MP losing connection to the TV service after inactivity (1 Viewer)

[infinite.loop]

Now we know what the problem is - how do we fix it??

We still do not know what the issue is.

• Why does a scan return (sometimes?) Channelnames with odd characters?
• Is it really the odd character in the channelname which causes the crash?
• Or is it some odd character inside the EPG datastream itselfe? (which was the cause of crashes in the past)

Usually the only way to find out if it is the data in the received EPG is to enable one channel after the other for EPG grabbing.
And continue to do that until you find the corrupted one. Then we need an complete TS dump of that channel to analyze and find the data the EPG grabber does not like (if it even is the garbber causing the issue).

That kind of issue is annoyingly hard to track down.

 

[infinite.loop]

Btw. do you have the CRC check enabled in TVServer Configuration -> DVB EPG ?

 

[SpudR]

It's never easy
But I have every faith in you guys
You've created something amazing here

CRC checking was off - I've enabled the EPG again only on 'sky active ads' and enabled the CRC
I've also initiated another channel scan (I'm missing several known channels)
Lets see what happens now...

 

[infinite.loop]

CRC checking was off

Oh, that was not so good then, because this avoids crashes in EPG grabber.
Helps a lot with corrupted streams (i.e. caused by a bad signal)

 

[SpudR]

On the bad signal thing - On a whim I investigated the dish outside the house (it takes some getting to as it's out of sight)
My GF is quite a gardener and seems to have grown Clematis all over that side of the house, this had grown onto the bracket of the dish and I suspect slightly misaligned it.
There was no signal degradation in the Hauppauge signal tester, so I think this was a matter of some 10th of a degree or so.
Some judicious pruning later (actually I went a bid mad with the pruners!) and the signal corruption I was getting is almost gone! (there are still a couple of channels giving me the problem).

So far the HTPC has been on all night without the error - I thinks it's the same error as the bad signal crashing the TVserver service.
This is WITH the EPG running on 'Sky Active Ads' and 'Freeview info'...

I think this was my issue mainly, and the other issue is already reported, so can you close this thread and I'll monitor the other one(s)

Thanks for all your help

 

[infinite.loop]

Didn't I suspect bad signal?

There was no signal degradation in the Hauppauge signal tester

Bit off topic, but I want to share some insights.

I do not want to offend Hauppauge, but everything which costs less than €500,- does not deserve to be named "signal tester".
I dare to say that since the company I work for is doing professional aerial and sat system installations.

Many times I've been called to a customer who tried to align his antenna with a so called "signal tester" from the electronis store or with the help of an sat-receiver.
While these devices report "awesome signal !" it's actually most of the time just on the edge of "barely working - hopefully it won't rain"

So calling a professional in such cases is not a bad idea.

 

[SpudR]

Agreed - and lesson learned!
Best to get a gardener too in my case!

 

[infinite.loop]

Best to get a gardener too in my case!

NEVER try to take away one of your wifes/girlfriends hobbys!!!!

Just glad that your found the issue.

 

[kkendall]

I've got an update too
I've turned all kinds of options on and off, also the hidden debug options and the above mentioned ones, but since I turned off WebEPG 2 days ago MP was still alive and kicking when I woke up and came home from work! Let's see what today brings, but it seems WebEPG crashes my MP... I'll investigate further.

EDIT:
Well, it definitely wasn't WebEPG. Maybe also...but not just WebEPG. TV service keeps getting lost with WebEPG off. When activating crc checks, the message about the lost tv server was waiting for me yesterday when I got home. When I turned off epg grabbing when idle yesterday, I had a up and running system this morning!
If I turn off this option and the rest of the epg grabbing functions on, when exactly is the epg grabber kicking in? Only when I am watching live tv?

EDIT2: It's been four days since I've turned off epg grabbing when idle and since then tvservice had not crashed once when I woke up or got home from work! The epg grabbing function seems to contain the bug.
I'll see if I can localize it to one specific channel or something.