Problem with TV signa qualityl [HDHomeRun] (1 Viewer)

[Renato]

Hi all,

I previously had problems during rainy days, etc with a number of my channels becoming all blocky, etc....while if watching directly on my TV all was fine, but always assumed it was related to my PC TV tuner quality/week signal... but recently I've changed to a dual HDHomeRun solution and the same is happening again (worst in fact, a number of channels lost signal all together)...but this time around I was able to test with the HDHomeRun app in my same windows machine where I'm running the Media Portal and all is fine, the signal is perfect, anywhere I run the TV app(even on my XBOX via wireless)....so I'm confused, is this a Media Portal issue...? But I still believe there's an association with the bad weather because everything was fine until few days ago, only when the bad weather started the problems started...any help clarifying this issues would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

 

[mm1352000]

Hello

I previously had problems... but recently... and the same is happening again...

These are all untested assumptions.

It's entirely possible that the problems with your previous PC tuner were purely signal related as you guessed. "Sensitivity" varies from tuner to tuner. In other words: tuner A may be able to cope with a given signal strength whereas tuner B cannot. This applies for all tuners - PC, TV, set top box... all.

Switching to the HDHR changes the situation significantly. In addition to the potential signal issue (the HDHR may be more or less sensitive than your previous PC tuner, and more or less sensitive than your TV) you've now added another factor - namely: your network - that could partially or fully explain what you're seeing.

I was able to test with the HDHomeRun app in my same windows machine where I'm running the Media Portal and all is fine, the signal is perfect, anywhere I run the TV app(even on my XBOX via wireless)....so I'm confused, is this a Media Portal issue...?

It's impossible to say anything definitively without more information, starting with full debug-level MediaPortal/TV-Server log files.

For now I can only point out that even though you might think you're doing an apples-to-apples comparison between MP and the HDHR app, XBOX or whatever, you're actually not.

In technical terms: MP currently doesn't support PID filtering with the HDHR, whereas those other apps/devices you're testing with almost certainly do.
In layman's terms: MP requires a higher capacity network connection because it's always receiving a full, multi-channel stream from the HDHR, whereas the other apps/devices are only receiving a single channel at a time.

We're talking about the difference between a 20 or 30 Mbps stream per tuner for MediaPortal and a 5 or 10 Mbps stream per channel for the other apps/devices.

Big and potentially crucial difference.

Again, this is in addition to other potential explanations such as:

• signal issues (which are more likely to explain the weather connection)
• over-zealous or sub-optimally-configured security software (if configured to scan/monitor MP and/or TV Server, security software can degrade MP/TV-Server's performance to the point where it causes symptoms like those you've described)
• codec issues

any help clarifying this issues would be greatly appreciated.

As above: please start by providing full log files. Please use the provided Watchdog tool with option 1 ("report a bug...") to capture log files for a session where you experience the blocky picture etc. symptoms.

You should also do some testing to confirm:

• whether the problem affects all channels, or only some channels
• whether the problem only occurs during bad weather, or whether it can occur during good weather too
• etc.

Obviously if you want help it's going to be important for you to share all relevant information that you glean from the above tests. For example, you should tell us which channels are and are not affected.