Dvico FusionHDTV DVB-T card hangs with AC3 channels (1 Viewer)

[rtv]

Could you please check your codecs with graphedit and tell me what actually is used by MP for ac3 playback?

 

[samuel337]

Windows Version: Windows XP SP2
CPU Type: AMD Athlon XP 2600+
Memory: 512MB
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-N400L
Motherboard Chipset: Nvidia nForce2 Ultra
Motherboard Bios: F11
Video Card: Creative FX5200
Video Card Driver: Latest Forceware
Sound Card: on-board
Sound Card AC3: N/A
Sound Card Driver: nVidia nForce driver
1. TV Card: Dvico FusionHDTV DVBT Plus
1. TV Card Type: DVBT
1. TV Card Driver: 3.3
Video Codec: Mpeg2Dec Filter
Audio Codec: MPEG/AC3/DTS/LPCM Audio Decoder

Taipan asked me to see if I can confirm this. Unfortunately, I cannot reproduce the problem.

Using channel 10 SD (HD works too, but really bad performance - laggy and out of sync; probably due to my codec settings) as a test channel, I can watch it without any problems. According to the mediaportal logs, it is an AC3 channel (I was watching Huey's Cooking Adventures ) and looking at the settings, it does have an AC3 PID of 651. The audio PID is 650.

Looking at the graph that MP creates, it uses the codecs listed above.

Even when I use TEN HD, which has no audio PID, only an AC3 PID of 672, the audio is ok (I'm having problems getting the video and audio together as I mentioned above, but I don't think that's related to this problem).

If there's any other info or tests you want me to do, let me know.

Sam
p.s. I'm in Melbourne metro btw.

 

[Taipan]

I have done some more testing and I don't think that my initial description of the problem is very accurate. Let me see if I can describe it better...

The following description applies to the Standard Definition channels only, and to any CVS in March.

We have 6 "free-to-air" DVB-T channels in Melbourne.

• Three of them (7, ABC2 and SBS) do not transmit AC3 audio (I will call these the non-AC3 group), so the AC3 PID value for those channels is 0.

• The other three (9, 10 and ABC) do transmit AC3 audio (I will call these the AC3 group), so the AC3 PID has a 3-digit value.

When I use the Dvico FusionHDTV to watch TV, and I try to change channels, it works OK when I change to another channel within the same "AC3 group" (for example from 9 to 10), but MP freezes when I change to a channel in the other "AC3 group".

For example, if I am watching a non-AC3 channel (7, for eg) and I then try to change to an AC3 channel (10 for eg), then MP will freeze.

Similarly, the reverse applies - if I am watching a channel in the AC3 group and I try to change to a channel in the non-AC3 group, MP freezes.

This is the error message that I get in the MediaPortal.log:-

12/03/2006 10:11:55 AM DVBGraphBDA:FAILED cannot connect pins:0x80040217
12/03/2006 10:11:55 AM DVBGraphBDA:Failed to connect samplegrabber filter->mpeg2 demultiplexer


I can happily switch between channels within either group (the AC3 group, or the non-AC3 group) without MP freezing!

And, if I use my other DVB-T card (a DNTVLive! LP) I don't get this error....


These are the steps to reproduce this problem, :-

1. Go into My TV and select a channel. Note if it belongs to the AC3 group or the non-AC3 group.

2. Change to another channel in the same group and verify that it changes OK.

3. Wait about 30 seconds and then select a channel in the other AC-3 group.

4. For me, at this point MP will freeze. I can exit with ALT+F4, but MediaPortal.exe will still be running and I have to use Task Manager to kill it.

Please let me know if you are able, or unable to reproduce this problem....

 

[imported_jawbroken]

Area: Media Portal Program
MediaPortal Version: 0.2.0.0 RC2 (2006-03-01)
MediaPortal Skin: mce
Windows Version: Windows XP (SP2)
.NET CLR Version: 2.0.50727
DirectX Version: 4.09.00.0904 (9.0c)
Audio Codec: NVIDIA Audio Decoder
Video Codec: NVIDIA Video Decoder
CPU Type: AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Memory: 1 GB
Motherboard: GA-K8NF-9 (Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.)
TV Card Model: Fusion Plus
TV Card Type: DVB-T
TV Card Driver: 3.3
Video Card Model: Nvidia Geforce 6600 GT (128 MB)
Video Card Driver: -
Video Card Resolution: 720x576
Video Render Type: VMR9
Audio Card Model: Realtek AC'97 Audio
Audio Card Driver: -

Okay, I am going to try this with just my Fusion Plus activated, then just my Fusion Lite activated, then both.

Fusion Plus:
SBS -> ABC2: Works fine (as it should: non-AC3 to non-AC3)
ABC2 -> 10: No Picture. MediaPortal doesn't crash, but nothing is shown. Clicking the TV On button (to toggle it off) does nothing.

Seems confirmed for my Fusion Plus, nonAC3 -> AC3 causes no picture to be shown, seems to lock up the tuner. Eventually when trying to exit a message came up saying "Recorder is busy", even though I wasn't recording or timeshifting at the time. If I kill the MediaPortal process and start MediaPortal again, it starts up and shows SBS fine.

SBS -> TV off -> Click current channel 10 program in TV Guide: TV comes up fine.
F9 -> TV Channels -> ABC2: No Picture. I am able to get out of MediaPortal normally though (Back to home screen, go to the x in the top right corner). This time I remember to check my MediaPortal.log. Seems like the same/similar error that Taipan reports:
16/03/2006 5:03:09 PM DVBGraphBDA:FAILED unable to connect pins:0x80040217
16/03/2006 5:03:09 PM DVBGraphBDA: try other instances
16/03/2006 5:03:09 PM DVBGraphBDA: found 1 instances
16/03/2006 5:03:09 PM DVBGraphBDA: trydevicenp:\\?\pci#ven_14f1&dev_8802&subsys_db1018ac&rev_05#4&13699180&0&3a48#{fd0a5af4-b41d-11d2-9c95-00c04f7971e0}\global
16/03/2006 5:03:09 PM DVBGraphBDA: Found sinkPin: <0> <System.__ComObject>
16/03/2006 5:03:09 PM DVBGraphBDA:FAILED cannot connect pins:0x80040217
16/03/2006 5:03:09 PM DVBGraphBDA:Failed to connect samplegrabber filter->mpeg2 demultiplexer

Then it seems to get stuck in a loop because of an invalid reference:
16/03/2006 5:11:02 PM Commandtop tv card:-1
16/03/2006 5:11:02 PM Recorder: stop cardvico FusionHDTV DVB-T Plus R2
16/03/2006 5:11:02 PM TVCapture.Stop Viewing() Card:1 TEN
16/03/2006 5:11:02 PM Exception:Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
16/03/2006 5:11:02 PM source:TVCapture
16/03/2006 5:11:02 PM stacktrace: at MediaPortal.TV.Recording.TVCaptureDevice.StopViewing()
at MediaPortal.TV.Recording.StopTvCommand.Execute(CommandProcessor handler)
at MediaPortal.TV.Recording.CommandProcessor.ProcessCommands()
at MediaPortal.TV.Recording.CommandProcessor.ProcessThread(Object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
16/03/2006 5:11:02 PM Commandtop tv card:-1
16/03/2006 5:11:02 PM Recorder: stop cardvico FusionHDTV DVB-T Plus R2
16/03/2006 5:11:02 PM TVCapture.Stop Viewing() Card:1 TEN
16/03/2006 5:11:02 PM Exception:Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

So it seems like it works fine if I turn TV off then change channels (by clicking the currently running program on the channel I want to change to). However, if I just try to change straight over, I get no picture or sound (and MediaPortal eventually hangs entirely).

 

[imported_jawbroken]

Instead of disabling the Fusion Plus (like I did to the Fusion Lite when running the test above) I decided to just set it to a priority of 1 and uncheck use this card for recording and watching tv, and set the Lite to a priority of 10.

Hmm, for some reason MediaPortal totally ignores my settings for this and always chooses the Plus, no matter what I do. I tried setting them to the same priority, but having use for watching and recording tv turned off for the plus, and it still refused to use it for some reason. Perhaps this is another bug? You can see this in the following recorder.log:
16/03/2006 5:25:56 PM Recorder: card:1 video device:FusionHDTV, Transport Stream Capture Plus TV:False record:False priority:10
16/03/2006 5:25:56 PM Recorder: card:2 video device:FusionHDTV, Transport Stream Capture TV:True record:True priority:10
16/03/2006 5:25:59 PM Recorder:enable dx9 exclusive mode
16/03/2006 5:26:00 PM add cmd:MediaPortal.TV.Recording.StopTvCommand #1
16/03/2006 5:26:00 PM Commandtop tv card:-1
16/03/2006 5:26:00 PM Command:MediaPortal.TV.Recording.StopTvCommand time:15.625 msec
16/03/2006 5:26:00 PM Recorder: Cardvico FusionHDTV DVB-T Plus R2 idle
16/03/2006 5:26:00 PM Recorder: Cardvico FusionHDTV DVB-T Lite R2 idle
16/03/2006 5:26:01 PM add cmd:MediaPortal.TV.Recording.ViewTvCommand #1
16/03/2006 5:26:01 PM Command: view tv channelBS
16/03/2006 5:26:01 PM Recorder: find free card
16/03/2006 5:26:01 PM Commandtop tv card:0
16/03/2006 5:26:01 PM Recorder: use free card Dvico FusionHDTV DVB-T Plus R2 prio:10 namevico FusionHDTV DVB-T Plus R2
16/03/2006 5:26:01 PM Recorder: start watching on cardvico FusionHDTV DVB-T Plus R2 channelBS
16/03/2006 5:26:03 PM Recorder: tv channel changedBS
16/03/2006 5:26:03 PM Command:MediaPortal.TV.Recording.ViewTvCommand time:2468.75 msec
16/03/2006 5:26:03 PM Recorder: Cardvico FusionHDTV DVB-T Plus R2 view tv channelBS
16/03/2006 5:26:03 PM Recorder: Cardvico FusionHDTV DVB-T Lite R2 idle
16/03/2006 5:26:10 PM add cmd:MediaPortal.TV.Recording.StopTvCommand #1
16/03/2006 5:26:10 PM Commandtop tv card:-1
16/03/2006 5:26:10 PM Recorder: stop cardvico FusionHDTV DVB-T Plus R2
16/03/2006 5:26:10 PM Command:MediaPortal.TV.Recording.StopTvCommand time:62.5 msec
16/03/2006 5:26:10 PM Recorder: Cardvico FusionHDTV DVB-T Plus R2 idle
16/03/2006 5:26:10 PM Recorder: Cardvico FusionHDTV DVB-T Lite R2 idle
16/03/2006 5:26:11 PM add cmd:MediaPortal.TV.Recording.StopTvCommand #1
16/03/2006 5:26:11 PM Commandtop tv card:-1
16/03/2006 5:26:11 PM Command:MediaPortal.TV.Recording.StopTvCommand time:0 msec
16/03/2006 5:26:11 PM Recorder: Cardvico FusionHDTV DVB-T Plus R2 idle
16/03/2006 5:26:11 PM Recorder: Cardvico FusionHDTV DVB-T Lite R2 idle
16/03/2006 5:26:11 PM Recorder:disable dx9 exclusive mode
16/03/2006 5:26:13 PM Recordertop all tuners
16/03/2006 5:26:13 PM Recordertop cardvico FusionHDTV DVB-T Plus R2
16/03/2006 5:26:13 PM Recordertop cardvico FusionHDTV DVB-T Lite R2
16/03/2006 5:26:13 PM Commandprocessor stopped

I eventually get it to use the Lite by deassigning all the channels from the Plus.


Fusion Lite Testing:
SBS -> ABC2: Works fine.
ABC2 -> 10: No picture or sound. I manage to get out of MediaPortal normally.

My mediaportal.log is 19.3MB in size, which I just noticed. It is because of the same loop as above, trying to dereference an invalid reference over and over again. Better error handling is needed here, no wonder it chugs away when this happens. Same failed to connect pin error as above. My log folder is over 150MB at this point, so I clear it.

SBS -> TV off -> Click current channel 10 program in TV Guide: Works fine.
F9 -> TV Channels -> ABC2: No picture or sound. Same errors in log file as before.

At this point it seems like the bug is pretty much confirmed from my end. I will do another test as soon as possible to see if this effects recording as well as viewing.

Perhaps an option can be added to do "safe" channel changing? It would be slow but would do the same thing as turning off TV, then turning it on tuned to the new channel? That is if no fix can be found for this. I would be happy to not have AC3 sound at all, I don't believe I am using it at the moment, so that is another thing that could have an option in the configuration. I know some people won't feel this way, however.

I will get back to you as soon as I get time to do a recording test of the same issue.

 

[imported_jawbroken]

Back-to-Back recordings: Fusion Lite:

9 -> 10: Works fine. (This would be a lot easier if MediaPortal allowed arbitrary manual recording scheduling)
10 -> SBS: Works fine.

Seems to not effect recording, unfortunately (as this means my random recording crashes are caused by something else).

 

[samuel337]

I went from 7 SD, to ABC2, no problems.

Then, ABC2 to TEN SD - no problems in getting the audio and video, although the video doesn't appear in the correct area (it appears outside it) and the GUI stuffs up. I need to CTRL-ALT-DEL to do anything else, but the audio/video does work fine during this.

Sam

 

[Taipan]

Then, ABC2 to TEN SD - no problems in getting the audio and video, although the video doesn't appear in the correct area (it appears outside it) and the GUI stuffs up. I need to CTRL-ALT-DEL to do anything else, but the audio/video does work fine during this.

OK, so you get a slightly different result, but MediaPortal still hangs at this point - which I can assume is consistent with my findings?

Thanks for verifying this - I was beginning to wonder if it was the Dvico BDA drivers....

 

[imported_jawbroken]

Just let me know if there is any other testing I can do on this that would be useful.

 

[Taipan]

Back-to-Back recordings: Fusion Lite:

9 -> 10: Works fine. (This would be a lot easier if MediaPortal allowed arbitrary manual recording scheduling)
10 -> SBS: Works fine.

Seems to not effect recording, unfortunately (as this means my random recording crashes are caused by something else).

Hmm, that's odd that it doesn't affect recording too...

Are you sure that the same card is being used all the time? I would have expected the 10 -> SBS back-to-back to have failed....

The 9 -> 10 would be OK because they both have AC3 PIDs.