My TV stopped wokring - DB problem? (3 Viewers)

[SwissBuster]

TV-Server Version:
MediaPortal Version: 1.0.0 RC2
MediaPortal Skin: BlueTwo wide
Windows Version: Vista Home Premium SP1
CPU Type: Intel Core2 Duo E7200 2.53Ghz
HDD: WDC 750GB
Memory: 4GM RAM
Motherboard: Asus P5N-EM HDMI
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD2400 Pro
Video Card Driver: 8.501.0.0
Sound Card:
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card: Technisat SkyStar HD2
1. TV Card Type: DVS-S
1. TV Card Driver: 1.1.0.402
MPEG2 Video Codec: MPV
MPEG2 Audio Codec:
h.264 Video Codec: Cyberlink PDVD 8
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case: Antec
Cooling:
Power Supply:
Remote: Logitec Harmony 55
TV: Sharp 52"
TV - HTPC Connection: HDMI

I posted this over in general MP support, but there have been no suggestions despite 50 views, and I'm getting desperate. My problem is with TV service anyway...

My single seat TV service suddenly stopped working. When I enter "My TV" I get a screen telling me "please specify the IP address or host name of the master TV service" and it already shows the right server name. When confirming, I get the error message "unable to connect to database".

I had been tweaking my setup (e.g. trying different codecs) but I don't think these changes caused the problem. From the logs, I suspect for whatever reason I am not properly connecting to the SQL DB, so I launched TV setup using the "-c" command (which opens the SQL logon page). The logon test (to the 'sa' database) is then successful. I also tried stopping and starting the TV service from Task Manager but that didn't help (not sure if there is any particular sequence I should be doing this for it to make any difference). I can preview all channels fine within TV config.

A log is attached; I started MP, tried to connect to the TV, failed, and then closed down. The key is probably here: [ERROR][MPMain]: Unable to create/modify gentle.config Root element is missing., at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)

I'm not sure what I can do to fix this though... Could some genius please have a quick look at the log? Urgent help is needed because I want to wtach the Olympics!

 

[SwissBuster]

Nevermind.

I de-installed TV server, and re-installed. Everything is working fine now.

 

[roland123]

Hi SwissBuster, I just noticed in your MYTV stopped working thread (sorry, I have no answer on this) that you are using a Logitech Harmony remote. As I was thinking about getting one of those myself, could you please let me know whether this works fine with Mediaportal? Is it maybe able to emulate an Microsoft Remote? Any feedback would be very appreciated!

Many thanks

Roland

 

[Spragleknas]

Hi roland123.
You post got delayed due to moderation :sorry:

Anyway: The Harmony remotes is able to emulate MCE remotes fine. It can also be set as a "MediaPortal" remote (whatever that is), whicj gives even better control, form what I've read (shortcuts to pictures etc.).

 

[SwissBuster]

In a word, yes. It emulates the MCE remote perfectly. I had some issues getting any MCE remote to work with MP on my PC but now its working fine. I would recommend the Harmony because it allows you to control several devices with one remote and often with one button push (e.g. to turn on your TV, PC and AV receiver, including tuning each to the right channel).

I had my breakthrough last night, so now pretty much every button is correctly mapped. The issue I had was not due to the Harmony remote but due to the way the iMon software on my PC handles the remote commands - I borrowed a mate's MCE remote and it performed exactly the same as the Harmony. Some of the buttons worked, but not all. The keyboard worked all along so I knew it was possible to get MP to react as it should.

The solution for me was proper mapping in the iMon software. In this program, you can add MediaPortal under the software tab and you then need to map each remote button. The 'breakthrough' last night was to make sure that each command was mapped to the remote AND to a keyboard stroke. The only thing I'd like to get fixed now is the 'red button' command for TV (e.g. for extra coverage of the Olympics); this will probably become the subject of another thread.

I was a fan of MP but after realising all the extra commands that are available I'm a bigger fan!

 

[slarve]

On topic..

Had the same thing happen to me today! After one of it's daily crashes I got the "please specify the IP address or host name of the master TV service"

A problem with gentle.config Root element gone missing..

I'm reinstalling TV-server as i write..

Probably have to format the hard drive soon, as my setup got very unstable after upgrading to 1.0.1..

 

[ToyRotar]

Hi All,
I also experienced this error today after a crash (first I've had in over 6 months) Performing an uninstall / reinstall fixed the problem, however, I'd like to know what causes this specific error.

One thing I did notice is that I can still connect to my TVServer from other clients, so it looks like a client-side issue, not TVServer which I found interesting. As I would have thought that normally a crash would cause DB corruption impacting the TVServer, not the client.

Can anyone point us in the right direction as to what would be causing this issue?
Best Regards,
David.

All - A further update...

After grabbing a quick cup of coffee to get the mind going... I went back to my previous snapshot with a file compare to see which files had been modified & noticed that the
"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\gentle.config" file had been corrupted.

After copying the gentle.config file over from the TVServer directory it was fixed.

This looks like a bug - although if it was triggered by a crash, this may be difficult to replicate.

Hope this helps someone the pain of an uninstall / reinstall.
Kind Regards,
David.

 

[tourettes]

After grabbing a quick cup of coffee to get the mind going... I went back to my previous snapshot with a file compare to see which files had been modified & noticed that the
"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\gentle.config" file had been corrupted.

After copying the gentle.config file over from the TVServer directory it was fixed.

This looks like a bug - although if it was triggered by a crash, this may be difficult to replicate.

I would say it is impossible to reproduce and really rare issue. The file could have been corrupted by the filesystem itself.

One possibility would be to calculate some check sums for all config files and then save a backup ones that could be restored when the application detects a corrupted config file.

Any volunteers to provide such patch for MP and TVE3?

 

[snoekieboe]

had the same problem happening on my MP install this morning..... random BSOD in Vista for no obvious reason.
After my PC finished rebooting MP would no longer start

First I replaced mediaportal.config.exe with a backup version.
Mp would start after this fix, but would throw "gentle.config" errors after a couple of seconds.

I copied the gentle.config from the tvserver dir to the mediaportal dir overwriting the exisiting gentle.config which still had a size of 6kb but showed up empty after opening. ( corrupted )

Et voile.... MP is working again.

 

[rimmeraj]

Thank you for posting this infomation, as this happened to me as well.
I recovered the gentle.config file from a backup and was able to get media portal working again.

This issue should be logged as a bug?