MP keeps crashing (every time its used) Help please! (1 Viewer)

[TWSTD]

Media portal just crashed again on me - I was trying to check all channels worked. I had the EPG open and was going down channel by channel. Then it just hung. MP watchdog came up so I generated a log - attached to this post. Any further clues (im not sure if im creating the logs properly though? As i dont generate logs until after its crashed? Will the reasons for the crash be there for it to find after the fact?)

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

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No video, see my sig, known xp problems.

Both looked like they were set to the wrong satellite (which they cant have really been as i was getting TV no problem

Sounds a bit strange, sorry little knowledge of satelite tuning atm, so not the best person to help there.

2) No i had not disabled un-used tuners, but have now done so.

If you are not going to use a tuner disable it, can save a lot of hassle later

3) I cant recall what i set up when i set the recording folder up - and i cant seem to find anywhere to set individual recording folders and timeshift folders for each tuner card in either MP config or TV server config. Where should this be done?

View attachment 28777 Where tuner is listed, this is a dropdown box and allows you to specify where your recording\timeshifting folders are.

6) have just run Filmerit and it found 14 errors. I tried to fix these with the magic button however i get endless "confirm delete of such and such" - i had to force the app to quit as it seemed to just go around in circles.

Then you have a filter problem, rerun filmerit, unlock with padlock, then hit the bug button, choose every filter highlighted red one by one and right mouse click, select delete filter or maybe sub filter if red, when there are none showing errors, reboot, hopefully that has got you out of codec hell

What we need the answer to, is if it does not crash on tvserver using preview, then it points to your client pc being the problem, this could be network related or Mediaportal, in which case logs from your client would be needed.

 

[JoePlumber]

Can you also try disabling EPG from scanning at idle.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Hi

You need to get the logs from your client machine as well, as this only gives tvserver logs, so its hard to see exactly at which point your at and what triggers events, can you also work from step 1 in logs collector, just saves my scrolling LOL

 

[TWSTD]

Good evening guys – and thanks so much for your help with all thus far. I do very much appreciate it (and I will appreciate it even more if I can prove to my wife that a PC-based TV entertainment system is actually viable

Ok - so i did some more testing today. I will try address all your suggestions 1 by 1 again.

The check box is greyed out because you are not logged in as an administrator. Yes, you can enable it in the properties/shortcut/advanced but you will need to enter an administrator password. This will be the same password you used when you (or someone else) first installed Vista. Do you have an account that has administrator privileges?

There is only 1 account set up on this computer and its an administrator account. There is no log in when the computer turns on and no password though (i hate that - its a pain an unnecesary when the computer is in my own lounge!)

Re the recording folders, thanks for the photo Ray, I completely missed that before LOL. No the time shift folders were not set on the same drive - they now are, in separare folders within the record folder.

Re filmerit, I have just re-run as you advised and deleted all problem filters. Now showing zero filter errors.

Re PowereDVD 8, I just downloaded the free trial and installed it. Do i need to tell MP to use that codec, or is that something thats done alutomaically?

Re the TV server and TV client, both server and client are running on the one machine. Although the computer is networked, all the media portal stuff is on this ONE computer. I did however find another log folder via the menu bar drop down box in MP config. I have zipped that folder (located in prog files\ team media portal and attached to this post, along with the most recent watchdog log for a couple hours ago. Hope these are enlightening - if not please let me know how to generate logs from the TV client application.

Also another thing I noticed while looking at the TV server config, was that in the TV Chanels\TV mapping available channels were only mapped to one card and not both. I have now mapped the available channels to the card for each tuner. I did note however that after doing this i still managed to get a "could not start timeshift, could not graph" error message in MP.

 

[TWSTD]

Further to my post above, I tried watching live TV last night and every 5-7 min the picture wopuld freeze and I needed to open taskl manage to force MP to quit.

Ive just tried previewing TV again from TV Sercer Config, and I get an error message "Unable to preview. Channel not mapped to any card." I checked the mapping in TV Server config and all channels are still mapped to both cards - so no idea whats going on there?

I then opened media portal and when i click on the TV ON button, it froze and watch dog came up. Attached log to this post.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Re PowereDVD 8, I just downloaded the free trial and installed it. Do i need to tell MP to use that codec, or is that something thats done alutomaically?

Needs to be selected under television, dvd and movie settings, for audio i suggest using ffdshow or ac3 filters, try each and see which you prefer (Vista codec pack supplies both of these).

Rest will look at tomorrow as going out now, got a hot date with Liverpool vs Spurs and a game of snooker afterwards

 

[JoePlumber]

Hello again, I'm surprise you havn't quit on MP by now. Must be the wife.

When you run MP, did it prompt you for an admin password or did you click on "Allow"? The later means that you are the administrator.

Please change the SQL password to something other than "sa". Choose a password like "MpIsNumber1".
From the Start Menu, run SQL Server Management Studio Express. It should be in the SQL Server folder.
Click on security --> logins, look for the name that says "sa" and right-click on it, click Properties. Now type your new password and re-enter it again on the next line. Click OK until you exit the program.

Reboot your computer and try previewing a channel again.

Also another thing I noticed while looking at the TV server config, was that in the TV Chanels\TV mapping available channels were only mapped to one card and not both. I have now mapped the available channels to the card for each tuner. I did note however that after doing this i still managed to get a "could not start timeshift, could not graph" error message in MP.

You should create TV Groups for each tuner in the TV-Server Configuration. Example, TV1 group for the first tuner and TV2 group for the second tuner. Assign each channel to the proper TV group. Next, run MP Configuration and click on Television, TV Client, TV-Group and enable "Hide All Channels Group".

When you change channels the next time, you can select from which TV group you can watch. It appears at the top of the TV channels selection menu.

 

[TWSTD]

Needs to be selected under television, dvd and movie settings, for audio i suggest using ffdshow or ac3 filters, try each and see which you prefer (Vista codec pack supplies both of these).

Ok - video codec set to PDVD8. I dont seem to have the ffdshow or ac3 audio ones though, so have left it in MPA decoder filter.

When you run MP, did it prompt you for an admin password or did you click on "Allow"? The later means that you are the administrator.

For the first time? To be honest i cant remember - it was like 6 months ago i started setting this thing up. I dont recall entering any passwords other than the "sa" for the SQL.

You should create TV Groups for each tuner in the TV-Server Configuration. Example, TV1 group for the first tuner and TV2 group for the second tuner. Assign each channel to the proper TV group. Next, run MP Configuration and click on Television, TV Client, TV-Group and enable "Hide All Channels Group".

I dont quite understand this bit mate. I have 2 tuner cards, each sharing a cable from the satellite dish on the roof, both tuned into the same satellite and both picking up the same 15 odd channels. I have attached some screen shots to show you what i currently have set up. I dont quite understand what you are suggesting i group?

Please change the SQL password to something other than "sa". Reboot your computer and try previewing a channel again.

OK - did this. Now when i double click on the TV Server config desktop icon SQL prompted me for password (as was no longer "sa") I entered new one fine. It then asked if i wanted to start TV service. I say Yes, it says "TV Service not started"

Now i cant get into the TV server config, cant get into media portal (it crashes) and its almost definitely not recording my scheduled programs right now.

You stated earlier that you are surprised ive not given up on this yet? Well i tried to! I tried the vista media centre software (but that cant work with DVB-S), i tried sageTV but couldnt get that working either (cant recall why now - maybe it was not able to run 2 cards at once?). But yeah - getting utterly sick of this. I must have sunk litlerally DAYS of my time into trying to get this thing working properly. It just seems so pedantically fragile!

 

[TWSTD]

Yet another log. This generated after i changed SQL password and can no longer get into TV Server config, When MP is started, it comes up with error message.