HDPVR2 Dish Network MediaPortal and Me (3 Viewers)

[swifty]

I've just replaced my HD PVR (1) with a HD PVR 2 GE Plus (the one with optical in).

I had to upgrade to MP1.5 and use the DLL attached in this thread but it seems to work - though I have noticed it takes quite a while for the HD PVR to start the recording when I try to start a channel (can be up to 12 seconds!).
The light blinks green, then flashes a bit, then goes green again.. but I do get a picture at the end of it, so not really sure what it's doing!

Is there anything I can provide that could help figure it out?

Also is there any chance of an updated DLL for 1.5 Final ?

Thanks!

 

[mm1352000]

...though I have noticed it takes quite a while for the HD PVR to start the recording when I try to start a channel (can be up to 12 seconds!).
The light blinks green, then flashes a bit, then goes green again.. but I do get a picture at the end of it, so not really sure what it's doing!

Is there anything I can provide that could help figure it out?

Log files.
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_MEDIAPORTAL_1/16_Support/3_Forums/2_Log_Files

Also is there any chance of an updated DLL for 1.5 Final ?

Not at this point.

 

[swifty]

Thanks for the reply - logs attached

The last MePo session was like so; Tune HD channel via DVB-S2 (fast), tune HD channel via HDPVR, stop and start the same HDPVR channel, switch between a few HD channels accessible via HDPVR, tune one SD channel on HDPVR.

My original 'old' HDPVR 1 just lit up once as soon as the blasting had completed, and TV would start shortly after, but the HDPVR 2 seems to flash green after blasting is complete, then flickers a yellow colour for a few seconds, then goes solid green - video then seems to start a few seconds later.

I thought it may be switching resolutions (hence my stop / start of the same HD channel.. but the speed doesn't really seem any better).

Hopefully there is something useful in the logs.

 

[mm1352000]

Try reducing the PMT timeout setting here:
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_...n/TV-Server_Configuration/06_General#Scan_Tab

I think you could safely go down to around 2 seconds.

 

[swifty]

Thanks very much, I changed it down to 2 but occasionally saw No PMT found error when starting channels.
On 3 seconds, it seems a little quicker than before (around 7 seconds from trying to start the channel).

I'm not sure, but it seems like the HD-PVR needs a few seconds to initialise itself.. since once I've started a HD-PVR channel (and see the video playing in MePo) I can use my STB remote to switch the channel on my cable box (with MePo still 'watching' the channel I previously started.)
When doing this, I see the HD-PVR light go off for a split second (while the STB switches channel) but then the light comes straight back onto green.
The whole process takes around two seconds (from me pressing the STB remote, to seeing the channel change in MePo)
Whereas on starting the channel via MePo I don't get a solid green light for about 5-6 seconds after blasting completes.

Does MePo wait until blasting has finished before trying to 'start' the HD-PVR ?
Maybe the process can be sped up by starting the HD-PVR then initiating blasting (since the HD-PVR seems quite happy with the STB changing channel whilst it's 'running')

Thanks for the help!

 

[mm1352000]

Thanks very much, I changed it down to 2 but occasionally saw No PMT found error when starting channels.
On 3 seconds, it seems a little quicker than before (around 7 seconds from trying to start the channel).

Cool.
Yeah, the PMT wait in the patch is "sub-optimal" for the HD-PVR 2. When I created the patch I didn't know that HD-PVR 2 has a different PMT PID compared with HD-PVR 1 and Colossus. So one of the things that is making it so slow is that TV Server is waiting for PMT (video/audio stream info), not finding it after those 3 seconds, and then having to do an "exhaustive search" to find the actual PMT (which may take another second or two). Maybe that doesn't make a lot of sense; in short it just means keep that PMT timeout as low as you can because every second you add is a second more in channel switching delay.

I'm not sure, but it seems like the HD-PVR needs a few seconds to initialise itself.. since once I've started a HD-PVR channel (and see the video playing in MePo) I can use my STB remote to switch the channel on my cable box (with MePo still 'watching' the channel I previously started.)
When doing this, I see the HD-PVR light go off for a split second (while the STB switches channel) but then the light comes straight back onto green.
The whole process takes around two seconds (from me pressing the STB remote, to seeing the channel change in MePo)

Yes. There is maybe a second of delay in TV Server's timeshifting mechanism, and probably another second in the HD-PVR's drivers and encoding.

Whereas on starting the channel via MePo I don't get a solid green light for about 5-6 seconds after blasting completes.

One of the problems I see is this:

[2013-10-05 11:53:29,347] [Log ] [15 ] [INFO ] - HDPVR: RunGraph
[2013-10-05 11:53:36,206] [Log ] [15 ] [INFO ] - HDPVR: Graph running

That is way longer than what I ever remember seeing for the HD-PVR 1 or Colossus. The above is on first tune (when the HD-PVR is loaded for the first time). On subsequent tunes:

[2013-10-05 12:00:05,906] [Log ] [14 ] [INFO ] - HDPVR: RunGraph
[2013-10-05 12:00:07,293] [Log ] [14 ] [INFO ] - HDPVR: Graph running

Basically your HD-PVR 2 seems to be slow to start up.
To mitigate this I suggest you try changing "when card enters idle state..." to "pause" and enable "allow this card to be preloaded".
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_...nfiguration/02_TV_Servers#Edit_Tuner_Settings

That may improve things a little.

Does MePo wait until blasting has finished before trying to 'start' the HD-PVR ?

No definitely not.

Maybe the process can be sped up by starting the HD-PVR then initiating blasting (since the HD-PVR seems quite happy with the STB changing channel whilst it's 'running')

The blasting happens as part of the IRSS TVE 3 blaster plugin. I have no control over what that does. All I know is that it blasts in parallel with the TV Server "channel change". In technical terms: it happens asynchronously in a separate thread, not sequentially.

 

[swifty]

Thanks, I think that makes sense.
Keeping the graph paused helps a little too.

If I understand correctly, the PMT for HD-PVR/HD-PVR2 is a fixed value (with HD-PVR having a different value to HD-PVR2)?
But the patch that adds support for HD-PVR2 is still looking for the PMT used on the HD-PVR?
If the patch was updated with the correct PMT value for HD-PVR2 then it would shave another 3 seconds off the 'tuning' time?

Is the patch available anywhere? - If my statements above are true, then I might see if I can try my hand at setting up a dev environment and compile a new DLL based from 1.5 final and see if I can set the PMT for the HD-PVR2.

 

[mm1352000]

Thanks, I think that makes sense.

You're welcome.

Keeping the graph paused helps a little too.

Nice - I thought it might.

If I understand correctly, the PMT for HD-PVR/HD-PVR2 is a fixed value (with HD-PVR having a different value to HD-PVR2)?
But the patch that adds support for HD-PVR2 is still looking for the PMT used on the HD-PVR?

Exactly right.

If the patch was updated with the correct PMT value for HD-PVR2 then it would shave another 3 seconds off the 'tuning' time?

Correct again.

Is the patch available anywhere? - If my statements above are true, then I might see if I can try my hand at setting up a dev environment and compile a new DLL based from 1.5 final and see if I can set the PMT for the HD-PVR2.

No, the patch is not publicly available at present. I'll see if I can export it for you sometime later this week... though I note that section of the code is somewhat in flux at the moment because I'm working on stuff that will make general capture device support possible. So, please be patient with me...

 

[swifty]

Great that is good news

Thanks for your help.

 

[Cpoc]

Same here I will wait for your update. I also have the HD PVR-2 and while it worked with 1.5 preview with patch there is no patch for 1.5 final.