Maddening Issue - Solved !!! (1 Viewer)

[dvgeek]

Hello,

First of all congratulations to Team-MediaPortal on releasing 1.6 - A Great New Year Present!!!

Now to my maddening issue - From Client PC-2 (new install), can watch Live TV, Cannot Watch Recorded TV (says "Unable to play"), but can watch the same Recorded TV show through Videos. And it's really maddening because, everything works from a different client PC-1.

My setup:
TV Tuners

• HD HomeRun Dual - ATSC x 2

TV Server

• OS - Windows 7 Ultimate, 64 bit with MS SQL Server 2008 R2
• MediaPortal 1.5 Final Server only
• Argus TV Server v2.2 Components
  • Scheduler (just can't beat their scheduler - you can customize and fine tune to your heart's content)
  • Argus TV Plug-In for MediaPortal
• MediaPortal Plug-Ins - Only Argus TV Recorder enabled

Client PC-1 (Works Perfectly)

• OS - Windows 7 Ultimate, 32 bit
• MediaPortal 1.5 Final Client only
• Argus TV v2.2 Client for MediaPortal

Client PC-2 (Issues)

• OS - Windows 7 Ultimate, 32 bit
• MediaPortal 1.5 Final Client only
• Argus TV v2.2 Client for MediaPortal

Did a screen-by-screen compare between PC-1 and PC-2 MediaPortal configurations, everything's the same. Spent the better part of two days on this and have run out of ideas. Going through the logs, doesn't give me a clue on what could be the issue.

Any suggestions please? Thanks in advance!!!

 

[dvgeek]

@mm1352000 - Here are the logs. Basically I rebooted all three machines and stated a fresh set of logs in debug mode. I've tried to troubleshoot a bit here. (Recap - PC-1 Working / PC-2 Not Working) Although my issue is solved, I am uploading the logs as I am puzzled by the skin errors I see on missing buttons, etc. Not related to this issue, but just wanted to make sure it does not raise some other issue in the future.

• Server logs have no useful info for this issue.
• There is a difference in the MediaPortal.log between PC-1 and PC-2, when g-player is trying to open this file.
• In PC-1, just before g-player opens the file for playing, MediaInfo correctly reads the file and gets the media info
• In PC-2, MediaInfo is unable to get the media info, when the file is being opened from TV->Recorded TV, but the same MediaInfo reads the correct info when the file is opened from Videos, where the server drive has a hardcoded IP address.
• An Ahaa! moment! I removed the hardcoded IP address and put in a UNC with the hostname, rebooted and now PC-2 cannot even get to the video file from videos.
• Resolved that the issue is not with MediaPortal, but with my network. So started checking every bit of configuration between PC-1 and PC-2. Took a long time as I started right from the basics.
• While doing all this checking/testing I suddenly realized, I could open the drives from the Server on PC-1 explorer by double clicking, whereas from PC-2 I was being asked a username password. (I tend to keep the same username/password on all my home machines to simplify admin). Then I realized that the Server and PC-1 have a password set, whereas PC-2 being a new build just had a username and no password.
• Simple stupid Windows answer, just created the same password on PC-2, and no password entry on power management wake-up and netplwiz. Viola - everything works !!!

I've gone a bit lengthy in posting my resolution - just in case it might help someone with a similar issue.

Thanks "mm1352000" - if I had not taken a fresh set of logs, I might have not caught on to the error.

 

[mm1352000]

First, sincere thanks for following up. I appreciate your persistence and that you have shared the problem/solution so fully. This enables other people including me to learn from your experience.

You mentioned skin errors.
In your MediaPortal-Error.log for both clients I see these entries:

[2014-01-01 19:05:28,341] [Error ] [MPMain ] [ERROR] - GUIWIndow.LoadInclude: Unexpected end of file has occurred. The following elements are not closed: controls, window. Line 344, position 12.
[2014-01-01 19:05:28,357] [Error ] [MPMain ] [ERROR] - GUIWIndow.LoadInclude: Unexpected end of file has occurred. The following elements are not closed: controls, window. Line 344, position 12.

I think they may point to genuine syntax errors in skin files.

These:

[2014-01-01 19:06:15,528] [Error ] [MPMain ] [ERROR] - Failed filter: not found
[2014-01-01 19:06:15,540] [Error ] [MPMain ] [ERROR] - Failed filter: not found

...simply mean you haven't (or hadn't) configured codecs.

To the best of my knowledge, warnings like this:
[collapse]
[2014-01-01 19:05:26,251] [Log ] [MPMain ] [WARN ] - GUIWindow:OnWindowLoaded: 'C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\Skin\Titan\MyMusicPlayingNow.xml' is missing control id 999 (window property: VUMeterLeft)
[2014-01-01 19:05:26,251] [Log ] [MPMain ] [WARN ] - GUIWindow:OnWindowLoaded: 'C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\Skin\Titan\MyMusicPlayingNow.xml' is missing control id 998 (window property: VUMeterRight)
[2014-01-01 19:05:26,251] [Log ] [MPMain ] [WARN ] - GUIWindow:OnWindowLoaded: 'C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\Skin\Titan\MyMusicPlayingNow.xml' is missing control id 888 (window property: lblForceFocus)
[2014-01-01 19:05:26,251] [Log ] [MPMain ] [WARN ] - GUIWindow:OnWindowLoaded: 'C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\Skin\Titan\MyMusicPlayingNow.xml' is missing control id 30 (window property: btnLastFMLove)
[2014-01-01 19:05:26,251] [Log ] [MPMain ] [WARN ] - GUIWindow:OnWindowLoaded: 'C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\Skin\Titan\MyMusicPlayingNow.xml' is missing control id 31 (window property: btnLastFMBan)
[2014-01-01 19:05:26,267] [Log ] [MPMain ] [WARN ] - GUIWindow:OnWindowLoaded: 'C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\Skin\Titan\MyMusicPlayingNow.xml' is missing control id 999 (window property: VUMeterLeft)
[2014-01-01 19:05:26,267] [Log ] [MPMain ] [WARN ] - GUIWindow:OnWindowLoaded: 'C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\Skin\Titan\MyMusicPlayingNow.xml' is missing control id 998 (window property: VUMeterRight)[/collapse]

...can be completely ignored. I'm not an expert on skin stuff but I recall other team members saying as much and asking why the messages are logged. I don't remember what was said after that (though I presume there is some reason).

In short, everything looks normal and I'd give your system a clean bill of health.

 

[dvgeek]

Cool - Thanks "mm1352000" !!!

 

[Owlsroost]

While doing all this checking/testing I suddenly realized, I could open the drives from the Server on PC-1 explorer by double clicking, whereas from PC-2 I was being asked a username password. (I tend to keep the same username/password on all my home machines to simplify admin). Then I realized that the Server and PC-1 have a password set, whereas PC-2 being a new build just had a username and no password.
Simple stupid Windows answer, just created the same password on PC-2, and no password entry on power management wake-up and netplwiz. Viola - everything works !!!

Yes, it's a Windows 'feature' that you can setup it up to have no password, but file sharing won't work correctly unless you have one....aargh! (I've fallen down that hole before as well).