific channel, it may happen while grabbing any channel. Last time it took three days while I was not at home (and therefore not using MP at all) until my system froze (TVServer-logs attached). It does not seem to happen if I switch off "EPG-Grabbing while idle" (although it is hard to say, because even if this is switched on, it may take several days until it happens. Anyway, without EPG while idle, the system was stable for a week).

The last entry in my Windows-System-Eventlog before the freeze contained in the attached logs was:
03.04.2011 21:52:22: Device 201:40000 Tune success DVBC filter 2

I've also found some posts which indicate that this may have something to do with EPG-grabbing while idle with DD Duoflex cards:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...ting-cam-diseqc-82416/index11.html#post641124
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...oniert-am-besten-92890/index2.html#post709412

My question is simple (but probably not easy to answer): Is this related to (a) MP EPG-Grabbing while idle in general, (b) MP EPG-Grabbing while idle with DD cards, (c) DD driver or (d) DD hardware?

If it is option (d), this would be very important for me, because I'm still using the "old" PCIe-Bridge and I'm still within my warranty period. If changing the old PCIe-Bridge to a Octopus LE would solve the problem, I would return the card and try to get the latter one. If it's only related to MP, I'm glad to wait until it is sorted out (maybe already in 1.2b?). It's not too much of a problem to reset my htpc every couple of days, the only annoying thing is that after the reset my MySQL-DB is corrupted and I have to drop and rebuild it (probably because MP is trying to insert some EPG data into the db while the system freezes).

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for all your work,
Michael

 

[disaster123]

AW: DigitalDevices Dual DVB-S2 Testing (CAM/DiSEqC)

MJGraf
i'm seeing the same with my mini PCIe bridge. But i think this is a driver bug at DD's side - isn't it?

 

[MJGraf]

disaster123:
Good question! One the one hand, I can't imagine that managed code such as MP can freeze a Win7 system. Freezes should only be caused by buggy drivers. On the other hand I see that it does not seem to happen when I switch off "EPG-grabbing while idle" within TVServer, from which I would conclude that it has something to do with how MP makes calls to the driver?!?
BTW: Is your mini PCIe bridge the old version, too, or is it based on Octopus LE?
Anyone else with this problem?

 

[disaster123]

AW: DigitalDevices Dual DVB-S2 Testing (CAM/DiSEqC)

No idea on which it is based it's 4 month old.

 

[MJGraf]

Then it must be the old PCIe-Bridge. The first Octopus LE was shipped in mid February: [NEWS] Digital Devices bringt "kleine" Octopus - MCE-Community.de

 

[Vasilich]

MJGraf, have you tried stress-test in MP1.2a? with it i can reproduce freeze in 30 minutes or less, and it has nothing to do with EPG grabbibg - just switching channels often enough.
DD service cannot reproduce this issue.
AFAIU it has also nothing to do with MP as i can reproduce this effect with WMC (scanning Astra and Hotbird channels, 3k+ altogether).

 

[MJGraf]

Hi Vasilich,
no, I haven't tried the stress-test in MP1.2a because at the moment I only use MP 1.1.3 (MP 1.2a does not work with newest DD drivers and no patch from Morpheus for 1.2a; I'm therefore waiting impatiently for MP1.2b ;-) ) Is there a separate stress test, which I could run without MP 1.2a? I'm happy to do so, but I doubt that I can reproduce it that way, because I'm really stressing my card when watching TV (heavy "zapper") and I never had a system freeze while watching TV.
cheers,
Michael

 

[morpheus_xx]

AW: DigitalDevices Dual DVB-S2 Testing (CAM/DiSEqC)

only a quick note to the DVB EPG grabber: it could be the source for freezes, when it's enabled. it's known to cause issues sometimes, but no dev could find or fix the issues yet.

I personally has DVB EPG disabled and use tvmovie clickfinder importer.

 

[disaster123]

AW: DigitalDevices Dual DVB-S2 Testing (CAM/DiSEqC)

morpheus_xx
what do you do with the channels which are not part of tv movie? I have some.

 

[MJGraf]

Re: AW: DigitalDevices Dual DVB-S2 Testing (CAM/DiSEqC)

Many thanks, Morpheus. I'll consider this as well!

In the meantime I did some more testing - with interesting results. The "stress-test-SetupTV" from MP 1.2a actually works with MP 1.1.3 as well (at least the channel test, I didn't touch anything else). Thanks for the hint Vasilich!

The first time I tried the channel test, it actually froze my system after about 750 channel changes (about 20 minutes). My usual "heavy-zapping-behaviour" doesn't seem to be heavy enough. I tried to get the logs, but due to the freeze, all the logs were empty.

I then had the idea that it may have something to do with the "Allow this card to be preloaded"-settings. I changed it to unchecked and did another channel test. This time it worked for 1.656 channel changes (about 45 minutes) and I already thought I've found the solution. But then again: complete system freeze. This time the logs were readable (see attached). But I can't find anyting special in them besides the fact that the freeze occured in the middle of writing a line into the tv.log. Maby someone else can find something in the logs...

In the end, it boils down to not being a problem with the EPG-grabber itself, but with the fact that the EPG grabber, obviously, triggers a lot of "channel changes" when it grabs and that either the DD-driver or the DD-hardware can't cope with so many tunes.

For the time being, swiching to clickfinder seems to solve my problems, because with my "normal" zapping, it works. However, I just can't believe that I can't get my system 100% stable... Has anyone already tried the stress test with older DD-drivers? If not, this is gonna be my next task... If this doesn't help, I read about an instability of DD-cards with some H55-Gigabyte Mainboards with USB3. I don't have a Gigabyte Mainboard, it's an Asus, but nevertheless it is based on H55 and has USB3 (P7H55-M/USB3). Does anyone have experience with these "timing issues" (see here: http://shop.digital-devices.de/epag.../62357162/Categories/Downloads/TV_Karten_DD)?

Thanks again for all your help,
Michael