[confirm] Recorded TV playback loses sync (1 Viewer)

doveman

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February 12, 2008
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MediaPortal Version: v1.1.0 RC2
MediaPortal Skin: Blue3Wide
Windows Version: XP Pro SP3
CPU Type: P4 2.8Ghz Northwood
HDD: 500GB WD SATA
Memory: 1.5GB DDR
Motherboard: Gigabyte 8i848-PM
Video Card: 2600XT 256MB
Video Card Driver: 10.2
Sound Card: onboard Realtek AC97 (ALC655)
Sound Card AC3: no AC3
Sound Card Driver: 5.10.0.6300
1. TV Card: Hauppauge Nova-T 500
1. TV Card Type: DVB-T
1. TV Card Driver: 4.3.27240
MPEG2 Video Codec: Cyberlink Video/SP Decoder (PDVD9)
MPEG2 Audio Codec: ffdshow tryouts rev. 3356
h.264 Video Codec: ffdshow tryouts rev. 3356
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case: Custom
Cooling: Nexus 120mm Intake Fan, Accelero S2, Mini Ninja
Power Supply: DELL DA-2 AC->12v DC, mCubed EF28 DC-DC board
Remote: Nova-T 500
TV: Sony XBR800 36"
TV - HTPC Connection: DVI

Whilst watching a Recorded TV show, the audio went out of sync several times. I think a couple of those times it was right after I'd skipped forward over the ad break, but I believe the first time it happened without me having done anything like that.

I had to stop playback and Resume From to get it back in sync each time. Unfortunately, because the TsReader log appears to be flushed when playback is stopped, the one in the attached zip only pertains to the period from the last time playback was started, at 23:13, whereas I started watching this recording around 22:27, so there is no information in the TsReader log regarding the occasions when the playback lost sync.

It might be an idea if the logging behaviour could be changed to keep x number of previous TsReader logs to provide more information in such situations.
 

jonesdb

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January 11, 2008
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I've been seeing this same thing since MP1.1.0 RC1. I'm now on RC2. Audio gets way out of sync with respect to video sometimes. I've seen as much as 15 -20 seconds separation. Stop and restart is the only thing that assures a fix, though a skip forward or back will sometime work. Pause and restart does nothing. It doesn't require a skip forward for the sync problem to start happening. It doesn't happen on all programs, so I suspect that it has to do with error handling by TSReader. One problem I know of is that some errors will actually stop the video (goes to blank screen) while the audio continues to play. This is repeatable, as I have gone back to see if it happens at the same point in the file and it does every time. I don't currently have such a file saved anymore. The video freeze was always taking place at the end of certain commercials.
 

Peter2

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  • September 18, 2006
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    I've noticed the same on RC2 with xp sp3 and also a strange squeaking sound sometimes when starting playback.
     

    JBecker

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    February 20, 2010
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    I have exactly the same problem on nearly every recording I playback on a mediaportal client (without tvcard). Has certainly become much worse when changing to RC2. Maybe it was not at all there at RC1. This is hard to say because for me it is always combined with the playback 'hanging' every ~10 to 30 seconds for a 'moment'. This happens on all clients whether connected via 100mbit cables or wlan and regardless of the processing power of the clients . It is also not dependant on how many streams are running on the server at the same time.

    BR,
    Jörg.
     

    elliottmc

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    I have exactly the same problem on nearly every recording I playback on a mediaportal client (without tvcard). Has certainly become much worse when changing to RC2. Maybe it was not at all there at RC1. This is hard to say because for me it is always combined with the playback 'hanging' every ~10 to 30 seconds for a 'moment'. This happens on all clients whether connected via 100mbit cables or wlan and regardless of the processing power of the clients . It is also not dependant on how many streams are running on the server at the same time.

    BR,
    Jörg.

    Does this only happen on XP, or also on Vista/Win7 ?

    Mark
     

    JBecker

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    February 20, 2010
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    Hi Mark,
    I only have clients running under XP, a Lenovo S12 netbook, an IBM X41 notebook, an AMD Phenom X2 550 PC and two other PCs where I do not have much experience yet..
    I do not understand the problem at all. Running a live TV stream seems to work better with less problems than just playing a recording. The problem is worse on some recordings than on others.
    Yesterday I copied a .TS file from the TV server (recorded there with Mediaportal) to my PC client. I tried to watch this locally using VLC player, just to see whether this works on my PC. It did not! I had terrible audio (but only audio!) stuttering absolutely regularly every ~800ms-1200ms. Why that? I then tried MPC which worked like a charm. So I uninstalled VLC first. After doing this it seemed as if watching a recording of MP would work much better. But today I have the same problems as before again. Every recording shows picture artefacts and 'hanging' every few second with audio 'hanging' and sometimes loosing sync. Skipping forward or backward for 15 seconds solves the sync problems and seems to 'lengthen' the periods without stuttering.
    My TV server is an asrock ion 330 with an external USB DVB-S TV card (technotrend). Watching TV or recordings directly on this system (serves as a network server and is also connected to my living room TV) seems to work perfectly (although I do not have much experience doing this as this is just a test installation).

    I want to replace all my existing hardware with an HTPC running under MediaPortal some day, but at the moment I have lots of problems. On the one hand the system runs very stable for 6+ weeks doing scheduled recordings, watching TV or recordings on the clients ( always with some stuttering), but on the other hand I experience problems every few days like there is no EPG information on some channels (or on all like today!) or changing tv channels simply does not work (you change to a new channel, the screen goes black and after two seconds you see the same channel as before (sometimes 20 to 30 second 'late', means you see exactly the same stuff that you saw 20 seconds before!).
    At the moment these problems do not allow me to replace my old hardware as my wife :) would simply not accept this.

    BR,
    Jörg.
     

    Peter2

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    This seems to be solved with RC3 (on xp)
     

    vk3heg

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    April 3, 2008
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    This seems to be solved with RC3 (on xp)

    It's still present on my XP SP3 + Updates machine with RC3.. Live tv and playing a recording start to suffer from the audio being out of sync and behind the video after about 10 to 15 minutes.

    Update: Watching a recording from just before the live point when recording a program, seams to not lose sync on my setup.
     

    JBecker

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    This seems to be solved with RC3 (on xp)

    Thanks for the hint Peter, but, nope,
    no change at all regarding these issues. Plus audio sounds 'rough' with very little small 'errors' on every channel and every recording (cannot say if this was the same on RC2).
    It is still not possible to install on one of my PCs where I cannot start MP nor MP configuration after installation (both end without doing everything, Mediaportal.xml is missing after install, etc.).

    So I do not see any improvements (not for me!).

    BR,
    Jörg.
     

    Peter2

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  • September 18, 2006
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    You're right, I was being to enthusiast because in the beginning it was not there but after some time, it appeared again.
    I did notice that on another system - client from main system - it's ok...
     

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