EPG & Discontinuities (1 Viewer)

[Shazza]

I am running a standalone HTPC, Windows 7 with a VideoMate E750 DVBT TV card. I have posted in the forums previously about LiveTV stutter and discontinuities. I thought I had solved it with new cable and splitter but the problem is still there and I seemed to have narrowed it down to the EPG. If I have "EPG grabbing while timeshifting/recording" enabled and/or "EPG grabbing while idle" enabled, I get discontinuities and stutter. If I have them both disabled, then LiveTV is perfect. But then of course my EPG gets out of date, I have to enable the settings and the stutter returns. This is the pattern.

I've looked at other services running and they are minimal. Could the problem be a crappy HDD? It's a 1TB SATA with 700Gb free.

Any clues?

 

[mm1352000]

Hello Shazza

Other people have reported problems with the timeshifting EPG grabber causing a bit of stuttering when the EPG is saved... however, nothing with the idle EPG grabber, and nothing persistent. I suggest you investigate your HDD loading more generally. First item to check should be that MediaPortal and TV Server's program, setting, log, timeshift and record folders are excluded from any security software you've installed (anti-virus, spyware, malware).

mm

 

[Shazza]

Thanks for the response mm, will look into this tonight and report back.

 

[LJG]

Or... you could WebEPG or XMLTV to poulate your EPG which would free up your tuners.

 

[Shazza]

I've had a look at my antivirus and the only scheduled task is at midnight I'm in bed before then lol. I don't have any scheduled malware program installed. I've given up mucking around with it tonight.

Or... you could WebEPG or XMLTV to poulate your EPG which would free up your tuners.

I must have looked into WebEPG at some point as I have it in my Plugins. Last time it ran was on 5/2/14 but I've unscheduled it. I'm thinking I couldn't get it working properly. The TV Channel Mappings all look wrong. Not sure if anyone from Australia has got this working successfully. I have it ticked in my Plugins but the schedule has the days all unticked. I'm wondering whether this might be interfering with EPG. I've now unticked it in my Plugins

Thanks for your suggestions. I'll have another play with it tomorrow and do some more testing.

 

[mm1352000]

I've had a look at my antivirus and the only scheduled task is at midnight I'm in bed before then lol. I don't have any scheduled malware program installed. I've given up mucking around with it tonight.

Okay then. We're now at the stage where you need to post log files if you want further help from me.
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_MEDIAPORTAL_1/16_Support/3_Forums/2_Log_Files

Please use follow the instructions for reproducible problems, reproduce the problem, post the zip file, and be sure to specify which channel and date/time the problem occurred with.

Thanks.

 

[Shazza]

My EPG is currently stable with the idle EPG grabber enabled and the WebEPG plugin disabled. If the problem returns, I'll post back with the logs. Keeping my fingers crossed. Back to loving MediaPortal. Appreciate your assistance.

 

[Shazza]

Hey mm, the dreaded stutter came back tonight. I set a show recording at the same time as I watched another show, with no apparent problems. When I went back to watched the recorded show, there was stutter on the recording. I followed the instructions above to create a log. I reproduced what I did, but this time the opposite happened. I checked the recorded show (on Channel 7) and it was stutter-free and when I went back to Channel 9, I have the LiveTV stutter. I got rid of the stutter by going into TV Server Config and disable and re-enable EPG grabber when idle, restarted the TV Service, went back to LiveTV and all is good. I did this on 9/3/14 at about 9.25pm. I hope this is enough information for you to be able to identify what the cause is. Thanks

 

[mm1352000]

Looking back at your log history it seems quite clear to me that you have problems when both tuners are active and tuned to different frequencies (and even on occasion when only one tuner is active). Either live TV or recordings could be affected - that is not something I'm able to predict. This is not uncommon for dual/twin tuners when signal strength or quality is not sufficient or tuner design is not ideal.

My suggestion would be to use task manager to check the HDD utilisation when the problem is occurring. If there is a process thrashing your HDD then that could explain this. Otherwise you may just have good ol' fashioned signal quality issues.

 

[Shazza]

Thanks for the analysis mm. Looks like I'll be continuing to fiddle with EPG and retuning as and when the problem recurs. Think I'll go back to turning the EPG grabber off when idle, as this seems to give the most stability. However as you stated, it does seem to return for no apparent reason. Are you suggesting that my situation may improve with a better quality TV tuner..and I stress "may"? If I feel inclined, I might re-look at the WebEPG as lisag suggested.