Lots of discontinuities with quad DVB-T (1 Viewer)

scidoner

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Hey everyone!

I am not sure where to really start here. I have a quad DVB-T tuner which MediaPortal detects and uses fine, however TV freezes, pauses, looks like frames are skipping and under tuning details I see lots of discontinuities. I've run manual tests and manual timeshifting and the discontinuities are there too.

My first thought is that the signal might be weak, but according to MP, it is around 88/100 for level/quality on most channels. Some channels come back with 0 discontinuities, some hundreds.

I need some guidance troubleshooting this one as I don't know if the problem is my antenna, signal, hardware or if the issue with MP itself.

Any help would be very much appreciated! :)

And running MP 1.2.3.
 
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robbo100

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    I am not sure the signal level is necessarily accurate, and may not be ideal for this sort of trouble shooting. You will need to gather your logs (see my signature for how-to do that).

    I just wrote a whole load about how to tell if you are in a good transmitter area, but then realised that you are in Oz, not the UK :)
     

    scidoner

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    Here's the logs, although wouldn't you want the TV server logs (tswriter)?

    :)
     
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    mm1352000

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    Here's the logs, although wouldn't you want the TV server logs (tswriter)?
    Yes, you're right.

    Having said that if you've done the timeshift test in TV Server configuration then you've narrowed down the problem enough already. :)

    The problem might be signal related.
    I'm guessing you're using the DigitalNow Quad (?)... in which case, your signal needs to be good - not too hot, not too cold - in order to split one feed to the four tuners.

    It also could be that you have MS Security Essentials or similar continuously scanning the MP and TV Server program and data folders, in particular the timeshifting folder. If that is the case, it will be stressing your HDD(s). Please double check this.

    Finally, if you're using an "advanced format" HDD (ie. 4 KB per sector) - this applies to most newish drives - then make sure you've formatted it correctly.

    mm
     

    scidoner

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    Here's the logs, although wouldn't you want the TV server logs (tswriter)?
    Yes, you're right.

    Having said that if you've done the timeshift test in TV Server configuration then you've narrowed down the problem enough already. :)

    The problem might be signal related.
    I'm guessing you're using the DigitalNow Quad (?)... in which case, your signal needs to be good - not too hot, not too cold - in order to split one feed to the four tuners.

    It also could be that you have MS Security Essentials or similar continuously scanning the MP and TV Server program and data folders, in particular the timeshifting folder. If that is the case, it will be stressing your HDD(s). Please double check this.

    Finally, if you're using an "advanced format" HDD (ie. 4 KB per sector) - this applies to most newish drives - then make sure you've formatted it correctly.

    mm

    Thanks for your reply! :)
    I thought it were signal related... yeah. So, the signal quality etc reading in software is basically garbage haha? (Why have it? :p)

    And yeah it is the DigitalNow Quad. I don't have any anti-virus on the PC and the storage volume is a RAID 0 array with 4 drives - its fast.

    Can I use an inline signal amplifier (like this perhaps: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/FM-TV-Am..._Television_Accessories&hash=item2a1fa5da38)?

    Here's a spreadsheet of the timeshift test... any thoughts?
     

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    mm1352000

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    Thanks for your reply! :)
    I thought it were signal related... yeah. So, the signal quality etc reading in software is basically garbage haha? (Why have it? :p)
    It is not totally garbage. It is just that you can't compare that reading with a reading from another tuner or STB because each tuner driver seems to give different readings when connected to the same aerial/dish/cable supply.

    And yeah it is the DigitalNow Quad. I don't have any anti-virus on the PC and the storage volume is a RAID 0 array with 4 drives - its fast.
    Okay. Might pay to double-check task manager while timeshifting in TV Server configuration, just to make sure that the CPU isn't going nuts for some reason.

    I would hesitate to give you advice on this. renura would be the person to ask as his knowledge on his own products will be second to none. :)
    He'll possibly want you to test in other software (in particular DNTV Live!) just to confirm the issue is not only confined to MP, which is a good test.

    mm
     

    scidoner

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    Thanks for your reply! :)
    I thought it were signal related... yeah. So, the signal quality etc reading in software is basically garbage haha? (Why have it? :p)
    It is not totally garbage. It is just that you can't compare that reading with a reading from another tuner or STB because each tuner driver seems to give different readings when connected to the same aerial/dish/cable supply.

    Ah okay, makes sense :)

    And yeah it is the DigitalNow Quad. I don't have any anti-virus on the PC and the storage volume is a RAID 0 array with 4 drives - its fast.
    Okay. Might pay to double-check task manager while timeshifting in TV Server configuration, just to make sure that the CPU isn't going nuts for some reason.

    First gen Core i7 950 - CPU looks mighty happy :)

    I would hesitate to give you advice on this. renura would be the person to ask as his knowledge on his own products will be second to none. :)
    He'll possibly want you to test in other software (in particular DNTV Live!) just to confirm the issue is not only confined to MP, which is a good test.

    mm
    [/quote]

    I have been in contact with him :)
    He said it may be Gigabyte board problem (known compatibility with some boards and the PLX chipset on the tuner). He said signal was likely OK if each tuner was able to scan each channel... but I'm not sure because scanning != actually timeshifting I would think :/

    He did suggest to try with DNTV Live! - I will be doing that soon :)

    That spreadsheet probably had nothing interesting in it, right? :p

    Thanks!
     

    mm1352000

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    I have been in contact with him :)
    Great :)

    He said it may be Gigabyte board problem (known compatibility with some boards and the PLX chipset on the tuner). He said signal was likely OK if each tuner was able to scan each channel... but I'm not sure because scanning != actually timeshifting I would think :/
    Possibly if you get channels with missing or spurious names that would be something that would also indicate signal issues. I'm not sure whether the on-board splitter only splits as/when required - in other words I'm not sure whether only scanning or timeshifting with one tuner at any given time would make a difference. I guess you've performed the test with each tuner in turn?

    He did suggest to try with DNTV Live! - I will be doing that soon :)
    Cool - let us know how you get on. :)

    That spreadsheet probably had nothing interesting in it, right? :p
    Sorry, must have read the post before you added it. Checking now...
     

    mm1352000

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    Nothing particularly interesting in the spreadsheet, no. I'd stick with the discontinuity counter in the "manual control" section for this kind of testing as success/fail on a tuning stress test only tells you so much...
     

    mm1352000

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    One other thought: is your timeshifting drive a local array in the server. Not a NAS or something like that? If it is a NAS, your network could have an impact.
     

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