HD TV blocky artifacting SD is fine! (1 Viewer)

[m0t0k0]

TV Server (HP Microserver N36L)
MediaPortal Version: 1.2.2 (Dedicated TV Server)
Windows Version: Windows Home Server 2011
CPU Type: Athlon II Neo N36L 1.3GHz
HDD: Generic SATA HDD
Memory: Generic 4GB stick 1333MHz
1. TV Card: BlackGold 3650
1. TV Card Type: Quad DVB-T2
1. TV Card Driver:8.1.1.2

First Client is detailed in "My System" and is my HTPC

Second Client (Gaming Rig)
MediaPortal Version: 1.2.2
MediaPortal Skin: MePo Default
Windows Version: Windows 7 x64 SP1
CPU Type: i7-920 2.66GHz
HDD: Samsung SSD 120GB
Memory: 6GB 2000MHz CAS 9
Motherboard: EVGA x58 Classified
Video Card: 295GTX
Video Card Driver: 285.62
Sound Card: Creative X-Fi
Sound Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec: LAV 0.43
MPEG2 Audio Codec: LAV 0.43
h.264 Video Codec: LAV 0.43

Hi Guys and Girls have been using MediaPortal for a while now and everything works well and then for christmas I get a BlackGold 3650 Quad Tuner DVB-T2 card

Installed just the TV-Sever from the latest release of MePo 1.2.2
Installed the TV plugin on my HTPC
Tuned the card and settled down to watch so HD TV

Now come the problems
SD TV works a treat no blockyness smooth as can be

HD TV looks great but every now and then I get loads of blocky artifacting and the audio drops out this happens loads when I switch channels the settles and happens sporadically

As a note all other HD stuff from movies or TV series is great so the system can handle it no problem, network utilisation is at about 8%, CPU Server hovers at 20%, CPU HTPC at 2-3%
Timshift is on a UBS attached HDD

You will find both TV-Server and HTPC Logs attached (oops just remembered the logs are not from my HTPC but from my gaming rig which I ran on the see if there was any change but it was just the same, This was with a default MePo install)

Any ideas on what I can tweak!

Cheers Jake

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Think you may find it's the HD2000 graphics, the HD3000 can handle full 1080, easiest way of testing, is drop resolution to tv from 1080 to 720, then see if content plays smoothly.

 

[m0t0k0]

Wish that were the case as then I would drop a 6570 in there but all other content plays smooth even really high bitrate h264 bluray stuff. I have tried it on my gaming rig also which has i7 920 and gtx 295 and still have the same problem.

I think maybe the server CPU Turon n36l 1.5Ghz may be the problem (i hope not) could be due to por drivers from BG but I have the latest so will hope for some updated ones.

 

[mm1352000]

Hi m0t0k0

I think the network connection or HDD may have something to do with it. There are bursts of continuity errors indicating stream corruption *only on the client side* when you watch the HD channels. Things to check:
- are you using a "green" HDD
- are you using the OS drive as a timeshifting drive
- have you prevented any virus scanner that you have installed from scanning your timeshifting and recording folder
- are the PCs in any way connected with a wireless network
- have you tried disabling the firewall on the client temporarily to see if that helps

mm

 

[m0t0k0]

Thanks for the ideas

I guess it could be the drive its not a green version just a standard 2.5" HDD in a USB enclosure. I don't have any more drives to test on so is there any way I can disable timeshift and recording to give that a go?

My recording folder is setup on my FlexRAID pooled drive so this could be a problem. Is it ok to have timeshift and recording folders on the same drive

^^neither of the above drives are the OS

OK was getting a bit excited there as I thought WHS 2011 came with Microsoft security essentials installed but I cant find it anywhere so I can only assume I have no anti virus as I have not installed any.

only connection is 100Mb LAN don't even have a wireless adapter in any of my machines I use for MediaPortal

I will drop the firewall today when I get a chance to see if that makes a difference

 

[m0t0k0]

I had a go at dissabaling security essentials on the client by adding .ts as a file type not to be scanned as I don't know how I would add a location to be ignored (the locations are on the server).

 

[malamute]

Hi motoko,i installed the 1.22 yesterday and haf exactly the same issuses as you,HD channels were blockly and standard SD are fine ,so i had a hissy fit and just installed for the record and bingo no issuses all plays smoothly now so out of intersted i tried 1.2.1 of mediaportal without for the recorded and thats smooth lol so scratched me head a few times then i said try mediaportal 1.22 again and bang same issuse HD channels were breaking up all over the place so now im with for the record and 1.22 mediaportal and using for the record tunners and all is good maybe like you motoko my hardware has issuses with the tv server side of mediaportal

jake

 

[mm1352000]

Jake: Thanks for reporting. If that is the case you might want to try the TsReader from -->here<--.

mm

 

[m0t0k0]

Thanks for the input guys tried the new TsReader and its an improvement, not perfect but better. I will do more testing and report back

 

[Owlsroost]

From m0t0k0's logs, it does look like a networking issue - system is using RTSP (which uses UDP underneath), so any dropped network packets don't get re-sent, which in turn creates continuity errors at the client end due to the missing MPEG transport stream packets.

The continuity errors in the TsReader.log (client end) are coming in blocks (followed by blocks of late sample messages), so given that it's doing the same thing on two different clients, I'd guess that it's a server or network switch/router issue which is causing low network throughput or high latencies (for comparison, UK Freeview HD channels are about twice the bitrate of the SD channels, so approx 7-8 Mbit/s)

Tony

P.S. the difference between the original MP 1.2.2 TsReader.ax and the 'fixed' version is only a few lines of code, and only affects what happens during a channel change, so I can't see how it would make a difference during normal playback