Live TV causes television to lose signal, Recorded TV doesn't (1 Viewer)

[maso]

I just jumped to MePo from MCE a couple weeks ago and have just about everything configured, but am having a problem with playing back Live TV.

When I start Live TV, my television goes dark and says that it lost its signal. My sound bar (connected via TOSLINK to the television) plays the sound, and when I connect via VNC I see the channel being played.
The only way to recover is to unplug and replug the HDMI cable to the television and proceed from there.

Has anyone else encountered this problem? My search of the forums was fruitless.

MediaPortal Version: 1.2.3
MediaPortal Skin: StreamedMP
Windows Version: Windows 7 Professional x64 SP1
CPU Type: Intel Dual-Core E5200
HDD: 120GB Crucial SDD, 500GB WD Caviar Blue
Memory: 5GB (3x 1GB 1x 2GB) 667/800 DDR2
Motherboard: Biostar TP43D2-A7
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 550 Ti
Video Card Driver: Nvidia 8.17.12.8026
Sound Card: via Video Card
Sound Card AC3: huh?
Sound Card Driver: Nvidia 1.2.23.3
1. TV Card: Asus EHD3100 Dual Hybrid Tuner
1. TV Card Type: PCI Express, ATSC
1. TV Card Driver: ASUSTeK 77.3.1.0
2. TV Card: KWorld UB435-Q
2. TV Card Type: USB, ATSC
2. TV Card Driver: eMPIA 5.9.917.1110
3. TV Card: SiliconDust HD Homerun
3. TV Card Type: Ethernet, QAM
3. TV Card Driver: FW version 20120405
Video Codecs:
MPEG2 Video: ffdshow Video Decoder
H.264 Video: ffdshow DXVA Video Decoder
MPEG/AC2 Audio: LAV Audio Decoder
AAC Audio: LAV Audio Decoder
TV Codecs:
MPEG2 Video: CyberLink Video Decoder (PDVD12)
H.264 Video: CyberLink Video Decoder (PDVD12)
MPEG/AC3 Audio: LAV Audio Decoder
LATM AAC Audio: MONOGRAM AAC Decoder
DD+ Audio: LAV Audio Decoder
Satelite/CableTV Provider: Comcast/OTA
HTPC Case: Thermaltake
Cooling: Air
Power Supply: 700W
Remote: Dell M2010 Gyration
TV: Panasonic TC-P50ST30
TV - HTPC Connection: HDMI

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

To me, that sounds like your video card driver crashing out and resetting, is that the driver that came with the card, or the very latest, might be worthwhile reverting to the manufacturers driver if the latter and see if it still happens.

 

[Owlsroost]

Another thought - have you got Dynamic Refresh Rate enabled ? - http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_...figuration/11_General/21_Dynamic_Refresh_Rate

If you have, it might be switching to 50 Hz when TV is started, which your TV set might not support (as you are in the US), so you need to change the TV & HDTV settings to be 60 instead of 50.

Tony

 

[maso]

Thanks to both of you for posting thoughtful responses!

As for the driver: I installed the drivers from the product's specific page on Gigabyte's website and the problem was present. Since then I've allowed Windows Update to update that driver, and the problem persists.

I love the idea of the Dynamic Refresh Rate being the issue! I can VNC into it from here at work, and the settings for HDTV and TV are as follows:
HDTV:
Frame rate(s): 50
Refresh rate: 50
TV:
Frame rate(s): 25
Refresh rate: 50

(My initial setup was following an on-line guide that merely told me to check the Dynamic Refresh Rate box: I'm so used to being US-centric that I didn't think to check those.)

So if I understand correctly, I should be changing the refresh rate on those (maybe PAL as well, in case I encounter it?) to 60.
I'll try that and report back. Unfortunately I'm leaving work directly for a trip and won't be able to test for a few days...

 

[maso]

...and I'm back, and Live TV is fixed!

Changing the Refresh Rate settings from 50 to 60 was the answer.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Mark Anderson]

Hi Maso

I'm considering switching away from WMC. I'm running Windows7 with 2 HomeRunHD's (4 tuners total), OTA ATSC only (no cable card). How has your experience been? Would you recommend it? Anything you're missing or anything way better?

I use it for watching/recording TV mostly, but I do have a large collection of ripped movies too (currenlty using MediaBrowser for that, but not too happy). Use TMT3 for BD ISO playback, but plannign to rip to full quality MKV

Regards

Mark

 

[maso]

Mark,
I've been really happy with my MediaPortal setup, after the initial curve of figuring out the nature of the beast. It took me most of a weekend to get things all put together in a cohesive way (along with adaptive changes along the way too) but I wouldn't go back to WMC.

And if you've been using MediaBrowser, your file structure is already conducive to an easier setup.

I'd say that if you're someone who's been maintaining WMC, you won't mind the attention required for MediaPortal upkeep. So I recommend it. And although I'm keeping an eye on the PVR development with XBMC, there's nothing missing, and nothing that's way better, than MediaPortal.

I use TMT5 for BD playback, but that's mostly because I have 3D movies and haven't sussed out a better way for it. MePo does a decent job with BD stuff though, I believe.


Here are a few notes from my setup that may or may not help you in your adventure:

I use mce2xml, scheduled nightly, to grab the TV guide data from Microsoft's servers. Their legacy setup works fine, but I'm planning on donating & upgrading.
I use episodescanner right after mce2xml, which will grab season and episode numbers for any series I have scheduled.

Before episodescanner, though, I also have to change the names of some series to make them match what episodescanner finds on thetvdb ("The Office" needs to be "The Office (US)" and "Castle" needs to be "Castle (2009)").
Here's an example from my batch file, pre-episodescanner:
mysql.exe -uroot -pMediaPortal mptvdb -e "UPDATE mptvdb.program SET title='The Office (US)' where title='The Office';"

Once you have episodescanner working, TV Series will be able to figure out all the information for each episode that comes in.

Also, if you have any old .wtv files, WTV Organizer can go through and find season and episode data for them too. Then TV Series will know what to do with them.

comskip can be set to run after a recording, and set it to leave a .txt file in the same folder as the recording so that MePo can see it. Then it can skip commercials.

Moving Pictures does a great job of finding your movies based on folder structure. This is where diligence with MediaBrowser pays off.

And I set up an ancient desktop on another TV in the house, running OpenELEC (an embedded XBMC), which supports the MediaPortal PVR plugin, and I now have a better extender than I ever got with my old DMA-2200. You can use the Advanced Wake-On-Lan plugin on that to turn your MePo box on when you wake it up, so the TV server and all the files are always available. And it'll play your BD ISO's too!


So, that might be more than you bargained for, but hopefully it'll help you with your decision.

 

[Mark Anderson]

Hi Maso

Thanks so much for the detailed info. Will definitely give it a try.

I have a Rapsberry Pi I want to run in a different room. I know OpenELEC is available for it. Will it play the native recordings from WMC/MP?

Regards

mark

 

[maso]

Sorry, but I haven't had any experience with the Raspberry Pi.
I know there's a forum dedicated to it at openelec.tv, and the FAQ there seems to say that you'd need to pay for a license to do MPEG2 decoding, and that it doesn't do DTS or AC3 audio without using it in "passthrough" mode. Might work fine, but it was too much of a gamble for me to pursue.

 

[Mark Anderson]

Thanks Maso

I have the Pi and XBMC running on it with HD audio. It's really just a case of if OpenELEC supports native recording format from WMC/MP

Will google it a bit

Regards

Mark