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

[belcom]

Hi Guys!

I nailed the issues from last post down, and still can't quite believe it.
All my problems came from the ribbon connecting the CI with the Tuner.
For the ones using DuoFlex or Octopus the following might also work

- Power of your HTPC (and really Power off - disconnect the power cord, not only Shutdown!!!)
- Disconnect the Ribbon and take it out of the chassis
- Take household aluminium foil and fold it over the ribbon (I folded ~10 times), see attached picture
- Take household plastic foil and fold it over the ribbon (to basically isolate the aluminium shield)
- VERIFY that your HTPC is COMPLETELY POWERLESS (push the Power switch to go for shure)
- Reconnect the ribbon in your chassis
- MAKE SURE that the foil DOESN'T TOUCH anything, or it may make an ELECTRIC SHORTCUT
- Also verify that it won't touch anything in future, e.g. something drills through the isolation
- Reconnect the power cord, boot it up and see what you got

For me it solved:
- "No signal" or "Nothing found" in channel search
- "No PMT found" in logs or SetupTV "Manual Control"
- "The channel is encrypted" although your smartcard should handle it
- cryptic symbols in CI Menu
- freezing LiveTV after some time
- (rare) BSoDs with errors in ks.sys

Why this helps:
I can only guess, but it seems the issue comes from EMI (electro magnetic interference).
Every circurity which is clocked sends out an electro magnetic field. As all components in a PC are clocked, ranging from PSU over motherboard and CPU to sound card, the EMI level in a PC can be very high. Now every wire turns into an antenna, receiving this magnetic field and changes it to power inside the wire - which in turn "changes" the information traveling through the wire.
With the aluminium foil shielding the ribbon, much EMI is absorbed in the shield, leading to a better and more stable signal flow inside the shield and therefore pretects the data traveling through the ribbon.

My HTPC is now running for over 12 hours on (encrypted) ORF 1 HD, before this I did dozens of channel changes, all without a single error.

I really hope this helps for many of the "magically" issues posted here!
At least it doesn't hurt to try.

When no problem comes back within the next 5 days, I will tell DD my story and beg them to change their ribbons.

Good luck everybody and pls let me know if it was of some help.

Yours, belcom.

 

[mylle]

Hi Guys!

I nailed the issues from last post down, and still can't quite believe it.
All my problems came from the ribbon connecting the CI with the Tuner.
For the ones using DuoFlex or Octopus the following might also work

- Power of your HTPC (and really Power off - disconnect the power cord, not only Shutdown!!!)
- Disconnect the Ribbon and take it out of the chassis
- Take household aluminium foil and fold it over the ribbon (I folded ~10 times), see attached picture
- Take household plastic foil and fold it over the ribbon (to basically isolate the aluminium shield)
- VERIFY that your HTPC is COMPLETELY POWERLESS (push the Power switch to go for shure)
- Reconnect the ribbon in your chassis
- MAKE SURE that the foil DOESN'T TOUCH anything, or it may make an ELECTRIC SHORTCUT
- Also verify that it won't touch anything in future, e.g. something drills through the isolation
- Reconnect the power cord, boot it up and see what you got

For me it solved:
- "No signal" or "Nothing found" in channel search
- "No PMT found" in logs or SetupTV "Manual Control"
- "The channel is encrypted" although your smartcard should handle it
- cryptic symbols in CI Menu
- freezing LiveTV after some time
- (rare) BSoDs with errors in ks.sys

Why this helps:
I can only guess, but it seems the issue comes from EMI (electro magnetic interference).
Every circurity which is clocked sends out an electro magnetic field. As all components in a PC are clocked, ranging from PSU over motherboard and CPU to sound card, the EMI level in a PC can be very high. Now every wire turns into an antenna, receiving this magnetic field and changes it to power inside the wire - which in turn "changes" the information traveling through the wire.
With the aluminium foil shielding the ribbon, much EMI is absorbed in the shield, leading to a better and more stable signal flow inside the shield and therefore pretects the data traveling through the ribbon.

My HTPC is now running for over 12 hours on (encrypted) ORF 1 HD, before this I did dozens of channel changes, all without a single error.

I really hope this helps for many of the "magically" issues posted here!
At least it doesn't hurt to try.

When no problem comes back within the next 5 days, I will tell DD my story and beg them to change their ribbons.

Good luck everybody and pls let me know if it was of some help.

Yours, belcom.

Or.... Get a shorter ribbon. DD is aware of this problem.

I answered this a few posts back.

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...ting-cam-diseqc-82416/index31.html#post728418

Glad you got your problem solved

regards
Jacob

 

[belcom]

Right, a shorter one may also do the trick.
... I read the whole thread in the last days, but somehow I couldn't remember your post... maybe it was too much to read

Anyway, now we have 2 possible bugfixes

belcom.

Or.... Get a shorter ribbon. DD is aware of this problem.

I answered this a few posts back.

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...ting-cam-diseqc-82416/index31.html#post728418

Glad you got your problem solved

regards
Jacob

 

[Vasilich]

MJGraf, have you already tried new .39 driver?
for me it has 2 improvements: it is the first version of 2.x.x.x row, that doesn't freeze, and it doesn't have the bug with "no data/no PMT" beginning from some time until restart.
So i tested it with 5k+ tunes and it has 62 tune errors, but with all older driver versions it was never be able to tune more than 500 channels - then either freeze or NoPMT for all tune requests.

 

[MJGraf]

Hi Vasilich,

thanks for pointing me to the new 2.1.2.39 driver!

First an update to what I did in the meantime: I did dozens of tests with all kinds of setting combinations and I really couldn't find a pattern. Sometimes it crashed after 2.000 succesful tunes or so and many times the system froze. It seemed like there was no system behind crashing or freezing. The frustrating thing about these tests was that you never knew how long it took until either a crash or a freeze happened. Could be 5 minutes, could be three hours. I therefore only could start test runs in the morning when going to work or in the evening when going to bed...

Last night I installed the 2.1.2.39 driver and did three test runs since then. Two of them crashed after more than 5.200 succesful tunes with only 2 failed tunes (no audio/video) and the last one crashed after about 1.400 succesful tunes (no failed tunes). It looks like the freezes are gone!!!

Remaining, however, are still the crashes. But I have the suspicion that these may result from using SetupTV-Version 1.1.5 with TV-Server-Version 1.1.3 (which as I know is unsupported...). As soon as all the plugins I'm using are updated (only waiting for MediaSlayer...) I'll update to MP 1.2b and test again. Will report back...

Thanks for all your support!

Michael

 

[krikkit]

just tried to test my setup: 1.2 beta + 2.1.2.39 driver...

final test result:

Avg mSec:1054 msec
Failed:4
1st fail:9055
Ignored:260
Total:27139
Disc.:4877
Number of concurrent virtual users (tunes):2
Tune delay (mSec):0 msec
Each tune will last between (mSec):500 - 1000 msec
Users share channels:True
Repeat until stop:True
Sync:True

yeah !

 

[Airshark]

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

Do I need any files from here for my Digital Devices DuoFlex CT Dual DVB-C/DVB-T PCIe Card?
I am using KabelBW as a provider, just watching non decrypted channels.

 

[krikkit]

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

Do I need any files from here for my Digital Devices DuoFlex CT Dual DVB-C/DVB-T PCIe Card?
I am using KabelBW as a provider, just watching non decrypted channels.

depends on the version of mediaportal you are using... for the 1.2beta digitaldevices cards work out of the box

for version 1.1.3 you need the patch from this thread

 

[MJGraf]

Hi krikkit,

This Looks awsome! How did you get an Average tune Time of 1 sec? I always get about 1,4 or 1,5 sec. Was it slower with MP 1.1? Are These FTA channels?

Thanks for Testing!
Michael

 

[krikkit]

Hi krikkit,

This Looks awsome! How did you get an Average tune Time of 1 sec? I always get about 1,4 or 1,5 sec. Was it slower with MP 1.1? Are These FTA channels?
Michael

i have a channellist of about 40 FTA channels and 7 encrypted channels

average time for FTA channels is about 1 s (and below), tune time for encrypted channels is also at about 1,4-1,5 sec...