dropouts when watching hd tv (8 Viewers)

[dvgeek]

Hello all - I too have been following this thread and have been playing with the TsReader files uploaded here.

A couple of lines of background - I'm on 1.11PreRelease - fresh install. My backend is an ARGUS TV Server. No MePo on it. My front end's are HTPC MePo for my big screen TV and a Raspberry PI OpenElec (Kodi) for my bedroom TV. And oh! - I absolutely need North American Closed Captions, so have TV Post Processing with CoreCCP enabled in MePo and I run Kodi 15Alpha1 on the Pi. I have not faced any issue with Kodi till now, except that it does not have MePo's fantastic skin and plug-in capabilities.

I've been having issues with playing TV Recordings on MePo for some time - dropouts, breakup's, freeze on skip's, etc.and stumbled upon this thread. Here is some interesting info from the same clip played with different TsReader build's:

1. Official TsReader (1.10 & 1.11) - Issues with playback in general for all recordings - 1280x720p as well as 1920x1080i. Freeze-up requires restart of recording
2. TsReader_3_0_84_4a - Like the official, but reduced number of instances - skipping back 15 seconds after skipping a commercial usually fixes things
3. TsReader 3_0_85_1b and 2a - Plays 1280x720p material okay - could not reproduce issues. Opening a 1920x1080i material crashed MePo always - tried different recordings from different stations all 1920x1080i (CBS&NBC) crash and 1280x720p (ABC&FOX) play fine.

Log files for case (1) and (3) are attached - these are with registry key turned on for buffer debugging, as suggested in one of the earlier posts. I could not make out anything from the logs.

Thanks.

 

[mm1352000]

My backend is an ARGUS TV Server.

That can make a big difference.
Any chance of testing with TV Server?

 

[Owlsroost]

*All* of the older TsReader.ax binaries (including the ones in this tread, to date) are incompatible with MP 1.11 - they are likely to crash MP.
If you want to try the older TsReader versions, install MP 1.10 instead.

 

[dvgeek]

@Owlsroost - Thanks - didn't expect that - will do so. Thanks again...

@mm1352000 - I would have suspected that it could be the case if the ArgusTV recorded file had any issues with any other software (XBMX/Kodi), WMP/WMC, VideRedo, etc. Only MePo with the tsreader 3_0_85_1b or 2a crashes while trying to open a 1920x1080 recording. Whether I try to open it from the listing in TV Recordings or the listing in Videos - as both use different methods in opening the file to play. Even tried forcing RTSP / UNC - still crashes MePo. Owlsroost's explanation makes more sense now - will be going back 1.10 and trying it out.

By the way - Reason I use ARGUS on the backend - there is yet a scheduler to be developed to beat theirs. I know I could use their scheduler and MePo TVService recorder, but I like to keep things simple - and using MePo TVServer on the backend adds one more software into the mix. And basically both the recorders are triggered by the scheduler to just capture the stream from the tuner.

Thanks!

 

[dvgeek]

Update for @Owlsroost
I just did a clean install of MePo 1.10 - and then replaced the TsReader.ax with the TsReader_3_0_85_2a. Some issue - plays 1280x720p recordings fine but crashes MePo with a 1920x1080i recording.

Hesitating to switch backend from ARGUS to MePo - big hassle to redefine cards, set up channels, etc. etc. Maybe will try a new build with some spare equipment lying around during the weekend and do some tests...

 

[Owlsroost]

Update for @Owlsroost
I just did a clean install of MePo 1.10 - and then replaced the TsReader.ax with the TsReader_3_0_85_2a. Some issue - plays 1280x720p recordings fine but crashes MePo with a 1920x1080i recording.

Hesitating to switch backend from ARGUS to MePo - big hassle to redefine cards, set up channels, etc. etc. Maybe will try a new build with some spare equipment lying around during the weekend and do some tests...

Can you attach logs for the crash please ? (Use the MP log collector so we get all the logs)

 

[dvgeek]

@Owlsroost - Here are the logs collected through watchdog.

Steps followed:
1. Backed up and replaced TsReader.ax with TsReader.ax_3085_2a (renamed to TsReader.ax)
2. Started MediaPortalConfiguration and set log level to debug and turned watchdog on
3. Registry Key for TsReader Buffer Debugging turned on
4. I cleared out all logs
5. Started MediaPortal
6. Went to TV->TV Recordings
7. Picked a 1280x720p recording to play - confirmed it can play by playing for 15 to 20 seconds and stopped
8. Picked a 1920x1080i recording to play
9. MediaPortal crashed.
10 Watchdog logs collected.
11. Switched back to original TsReader.ax
12. Confirmed it can play both files.

Attaching the logs.

 

[Owlsroost]

@Owlsroost - Here are the logs collected through watchdog.

Steps followed:
1. Backed up and replaced TsReader.ax with TsReader.ax_3085_2a (renamed to TsReader.ax)
2. Started MediaPortalConfiguration and set log level to debug and turned watchdog on
3. Registry Key for TsReader Buffer Debugging turned on
4. I cleared out all logs
5. Started MediaPortal
6. Went to TV->TV Recordings
7. Picked a 1280x720p recording to play - confirmed it can play by playing for 15 to 20 seconds and stopped
8. Picked a 1920x1080i recording to play
9. MediaPortal crashed.
10 Watchdog logs collected.
11. Switched back to original TsReader.ax
12. Confirmed it can play both files.

Attaching the logs.

Can you confirm that you have the VC2013 x86 version redistributable installed please ? (note the x64 version does not install the x86 version as well)

 

[dvgeek]

Yes - both installed.

 

[Owlsroost]

OK....the logs are interesting - something is not happening that should happen, but there is no clue as to why.

Does it crash with 1080i if you disable CC in TV settings and disable CoreCC filter in TV post processing ?