Live Tv intermittently freezes (1 Viewer)

[scott_k2]

MediaPortal Version: 0.2.1.0
MediaPortal Skin: BlueTwo
Windows Version: XP Home - SP2
CPU Type: Intel P4 2.5Ghz 533Mhz FSB , no hyperthreading
HDD: Seagate 160Gb 7200RPM 8Mb buffer PATA
Memory: 1Gb PC2700 Generic RAM
Motherboard: Biostar U8668D-Z20 v5.0, Socket 478, VIA P4M266A, 6Ch Audio, ATA-133
Motherboard Chipset: VIA
Motherboard Bios: not sure
Video Card: Asus FX5200 (NVidia) 128Mb AGP (Running at 4xAGP due to motherboard limit)
Video Card Driver: NVidia Forceware 84.21
Sound Card: onboard
Sound Card AC3: onboard
Sound Card Driver: n/a
1. TV Card: DVICO Fusion HDTV DVB-T Lite PCI
1. TV Card Type: DVB
1. TV Card Driver: Dvico FusionHDTV 3.50.02
2. TV Card: DVICO Fusion HDTV DVB-T Lite PCI
2. TV Card Type: DVB
2. TV Card Driver: Dvico FusionHDTV 3.50.02
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: Intervideo WinDVD v6
MPEG2 Audio Codec: Intervideo WinDVD v6
Satelite/CableTV Provider: n/a
HTPC Case: custom case
Cooling: passive GPU cooling, stock Intel P4 CPU fan & heatsink
Power Supply: 400W Generic
Remote: Dvico FusionHDTV USB Remote (supplied with tv card)
TV: 17 inch IBM LCD - PC Monitor running 1280*1024
TV - HTPC Connection: VGA cable

This PC is functioning with MediaPortal installed and working well for over 12 months. But - when watching Live Tv the tv picture randomly freezes and audio stops. This happens after the Live Tv has been running for between 10 mins and 2-3 hours. It never seems to happen immediately upon turning on the tv.
(I'm guessing but it may be related to the passive GPU heating up - it seems to run quite hot, but the native DVICO Fusion HDTV application can watch live tv for hours with no freezes. I have tried running with the case open for more cooling and freezing still occurs. I've also tried underclocking the GPU to keep the temp down with freezing still occuring.).

I have tried the NVidia PureVideo - Video & Audio Codecs and I get the same freezing using these codecs. When I record tv straight to hard disk without displaying it live, MediaPortal never freezes or crashes. So I believe the problem is with the presentation of the TV content.

I am attaching a sample of the problem. I was using MediaPortal last night watching live TV on channel 7, when the video and audio just stopped at approx 9pm. The tv picture was still frozen on the computer display.
I hit escape on my remote to take me back to the tv menu which did work.
The TV menu still had selected that TV was still turned ON although it was a still tv image in the view window.
I selected the TV button to try and turn the TV OFF (was going to toggle it) and MediaPortal became totally unresponsive and frozen.
I use this MediaPortal PC with a Remote only so I could not control-alt-del, but on other occasions when troubleshooting, I have also not been able to kill or exit MediaPortal as it locks the PC up. I have to use a hard power off reboot.

I've searched the forum for similiar problems and don't believe anyone else has the same problem, apologies I've missed something with my research.

Would appreciate any suggestions or tips. It is really getting frustrating as I'd like to move this PC into the lounge room, but my WAF would not tolerate the current instability of the system. I have also tried v2.0.0.4 MediaPortal version with same problem occuring. If I can't get it working, I may have to go back to MythTV as I had this running before, but got sick of relearning how to do everything in linux and stumbled accross MediaPortal which is much easier to pickup and easy to use.

 

[Marcusb]

How fragmented is your Hard Drive?

I had this a while ago. MP worked perfectly for ages, then all at once it would intermittently freeze for a few seconds at a time while wathing live tv.
Turned out the solution was a defrag.
Windows can't handle such big files as DVRMS without badly fragmenting.

The reason it doesn't happen straight away is because the Timeshift buffer is blank when starting up. It's only once the buffer begins to fill that the jerkiness starts as the fragmentation has more of an effect.
I now have a scheduled task to defrag every few nights and never got the issue again.

 

[scott_k2]

thanks Marcusb for your reply.

I hadn't considered defrag, and when I ran the tool the hard disk fragmentation was very high. I ran out of time to run defrag to completion yesterday, but I'll test this out over the weekend and will be very happy if this stops my freezing.

 

[Noelix]

no signal detected?

MediaPortal Version: 0.2.1.0
MediaPortal Skin: BlueTwo
Windows Version: Windows XP (SP2)
CPU Type: AMD Athlon XP 2200+
HDD: 180GB Western Digital, 7200RPM
Memory: 768MB
Motherboard:
Motherboard Chipset: KT600-8237
Motherboard Bios:
Video Card: Nvidia Geforce FX 5500 (256 MB)
Video Card Driver: 9.1.3.1
Sound Card: C-Media AC97 Audio Device
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver: 5.12.1.50
1. TV Card: Hauppauge PVR-500 MCE
1. TV Card Type: Analog
1. TV Card Driver: 2.0.43.24103
MPEG2 Video Codec: Nvidia Purevideo
MPEG2 Audio Codec: Nvidia Purevideo
Satelite/CableTV Provider: Cox Communications (Basic)
HTPC Case: Antec Overture II
Cooling:
Power Supply: Special 450W SmartPower 2.0 ATX12V v2.01 compliant
Remote: Microsoft MCE Remote, EU version
TV: Zenith CRT
TV - HTPC Connection: S-Video to RCA connection

I'll try the defrag option as well, good suggestion. However live tv freezes up for me randomly as well. However, it was a little different with me... The video froze first, followed by the audio several seconds later, and several seconds after that a little MP window popped up with the current channel logo and name, saying "no signal detected", with an ok box. I can hit back, and see the tv guide, and try to open up the same channel, and it gives me the same frozen frame and the box again. If I go to any other channel it gives me the same frozen frame and the box with the message. In case you were wondering, I tested my tv on the standard connection and the signal came through just fine

mediaportal.log: http://pastebin.team-mediaportal.com/11413

recorder.log: http://pastebin.team-mediaportal.com/11414

vmr9.log: http://pastebin.team-mediaportal.com/11415

error.log: http://pastebin.team-mediaportal.com/11416

 

[geov]

I'm now also getting this, but only with the latest SVN so tonight I will revert back to the previous version and see if my problem is gone.

 

[scott_k2]

After deleting many recordings so my hard disk had enough space to run a full defrag properly, this has solved my freezing tv problem.

I'll definately be scheduling an automatic task like MarcusB to prevent the problem from reoccuring.

 

[Marcusb]

Hey scott_k2, glad to hear it worked. It caused me no end of grief, because everything had worked fuine for ages then it just started, even though I had made no changes. A defrag is also the last thing you think of when you have live TV issues (so many other more likely things could cause it).

As for the no signal, this used to be an issue a long time ago which had been solved. I'm guessing that it came back in a recent SVN. Just guessing though, as I'm away and can't test for a week or so.
If so, just roll back to a previous SVN and try again. It took forever (compared to other MP issues) to get fixed because the issue never seemed to affect the devs.