LiveTV freezes and shows a lot of artifacts (2 Viewers)

[mm1352000]

Here we are, it happened 11:53 and 11:59 again. TV stopped and I had to restart it.

To me it looks exactly what Owlsroost said: corruption in the stream from the tuner flowing through to the client.

Is TV completely stopping, or is it just video freezing (and audio continues)? If it is only video freezing, you may find that disabling DXVA will help.The stream might stutter and continue instead of stopping. If the stream completely stops, ensure that that relock monitor for your tuner is enabled. From the driver inf file:

; Relock monitor
; 0: Normal ; 1: Enable ReloCk monitor
HKR,"DriverData","RelockMonitor",0x00010001, 0x01,0x00,0x00,0x00

You can search your registry (regedit) for RelockMonitor and see what the value is.

Ultimately if you really want to solve this problem I think you need to look at your signal quality. From the Twinhan SDK, signal quality values are expected to be in the range 0..99. I'm pretty sure this also applies for TerraTec tuners. Your signal quality readings seem to be... not so good.

 

[Owlsroost]

It looks like (as I suspected) that it's the video decoder hanging on steam discontinuities/errors (this is a known issue with some older AMD GPUs/driver versions).

As far as I remember, there haven't been any changes in discontinuity handling between the 1.5 and 1.6 pre versions of TsReader.ax, but you could try using the MP 1.5 version of TsReader.ax just to check. (The 'noStopMod70' version here - https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/experimental-tsreader-development.102693/#post-811296 - is fairly close to the MP 1.5 version if that's easier to try.)

Another thing to try is ticking (enabling) the 'Don't drop discontinued packets in TsReader' option in MP TV client config - http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_...n/MediaPortal_Configuration/22_TV/1_TV_Client - although this can sometimes make the 'hang' problems worse.

 

[megahorst]

The cable guy has visited me ...

He has checked the signal and told me that everything is fine.
Signal quallity is 95% and signal level is between 67db and 70db (depends on channel).

While trying to find the rootcause I have seen the following:
I have started timeshifting on all of my three DVB-C cards in the manual control section of the server config.
In parallel I have checked the timeshift folder. Everything is fine until new *.ts files are added to the folder. Than I'm loosing some frames.
I'm timeshifting to a SSD and have switched of my Antivirus.
Does anybody have a suggestion?

 

[megahorst]

I have made a lot of progress on the server site. The continuity errors are nearly gone.

The things that helped me are the following:
Moved timeshifting from my SSD to a RAM-Disk (IMDisk)
The problems when the *.ts files are rolled over where gone than.

But when somebody was watching TV for longer than 15 mins the errors where there again.
I have checked than the system with a tool called latencymonitor.
There I was not able to find any issue that occoured in parallel to continuity errors.
The only thing that the tool showes is that the tvserver.exe throws a lot of "hard pagefaults". My understanding of this is, that is not a problem. Am I right?

Than I have attached a fan on top of my three tuner cards.
That was the solution. Now most of the errors are gone. There is a very few ammount of these errors left. Sometimes it is one per hour or 5-7 within a second and after this everything is fine fou hours again. I will keep an eye on this. I'm not sury if this is also heating or another issue what has to be find.

But on client side there are more problems within the stream than there are continuity errors on the server site while watching HD. No freezings anymore but some stuttering from time to time.
Does anybody know a tool that is able to monitor the streaming quallity of the network? Or has anybody an idea what I should check on the client site?

I have already done this:

As far as I remember, there haven't been any changes in discontinuity handling between the 1.5 and 1.6 pre versions of TsReader.ax, but you could try using the MP 1.5 version of TsReader.ax just to check. (The 'noStopMod70' version here - https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/experimental-tsreader-development.102693/#post-811296 - is fairly close to the MP 1.5 version if that's easier to try.)
Another thing to try is ticking (enabling) the 'Don't drop discontinued packets in TsReader' option in MP TV client config - http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_...n/MediaPortal_Configuration/22_TV/1_TV_Client - although this can sometimes make the 'hang' problems worse.

@mm1352000:
I have totally forgotten this:

If the stream completely stops, ensure that that relock monitor for your tuner is enabled. From the driver inf file:
; Relock monitor
; 0: Normal ; 1: Enable ReloCk monitor
HKR,"DriverData","RelockMonitor",0x00010001, 0x01,0x00,0x00,0x00
You can search your registry (regedit) for RelockMonitor and see what the value is.

For the technisat tuners I have
RelockMonitor = 1

For the terratech I have:
RelockEnable=1
RelockMonitor=1
RelockTriogTime= 7d0 (2000)

Is there a need to change something?

 

[megahorst]

Here I have captured logs of a scenario where I had no continuity errors at the server but I have seen hiccups at the client.
I have seen a news broadcasting from circa 19:30 until circa 19:55 without problems. Only one error at the server site after the beginning of the stream.
Than after the news where over the hiccups begun while some advertisings where shown. I have seen this hiccups every evening after the news broadcasting is over. Any ideas?

 

[Owlsroost]

Here I have captured logs of a scenario where I had no continuity errors at the server but I have seen hiccups at the client.
I have seen a news broadcasting from circa 19:30 until circa 19:55 without problems. Only one error at the server site after the beginning of the stream.
Than after the news where over the hiccups begun while some advertisings where shown. I have seen this hiccups every evening after the news broadcasting is over. Any ideas?

I suspect that there is a jump in the broadcast stream timestamps when the news finishes (probably due to stream switching), which is causing the audio buffer to be drained. I'm currently re-working the '195 ms' pause code a little to try and make it adapt the pause time to the lateness, so it should try and restore the buffer fullness each time.

Pressing pause for short time should fix the problem (or a skip step).

 

[megahorst]

I suspect that there is a jump in the broadcast stream timestamps when the news finishes (probably due to stream switching), which is causing the audio buffer to be drained.

Is it helpfull if I send some minutes of the stream?

 

[JackTramiel]

Just some feedback: I couldnt find any network issue. Still had no chance to try a professional network testing device.
I added 1000ms delay for tsreader, which seems to help a lot so far.
During my search for other solutions i found the DD knowledge base:

http://support.digital-devices.de/knowledgebase.php?article=7

http://support.digital-devices.de/knowledgebase.php?article=6

Basicly its about PCIe Timing, so you should disable CPU/PCIe Spread Spectrum (BIOS).
The other hint is to deinstall the dd tv card wo/ driver deinstallation. Press find new hardware.
Now the priority of the tv device should be correct.

I have found a test tool for tv cards:

http://support.digital-devices.de/knowledgebase.php?article=59

Doesnt help much so far, beside it tells me total different signal strenght then mepo does. ( MePo = 100 , Tool = 70-75 )

Havent tried those recommendations, just wanted to share my findings.

Edit:

Ok, still had issues. Because our rabbits destroyed my ir repeater and subwoofer cables behind my lowboard i had to renew them. A lot of work, so i decided to change both nics, too.
Till 2 days no more issues, no more discontinuity errors.
Hope i will come back in 2 weeks and can tell: I am healed and Intel onboard nics suck.

Thank you mm and owl.

Edit2: Just a week, but filled with a lot of tv usage. Not a single issue.
Cant really tell how good it feels to have a rock solid setup. Hope you will work it out too snoopy.
Now it is donate time.