[Bug] [RC2]Switching HD channels fails random (1 Viewer)

arion_p

Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • February 7, 2007
    3,373
    1,626
    Athens
    Home Country
    Greece Greece
    1) sometimes after the black screen, shortly video of the previous channel was played before starting with the new channel.
    This happens because after a channel/format change the DShow graph needs to be rebuilt so the RSTP stream is stopped then restarted. But when restarting the stream we need to seek and seeking is not accurate neither we accurately know the position we left off, so sometimes the stream position ends up before the change. Previously this would cause a loop because a new channel/format change would be detected (that of the previous channel). This version simply ignores the change

    2) replaying by going back in buffer seems to give now 100% channelswitch fail.
    3) one time after I think a format change during watching ITV1 HD I had largely out of sync audio.
    These are the problems I feared this version would cause. I need to find a different solution :(.
     

    benjerry

    MP Donator
  • Premium Supporter
  • September 26, 2007
    167
    10
    Home Country
    Netherlands Netherlands
    This happens because after a channel/format change the DShow graph needs to be rebuilt so the RSTP stream is stopped then restarted. But when restarting the stream we need to seek and seeking is not accurate neither we accurately know the position we left off, so sometimes the stream position ends up before the change.

    So this change is detected by tsreader and requests server to position which is inaccurate because of separation between server and client?
    Looks like tsreader could use it's own clientside buffer from which it can play and knows about.

    Sorry for my noob thinking. :)
     

    svendis

    MP Donator
  • Premium Supporter
  • July 3, 2008
    26
    1
    Norway
    Home Country
    Norway Norway
    I had problems for some weeks switching between HD channels and sometimes sd.
    MY solution: in tv server, tv channels, edit channel, filled in missing parameters on some random failing channels.
    The settings affected was showing "not set" (modulation, pilot, roll off, FEC rate..
    Not all on every channel. Result: VERY stable and fast channel changes.
    Singelseat, W7 X86, Clean installed RC 2. Channels scanned with RC2 from blank.
    Affected channels was on 3 different frequences.
    HD:Cyberlink Vdeo/ SP Dec (PCM 45)
    SD:Cyberlink H.264/ AVC
    From the latest two packs found on a specific web site..

    Maybe a solution for somebody :)

    Happy channel switcher :D
     

    Retsok

    Portal Member
    November 13, 2007
    16
    3
    Home Country
    Netherlands Netherlands
    All credits go to Tatus who came up with the following solution with no hacks or patches that are needed.

    Startup Mediaportal Configuration.exe /debugoptions like this on the client machines and go to TV. Now a new option is shown named "Debug Options" then select "Multi seat setup: use UNC paths" and fill in the UNC path of your recordings and timeshiftbuffer from the location of your TV server, like for example \\servername\c$\ProgramData\Team Mediaportal\MediaPortal TV Server\timeshiftbuffer
    By doing this for me the freezing picture by switching channels has been solved.

    Hope this will help you all.
     

    romuz

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • July 26, 2008
    1,045
    250
    Moskau
    Home Country
    Russian Federation Russian Federation
    All credits go to Tatus who came up with the following solution with no hacks or patches that are needed.

    Startup Mediaportal Configuration.exe /debugoptions like this on the client machines and go to TV. Now a new option is shown named "Debug Options" then select "Multi seat setup: use UNC paths" and fill in the UNC path of your recordings and timeshiftbuffer from the location of your TV server, like for example \\servername\c$\ProgramData\Team Mediaportal\MediaPortal TV Server\timeshiftbuffer
    By doing this for me the freezing picture by switching channels has been solved.

    Hope this will help you all.

    Using UNC in multiseat environment is known hack :D:D
     

    tatus

    Portal Pro
    March 12, 2007
    98
    2
    Home Country
    Germany Germany
    AW: Re: [RC2]Switching HD channels fails random

    Using UNC in multiseat environment is known hack :D:D

    Totally agree. This is just a workaround, and it is good to see that it seems to solve the problems for several people. Which means to me that we can, with a high probability, rule out network, driver, and TV reception issues for this case. All credits will go to the devs when this issue finally has been tracked down! I hope it can make its way into the bug list :D
     

    arion_p

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • February 7, 2007
    3,373
    1,626
    Athens
    Home Country
    Greece Greece
    Hi everyone.
    I have not given up on this. I have been quite busy trying to help get RC3 out the door.:D

    It will take me some time until I have something you can test, as the changes I need to make are quite major and will need extensive testing. Also this means that any solution will not be included in 1.1.0 unfortunately because it would be too risky. I am considering whether to include in 1.1.0 the changes in the StreamingServer.dll supplied a few post earlier, but that will eventually be the team's decision.

    In the mean time I have neglected to put this issue into mantis. I will do this in the next few days. In order to ensure the mantis entry is as accurate as possible I would like to ask you to confirm that the following conditions for reproducing the issue are correct:

    1. The issue only happens when using RTSP.
    2. The issue happens when there is a format change (either while zapping or in the same channel) that requires a change of codec(s) in use. It is not necessarily related to HD<->SD changes but can also occur when audio format changes (e.g. aac<->DD+).
    3. When it happens, skip stepping forward 15 sec recovers and playback continues normally.
    4. The StreamingServer.dll supplied in this thread does reduce the frequency of incidents but does not eliminate the problem.
    5. The issue occurs randomly (i.e. not on every format change).
     

    MacGyver2k

    Portal Pro
    October 29, 2005
    148
    64
    Home Country
    Germany Germany
    1. yes ( at least for me ).
    2. always thought it was totally random (except it NEVER happend to me when changing to a HD h.264 channel)
    but i didn't check for a resolution or audio change.
    all channels had mpeg audio as first audio stream, some of them ac3 as second stream.
    i was always using mpeg audio, never ac3.
    3. yes, always. most times i can see the last frame of the last channel, sometimes i get a black screen without osd and it stays black.
    but skip stepping forward helps aswell.
    4. initially i thought your tsreader / streamingserver.dll (i don't know which one actually helped) didn't help too much,
    but i never had the problem within the last two weeks.
    when trying to reproduce the issue ( like in post #60 ) i still got it, but maybe there was another reason for this
    (like too fast channel changing).
    5. yeah randomly :/
     

    benjerry

    MP Donator
  • Premium Supporter
  • September 26, 2007
    167
    10
    Home Country
    Netherlands Netherlands
    Same here as MacGyver2k. Also not sure about 4 exactly. I thought it made a small difference.

    At the moment I'm using the direct connection method by network share on the troublesome PCs. Together with owlroost's last dshowhelper.dll it's perfect viewing, apart from that viewing recorded tv is not working. Log files show incorrect paths being used/composed.

    Recently, I've installed 2 PC's here with Windows 7 using MS codecs and so far I didn't get this channel switch-stuck problem yet.
    I do have problems with corrupted/heavily blocked video after switching sometimes.
    I'm using the 26 april streamingserver.dll.

    update: after switching to unc paths, all corrupted video dissapeared on the windows 7 systems.
     

    Users who are viewing this thread

    Top Bottom