live Tv no sound or picture (2 Viewers)

[Kerry gilbert]

Hi everybody, I am new to this forum and media portal., my issue is , when I first start MP I can watch tv fine. if I stop tv to watch a movie etc then try to watch tv again all I get is a black screen, no sound. I have to reboot the PC and restart media portal to get the tv to work again.
I have seen lots of similar posts and tried the suggestions but they have not worked for me, so here is my shout out.

and ideas? please bear in mind, I am a newb and not technically savy


Pentium dual core E6500 @2.93ghz 2GBram Nvidia Gforce gt200

 

[mm1352000]

Hello and welcome Kerry. It's nice to see a fellow New Zealander around here.

Thank you for providing the log files. That makes it much easier to help you.

In technical terms what I see is that your TsReader and TsWriter log files are full of continuity errors. In other words: the stream that MediaPortal's TV Server is receiving from your tuner is missing chunks all over the show.

Usually the cause of such problems is:

1. Signal strength or quality is inadequate, AND/OR...
   
2. Security software such as Windows Defender, AVG, Norton etc. is scanning the time-shifting folder and overloading the HDD.

To fix the problem, first please ensure you've configured your security software to trust MediaPortal and MediaPortal's TV Server. In particular, ensure you exclude your timeshifting and recording folders from virus/malware/spyware scans.

If that doesn't help you need to ask yourself whether you're confident that the signal from your satellite dish is good.

Regards,
mm
P.S. Please feel free to ask questions if any of the above doesn't make sense.

 

[Kerry gilbert]

Hi mm
thanks for your interest and quick reply. I have followed your suggestions starting with the easiest first, security software. Windows defender is disabled, I have Microsoft security essentials but have excluded Media portal.exe tvserver.exe and recording and time shifting folders. no improvement.
I note on initial tuning of my Technisat card, my signal strength was about 5%percent, very low, but the quality was between 60-75% for my tuned channels, I have also checked the dish and LNB alignments myself.
the dish works ok on a standard freeview decoder.
it might be time to get the professionals in to check the dish,
your thoughts would be appreciated

cheers

Kerry

 

[mm1352000]

Hello again Kerry

It does sound like getting a professional in might be a good idea. However, before recommending that...

I'd recommend that you check CPU and HDD usage in Windows task manager -> resource monitor while viewing TV. If either or both CPU and HDD utilisation are high then that may point to a configuration problem. Resource monitor should tell you which processes are using the most CPU/HDD, and that should give you clues about what is going on. Note: to get access to task manager you probably need to use MediaPortal in windowed mode. You can toggle MediaPortal between windowed and full screen modes by pressing ALT+ENTER.

The other thing I'd be curious about is whether (and how) you're splitting the signal between the PC tuner and the Freeview decoder you mentioned. The fact that one Freeview decoder works fine isn't a guarantee that another decoder or PC tuner would work, but it's a good indication that your dish alignment etc. probably isn't too far off.

Regards,
mm

 

[Kerry gilbert]

Hi MM
firstly I was simply unplug the antenna cable and using it between the two devices. I used he borrowed freeview tuner as a reference to check for any signal from the tuner. after that it has been plugged into the media pc for the duration.
tonight I tried to do a watch dog capture of the tv starting up and running well then me turning it off and on again in the same session to try and capture when it stops and why, but in an evil twist the tv did not function at all tonight. This may well support the poor signal theory as the weather is quite unforgivable tonight. instead I have a watch dog capture on no tv, a screen shot of my signal strength and quality from a channel scan performed also tonight, and multiple screen shots of process manager in all users mode(2 screen shots) and normal mode that my help shed some light, it is all very foreign looking to me, but if anyone here knows what they are looking at and can help I would be grateful

cheers

Kerry

 

[mm1352000]

Thank you for the update Kerry

The log files show the same symptoms as previously, so it looks like the same issue.

With regards to the screen shots: unfortunately they don't show all of what I was hoping to see. They do appear to show that your CPU load is not a problem, but they don't say anything about your HDD/disk load (which is/was my primary concern). To access the resource monitor I previously referred to, go to the "performance" tab and click "resource monitor". There should be information about the HDD/disk load in there.

Regards,
mm

 

[Kerry gilbert]

Hi MM

once again , apologies for the delay in my post.
here are some screen shots, I hope they provide what you where after, defiantly something to bee seen there I think (I hope)
3 screen shots are provided, #1 of MP tv running , #2 of MP tv running with no picture and no sound, #3 of MP idle
Many thanks to you for the time you have dedicated to trying to help me.
let me know if you require more information

Regards

Kerry

 

[mm1352000]

Hello again Kerry

Thank you for the screenshots. It's unfortunate that I can't see how much disk MediaPortal.exe and TvService.exe are using. All I can really say is that it looks like MsMpEng.exe (which is part of Windows Defender and/or MS Security Essentials) and "System" are "using disk the most". That could indicate that Windows Defender and/or MSSE are not configured appropriately... or nothing at all. I'm not able to determine that. Sorry, I know this response probably doesn't help. From my perspective it's just difficult to help in the current situation.

Regards,
mm

 

[Kerry gilbert]

Hi mm
thanks for the reply i will endeavor to get screenshots of Mediaportal.exe and TvService.exe disk usage in hopes they will be helpful.. i will also double check my security settings, tell me, i am only using one HDD would it in anyway be beneficial to have a second HDD dedicated for the tv buffer ?
i am sorry this is dragging out, im still very much the Newb at this.

Regards

Kerry

 

[mm1352000]

thanks for the reply i will endeavor to get screenshots of Mediaportal.exe and TvService.exe disk usage in hopes they will be helpful.

If you could sort the HDD usage by the "total" column that would be best. That would enable you (or me) to easily see at a glance which processes are using the HDD the most.

tell me, i am only using one HDD would it in anyway be beneficial to have a second HDD dedicated for the tv buffer ?

In general: yes, it can be if you often run multiple HDD-intensive programs at the same time as MediaPortal.

However, from the perspective of solving this particular problem: at this point it looks like having a second HDD for the time-shift buffer would not help. I say that because it is not yet clear that the HDD is overloaded. Even if it was, it wouldn't be overloaded by MediaPortal alone.