Picture Freeze during replay (1 Viewer)

[JDWestoby]

Not sure if this is a bug or a support call, so apologies if I've mis-posted.

At random intervals when playing back a recording (although it does seem to happen if another recording is about to start or finish) the picture freezes, the sound continues OK.

Once in this state it is impossible to do anything other than reset the PC (the IR appears to work, the tell-tale blinks but often does not do anything, sometimes it manages to 'get back' to Media Portal screen It is possible to watch the recordings from another computer so the PC hasn't totally frozen.

I have included the logs, watched a recording (of an hour) a little TV then started watching another recording and managed around 15 minutes in before the freeze.

The PC has three Floppy DTV cards connected to 2 internal Firewire ports, and only had a home automation program running. Motherboard is an MSI with a MSI FX5200 AGP graphics card, 2GB RAM.

If there is anything else I can send to help work out what is going wrong please tell me this is quite annoying, especially as it needs a reboot. The other forum entries on picture freezes don't seem relevant.

I'm still impressed with MediaPortal, and using For The Record makes even more likely to replace the TiVo in our household!

Here's hoping it is something easy to find (and fix) - I hate trying to work from dumps.

I like the idea of how logs are collected - wouldn't know where to begin otherwise!



TV-Server Version: RC2
MediaPortal Version: RC2
MediaPortal Skin: Blue Wide
Windows Version: XP Pro SP3 + patched
CPU Type: AMD Sempron 2400
HDD: 250GB
Memory: 2GB DDR
Motherboard: MSI
Video Card: Nvidia FX5200
Video Card Driver:
Sound Card: on board
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card: FloppyDTV-T
1. TV Card Type: DVB-T
1. TV Card Driver: N
2. TV Card: FloppyDTV-S2
2. TV Card Type: DVB-S
2. TV Card Driver: N
3. TV Card: FloppyDTV-S2
3. TV Card Type: DVB-S
3. TV Card Driver: N
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec: NVidia Platinum/default
MPEG2 Audio Codec: NVidia Platinum/default
h.264 Video Codec:
Satelite/CableTV Provider: Sky
HTPC Case: Cheap - desktop
Cooling: Zalman Flower
Power Supply: QuietPC
Remote: Microsoft MCE
TV: Toshiba Regza
TV - HTPC Connection: DVI -> HDMI + 2 * phono

 

[JDWestoby]

£50 bribe...

OK, here's the deal.

Fix this and I'll give £50 to whoever/whatever organisation fixes this. Promise!

(Conditions - it has to not freeze in at least a week of use and we don't even watch that much live TV!)

This happens again and again, not at fixed intervals and is ALWAYS playing either live TV or, less frequently, recorded TV.

We watch live TV and at some random interval it freezes, the sound continues but the video stops dead.

Can't get out reliably, can get to Blue Screen Wide either via the Start or Backup key on the remote but after that I can't do anything. I can sometimes get the top menu bar up with the close button but clicking it does nothing.

It requires a reboot to get MediaPortal back to life.

TV Scheduler is fine, it is reliably recording things even in this state either via the inbuilt scheduler or via ForThe Record.

It is NOT specific to one PC either, it also happens on another PC when watching live TV (also an XP Pro box but running a 3GHz AMD with 2GB and over a wired 100MHz LAN, using a FX5600 gfx card).

As mentioned it sometimes happens on recorded playback too - using VLC means this does NOT happen so the file is fine.

My other half is VERY fed up with this - we don't even mind that it sometimes stutters [it's only TV after all] but freezing is a problem.

The server runs just MediaPortal and HomeSeer (which never needs a reboot, or at least not so frequently!) and nothing else.

It happens using the default decoders or the NVidia ones.

The server PC is on a UPS so well protected from surges and actually via a surge plug too.

If MediaPortal doesn't play live/recorded TV then I hate to say it but it is going to have to go. And I REALLY HATE having to think that.

Overall this works really well, fix this one problem and I'll be happy.

I don't even want HDTV! (It kills the video by stopping and stuttering - have to buy another motherboard and all that entails - ho hum).

I can live without the multi satellite capability - not watching Italian games shows, Friends in French or Latvian soaps won't hurt me significantly!


If you want info just tell me what you want. I DID supply logs but that seems not to have been enough to get a response. There are certainly no replys.

Logs, full details of my PC, heck I'll give you access to the darn thing if you like!


I work in IT as a developer so I KNOW how hard it is to get something working but video playback is SO basic this HAS to be fixed.

I don't even mind if you come back and say buy a new gfx card - as long as it works (or you get the bill), but it isn't specific to one PC.

I have a laptop (currently running Vista Home but I HATE this so it will probably get XP dumped on it). This doesn't 'seem' to have problems but to be honest I've only watched a few recordings on it and I normally use VLC (for the above reason).

So, £50 enough of a bribe to fix this?

...or are you going to force me back to my single tuner, standard def, but ultra reliable TiVo

 

[ronilse]

Hi,
Have you tried other video codecs like Cyberlink PowerDVD 7 or 8 & ffdshow(you need to set in ffdshow audio config -> codecs & MP1, MP2 to mp3lib) for audio?

Regards
Roy

 

[naich]

these random freezes happens to me too. about 15 to 20 min all seems to be ok and then the picture freezes while watching live TV.
no such problem with RC1 and SVN.

I'll do some tests tomorrow to reproduce theses freezes and post some log's.

@westoby ... be patient ... they'll fix it sure

cu

 

[naich]

Hi ronsile!

I have tested it on three different clients with MPV, Nvidia and FFDshow. It does no difference.

So it seems to me, it's not codec related.

cu

 

[ronilse]

Hi ronsile!

I have tested it on three different clients with MPV, Nvidia and FFDshow. It does no difference.

So it seems to me, it's not codec related.

cu

Hi,
You have to attach your logs after a freeze to check if this could be something like the above issue, you could be suffering from many issues but only logs will tell

Regards
Roy

 

[naich]

Hi Ronilse!

... as i wrote before ...

I'll do some tests tomorrow to reproduce theses freezes and post some log's.

but tomorrow is today in the evening

cu

 

[naich]

hi ronilse, hi at all!

here are the logs ...

what i did:

start MP-Client
start live TV
after about 10 min picture freezes
had to kill TV Service via task manager


hope someone can help us/me

cu

 

[ronilse]

Hi,
naich, use a valid cam & subscription card when posting bug reports on MediaPortal forum, most likely mdapi hangs the TVServer & then it goes wrong, there are forums where this can be discussed & help probably given

Regards
Roy

 

[naich]

hi ronilse!

Sure, i use a valid card.

... and Sometimes also a small tip is helpful ...



regards