Help needed setting up dutch live TV (DVB-C/Ziggo) (1 Viewer)

[christiaanfa]

Hi Everyone,

I need some help with setting up my MediaPortal installation for watching Live TV (SD and HD channels) from Dutch DVB-C provider Ziggo!

I'm running MediaPortal for 3 years now. I went through countless Versions/SVN's/Setting/Codecs, and so far I haven't been able to manage to watch live TV trouble free. I'm so desperate that I'm considdering buying a Cisco Settop box for Watching TV (what is a massive blow to my budget/motivation/ego and a complete waste because I want and know it is possible to use MediaPortal as complete media solution).

I'm running a single seat TV setup, on a Windows 7 - 64 bit system with MediaPortal 1.1.3. I use RamDisk to store my Timeshifting files. I'm using a ATI 4670 video card and a Asus Xonar HDAV 1.3 soundcard. I have 2 Floppy DTV TV cards with Alpha Crypt CAM's. As far as I know this must be sufficient enough for desent Live TV playback.

Currently I'm using the SAF 6.0 codec pack (SVN 20110722), hense this gives the best results up till now. However I'm open to every suggestion and setting codecwise.

I know that there are people (even Dutchies) out there who have running a simular configuration without problems.

Any help what can help me towards a good media experiance is welcome. As said I'm open to any suggestion. All I want is stutter/glitch free TV playback, witout compromising the playback quality of other media files.

Thanks,

Christiaan


MediaPortal Version: 1.1.3
MediaPortal Skin: Pure Vision HD
Windows Version: Windows 7 (64 bit)
CPU Type: Intel Core2 Duo E8500
HDD: WD 160Gb
Memory: 4 Gb DD3
Motherboard: GigaByte EP45-DS3R
Video Card: Asus Ati 4670
Video Card Driver: ATI Catelist 11-7
Sound Card: Asus Xonar HDAV 1.3
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver: latest
1. TV Card: Digital Everywhere Floppy DTV
1. TV Card Type: DVB-C
1. TV Card Driver: 5.7
2. TV Card: Digital Everywhere Floppy DTV
2. TV Card Type: DVB-C
2. TV Card Driver: 5.7
3. TV Card:
3. TV Card Type:
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec: SAF 5.0
MPEG2 Audio Codec: SAF 5.0
h.264 Video Codec: SAF 5.0
Satelite/CableTV Provider: Ziggo Netherlands (1111)
HTPC Case: Origen AE S16T
Cooling: Skythe Ninja Mini
Power Supply: EnerMax 85+
Remote: Logitech Harmony 785
TV: Panasonic PZ85
TV - HTPC Connection: HDMI - Onkyo - TV

 

[joostzilla]

Hi Christiaan,

I am watching Ziggo (1111) without any problems here. (even recording HD and watching another HD channel at the same time) Please check my system specs for info.
Have you tried using a seperate dedicated disk for timeshifting. I have no experience with ramdisk but i know a seperate disk is definetly working great.
Does video play okay? In sd and HD? If so your videocard should be up to the job.

 

[mm1352000]

Hi Christiaan

Welcome to the forum.
Please post logs using the watchdog (info -->here<--) so that we can see the problem. Note that logs are required for support threads, so remember to post them in the future.

mm

 

[christiaanfa]

Thanks for the response sofar,

mm1352000: I will post some Log on this forum tonight.

joostzilla: I can play Video's without any problem, even Blu Ray are display perfectly. Its only the live tv that poses problems. As for the sepperate HDD, RamDisk creates that for me. It uses a section of the RAM to act as a very fast and silent HDD. I haven't seen any posts in this forum, anyone having isseus with RamDisk and Timeshifting. I'm sure this is not the problem.

Are the codecs you use, the standard windows codecs? Or have you installed a other codec pack. Can you playback any type of mediafile without problems with these codecs an have you applied any non standard settings?

 

[joostzilla]

Thanks for the response sofar,

@mm1352000: I will post some Log on this forum tonight.

@Joostzilla: I can play Video's without any problem, even Blu Ray are display perfectly. Its only the live tv that poses problems. As for the sepperate HDD, RamDisk creates that for me. It uses a section of the RAM to act as a very fast and silent HDD. I haven't seen any posts in this forum, anyone having isseus with RamDisk and Timeshifting. I'm sure this is not the problem.

Are the codecs you use, the standard windows codecs? Or have you installed a other codec pack. Can you playback any type of mediafile without problems with these codecs an have you applied any non standard settings?

For Tv i use the standard windows 7 codec. I have no codec pack installed only seperate codecs for mkv, dvix etc.
Today i found out that playing bluray with dts and subtitles is jerky with the win7 audio codec. Now use the mpc one. Video is perfect now.

 

[Koenjer]

Hi Joost,

does Discovery HD works flawless at your side?

 

[oekie]

Hi Joost,

does Discovery HD works flawless at your side?

That's also what i wanna know!

 

[joostzilla]

Hi Joost,

does Discovery HD works flawless at your side?

I dont have discovery HD :sorry:

 

[Lbr_Lion]

Hello,

Discovery HD does also not work at my side flawless, but it seems something to do with the framerate Discovery HD is using: Normaly 50Hz is used and the framerate of Discovery HD is 48 Hz. So it looks like that Discovery is not resampling the original HD framerate of 24Hz (Where the HD material is recorded at), but just double it and this is causing stutter.

Can be checked when you are using the Microsoft codecs and pressing Shift+1.

When I use the Cyberlink codecs only the first 20 or 30 seconds 9sometimes much longer or shorter) are in slowmotion and after that it is playing smoothly. (So it looks like that the Cyberlink codecs can handle this but it takes some time)

 

[Koenjer]

Hi,

That is exactly the same issue at my side.

The problem is, 30seconds is quite long