dvb-t2 tuners pci v usb (2 Viewers)

[CyberSimian]

Sorry to be thick, but how do the Mux transmissions work with DVB-T2? I always thought it was just a case of needing one tuner per stream? Are you suggesting that Ill need (or do need) more than one tuner for a single tv stream under T2? Im in Hampshire btw.

The reason that I ended up with two TBS 6284 cards (8 tuners) is because I initially used WMC (Windows Media Center). WMC uses one tuner per channel. In contrast, MP uses one tuner per MUX. So MP can record all of the channels in a single MUX, and still use only one tuner . Thus with MP you need fewer tuners compared to WMC.

As Owlsroost mentioned previously, in the UK at the moment there are only two DVB-T2 MUXes, and one of those is not receivable everywhere (in so-called "Freeview Lite" areas, usually areas served by fill-in transmitters). So at the moment a single DVB-T2 dual tuner is enough to receive all of the DVB-T2 transmissions that are available. But in a few years time (could be as soon as 3-4 years), they will start to convert the existing DVB-T MUXes to DVB-T2.

There may remain a single DVB-T MUX containing the core channels (for people who cannot afford to upgrade their equipment), but the other MUXes will become DVB-T2. At my location I receive transmissions from the Rowridge transmitter on the Isle of Wight, and that gives me 9 MUXes. But that is likely to reduce to perhaps 6 MUXes when our esteemed government sells off some of the UHF bandwidth for mobile phone use. So to be able to record everything , with no conflicts, you would at that time need 6 DVB-T2 tuners (one tuner per MUX).

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[mm1352000]

The 'unknown error' is a bit strange and ive started a thread on it in the support forum, but the 'no free card' error is due to the tuners not initialising after wake.

I suspect they're both probably caused by variations on the same driver problem, but we'll have to wait for the server log files to confirm this.

Ive tried delaying startup in tv server, but i cant really tell if its solved the problem as i more often than not get the other error also.

What is your delay setting value?

It's important to note that the delay setting has no effect on recovery from sleep/suspend/hibernate/S3 unless you also enable the PS setting discussed below.

Looking at device manager on my server shows that the tuners are recognised.

Okay.

I wouldnt know how to do this to be honest.

Unfortunately I'm not able to give you a script. However it's not too hard to create one. Further I think it's very likely that such a script would prove to be an effective work-around. You'd simply need to decide whether you're willing to invest the time required to create the script.

There is at least a setting in powerscheduler to reinitialise the tuners after wake though isnt there?

Yes and no.
Yes, there's a setting in PS expert mode => advanced tab. It restarts the TV service (which in turn will unload and [later] reload the tuners) after resume. However devcon actually reloads the tuner driver. Therefore devcon is much more powerful, and a devcon restart script can solve problems that the PS setting can't.

Yes. Restarting the tuners manually in TVserver config does solve the 'no free card' issue (as youd expect), however it doesnt fix the 'unknown error', which is very strange.

To me this is not strange as I've seen it before many times. In fact the explanation text in the general section of TV Server config even explicitly names the NOVA-T 500, and the symptoms you're seeing are the classic symptoms for that problem. Restarting the TV service is the equivalent of what the PS setting does. As previously mentioned: devcon goes deeper.

 

[eetaylog]

Sorry to be thick, but how do the Mux transmissions work with DVB-T2? I always thought it was just a case of needing one tuner per stream? Are you suggesting that Ill need (or do need) more than one tuner for a single tv stream under T2? Im in Hampshire btw.

The reason that I ended up with two TBS 6284 cards (8 tuners) is because I initially used WMC (Windows Media Center). WMC uses one tuner per channel. In contrast, MP uses one tuner per MUX. So MP can record all of the channels in a single MUX, and still use only one tuner . Thus with MP you need fewer tuners compared to WMC.

As Owlsroost mentioned previously, in the UK at the moment there are only two DVB-T2 MUXes, and one of those is not receivable everywhere (in so-called "Freeview Lite" areas, usually areas served by fill-in transmitters). So at the moment a single DVB-T2 dual tuner is enough to receive all of the DVB-T2 transmissions that are available. But in a few years time (could be as soon as 3-4 years), they will start to convert the existing DVB-T MUXes to DVB-T2.

There may remain a single DVB-T MUX containing the core channels (for people who cannot afford to upgrade their equipment), but the other MUXes will become DVB-T2. At my location I receive transmissions from the Rowridge transmitter on the Isle of Wight, and that gives me 9 MUXes. But that is likely to reduce to perhaps 6 MUXes when our esteemed government sells off some of the UHF bandwidth for mobile phone use. So to be able to record everything , with no conflicts, you would at that time need 6 DVB-T2 tuners (one tuner per MUX).

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

Wow, my heads spinning after that , but very good post, thanks. Im also running off that transmitter as im just up the road from you in Fareham (actually work in southampton). Am i right in thinking its not really an issue of having fewer tuners in the event of transmitter changeover unless youre recording/watching a lot of channels at the same time? There are never any more than 2/3 streams going on at any one time in our house.[DOUBLEPOST=1466422124][/DOUBLEPOST]

The 'unknown error' is a bit strange and ive started a thread on it in the support forum, but the 'no free card' error is due to the tuners not initialising after wake.

I suspect they're both probably caused by variations on the same driver problem, but we'll have to wait for the server log files to confirm this.

Ive tried delaying startup in tv server, but i cant really tell if its solved the problem as i more often than not get the other error also.

What is your delay setting value?

It's important to note that the delay setting has no effect on recovery from sleep/suspend/hibernate/S3 unless you also enable the PS setting discussed below.

Great stuff, thanks. Ill get my tv server logs posted up tonight and we'll see what they throw up. My delay is currently set to 20 seconds, however thats higher than i used under my old server. Thats just how its been left after messsing around with it this weekend.

 

[CyberSimian]

Am i right in thinking its not really an issue of having fewer tuners in the event of transmitter changeover unless youre recording/watching a lot of channels at the same time? There are never any more than 2/3 streams going on at any one time in our house.

Yes, the number of tuners that you have limits the number of concurrent recordings that you can make from different MUXes. There is no limit on concurrent recordings from a single MUX. MP really wins here, compared to WMC.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[eetaylog]

Am i right in thinking its not really an issue of having fewer tuners in the event of transmitter changeover unless youre recording/watching a lot of channels at the same time? There are never any more than 2/3 streams going on at any one time in our house.

Yes, the number of tuners that you have limits the number of concurrent recordings that you can make from different MUXes. There is no limit on concurrent recordings from a single MUX. MP really wins here, compared to WMC.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

Cool, so no real need to worry about getting a quad tuner rather than a dual?

 

[CyberSimian]

Cool, so no real need to worry about getting a quad tuner rather than a dual?

Yes, that is true. At the moment, the HD versions of the core channels (BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4, Channel 5) all broadcast in the same MUX, so you could (for example) record one programme from each of those channels concurrently, and use only one tuner.

How the channels will be arranged after the conversion from DVB-T to DVB-T2 is unclear. It could be that each broadcaster (BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5) will have a MUX of its own. If that happens, you would need four tuners to record one programme from each of the core channels concurrently. But that is 3-4 years away (probably).

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[eetaylog]

Ok, so ive just got home and tried again to start TV but get the same 'unknown error' message. Ive opened my log directory and attached the TVservice logs below. You should be able to scroll down to 2 occasions today (20/6/2016) that ive tried and failed to startup TV, once this morning at 7:07am and just now at 16:56pm.

Both attempts show errors in the logs, and it appears to be an error with starting up timeshifting, but if somebody could give me a better idea of what the errors point to that would be a massive help.

TIA

 

[CyberSimian]

I've opened my log directory and attached the TVservice logs below.

The logs do not appear in your post as attachments. I think that a common mistake is to fail to wait long enough for the upload to complete, before submitting the post. Note: it will be MM or one of the other developers who look at the logs -- I am not qualified to do so!

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[eetaylog]

I've opened my log directory and attached the TVservice logs below.

The logs do not appear in your post as attachments. I think that a common mistake is to fail to wait long enough for the upload to complete, before submitting the post. Note: it will be MM or one of the other developers who look at the logs -- I am not qualified to do so!

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

Thanks, now sorted

 

[mm1352000]

I've just responded in the other thread:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...-a-channel-logs-attached.134611/#post-1188277

For clarity I suggest it might be best to discuss the problems with the existing NOVA-T-500 in that thread, and discuss the possibilities of new tuners etc. in this thread.