Problems displaying DVB-T transmissions - Help (1 Viewer)

[ianc]

MediaPortal Version: MP 1.0.2
MediaPortal Skin: Standard
Windows Version: Vista Ultimate latest patches & SP
CPU Type: Intel Q6600
HDD: ~2 TB
Memory: 2G
Motherboard: abit ab9 Quad GT
Video Card: ATI 2600 PCIe
Video Card Driver: 8.4
Sound Card: onboard
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card: FireDTV
1. TV Card Type: DVB-S2
1. TV Card Driver:
2. TV Card: Avermedia PCI
2. TV Card Type: DVB S
2. TV Card Driver:
3. TV Card: Terratec Cinergy dual
3. TV Card Type: DVB-T
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec:
MPEG2 Audio Codec:
h.264 Video Codec: Cyberlink
Satelite/CableTV Provider: 28.2
HTPC Case:
Cooling:
Power Supply:
Remote: MCE
TV: Panasonic ax200
TV - HTPC Connection: HDMI

I've finally managed to get good terrestrial signals using a new aerial. I've confirmed they are good (85-90%) using a Technomate set-top box. I've managed to get TVServer (using the Terratec Cinergy 2400i DT) to scan and find the 4 stations currently transmitted But I can't get them to display either in preview (in TV Server Config) or through MP. No errors - just a blank little preview screen. Preview is working for my Sat channels. The channels are being transmitted in DVB-T/MPEG4 not mpeg2.

Another oddity/symptom is that the channels appear in the red (encrypted) icons even though they are not encrypted. Editing the channel and setting them to FTA didn't help.

I've attached logs from TV Server and MP plus a screenshot of the channels in TVS.

EDIT:
I've managed to get the channels to work using the Terratec Home Cinema software supplied withthe card. It's working with the config shown in the "terratec config" image. Note the MPEG2 setting makes no difference. It's using the H.264 codec
END EDIT


Anyone got thoughts, silver bullets, etc?

 

[ianc]

Okay - by messing around with codecs via graphstudio.exe ( I think disabling the Avermedia H.264 codec was the fix) I've managed to get the channels displaying on the TVServer PC albeit a bit jumpy. They still wont work on the other MP boxes and I'm guessing it's a directX graph problem. However I've been stumped in my diagnosis because I can't get graphstudio (GS) to connect to a remote graph. Some scenarios:
1) TVServer with preview window working - I can see a remote graph listed in GS but doesn't connect
2) Same for MediaPortal
3) Terratec Home Cinema - No remote graph listed in GS. (interested because this is giving a smooth render of the channels)

Questions
1) Should GS be able to connect and display graphs like it does when it's rendering files? (what am I doing wrong)
2) Should this H.264 Standard Defn stream require real cpu/gpu horsepower to render?

I've attached two "TS" files (Max Steel was produced by TVServer and Super Garden by Terratec Home Cinema).
I've played around with these files results are:
1) They are both playable on my TVServer machine in GS - no surprise
2) Neither are playable on client MP machine when running XP even though the Cyberlink H.264 codec is installed.

Interestingly they both play on the "client MP machine" when its rebooted onto a completely vanilla Windows 7 installation (in Windows media player). W7 reports that the files are MGEG2!!!.

 

[Owlsroost]

Re: the GraphStudio problem - have you got proppage.dll installed/registered (see the link in my sig below)

Tony

 

[ianc]

Ahh - Thanks - Got it working for Vista and can now start to debug. Tried the same process for W7 x86 and got a failure. Then worked out that you need to run the registration as Administrator - obvious really but the 0x80070005 error code wasn't the most informative!

 

[juk]

Hi Ianc,
thanks for you info from the other thread... my area seems to be covered the transmission !!!!
I did a scan with USB stick on my Laptop (Win7) and did find channels and can view the channels with MS Media Center...
Then I tried it on my MP machine - did find channels (scanning all UK transponders) but can't view the channels... only black but no error ....
So I understand that this a codec issue... did you get any further.
I have SAF installed (but not sure if I did that correctly) ... any codecs you can recommend?

Thanks

 

[ianc]

Juk
Good to hear you have coverage. Are you able to run up MS Media Center on the MP PC to check the config?
I had the same problem with MP 1.0.2 and never got to the bottom of why. I'm now using 1.1beta + latest SVN and have the 4 Irish DTT channels working fine.

Remember - these are H264 encoded even though they're only SD. They do take more horsepower to render than MPEG2 transmissions. Having siad that I can get an old Dell D610 laptop to display them - just.

I have the latest SAF installed and unlocked (important - see the SAF thread).

Here's a pic of my codec settings.
I use the same settings on my primary server (W7 Quad core + ATI 4770 GPU), an older ATI 2400 GPU based machine and a couple of D610 laptops. Only the first two have hardware GPU acceleration.

I hope this helps

 

[juk]

Hi,
I did some further reading and tinkering and got it working as well with SAF unlocked like you!
I am still on 1.01 and so far looks great!
Thanks for your help!!!