Occasional pauses in some DBV-T LiveTV (3 Viewers)

[dale77]

MediaPortal Version: 1.0.2
MediaPortal Skin: bluewide
Windows Version: Vista Premium 32bit SP2
CPU Type: AMD 4850e 2.5Ghz X2
HDD: WD10EARS
Memory: 2Gb DDR800
Motherboard: GA-MA78GPM-UD2H F3
Video Card: Sapphire 4670 1Gb
Video Card Driver: Catalyst 10.1
Sound Card: Realtek ALC889a
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver: 6.0.1.5780
1. TV Card: Hauppage HVR-2200
1. TV Card Type: Dual DVB-T, analog hybrid
1. TV Card Driver: 7.6.1.27086
2. TV Card:
2. TV Card Type:
2. TV Card Driver:
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: MPC MPEG-2 Gabest
MPEG2 Audio Codec: AC3 Filter
h.264 Video Codec: PCM H.264/AVC Decoder
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case: Antec Fusion 430 v2
Cooling:
Power Supply: Antec 430W
Remote: Logitech Harmony 525
TV: Samsung LA40B530 1080p
TV - HTPC Connection: HDMI

Hi, any suggestions as to where to look to remove these irritating pauses? By "pause" I mean a momentary freeze in video, possibly accompanied by an audio glitch.

Facts:

- pauses are not always present
- channel with least pauses (almost none) is H.264 1080i, this is on 698Mhz.
- Most effected seem to be H.264 720p and 576i, these channels are on 682Mhz and 706Mhz freq.
- HDTV tuner in Samsung TV does not seem to show the pauses, from the same antenna cable (verified by switching the antenna to the Samsung half way thru a pause afflicted 576i broadcast on 706Mhz)
- Watching the HDTV signal diagnosis feature for a bit it shows 90% signal strength and 0 BER.
- Pauses always appear in the same place in a recording
- We are 11km from the transmitter, in a traditionally "signal shaded" area
- The HTPC is running at ~10% CPU utilization and using 50% of physical memory during playback.

My analysis of the above observations would say that it is a signal issue, EXCEPT for the fact that the HDTV does not exhibit the same pauses. I know that computer tuners can be more sensitive to dirty signal though.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Edit: Well, I replaced my HVR-2200 with a NOVA TD-500 pci, and pauses are gone.

My pick was there was a problem with the HVR-2200.

Thanks!

Dale

 

[dale77]

I found this thread helpful. https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/mediaportal-1-talk-45/stuttering-livetv-38450/

My pauses seemed to be related to these errors:

20-02-2010 13:44:05.935 [608]Video Continuity error... 8 ( prev 5 )
20-02-2010 13:44:06.819 [490]vid:set discontinuity
20-02-2010 13:44:12.514 [608]Video Continuity error... c ( prev 6 )
20-02-2010 13:44:12.514 [608]Video Continuity error... 2 ( prev f )
20-02-2010 13:44:12.515 [608]Audio Continuity error... e ( prev c )

Using the TVClient option, TSReader, "Don't drop discontinued packets" removes the pauses at the cost of a visual glitch.

As others have found in the above thread though, the Samsung TV can handle the same input stream without the problems Mediaportal has.

Hmmmm.

 

[tourettes]

Most likely bad signal is causing the transport stream corruption.

 

[dale77]

Most likely bad signal is causing the transport stream corruption.

I concur, but:

- there is no visible corruption in the signal + hdtv tuner combination
- there is visible corruption with the signal + HVR2200 + mp1.02 combination

So, the signal only appears "bad" for the HTPC. This would suggest that changes at the HTPC end might be required.

Can you tell me more about what those "Video Continuity errors" represent?

 

[tourettes]

Can you tell me more about what those "Video Continuity errors" represent?

Data that TsReader receives is having "holes" in it. Basicly packets are missing.

 

[dale77]

Using the TVClient option, TSReader, "Don't drop discontinued packets" removes the pauses at the cost of a visual glitch.

Unfortunately, letting the discontinued packets through causes video to freeze occasionally.

So back to micro-pauses it is.

 

[STuNZ]

Can you tell me more about what those "Video Continuity errors" represent?

Data that TsReader receives is having "holes" in it. Basicly packets are missing.

I concur that there are holes in the stream but is it possible the server is failing to write the entire data stream rather than it being a reception problem. I'm getting similar continuity errors (logs attached) with associated stutters sporadically but have previously (to RC1) never had reception issues. The problem is in the recordings in that when replaying the stutters recoccur at the same point.

What is curious is that the tv server logs often reports reception quality as 10% but when looking at the tuning details in the gui it never waivers off 100%.

The TV itself doesn't seems to have any trouble tuning these same HD channels so, is it possible some other resource constraint or conflict is causing the holes in the TS tream being saved rather than just being reception problems?

 

[bigfella78]

I'm having the same problem. I have not been able to locate the error. I thought it might be a encoding error, or possibly a hardware fault in the tuner card.

Glad I'm not the only one thought..

 

[dale77]

This is all very comforting having others in the same boat, but, I would prefer to not have the 'oles.

Is this a hauppage 2200 thing? A "dodgy" hauppage 2200 thing? A mediaportal TV server bug? A windows OS bug?

I'm watching Top Gear right now, recorded off prime (706Mhz, 576i) a couple of days ago. The recording is PERFECT. Other days, it will pause video every minute or so. Grrrr.

 

[deadmonty]

I had the same issues as these. I installed a masthead amplifier and a decent eight way amplified splitter and now all is well. Are you using those Y splitters (one in two out) to feed the cards? These can add up to 10 db of noise to the signal.