Multi-tuner / CAM-use (1 Viewer)

[HTPCSourcer]

Hello,

Probably a question to @mm1352000 .

I was watching Sky Sport HD 2 when at around 21:22 a recording on Sky Atlantic HD kicked in. A a result the Football match that I was watching on Sky Sport HD 2 froze. Stopping the channel and restarting it brought back the match, but picture was very choppy.

CAM limit is set to 1 per tuner, yet it appears that MP has tried to use very same tuner that was already in use for Sky Sport HD 2, probably because both channels are part of the same transponder.

Nomal or bug?

 

[mm1352000]

Hi

Probably a question to mm1352000.

Oh dear! Somebody else? Anybody!?!

I was watching Sky Sport HD 2 when at around 21:22 a recording on Sky Atlantic HD kicked in. A a result the Football match that I was watching on Sky Sport HD 2 froze.

This is the tuner allocation issue we already discovered together here (refer to the following posts for full explanation):
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...me-certain-channel.131109/page-4#post-1144381

Stopping the channel and restarting it brought back the match, but picture was very choppy.

Currently I can't make any comment about this due to no access to TsWriter or TsReader log files.
Also, if I recall correctly you are using Owlsroost's experimental versions anyway? If I've recalled correctly, you'd be much better to ask him about this and/or try the original TsWriter and/or TsReader.

CAM limit is set to 1 per tuner, yet it appears that MP has tried to use very same tuner that was already in use for Sky Sport HD 2, probably because both channels are part of the same transponder.

Yes, TVE selected the tuner that you were using for Sky Sport HD 2 in order to record the Sky Atlantic HD programme ("The Brink - Die Welt am Abgrund"). The Sky Sport HD 2 stream stopped because the CAM can only decrypt 1 channel per tuner. TVE should have selected a different tuner to avoid stopping your Sky Sport stream. That's the issue discovered/described in the link above.

However, when you restarted Sky Sport HD 2 TVE chose a different tuner for you. So to be clear: 2 tuners were in use at that time. If the "picture was very choppy" then that's something separate that you might want to investigate. As above: currently I cannot make any comment about this.

Kind regards,
mm

 

[HTPCSourcer]

Ah, yes - I figured it would be the stuff we went through together some months ago. So no cure to this disease.

With respect to the choppy picture: strange. I just started a recording of a Sky HD channel and then launched TV of a different HD channel on Sky, which then plays normally. If it happens again, I'll collect logs and ask Owlsroost to take a look at them.

 

[HTPCSourcer]

@mm1352000 ,

This issue with the bug in TVServer is becoming really annoying. Every time a Sky recording starts, the currently watched Sky channel stops, which is really impacting the user acceptance (i.,e. wife).

Back in July you had done some code changes and provided a test patch: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...me-certain-channel.131109/page-4#post-1144290
While it was not the perfect cure, it at least adressed the problem of kicking the currently watched channel if running on another transponder than the recorded show.

Can I use this patch in combination with more recent MePo versions, e.g. the upcoming 1.13?

 

[mm1352000]

This issue with the bug in TVServer is becoming really annoying. Every time a Sky recording starts, the currently watched Sky channel stops, which is really impacting the user acceptance (i.,e. wife).

It can't be every time unless you or your wife are always watching a channel on the same transponder as the recording channel.

Back in July you had done some code changes and provided a test patch: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/t...me-certain-channel.131109/page-4#post-1144290
While it was not the perfect cure, it at least adressed the problem of kicking the currently watched channel if running on another transponder than the recorded show.

With the greatest respect, I think you've misunderstood what my patch does. All it does is ensure that additional streams (eg. audio, subtitles) will be decrypted when they're added. My patch definitely does not do anything related to kicking. That's literally impossible. I'd have had to make changes to TvService.exe (which contains the tuner allocation code), which I didn't do.

 

[mm1352000]

If this problem is really bothering you so much then maybe you could consider setting the priority of the scheduler user to be lower than the priority of your time-shifting users. Of course this would mean that recordings might fail if all tuners are in use, because time-shifting users would no longer be kickable. Only you can decide if you want to accept that "trade-off".

 

[HTPCSourcer]

Hhm,

I browsed through the July thread again, and my feeling was that with your patch Live TV would not be kicked if the recorded channel was on a different transponder.

It can't be every time unless you or your wife are always watching a channel on the same transponder as the recording channel.

Well, it happened yesterday, before yesterday, on Sunday... I didn't check the transponder setup of Sky, but this is a messy bug in TVServer.

maybe you could consider setting the priority of the scheduler user to be lower than the priority of your time-shifting users. Of course this would mean that recordings might fail if all tuners are in use, because time-shifting users would no longer be kickable.

Ah, that's a very interesting proposal. With four tuners I will most likely be better off in accepting a rather hypothetical trade-off with recordings not happening because of time-shifting not being kicked. However, remember that we had seen another bug with changed priorities in July, yet we didn't continue looking into it then.

I'll change priorities and see how things go.

 

[mm1352000]

I browsed through the July thread again, and my feeling was that with your patch Live TV would not be kicked if the recorded channel was on a different transponder.

Yes, that's true... but that is the normal behaviour of TV Server. You don't need any patch to get that behaviour.

Well, it happened yesterday, before yesterday, on Sunday... I didn't check the transponder setup of Sky...

If you want to follow up then you'd have to check the channel and transponder details.

...but this is a messy bug in TVServer.

I understand and accept your opinion. However that limitation has been around for a very long time. I'm not going to attempt to address the problem in TVE 3. The tuner allocation code has a lot of other problems too which can only be solved with a proper clean up and rewrite. I've started to do that in my branch, but it's very very tough.

 

[HTPCSourcer]

I've started to do that in my branch, but it's very very tough.

Well, if even you consider this to be difficult...

I'll change the scheduler priorities and see how that goes in practice.