I'm at a cross road: TV server or no TV server... (1 Viewer)

[henk99]

I'm at a cross road and I can't decide what I should do....which way to go. I'll briefly explain....

Since last August I'm busy building a HTPC, but so far I haven't been able to get a fully fuctional, Girlfriend friendly mediacenter.

I started out with Vista media center, which was good I guess, but I was unable to get mkv's playing properly with hardware accel. Somebody then suggested MP to me and with all my VMC issues I gave it a go.

I started with single seat option and the mkv part was absolutely perfect. The only problem I was having was the TV functionality. Standby issues caused numerous recordings to fail and that was an absolute killer for my girlfriend.

As I have another PC in my house (rather new) that's on 24/7, I thought that would be a great computer to become my TV server. This would solve all my standby issues, as the pc is on all the time. I have to say, this TV server is running great! However, the HTPC is still giving me problems. The streaming is not like it supposed to be. Audio and video are out of sync sometimes and some recordings won't play (read: stream). These recordings play fine on the tv server itself.

I have now come to a point that neither of the three setups is working for me (or my girlfriend) and I'm wondering what I should do next. I am faily certain that I want to stick with MP, as it looks absolutely great and 99% is functioning well. I just don't know what my next step should be to get either setup well enough so it can be used well.

Maybe you guys can help me get my htpc to a next level.....

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Turn off the rtsp as per this post https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...-avoiding-rtsp-multiseat-mode-test-plz-36735/

 

[henk99]

Turn off the rtsp as per this post https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...-avoiding-rtsp-multiseat-mode-test-plz-36735/

Thanks, but I already tried that. It didn't change anything here. The thing is that the streaming sometimes works and sometimes it doesn't.

 

[Marcusb]

Are you streaming via wireless or wired? This will make a difference.
Also, with the fact that it sometimes works, do you have a number of network cards in the server? Make sure that you set the network card for the server to use if you do (in TV Server Config).

For the sync, have you selected "Default Directsound renderer" in the codec section for the TV? This will cause sync issues if it is changed to the wrong setting.

TV Server is a better option, but can be more difficult to set up if things don't work first go. It's still worth it in my opinion.

Marcus.

 

[Liquidtouch]

I am curious what codecs your using/have installed? MPV and MPA? or others?

The only time I have had sync issues I was able to remedy it via codecs which in my opinion was the hardest part to figure out when starting.

 

[moab]

I'm at a cross road and I can't decide what I should do....which way to go. I'll briefly explain....

Since last August I'm busy building a HTPC, but so far I haven't been able to get a fully fuctional, Girlfriend friendly mediacenter.

I started out with Vista media center, which was good I guess, but I was unable to get mkv's playing properly with hardware accel. Somebody then suggested MP to me and with all my VMC issues I gave it a go.

I started with single seat option and the mkv part was absolutely perfect. The only problem I was having was the TV functionality. Standby issues caused numerous recordings to fail and that was an absolute killer for my girlfriend.

As I have another PC in my house (rather new) that's on 24/7, I thought that would be a great computer to become my TV server. This would solve all my standby issues, as the pc is on all the time. I have to say, this TV server is running great! However, the HTPC is still giving me problems. The streaming is not like it supposed to be. Audio and video are out of sync sometimes and some recordings won't play (read: stream). These recordings play fine on the tv server itself.

I have now come to a point that neither of the three setups is working for me (or my girlfriend) and I'm wondering what I should do next. I am faily certain that I want to stick with MP, as it looks absolutely great and 99% is functioning well. I just don't know what my next step should be to get either setup well enough so it can be used well.

Maybe you guys can help me get my htpc to a next level.....

Can you give us a complete hardware inventory of your setup(s)?
It really helps speed up troubleshooting.

 

[henk99]

Are you streaming via wireless or wired? This will make a difference.
Also, with the fact that it sometimes works, do you have a number of network cards in the server? Make sure that you set the network card for the server to use if you do (in TV Server Config).

For the sync, have you selected "Default Directsound renderer" in the codec section for the TV? This will cause sync issues if it is changed to the wrong setting.
Marcus.

I'm on a wired network, and there is only one (onboard) network card in both computers. I have tried a lot of settings already when troubleshooting my problems. I have it on default direct sound renderer normally. But, as I said, a lot of options were already

I am curious what codecs your using/have installed? MPV and MPA? or others?
The only time I have had sync issues I was able to remedy it via codecs which in my opinion was the hardest part to figure out when starting.

I have the SAF package installed (from the forum here) and powerdvd. I must say that the playback of all sorts of movies is fine. It's only the TV stuff that's the problem. Sometimes it won't start, sometimes MP freezes completely when i select a recording to play, sometimes the sound is out of sync....! It's all way to vague for me, as all appears to be working fine. I have posted logs here about this topic and nothing bad was found.

Can you give us a complete hardware inventory of your setup(s)?
It really helps speed up troubleshooting.

Okay, here goes:
TV server:
Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R mobo
Intel dual core 6750
4GB RAM
numerous hard disks (sata)
Asus EN8600GT Silent/HTDP/512M
Floppydtv + alphacrypt cam
Windows Vista 64bit

HTPC
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H
4GB ram
onboard graphics and network and sound
AMD phenom 9550
1TB Samsung spinpoint F1 (sata)
Windows vista 32bit

The TV server is on 24 hours a day because it is collecting weather data (another crazy hobby.....:sorry

 

[canarygsr]

"Floppydtv + alphacrypt cam"
I assume these were ment to be put in your TVserver list.

 

[henk99]

"Floppydtv + alphacrypt cam"
I assume these were ment to be put in your TVserver list.

Yes, sorry about that

 

[moab]

Hardware looks good.
Sanity check first.
Have you ran ping -t (IP address) whilst you experience the problem e.g. ping server from client, then re-produce issue, then look at ping history. Is the response time always <1ms?
Did you turn off all non-essential applications when re-producing the error. Anti-virus is a common culprit. We need to reduce variables here.
I found on my system the battery backup monitoring software gobbled up CPU to near 100%. So that got un-installed. Turn everything off that you can.
Open taskmgr and watch the CPU graph during the problem on both server and client. Does the CPU max out or idle to zero?
Updated to latest NIC drivers?
Are you using any RAID?

What MediaPortal recorded video format are you using .ts (default) or mpeg?
I have read that the destination folder for these files must be very free of interference.
Long seek times or processor delays when reading or recording can interfere with playback.
Putting them on external USB HDD is a no no because they go to sleep too much.