MP Crashes while changing channels, exiting from MyTV (1 Viewer)

[emnel]

MediaPortal Version: 0.2.2.0 Stable Release
MediaPortal Skin: BlueTwo Wide
Windows Version: XP Pro SP2 + all updates
CPU Type: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (2.2GHz)
HDD: Seagate 160GB (system), Western Digital 320GB (Recordings)
Memory: 512MB DDR2 667MHz
Motherboard: Asus M2N
Motherboard Chipset:
Motherboard Bios:
Video Card: Asus EN 7600GS Silent 256MB
Video Card Driver: 93.71
Sound Card: Soundmax Integrated Digital HD
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver: 5.10.1.4570
1. TV Card: Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2
1. TV Card Type: Analog
1. TV Card Driver: 24117
2. TV Card: VBox Cat's Eye 150
2. TV Card Type: ATSC
2. TV Card Driver: 2.1.705.12Beta
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: nVidia PureVideo 1.02-223
MPEG2 Audio Codec:
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case:
Cooling:
Power Supply:
Remote:
TV:
TV - HTPC Connection:

Problem
After enter the MyTV and making a few channel changes (2 to 5 typically) the picture freezes but audio still continues. Parts of the desktop behind media portal will flash or flicker through the static image. Media Portal crashes all together with a dialogue box appearing on the desktop something like (application encountered a problem and must close... Send/Don't Send).
I am using an analogue tuner and an ATSC tuner. It will happen no matter which way I choose to change channels (guide, CH+, CH- etc. If it happens not to crash after a few channel changes, it will definitely crash when trying to exit MyTV bach to Home screen.
When the picture freezes I am sometime able to work a little bit before MP stops responding all together. What I mean is I can hit exit or ESC and back out of full screen TV to the guide or even back to MyTV home but no further, then no response. Must at that point CTRL-ALT-DEL to get to task manager and end the process. After the second crash in a row like this Media Portal will not start back up - there is still a mediaportal.exe running in the processes (not shown in Applications) and will not end. Must restart computer to be able to open MP again.

Background
The computer is new, built for HTPC only. Only software installed is for MP.
Windows has been updated totally with Windows Update. Also all the critical updates in the prerequisites have been done.
Only plug-in installed is Zap2it plug in for EPG data.

I have tried the following after searching forums for similar issues over the past week.
Made sure all drivers are up to date. Updating the BDA drivers for the ATSC card helped a bit.
Changed PCI latency value (was at 64, went to 32)
Disabled Cool & Quiet
Updated CPU drivers
Hotfix applied for the quartz.dll
Changed virtual memory settings.
Installed and tried ReClock - it told me my video card was not supported
Tried different Video Decoders - mostly MPV and nVidia Purevideo.
Tried many settings for interlacing, with and without hardware acceleration.
Tried turning off - 'use exclusive Direct-X'
Installed SVN 02-02-2007--14-15-Rev12820 over a clean install of MP last night - no improvement.
Installed a USB sound card (Turtle Beach Micro Advantage) last night and it helped a lot although it does not make much sense to me. It did still crash once.

Still on my list to try
Installing older nVidia drivers for my graphics card.

I tried the different sound card because of errors in the log about failure to add Filter - Direct Sound Device..., however this still happens with the new sound device as well.

Logs are attached. Note that in MediaPortal log, I tried to exit out after the crash occurred.

 

[emnel]

Please Help

Since my original post I have tried 91.47 nVidia drivers and attempted to try 84.21 drivers although when installing these it would switch to a resolution my TV or monitor could not display.
I have also tried a Microsoft patch (896256) that was referenced in the nVidia 93.71 release notes. It supposedly tries to fix compatibilty issues with dual core CPU's.

MediaPortal still crashes after 2 to 20 channel changes. I have started testing in windowed mode. When it crashes in windowed mode, MP closes easier and does not require rebooting.

I have noticed in windowed mode that 1080i ATSC channels are black (but with sound) while the 720p stations are fine.

I would really like to get this working reilably but I am totally out of ideas now. I have thoroughly searched these forums and tried everything I came accross.

Any Ideas?

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Something silly but are you using the Windows drivers for your 4200+ or the AMD drivers, made a difference to my channel changing + cured a stuttering I was experiencing, this fix only applies to Dualcore as apparantly they do not like idling with not a lot to do.

Also recommend the AMD optimizer, downloaded from the same webpage.

 

[emnel]

Yes, I downloaded and updated drivers from AMD for the CPU and also dowloaded the optimizer althought I'm not sure how the optimizer works. I installed it and it installs an .exe which I try to run and nothing happens that I can tell unless it is running in the background without any indication. I downloaded and installed it twice in case there was an error the first time.

Thanks for the response.

 

[Taipan]

I am using an analogue tuner and an ATSC tuner.

Do these "crashes" occur randomly with both analog and digital channels, or with specific channels?

For example, do they only occur when you switch to/from a 1080i channel - this might give us a clue to the likely cause?

 

[emnel]

After alot of testing today, I have determined that changing channels is fine between any analog channels through the Hauppauge card.
The probelem only occurs with digital TV thrpught the ATSC card. It will happen on broadcasts of 720p or 1080i. I just test switching only between channels of the same type ie (Start TV - full screen - 720p station - 720p station - ... crash) then restarted MP and tested 1080i stations only - same result.
Looking in the ATSC support thread, there seem to be others with the same issue and with various cards. My VBox card worked fine when I was using it with BeyondTV but I much prefer MediaPortal.
I don't believe the problem is entirely in MP because changing BDA drivers for the card changed the frequency of crashes. I also don't think it can just be blamed on the cards drivers since it worked fine in other applications.
I look at the error log frequently now and there is not entries at the time of the crash.