[PATCH] Improvements for analog cards (1 Viewer)

[ctot]

Problem with HVR4000 and SoftMCE encoder

Hi

Im running Vista and recently upgraded from RC4 to V101. In RC4 with your patch the analog input worked OK, but in V101 MP says that soft encoder is not present.

Any idea of how can I Install it correctly (I've installed the 3 versions I have) or install any other?

Thanks

 

[misterd]

I have no clue, why SetupTV should think that the encoder isn't installed as the code for this hasn't changed. Only reason could be that the name of the encoder has changed, if you reinstalled it.

MisterD

 

[ctot]

Problem with HVR4000 and SoftMCE encoder

MisterD, first of all thanks for all your work and responses.

I've investigated with your response and you were right. I upgraded yesterday WinTV to V7, which appeared for HVR4000 last week, and names for encoder filters have changed (found them in grapstudio).

I have edited the UpdateSQLDatabase.sql, renaming video encoder 7 to 'MainConcept (HCW) MPEG-2 Video Encoder' and audio encoder 8 to 'MainConcept (HCW) Layer II Audio Encoder', rebooted computer and it works even better than before.

Before the upgrade (with WinTV V4.6 and RC4) I had sometimes sync problems. Now with WinTV V7 and MP V1.0.1 everything is working OK, no sync problems and even colours and quality seams better.

Find attached the UpdateSQLDatabase.sql just in case somebody needs it. Just replace the original one from the first page of this post and apply the patch (MS SQL users). I suppose that same mod can be made for MySQL, but I can not test it.

Thanks again MisterD.

 

[Khurram]

Finally got around to installing 1.0.1. I was really excited about MP's newfound ability to set video standard. Alas, in TV Server configuration, the Settings tab only lists NTSC variants (NTSC_M, NTSC_M_J etc) as options for Video Standard What happened to PAL variants (PAL_B, PAL_G, etc)?

 

[misterd]

TvServer detects the supported video formats of your card and gives you only those as option. This way we can ensure that only supported video formats are used, but when the drivers don't report the correct values there is nothing we can do.

Please post you analog configuration file than I can have a look at it. Perhaps it is also a bug in the code.

MisterD

 

[Khurram]

TvServer detects the supported video formats of your card and gives you only those as option. This way we can ensure that only supported video formats are used, but when the drivers don't report the correct values there is nothing we can do.

I have 2 tv cards: a software analog card and a hardware analog. The software analog card supports PAL+SECAM+NTSC; maybe the problem is that its software based. The signal is PAL, the TV Server configuration shows only NTSC variants in teh Settings tab for this card, but the channels display okay

The hardware analog card supports NTSC only, but I am not using its tuner. I have connected my STB (which outputs PAL) to the card's composite inputs; so I need to tell TVServer that the input signal is PAL. Right now, I have made a change in the sources for tvlibrary (TvCardAnalog.cs) which detects if my hardware card is being used when a channel is tuned and it forces the TV format to PAL. I was hoping that I would be able to do this in TV Server Configuration, but apparently its not the case. Maybe you can add a feature where the TV format can be selected separately for the tuner and composite/svhs inputs?

Please post you analog configuration file than I can have a look at it. Perhaps it is also a bug in the code.

Where can I find the analog configuration file?

 

[misterd]

The analog configuration files are located in "%PROGRAMDATA%\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\AnalogCard"

MisterD

 

[Khurram]

The analog configuration files are located in "%PROGRAMDATA%\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\AnalogCard"

Ok, found the folder is %APPDATA%\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\AnalogCard. Maybe the %PROGRAMDATA% path is for Vista.

I have attached the files for my sources. The CX23885 tuner is software based and the AverMedia tuner is hardware based. Please remember that I have connected my STB to the composite inputs on the AverMedia, the STB outputs a PAL signal, the AverMedia tuner only supports NTSC but this should not make a difference as I am using the composite inputs and not using the tuner part.

I have looked the xml files and there is a <videostandard> node. How are the values of its sub-nodes calculated? Can I change the values here (in the <selected> sub-node) to force the standard to PAL for the AverMedia card?

Thanks.

 

[misterd]

According to the files SetupTV displays the correct possible values. The AverMedia card reports only that it supports NTSC.

The available video format is a bitmask of the AnalogVideoStandard enumeration (AnalogVideoStandard Enumeration (Windows)).

You can change those at your own risk, but only if SetupTV and TvServer are stopped.. The TvServer won't override the available video formats as long graph building doesn't fail.

There are no plans to add the possibility to set the video format per channel as this would slow down the channel change and makes everything more and more complicated.

MisterD

 

[Khurram]

According to the files SetupTV displays the correct possible values. The AverMedia card reports only that it supports NTSC.

Yes, but that is true for the tuner portion only. I am using the composite inputs (which is connected to the STB composite output) and if I force the tv format to PAL in the code, I get a proper picture. Maybe there should be a checkbox to show all possible values for the AnalogVideoStandard Enumeration along with a warning.

The available video format is a bitmask of the AnalogVideoStandard enumeration (AnalogVideoStandard Enumeration (Windows)).

Thanks. For the AverMedia card, <available> is 3, but the combo shows NTSC_M, NTSC_M_J and NTSCMask. The bitmak for the first 2 is 3. What is NTSCMask for? I also cannot get the details page for the CX23885 card. I get the following in error.log when I click on its name in SetupTV:

2009-04-14 10:39:47.203125 [SetupTv]: Exception   :System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Value of '50' is not valid for 'Value'.
'Value' should be between 'minimum' and 'maximum'.
Parameter name: Value
   at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollBar.set_Value(Int32 value)
   at SetupTv.Sections.CardAnalog.SetVideoProcAmp(IDictionary`2 map)
   at SetupTv.Sections.CardAnalog.OnSectionActivated()
   at SetupTv.SetupTvSettingsForm.ActivateSection(SectionSettings section)

I have looked at the xml file and played with the values, but I cannot get it to work

You can change those at your own risk, but only if SetupTV and TvServer are stopped.. The TvServer won't override the available video formats as long graph building doesn't fail.

I have changed the value of the <selected> child node to 16 for the AverMedia card, but it does not seem to make a difference. I get audio but the video is garbled. In the changes I made to the sources, I set the tv format after the graph is built, but before it is run. This works for me, but I have to make the changes in the source every time I update.

There are no plans to add the possibility to set the video format per channel as this would slow down the channel change and makes everything more and more complicated.

I think you have misunderstood me. I was asking for an option to set the video format for the tuner input and the composite/vhs inputs separately, not on a channel by channel basis.