Fresh install HDTV works. Reboot pc, nothing but corrupted frames. SDTV fine though. (1 Viewer)

[C.44]

MediaPortal Version: 1.1.3
MediaPortal Skin: Xface
Windows Version: XP SP3
CPU Type: AMD Athlon 3500+
HDD: 160gb
Memory: 1gb
Motherboard:
Video Card: 7600GT
Video Card Driver: 266.58
Sound Card: Realtek HDA
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card: FloppyDTV S2
1. TV Card Type: DVB-S2
1. TV Card Driver: 4.5
Satelite/CableTV Provider: CanalDigitaal (NL)

Hi all. I am writing this overly frustrated. Last saturday i installed a DuoLNB and a new dish. After a little bit of figuring things out i scanned Astra 23.5 and found a bunch of HDTV channels (that i have a subscription to). Everything worked great, nothing choppy, streams all worked, i was a happy man.

Sunday, Formula 1 of Monaco. Booted the HTPC, no HDTV channels. They were available in the list but none of them worked. Unable to play Live3-0.ts.tsbuffer. Great. Tried a lot in ways of codecs and rescans but nothing worked. Having only a limited amount of time before the race began i chose to settle for the regular SDTV broadcast while being remembered by the host that for the first time ever they were broadcasting the GrandPrix of Monaco in HDTV. I was PISSED to say the least.

Sunday evening. Still pissed. Tried to uninstall and reinstall BDA drivers version 4.5 (5.7 isn't to XP's liking i learned from an earlier install). Nothing. Formatted my drives, obviously forgot to backup any channelexports i made though. Reinstalled Windows XP SP3 (not a fan of Vista or 7 yet). Installed drivers, dvbfix and mediaportal 1.2.0 Beta. Couldn't find even 10% of my channels. Ditched 1.2.0 and installed 1.1.3 again. Found most of the channels except for any HDTV channel on 23.5E. Updated transponderlist, rescanned just the second diseqc position (SimpleB - 23.5E) and all of the sudden i see HDTV channels.

At this point i did not have any codec pack installed. I did so to inspect the stream that TV Server created without it being modified by some codec. I started a manual controlled timeshift on a regular SDTV channel and opened the Live2-0.ts.tsbuffer with VLC. Worked great. Tried the same thing with a HDTV channel, worked great, not choppy, no corruption and nothing dropped (according to VLC and i couldn't see anything out of the ordinary either).

To be safe i rebooted, checked everything again and got the same results, everything worked as it should. I installed the CCCP codec pack and it even worked in the MediaPortal program itself. I was HAPPY. I decided to reboot to see if it'd still work after a reboot and it did. Then i installed my fav skin (XFace) and MPTVSeries and MovingPictures. MPTVSeries took all night to get through my series share. This morning i quickly checked the outcome, synced with follw.it and turned the computer off.....

Tonight i wanted to show my wife what i had accomplished. First i showed her SDTV, which worked. Then i tried HDTV, which didn't. Channel scrambled. Yeah right. Tried again, unable to play live2-0.ts.tsbuffer. I was PISSED.

Quickly checked the tsbuffer files in VLC (started a manually controlled timeshift) and i saw the exact same problem i had before i reinstalled the computer. Picture size is ok, but the picture is HEAVILY corrupted. In other words, this is not a codec problem but an encoding problem.

No idea what is going wrong as i have not changed a thing. I cleared the logs, started a HDTV channel (manual timeshift in TVServer config) and checked the logfiles. I can't see anything out of the ordinary. Please let me know if you do because all i did was shut the computer down and power it on several hours later. Nothing changed at all, except for the fact that all my HDTV channels output useless files.

I attached the logs and a screenshot of what the output of the Live2-0.ts.tsbuffer file looks like in VLC.

 

[C.44]

Re: Fresh install HDTV works. Reboot pc, nothing but corrupted frames. SDTV fine thou

Just reinstalled the system again. This time around i can't get HDTV channels to work either. Live2-0.ts.tsbuffer still has the same output that you can see in the screenshot i attached to my first post. However, i did see that it apparently is supposed to be a H.264 stream. Going to do a little more searching on this forum to see if i missed anything.

Would it at this point make any sense to buy Windows 7 and install that just to get HDTV to work reliably or at all ? I know i has to be possible with WinXP too, at one point sunday evening it did anyways.

 

[mm1352000]

Re: Fresh install HDTV works. Reboot pc, nothing but corrupted frames. SDTV fine thou

Hi

I think there are several potential causes of what you're seeing:
1. Video card driver not good
2. Sat dish not properly focussed.
3. CAM not decrypting properly.
4. Codec issues.

Since you say SD channels work fine I'd be leaning towards 4, but that depends on whether the SD channels are also encrypted and whether you're using hardware acceleration (DxVA) for the HD video or not.

 

[C.44]

Re: Fresh install HDTV works. Reboot pc, nothing but corrupted frames. SDTV fine thou

Hi

I think there are several potential causes of what you're seeing:
1. Video card driver not good
2. Sat dish not properly focussed.
3. CAM not decrypting properly.
4. Codec issues.

Since you say SD channels work fine I'd be leaning towards 4, but that depends on whether the SD channels are also encrypted and whether you're using hardware acceleration (DxVA) for the HD video or not.

1. I'd love to hear a suggestion for a gpu driver to try. However, this is the same driver that i had installed sunday evening when HDTV was working just fine.

2. The sat dish is lined up properly, spent quite a bit of time getting it pinpointed but that worked out just fine too. Again, sunday evening my dish was pointed in the exact same direction and my HDTV channels worked just fine.

3. This is something i can't really comment on. Then again, it did work sunday evening and i didn't change a thing.

4. Codec issues. I have no codecs installed. I did a reinstall some 2 hours ago and i didn't bother yet because i can just use the "manual control" tab and start a timeshift from there. THen i locate the Live2-0.ts.tsbuffer file and open that with VLC. VLC is completely codec independent which is why i haven't bothered yet.

On another note, out of pure desperation i have a uninstalled 1.1.3 and tried 1.2.0 Beta again. I imported my export xml from 1.1.3 and every HDTV channel gave me a popup with a PMT error (not found or missing, or maybe invalid, i forgot :X). So i decided to do a scan to see if that would solve the problem. This time around it did scan 23.5E correctly (probably something to do with the transponderlist again) but halfway through i noticed it wasn't doing that much anymore and i found my computer frozen. Reboot and it actually did find a couple of HDTV channels already before it froze.

Surprisingly when i did a manual timeshift again and opened the Live2-0.ts.tsbuffer file with VLC i had a file that i could actually watch. Picture was good and no green bits anywhere.

I have yet to completely shut the computer down and power it back up again. Think i'll do that right now and then report back here.

Thanks again

Edit: completely missed the two sentences below that list. Anyways, All my SD channels work perfectly. I have no decoding problems whatsoever. The problem to me seems to be in the part where the TVserver writes to Lie2-0.ts.tsbuffer. The encoding part i assume. Also all of the channels that i have tried so far (HD and SD) are encrypted.

There is however one channel that i haven't tried yet but that is transmitted in MP4 instead of H.264 and is considered HD too. This one channel has played flawless for me in the past even when HD channels in general didn't work.

Also, i'm not having problems with dropped frames but with a lot of corrupted frames, which is why 80% of the picture in the screenshot is green.

Edit 2:
Just powered down, turned of the powersupply, hit the powerbutton twice to drain all residual current, waited a couple of seconds and started it back up again. And ofcourse i have discontinuities in my output again. Don't even have to start VLC. 1.2.0 Beta has a discontinuity counter in the manual control panel and it's going berserk.

Edit 3:
Just tried to do a scan with 1.2.0 Beta to get some regular SD channels to see if the discontinuity thing pops up with those channels to but it doesn't even scan. It sits there for a second, looks like theres just a single transponder being scanned and then it finishes. I'm guessing that's why 1.2.0 is still beta. Going to put 1.1.3 on it again.

Edit 4:
Reinstalled 1.1.3 did a transponderlist update and rescanned 23.5E. Worked, didn't freeze. Both HD and SDTV channels working. Going to power down again. I bet that's going to kill it again.

 

[mm1352000]

Re: Fresh install HDTV works. Reboot pc, nothing but corrupted frames. SDTV fine thou

1. I'd love to hear a suggestion for a gpu driver to try. However, this is the same driver that i had installed sunday evening when HDTV was working just fine.

I've only ever owned one NVidia (6600GT) and my current ATI HD4670 so I'm not the right person to give you advice about this. From my experience though, certain drivers worked properly with certain operating systems, and ensuring DxVA was supported was a "must" (I used DxVA checker for that). I'm currently using Catalyst 10.4 and the 6600GT is in the cupboard gathering dust.

2. The sat dish is lined up properly, spent quite a bit of time getting it pinpointed but that worked out just fine too. Again, sunday evening my dish was pointed in the exact same direction and my HDTV channels worked just fine.

3. This is something i can't really comment on. Then again, it did work sunday evening and i didn't change a thing.

Okay.

4. Codec issues. I have no codecs installed. I did a reinstall some 2 hours ago and i didn't bother yet because i can just use the "manual control" tab and start a timeshift from there. THen i locate the Live2-0.ts.tsbuffer file and open that with VLC. VLC is completely codec independent which is why i haven't bothered yet.

Ahhh, I see what you're doing now. You have to be careful with that. I've found that playing the TS buffer can sometimes not work, perhaps because of the way the TS files are written (perhaps packets are split... I don't know the technical reason, it just didn't work sometimes...)

On another note, out of pure desperation i have a uninstalled 1.1.3 and tried 1.2.0 Beta again. I imported my export xml from 1.1.3 and every HDTV channel gave me a popup with a PMT error (not found or missing, or maybe invalid, i forgot :X). So i decided to do a scan to see if that would solve the problem. This time around it did scan 23.5E correctly (probably something to do with the transponderlist again) but halfway through i noticed it wasn't doing that much anymore and i found my computer frozen. Reboot and it actually did find a couple of HDTV channels already before it froze.

Missing channels is a known problem with 1.2.0b. See here, here, here... and there are probably some I've missed. We are trialling something to see if we can improve scanning speed *drastically* for 1.3.0, but it hasn't been entirely successful for everyone. The technical reason for these issues is that some providers (eg. BBC, CanaalDigital) use custom service types for their channels. That kinda wrecks our plans... or at least means we have to change them. The issues will be solved for 1.2.0 final (if not 1.2.0 rc). For now, just remember that you will keep all your channels if you scan them in 1.1.3 then export and import into 1.2.0b like you've done. Once they're in, MP should update them when you do new scans - it just might miss adding *some* new ones.

Regarding the PMT error: please post some logs showing that. It is possible that your provider changes the PMT PID often, in which case there could be a solution. It could also reflect poor signal quality.

Surprisingly when i did a manual timeshift again and opened the Live2-0.ts.tsbuffer file with VLC i had a file that i could actually watch. Picture was good and no green bits anywhere.

The more I hear, the more I think signal, driver or hardware issues. This seems like intermittent corruption... find the cause of the corruption and you will solve the problem.

Edit: completely missed the two sentences below that list. Anyways, All my SD channels work perfectly. I have no decoding problems whatsoever. The problem to me seems to be in the part where the TVserver writes to Lie2-0.ts.tsbuffer. The encoding part i assume. Also all of the channels that i have tried so far (HD and SD) are encrypted.

Like I said above, your method of testing isn't foolproof. For results that can be trusted you really need to set up codecs and try to view the channels in MP. If you think that TV Server has a problem writing the file then it could be data corruption related to a HDD going bad or working too hard, or maybe a cable not plugged in properly. Perhaps your HDD is fast enough to handle SD, but not fast enough to handle HD when other things are happening in the operating system.

How hard is your HDD working when you attempt to view the HD channels?
How does that compare to SD channels?
Same questions for your CPU...

Note: TV Server does not do any encoding, except with analog tuners that don't have hardware encoders. All it does is take the stream from the tuner and write it to the HDD.

Also, i'm not having problems with dropped frames but with a lot of corrupted frames, which is why 80% of the picture in the screenshot is green.

I'd agree - definitely corruption.

Edit 2:
Just powered down, turned of the powersupply, hit the powerbutton twice to drain all residual current, waited a couple of seconds and started it back up again. And ofcourse i have discontinuities in my output again. Don't even have to start VLC. 1.2.0 Beta has a discontinuity counter in the manual control panel and it's going berserk.

Those discontinuities tell me there is "dirty" input coming from the tuner. I don't mean to be rude, but are you *certain* the dish is aligned correctly, your cabling is good, the CAM and smartcard are properly inserted, the CI interface cable is okay and plugged in properly, and the tuner drivers are okay? I'd encourage you to take the CAM out and try some FTA channels if you can.

Edit 3:
Just tried to do a scan with 1.2.0 Beta to get some regular SD channels to see if the discontinuity thing pops up with those channels to but it doesn't even scan. It sits there for a second, looks like theres just a single transponder being scanned and then it finishes. I'm guessing that's why 1.2.0 is still beta. Going to put 1.1.3 on it again.

If 1.2.0b did that for everyone then it would be a pre-pre-pre-alpha, not a beta. You either have specific issues with your system and/or the providers you receive channels from.

 

[C.44]

Re: Fresh install HDTV works. Reboot pc, nothing but corrupted frames. SDTV fine thou

1. I'd love to hear a suggestion for a gpu driver to try. However, this is the same driver that i had installed sunday evening when HDTV was working just fine.

I've only ever owned one NVidia (6600GT) and my current ATI HD4670 so I'm not the right person to give you advice about this. From my experience though, certain drivers worked properly with certain operating systems, and ensuring DxVA was supported was a "must" (I used DxVA checker for that). I'm currently using Catalyst 10.4 and the 6600GT is in the cupboard gathering dust.

2. The sat dish is lined up properly, spent quite a bit of time getting it pinpointed but that worked out just fine too. Again, sunday evening my dish was pointed in the exact same direction and my HDTV channels worked just fine.

3. This is something i can't really comment on. Then again, it did work sunday evening and i didn't change a thing.

Okay.


Ahhh, I see what you're doing now. You have to be careful with that. I've found that playing the TS buffer can sometimes not work, perhaps because of the way the TS files are written (perhaps packets are split... I don't know the technical reason, it just didn't work sometimes...)


Missing channels is a known problem with 1.2.0b. See here, here, here... and there are probably some I've missed. We are trialling something to see if we can improve scanning speed *drastically* for 1.3.0, but it hasn't been entirely successful for everyone. The technical reason for these issues is that some providers (eg. BBC, CanaalDigital) use custom service types for their channels. That kinda wrecks our plans... or at least means we have to change them. The issues will be solved for 1.2.0 final (if not 1.2.0 rc). For now, just remember that you will keep all your channels if you scan them in 1.1.3 then export and import into 1.2.0b like you've done. Once they're in, MP should update them when you do new scans - it just might miss adding *some* new ones.

Regarding the PMT error: please post some logs showing that. It is possible that your provider changes the PMT PID often, in which case there could be a solution. It could also reflect poor signal quality.


The more I hear, the more I think signal, driver or hardware issues. This seems like intermittent corruption... find the cause of the corruption and you will solve the problem.


Like I said above, your method of testing isn't foolproof. For results that can be trusted you really need to set up codecs and try to view the channels in MP. If you think that TV Server has a problem writing the file then it could be data corruption related to a HDD going bad or working too hard, or maybe a cable not plugged in properly. Perhaps your HDD is fast enough to handle SD, but not fast enough to handle HD when other things are happening in the operating system.

How hard is your HDD working when you attempt to view the HD channels?
How does that compare to SD channels?
Same questions for your CPU...

Note: TV Server does not do any encoding, except with analog tuners that don't have hardware encoders. All it does is take the stream from the tuner and write it to the HDD.


I'd agree - definitely corruption.

Edit 2:
Just powered down, turned of the powersupply, hit the powerbutton twice to drain all residual current, waited a couple of seconds and started it back up again. And ofcourse i have discontinuities in my output again. Don't even have to start VLC. 1.2.0 Beta has a discontinuity counter in the manual control panel and it's going berserk.

Those discontinuities tell me there is "dirty" input coming from the tuner. I don't mean to be rude, but are you *certain* the dish is aligned correctly, your cabling is good, the CAM and smartcard are properly inserted, the CI interface cable is okay and plugged in properly, and the tuner drivers are okay? I'd encourage you to take the CAM out and try some FTA channels if you can.

Edit 3:
Just tried to do a scan with 1.2.0 Beta to get some regular SD channels to see if the discontinuity thing pops up with those channels to but it doesn't even scan. It sits there for a second, looks like theres just a single transponder being scanned and then it finishes. I'm guessing that's why 1.2.0 is still beta. Going to put 1.1.3 on it again.

If 1.2.0b did that for everyone then it would be a pre-pre-pre-alpha, not a beta. You either have specific issues with your system and/or the providers you receive channels from.

Just powered down and up again. HDTV is gone again. I have a hard time believing the dish might be misaligned. I'm no pro and i bet that a pro could find half a mil in any which way, but still.

It seems that after the initial scan i can actually watch HD, albeit in VLC, haven't tried the direct approach through preview (ie codec use) yet. SDTV works just fine. However, when i completely power down my system, drain it of everything that is leftover (current) and boot it back up again, HDTV is out of the question. A normal reboot doesn't seem to have that effect every time.

About the HDD, i'm kinda on the fence about it. I know it's not the newest anymore, and i'd love to just slam a new one in there but i'm not convinced it's the culprit here. During SDTV i can obviously hardly hear it do anything. HDTV isn't much different. It's not like it's very fragmented either, basically all that's on it is Windows and Mediaportal, and a whole lot of nothing. Did a Complete format last sunday too (ie not a quick format).

CPU is getting a little more stress though, SDTV during normal timeshifting (no playback / visual) is about 10%, HDTYV ditto. With playback SDTV peaks around 45% but averages around 25%. HDTV maxes it out occasionally but generally 80% is about it. I do have to say that these are number from the current install. When i had it buttoned up last sunday even HDTV couldn't stress it past 60%. No maxing out or anything.

I am about to start a scan on 19.2 to get a couple of FTA channels. As i said before, there's a single channel (EinsFestival HD) that transmits in MP4 rather than in H.264. It plays that flawless. Same for other FTA channels.

What i do still suspect though is my dvbs bda driver. I have a 5.7 driver which is obviously newer than the 4.5 driver that i have installed currently. However, WinXP doesn't "accept" the 5.7 driver. It'll let me install it, but afterwards it'll just say there's no driver installed for my AV/C device. 4.5 is apparently the last release that works on WinXP. am skeptical, but i might have to try windows 7 tomorrow to see if that newer driver improves the behaviour i'm getting.

As for the DXVA checker, i tried that and it seems like it isn't liking my hardware too much. Is there something specific i should be looking at ?

 

[mm1352000]

Re: Fresh install HDTV works. Reboot pc, nothing but corrupted frames. SDTV fine thou

Just powered down and up again. HDTV is gone again. I have a hard time believing the dish might be misaligned. I'm no pro and i bet that a pro could find half a mil in any which way, but still.

You obviously know how fine adjustments need to be I'll take your word for it.

However, when i completely power down my system, drain it of everything that is leftover (current) and boot it back up again, HDTV is out of the question. A normal reboot doesn't seem to have that effect every time.

That is bizarre...
You've got the required FireWire fix installed right?

About the HDD, i'm kinda on the fence about it. I know it's not the newest anymore, and i'd love to just slam a new one in there but i'm not convinced it's the culprit here. During SDTV i can obviously hardly hear it do anything. HDTV isn't much different. It's not like it's very fragmented either, basically all that's on it is Windows and Mediaportal, and a whole lot of nothing. Did a Complete format last sunday too (ie not a quick format).

I'm not convinced either, especially based on the discontinuity stuff that you mentioned. I think we should keep our minds open, but right now focus on the tuner and the signal.

CPU is getting a little more stress though, SDTV during normal timeshifting (no playback / visual) is about 10%, HDTYV ditto.

That's to be expected - as I said before, all that is happening is the stream from the tuner being written to the HDD.

With playback SDTV peaks around 45% but averages around 25%. HDTV maxes it out occasionally but generally 80% is about it. I do have to say that these are number from the current install. When i had it buttoned up last sunday even HDTV couldn't stress it past 60%. No maxing out or anything.

Those numbers are *much* higher than they would be if you had hardware acceleration activated. Heavy CPU usage might cause frame drops but it shouldn't cause corruption.

Note: I've done some research and it seems the 7600GT doesn't actually support full h.264 hardware acceleration anyway, so turning it on may not make that much difference...

I am about to start a scan on 19.2 to get a couple of FTA channels. As i said before, there's a single channel (EinsFestival HD) that transmits in MP4 rather than in H.264. It plays that flawless. Same for other FTA channels.

Which begs the question: could it be the CAM? I look forward to your FTA test results...

What i do still suspect though is my dvbs bda driver. I have a 5.7 driver which is obviously newer than the 4.5 driver that i have installed currently. However, WinXP doesn't "accept" the 5.7 driver. It'll let me install it, but afterwards it'll just say there's no driver installed for my AV/C device. 4.5 is apparently the last release that works on WinXP. am skeptical, but i might have to try windows 7 tomorrow to see if that newer driver improves the behaviour i'm getting.

Hmm, interesting. I've got no specific experience with DigitalEverywhere products although it seems quite a number of our team members swear by them.

As for the DXVA checker, i tried that and it seems like it isn't liking my hardware too much. Is there something specific i should be looking at ?

Normally it would list the supported DxVA modes (resolutions, h.264 formats). Based on my research mentioned above and the other information you've supplied I think you can ignore DxVA Checker. *Sorry* for wasting your time...

 

[C.44]

Re: Fresh install HDTV works. Reboot pc, nothing but corrupted frames. SDTV fine thou

Just powered down and up again. HDTV is gone again. I have a hard time believing the dish might be misaligned. I'm no pro and i bet that a pro could find half a mil in any which way, but still.

You obviously know how fine adjustments need to be I'll take your word for it.

However, when i completely power down my system, drain it of everything that is leftover (current) and boot it back up again, HDTV is out of the question. A normal reboot doesn't seem to have that effect every time.

That is bizarre...
You've got the required FireWire fix installed right?


I'm not convinced either, especially based on the discontinuity stuff that you mentioned. I think we should keep our minds open, but right now focus on the tuner and the signal.


That's to be expected - as I said before, all that is happening is the stream from the tuner being written to the HDD.


Those numbers are *much* higher than they would be if you had hardware acceleration activated. Heavy CPU usage might cause frame drops but it shouldn't cause corruption.

Note: I've done some research and it seems the 7600GT doesn't actually support full h.264 hardware acceleration anyway, so turning it on may not make that much difference...


Which begs the question: could it be the CAM? I look forward to your FTA test results...

What i do still suspect though is my dvbs bda driver. I have a 5.7 driver which is obviously newer than the 4.5 driver that i have installed currently. However, WinXP doesn't "accept" the 5.7 driver. It'll let me install it, but afterwards it'll just say there's no driver installed for my AV/C device. 4.5 is apparently the last release that works on WinXP. am skeptical, but i might have to try windows 7 tomorrow to see if that newer driver improves the behaviour i'm getting.

Hmm, interesting. I've got no specific experience with DigitalEverywhere products although it seems quite a number of our team members swear by them.

As for the DXVA checker, i tried that and it seems like it isn't liking my hardware too much. Is there something specific i should be looking at ?

Normally it would list the supported DxVA modes (resolutions, h.264 formats). Based on my research mentioned above and the other information you've supplied I think you can ignore DxVA Checker. *Sorry* for wasting your time...

Firewire fix ? I assume that's the DVBFix that MP TV server config throws a notification of when it isn't installed ? I haven't tinkered with the fireware drivers yet, no legacy driver either (think i remember reading something like that but related to Vista or 7).

I have acquired a Windows 7 Ultimate setup dvd which i'll try later today, but i did notice that this morning when i checked my comp (left it on overnight to scan 19.2E - took a while and i started to doze off xD) that both SD and HDTV (H.264 included) did work. I just can't remember if it did before i fell asleep. If it didn't that could indicate that if i leave the computer on long enough that eventually the H.264 stream gets "stable enough" to capture it without discontinuities. Going to test that later today, power down, all current out of the system and then back on, check HDTV, leave it on for an hour or so and check again.

As for CPU usage, i really don't mind it being around 80%, it's not like it has to do anything else. If i were to look into a new card, are there any cards that you can recommend without it breaking the bank ?

I got the Digitally Everywhere FloppyDTV S2 specifically because MP seemed to recommend it. I had a Hauppauge card before but i couldn't easily find a CI solution for it. FloppyDTV's have those built right into the board. I never had any significant problems with the FloppyDTV until i tried my luck on HDTV.

FTA channels work perfectly fine btw. I tried Arte(SDTV) and Arte HD(HDTV-H.264), both played nice but that was this morning... I know Arte HD caused problems before too, probably because it's a H.264 stream as well. I did try EinsFestival HD (MP4) and that ran fine this morning too, but that channel has done so ever since i found it weeks ago (even on the old singleLNB dishsetup (it's on 19.2E).

Btw, you are hardly wasting my time. I've seen a lot of threads on here that have had far less responses. I'll happily try anything to get this to work (permanently ).

Edit:
I forgot to mention that i have tried a couple of bluray rips that have been encoded in H.264 and they played just fine at anytime, either in VLC or in MP.

 

[C.44]

Re: Fresh install HDTV works. Reboot pc, nothing but corrupted frames. SDTV fine thou

Just got home and put a Philips HD Sat receiver on the sat cabel. The same cable that i had plugged into the FloppyDTV. It had been turned off for a while so it had to do a channelsearch first (which was blazing fast !). After that, regular SDTV channels on 19.2 worked great as did HDTV (H.264) channels on 23.5. So i think it's safe to rule out the wiring and dishalignment at this point.

I just ran the 5.7 driver setup for the FloppyDTV but that didn't help either. Haven't rebooted yet but i will report back in few mins with how that affected the system, if at all.

Edit:
Just rebooted, didn't help. I shared the timeshift folder to the rest of the network and opened the tsbuffer on my mac with vlc. Same problem, 95% green picture and barely any sound. In other words, it's not the codec or GPU card in my HTPC either. Even tried a recording (manual control, start timeshift, start record), tried that on my mac as well but didn't work either. Same corrupted frames.

Edit 2:
Let's add to the weirdness.... First i did a complete cold boot, determined that none of my HDTV channels produced a uncorrupted stream. Then i trashed ALL my channels and did a rescan on 23.5 (that's where most of my HDTV channels are located). Guess what, HDTV works again. However, if i timeshift and play the tsbuffer in VLC at the same time i am still seeing corruption (VLC show it in its statistics too), but when i close vlc and just record the stream... no problems. Clear recording. Although i have to admit it's choppy as hell, but that might be due to the new 270.61 drivers i installed for the 7600GT just 10 mins ago. Playback of the recording through VLC on my Mac is just perfect. Going to reboot now...

Edit 3:
Just tried a "hot" reboot (without draining the system of any leftover current) and HDTV still worked, didn't even have any corrupted frames with live playback on VLC. After a cold boot though... all logic gone again. On the first try it even said "Channel scrambled", took a lot longer to get to that point too. Once i clicked that error away i hit start timeshift again and within half a second it was timeshifting, but with the usual 95% corruption again.

I'm going to shop for a Geforce GT220 or GT240 right now, since they seem to be the best bang for buck right now, i'll bring my CAM along with me to see if it might be the culprit. These damn cams are EXPENSIVE (60-ish bucks) so unless i can see this one failing in another system i'm not buying anything else (or i would have to be able to return it without question).

 

[C.44]

Re: Fresh install HDTV works. Reboot pc, nothing but corrupted frames. SDTV fine thou

Well. I just got back from the store. Didn't end up buying a new cam as it worked perfectly fine with HDTV channels in one of the receivers they had on display. So it has to be something in the hardware or software in the PC itself. Think i'll try a fresh install of Win7 in a few minutes, just to see if that solves... or makes the problem bigger. Didn't get a new graphics card either, nothing in stock =(