Encrypted HDTV channels broken after reboot (1 Viewer)

[C.44]

MediaPortal Version: 1.1.3
MediaPortal Skin: XFace
Windows Version: Windows XP SP3
CPU Type: Amd Athlon 3500+
HDD: 160GB
Memory: 1GB DDR2
Motherboard:
Video Card: Geforce 440
Video Card Driver: 266.58
Sound Card:
Sound Card AC3: no AC3
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card: FloppyDTV S2
1. TV Card Type: DVB-S
1. TV Card Driver: 4.5
Satelite/CableTV Provider: CanalDigitaal 19.2E & 23.5E
Remote: Windows MCE remote
TV: brick and mortar.
TV - HTPC Connection: DVI

I am still having trouble getting Mediaportal to work properly. I've had this problem before and basically what happens is that after a channelscan all encrypted HDTV channels work. But when i reboot... nothing. Just corrupt frames. It's not a codec issue, tried plenty and even VLC shows a corrupted stream. I've been told before that opening the streamfile directly in vlc is not a good idea, but the recordings show me the exact same picture the streaming files do.

Anyway, what i've tried so far:

- ran MemtestX68 (no errors in 12hours)
- reinstalled WinXP SP3
- reinstalled Win7
- reinstalled MP 1.1.2
- reinstalled MP 1.1.3
- reinstalled MP 1.2.0b
- bought a new graphics card
- bought a second FloppyDTV S2
- tried a different computer
- tested CAM and subscription card in a normal settopbox (worked perfect)

All of the above have been mixed and matched too. Unfortunately this morning i decided to check with a different computer and the EXACT same thing happened. It was a reasonably clean WinXP SP3 install and i just plugged a FloppyDTV S2 into it, installed the drivers (version 5.4 again), applied the DVBfix, rebooted, updated the transponderlist and ran a channelscan. Encrypted HDTV worked. I powered the system down and back up, tried again and found out the stream was corrupted. Non-encrypted HDTV channels such as Einslive HD and ZDF HD do work, so do other non-encrypted HDTV channels (MP4 or H.264 doesn't make a difference). After a rescan however... the encrypted channels work just fine again.

Anyway, this mornings test has convinced me that the hardware is not the problem, neither is the CAM or subscriptioncard. Both FloppyDTV S2's behave exactly the same, regardless of which system they are in. As soon as the system powers down, the HDTV decryption is out of the window.

Is there anything at all that i can still try to solve this problem ?

 

[mm1352000]

Hi C.44

Still struggling with this problem?
Let's start fresh, as my memory of this issue is not so good. Since I last spoke to you, I have learned two more things about FloppyDTVs:
1. Sometimes the driver takes a while to initialise after startup/resume.
2. FloppyDTVs *require* PID filtering on high bandwidth transponders because the firewire bus is not capable of handling the full transponder stream.

I believe that last time we spoke we narrowed this issue down to something related to the TV card, but just to be sure...
1. Start TV Server.
2. Trash your channels.
3. Rescan.
4. Check HD channels work okay.
5. Make a short recording of an encrypted HD channel.
6. Reboot/power-off (do whatever you do to make the problem occur).
7. Start MP.
8. Play the recording.

We expect the recording to play fine. If it doesn't then we prove that the problem is not related to the TV cards. If it does then we prove it is related to the TV cards.

So please perform that test first, and just as importantly *provide me with the scan logs and a short list of examples of the channels that are problematic*. I will examine the tuning detail parameters for those channels in depth to check whether it might be caused by PID filtering not being applied. I note that the channels that you were testing in your older logs seem to be DVB-S2 non-backwards-compatible QPSK and that PID filtering was *not* used. NBC-QPSK may require PID filtering if the bit-rate is high enough. So far the PID filter is only enabled if the modulation scheme is 8 PSK or higher...

Let's get this problem solved quickly!

Best regards,
mm

 

[C.44]

Hi mm,

i was hoping to see you back in this thread. I went ahead and uninstalled MP 1.1.3 to start of fresh. The channellist was obviously empty so i started a scan, verified the encrypted HD channels work (which they did) and made a small recording of a minute or so. I rebooted the system (with complete powerdown) and played the recording and it worked. Live viewing encrypted HD channels didn't work anymore.

I purged the channellist and logs, did a rescan, zipped and uploaded the logs and then tested if the encrypted channels worked again. They did. I purged the logs because they were probably to big/long to find what you needed to find anyway. The logs i uploaded were made during the scan.

The channels i'm having trouble with are:

NED1 HD
NED2 HD
NED3 HD
RTL4 HD
RTL5 HD
NET5 HD
SBS6 HD
RTL7 HD
and a couple more.

Thanks again for your help =)

Edit:
As for the driver needing time to initialize, i've tried leaving the computer on for hours before trying to view a channel and that didn't work either.

 

[mm1352000]

*Thank you* - that's perfect!
So could you confirm that you don't have problems with these channels (if you have access to them)?

Planeta HD
LuxeTV HD
NatGeo HD
HISTORY HD
EUROSPORT HD

I suspect the PID filter is needed for your DVB-S2 QPSK channels. Please try the attached DLL:

1. Stop TV Server.
2. Take a backup of the TVLibrary.dll in your TV Server install folder.
3. Download and extract the attached DLL into your TV Server install folder.
4. Start TV Server.
5. Perform your test procedure and see if there is any difference.

mm

 

[C.44]

Well i think it's safe to say this just got weirder.

I powered off and back on, tried EUROSPORT HD and it worked... then i tried NED1 HD.... and it worked too.

Out of disbelief i powered down again and booted it up again. Then i tried NED1 HD first, which didn't work (corrupt frames like before), then tried EUROSPORT HD which first threw "Scrambled" and after the second try it worked. Then i tried NED1 HD again... and it worked again. Very weird...

Then i made a backup of TVLibrary.dll and replaced it with the one you attached to your last post. Rebooted and tried again. This time NED1 HD didn't work either so i tried EUROSPORT HD again. First it threw "unable to start graph", then "no signal", "scrambled" and the fourth time it worked. So i changed to NED1 HD again... and it worked too...

Any idea why this might be happening ?

 

[mm1352000]

Any idea why this might be happening ?

No, I've got no certain explanation for what is going on. I do know that the hardware PID filter will be enabled for EUROSPORT HD - maybe that is why it is working for NED1 after you tried Eurosport. It is like something is not initialised unless you scan or view a channel that requires the filter first.
You've connected the power cable right?
Is anything else connected to your computer via firewire?

Could I please see the logs for when you tried my DLL.

mm

 

[C.44]

Logs attached to this post. I did a clean scan, reboot, tested NED1 HD (didn't work), EUROSPORT HD (worked on the second try this time) and NED1 HD again (worked).

I just checked, but the the FloppyDTV S2 is getting power on the 4pin molex. The FloppyDTV is also the only device connected to the firewire port.

I did find out however that when the channels work and i pull the CAM + subscription card out of the FloppyDTV and reinsert it again, NED1 HD doesn't work anymore either. Changing to EUROSPORT HD again "enables" NED1 HD again.

I did some digging of my own and i have found one or two websites that claim the MediaGuard 3 CAM that is supplied by my provider (Canaal Digitaal) is too slow the FloppyDTV S2 to properly decode HDTV. Do you have any idea if that could possible be what's causing this ? I'd go out and buy a AstonCrypt 1.07 (which those same sites mentioned would work much better) but at a 80 - 90 euro pricetag i'd rather not just buy it and see if it works afterwards haha.

Anyway thanks again =)

 

[mm1352000]

Logs attached to this post. I did a clean scan, reboot, tested NED1 HD (didn't work), EUROSPORT HD (worked on the second try this time) and NED1 HD again (worked).

My DLL looks like it is enabling the PID filter correctly. I was hoping to see the cause of the "unable to start graph" you mentioned earlier but I don't see that.

I just checked, but the the FloppyDTV S2 is getting power on the 4pin molex. The FloppyDTV is also the only device connected to the firewire port.

Good, okay.

I did find out however that when the channels work and i pull the CAM + subscription card out of the FloppyDTV and reinsert it again, NED1 HD doesn't work anymore either. Changing to EUROSPORT HD again "enables" NED1 HD again.

I did some digging of my own and i have found one or two websites that claim the MediaGuard 3 CAM that is supplied by my provider (Canaal Digitaal) is too slow the FloppyDTV S2 to properly decode HDTV. Do you have any idea if that could possible be what's causing this ? I'd go out and buy a AstonCrypt 1.07 (which those same sites mentioned would work much better) but at a 80 - 90 euro pricetag i'd rather not just buy it and see if it works afterwards haha.

I really can't comment about the CAM. Over here in NZ we really have only one pay TV provider, and they use NDS videoguard. I also don't have any personal experience with the FloppyDTV. I've tried to buy one several times for testing from Ebay.de but I keep getting outbid at the last minute. The DVB-S2 versions are also quite rare these days. All that is to say that I'm doing my best to suggest things that I've seen mentioned on the forums and things that I know about, but my knowledge is very limited.

I'm about to go to bed but I have to be honest - it is not looking good. I was *really* hoping my idea about PID filtering would help but it seems it is not effective. Do you have other software that you can test the card with, and does it have the same problems?

mm

 

[C.44]

Logs attached to this post. I did a clean scan, reboot, tested NED1 HD (didn't work), EUROSPORT HD (worked on the second try this time) and NED1 HD again (worked).

My DLL looks like it is enabling the PID filter correctly. I was hoping to see the cause of the "unable to start graph" you mentioned earlier but I don't see that.

I just checked, but the the FloppyDTV S2 is getting power on the 4pin molex. The FloppyDTV is also the only device connected to the firewire port.

Good, okay.

I did find out however that when the channels work and i pull the CAM + subscription card out of the FloppyDTV and reinsert it again, NED1 HD doesn't work anymore either. Changing to EUROSPORT HD again "enables" NED1 HD again.

I did some digging of my own and i have found one or two websites that claim the MediaGuard 3 CAM that is supplied by my provider (Canaal Digitaal) is too slow the FloppyDTV S2 to properly decode HDTV. Do you have any idea if that could possible be what's causing this ? I'd go out and buy a AstonCrypt 1.07 (which those same sites mentioned would work much better) but at a 80 - 90 euro pricetag i'd rather not just buy it and see if it works afterwards haha.

I really can't comment about the CAM. Over here in NZ we really have only one pay TV provider, and they use NDS videoguard. I also don't have any personal experience with the FloppyDTV. I've tried to buy one several times for testing from Ebay.de but I keep getting outbid at the last minute. The DVB-S2 versions are also quite rare these days. All that is to say that I'm doing my best to suggest things that I've seen mentioned on the forums and things that I know about, but my knowledge is very limited.

I'm about to go to bed but I have to be honest - it is not looking good. I was *really* hoping my idea about PID filtering would help but it seems it is not effective. Do you have other software that you can test the card with, and does it have the same problems?

mm

Well because i purged the logs that particular instance of the graph error was lost. However, i yanked the cam + smartcard a couple of times but because that didn't seem to work to reproduce the graph error i rebooted and that promptly gave me the graph error again. However i think that might just have been chance because my previous reboot gave me the "scrambled" error and nothing more.

I attached the unaltered logs. I have DVBViewer that comes with the FloppyDTV, but my experiences with that program have been dodgy at best. I'll give it a try, just to see if does or doesn't work.

As for buying a FloppyDTV S2 from eBay.de, i think i might have outbid you once or twice and got outbid myself again. Luckily it worked once for me though. And yes they are damn rare, which is why they are still so expensive to get.

I really hope these logs give you an "aaHAAA !" moment thought

 

[C.44]

Just tried "For the Record". After a scan it works but after rebooting it doesn't anymore, so basically the exact same thing.