Long Delays on Weak DVB-T Channels (1 Viewer)

[KevinM]

TV-Server Version: 14506
MediaPortal Version: 14506
MediaPortal Skin: Blue Two
Windows Version: XP Home SP2
CPU Type: Intel Pentium 4 3GHz
HDD: 250GB Western Digital (WDC2500KS-22MJB0)
Memory: 768MB
Motherboard: DHC 2000
Motherboard Chipset: Intel i915P/i915G rev. B1 / Intel 82801FB (ICH6) rev. 03
Motherboard Bios: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG
Video Card: ATI Radeon X1300
Video Card Driver: Catalyst 07.3 (Control Centre 2007.0320.2241.38712)
Sound Card: Realtek High Definition Audio
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver: 5.10.0.5028
1. TV Card: Pinnacle PCTV Dual DVB-T Pro PCI
1. TV Card Type: DVB-T
1. TV Card Driver: Pinnacle Systems 3.2.4.0
2. TV Card: Winfast VC100
2. TV Card Type: AV Capture
2. TV Card Driver: Leadtek 5.13.1.279
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: Cyberlink Video/SP Decoder (PDVD7)
MPEG2 Audio Codec: MPA Decoder Filter
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case: Elonex Artisan LX
Cooling:
Power Supply:
Remote: One For All URC-7555 (Emulating MCE Remote)
TV: JVC AV32T25EK
TV - HTPC Connection: S-Video

I have a multiseat setup but the remote clients are of secondary importance at the moment.

Recording of programs generally works great but I have issues when watching TV on the main server + client PC. Problem occurs when I switch to a channel that is weak, or one that only broadcasts at certain times of day.

If I switch to a channel where nothing is displaying (for either reason), the system appears to sieze up and there is a delay - typically of about 30 seconds - before control is regained.

Once I have regained control and stopped the TV or switched to a currently transmitting channel, everything works OK again. But if I inadvertantly move to a non-transmitting channel, there's this huge delay again.

Is this a common problem, and are there any workarounds ? - I'd like the family to be able to use this setup for general TV watching but at the moment it all feels a bit 'hit-and-miss'.

As far as I can see, the TV service and scheduled recordings work much better than live TV - that all seems quite robust.

Also, in a client/server setup, is it possible to use one card for recording only and the other for live TV only ?

 

[KevinM]

This also happens with my DVB-S card - whenever you flick to a channel that isn't currently transmitting, the system becomes unresponsive.

 

[SciDoctor]

I see this aswell and it is to do with the TVservice timeout settings.

 

[KevinM]

I see this aswell and it is to do with the TVservice timeout settings.

Thanks for your reply.

Have you managed to work around this problem by changing the timeout settings, or am I stuck with this for now ?

 

[SciDoctor]

Nothing you can do as th setting is not user adjustable.

 

[KevinM]

Now that I can see this behaviour duplicated on DVB-S and DVB-T, I'm thinking that this is quite a serious bug.

I have a cheap freeview DVB-T box (as a backup) and it behaves quite differently under the same circumstances:-

When the user switches to a channel that is not transmitting, there is a slight pause - with a progress indicator - while it loads a kind of holding page telling the user when the transmission will restart. Presumably this is transmitted in the same way as EPG data. Anyway the whole process takes about 4-5 seconds, which is reasonable.

MediaPortal just appears to hang for about 20-30 seconds, and there is no indication on screen of what it is doing, or when the process has ended.

Could one of the developers comment on what is going on here? - is it possible to add some progress indicator or onscreen information so that the user can see that MP hasn't hung up completely?

Also, it would be helpful if the communication between client and server (especially when these are on the same PC) could be improved so that the user can abort the tuning attempt and move on.

It also occurs to me that there must be other information in the data transmitted and that this problem could be related to TVservice's current difficulty getting the DVB-T EPG data and maybe even the channel name problem:-

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/dvb_t_epg_not_beeing_grabbed-t22779.html
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/dvb_t_channel_names_not_picked_up-t22117.html

 

[KevinM]

TV-Server Version: 15353
MediaPortal Version: 15346
MediaPortal Skin: Blue Two
Windows Version: XP Home SP2
CPU Type: Intel Pentium 4 3GHz
HDD: 250GB Western Digital (WDC2500KS-22MJB0)
Memory: 768MB
Motherboard: DHC 2000
Motherboard Chipset: Intel i915P/i915G rev. B1 / Intel 82801FB (ICH6) rev. 03
Motherboard Bios: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG
Video Card: ATI Radeon X1300
Video Card Driver: Catalyst 07.3 (Control Centre 2007.0320.2241.38712)
Sound Card: Realtek High Definition Audio
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver: 5.10.0.5028
1. TV Card: Pinnacle PCTV Dual DVB-T Pro PCI
1. TV Card Type: DVB-T
1. TV Card Driver: Pinnacle Systems 3.2.4.0
2. TV Card: Technotrend S-1500
2. TV Card Type: DVB-S
2. TV Card Driver: BDA 1073
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: Cyberlink Video/SP Decoder (PDVD7)
MPEG2 Audio Codec: Cyberlink Audio Decoder (PDVD7)
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case: Elonex Artisan LX
Cooling:
Power Supply:
Remote: HP Media Center p/n 5187-4401 (MCE Equivalent)
TV: JVC AV32T25EK
TV - HTPC Connection: S-Video

This problem is fixed in the latest builds