Question on Manual Control screen in TV Server Config (2 Viewers)

[Pom]

Hi mm, yes plugged the new card in and same problem. It was risky purchase, but at least i'm wiser... That's gone back for a refund ;-)

This is my conclusion so far - MP front-end crashes due to bad TV signal. TV-Server does not crash. (I run a single-seat set-up) I have seen the crash 2 times now on my DVB-T tuner, but only on the channel where i have low signal strength and have always suffered from occasional glitches. After a crash, the logs always show reams and reams of "discontinuity - bad signal?" entries. Seems MP can only handle so much before crashing. I am aware of other bugs reporting this problem, but i thought that was to address TV-Server crashes - not MP front-end?

Any advice on crashing due to weak TV signal would be gratefully received, as would any conclusions on my last set of logs posted above.

As my satellite channels were causing constant crashes, i still plan to fit a new LNB and cabling this weekend. My dish installation is years old (from previous owner - >6 years old at least), it won't cost a lot to do it, it rules out another cause plus i get quad LNB capability instead of single LNB as i have now.

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again

...yes plugged the new card in and same problem. It was risky purchase, but at least i'm wiser... That's gone back for a refund ;-)

Darn. Like you say, at least you know it is very unlikely to be hardware now though.

This is my conclusion so far - MP front-end crashes due to bad TV signal. TV-Server does not crash. (I run a single-seat set-up) I have seen the crash 2 times now on my DVB-T tuner, but only on the channel where i have low signal strength and have always suffered from occasional glitches. After a crash, the logs always show reams and reams of "discontinuity - bad signal?" entries. Seems MP can only handle so much before crashing. I am aware of other bugs reporting this problem, but i thought that was to address TV-Server crashes - not MP front-end?

TV Server's resilience to stream corruption has been beefed up by miroslav22 in MP 1.2.x. However I don't think the client was touched. The idea is that the server should never crash (else you miss recordings) but the client crash is not so bad (if that can ever be said about a crash! ).

Any advice on crashing due to weak TV signal would be gratefully received, as would any conclusions on my last set of logs posted above.

My advice would be that if this is truly a signal problem then invest in fixing it at the source. Anything that we attempt to do in the code is going to be time consuming and ultimately not crash-proof. The last set of logs aren't 100% conclusive - just more circumstantial evidence of the same thing I think. Continuity errors in the TsWriter log -> stream corruption => bad signal, HDD stress etc. etc. etc. I can say that the tuning parameters for that transponder appear to be correct so at least that is one thing you can cross off the list.

As my satellite channels were causing constant crashes, i still plan to fit a new LNB and cabling this weekend. My dish installation is years old (from previous owner - >6 years old at least), it won't cost a lot to do it, it rules out another cause plus i get quad LNB capability instead of single LNB as i have now.

I think that's a really sensible idea. Definitely let me know how you get on with that.

mm

 

[Pom]

Just a final update on my problem. My system has been stable now for well over a week, since installing a new LNB and cabling plus SAF v6.0 codecs.

I think i've got the problem all summed up in my mind now. I had a faulty LNB causing bad signal, i also had 'dodgy' PowerDVD 10 codecs so it seems (i won't say where i got them...), which would cause MP client to crash on bad TV reception (saw a couple of crashes on my DVB-T tuner on a channel known in my household for stuttering occasionally from weak signal).

I also got my refund for the 'spare' DVB-S2 card i invested in (only lost a few quid for return postage). So all good!

Thanks for your help.