Scrambled channels sometimes working, sometimes not (1 Viewer)

[DieBagger]

MediaPortal Version: 1.10 Beta 1
MediaPortal Skin: BlackGlass
Windows Version: Windows XP SP3
CPU Type: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo E8400 @ 3.00 GHz
HDD: 1x HITACHI Deskstar 7K80 HDS728080PLA380, 7x Samsung Spinpoint (500 GB - 1 TB)
Memory: 4 GB Corsair XMS2 CM2X2048-6400C5
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P
Video Card: MSI NX7300GT-EH (MS-V041), NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT (256 MB)
Video Card Driver:
Sound Card: Soundkarte Realtek ALC889A @ Intel 82801JB ICH10 - High Definition Audio Controller
Sound Card AC3: no AC3
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card: FloppyDTV S2
1. TV Card Type: DVB-S
1. TV Card Driver: 4.5.N
MPEG2 Video Codec:
MPEG2 Audio Codec:
h.264 Video Codec: CoreAVC 1.9.5.0
Satelite/CableTV Provider: Astra, ORF
Remote: MediaCenter Remote, Sharkoon MediaCenter Keyboard
TV: LG 24'' Wide
TV - HTPC Connection: DVI

I have a strange problems with watching tv on my firedtv card. The FTA channels are working perfect but I can't tune into the scrambled channels ... sometimes.

It's strange, sometimes it works, sometimes not ... The one thing I noticed is that if I previously viewed the scrambled channels with the FireDTV Viewer they will also work in MediaPortal (for a while).

I've included two logs, one where I try to tune into the scrambled channel successfully and one where it fails.

The part where it seems to fail starts at line 96:

2009-10-02 22:30:36.341032 [14]: subch:0-0 tswriter StartTimeshifting...
2009-10-02 22:30:36.341032 [14]: card: WaitForTimeShiftFile - waiting _eventAudio & _eventVideo
2009-10-02 22:30:51.341032 [14]: card: WaitForTimeShiftFile - no audio was found after 15 seconds
2009-10-02 22:30:51.341032 [14]: card: WaitForTimeShiftFile - audio and video stream is scrambled
2009-10-02 22:30:51.341032 [14]: card FireDTV BDA Tuner DVBS2: StopTimeShifting user:bagga-server sub:0
2009-10-02 22:30:51.341032 [14]: card: StopTimeShifting user:bagga-server sub:0
2009-10-02 22:30:51.341032 [14]: card not IDLE - freeing subch: 0
2009-10-02 22:30:51.341032 [14]: subch:0-0 tswriter StopTimeshifting...
2009-10-02 22:30:51.341032 [14]: tvcard:FreeSubChannel: subchannels count 1 subch#0 keep graph=False
2009-10-02 22:30:51.341032 [14]: DVB subch:0 Decompose()
2009-10-02 22:30:51.341032 [14]: FreeSubChannel CA: freeing sub channel : 0
2009-10-02 22:30:51.356657 [14]: tvcard:FreeSubChannel : no subchannels present, stopping graph
2009-10-02 22:30:51.356657 [14]: dvb:StopGraph called
2009-10-02 22:30:51.356657 [14]: tvcard:FreeAllSubChannels:
2009-10-02 22:30:51.356657 [14]: dvb:StopGraph
2009-10-02 22:30:51.356657 [14]: user:bagga-server remove

Any help would be much appreciated, I can of course post additional logfiles if needed!

 

[mr viggo]

I had the same problem with a Floppydtv card. Try to see if you can access the CI menu from within TVserver, preview random channels and try to access it again. I think the issue lies with the server dropping the connection with the CAM. It ended up with me removing the card and am now keeping it in the drawer

 

[DieBagger]

thx for the confirmation!

Can I supply any additional info (if necessary I can set up a debugging environment) so we can fix this issue???

thx

 

[Pirppuli]

As a workaround I let DE's CommonInterface.exe handle the cam. The only side effect is that if a channel cannot be descrambled, it'll show a pop up window for a while. But at least it works whereas MP doesn't.

 

[mr viggo]

I think there's something missing in the code of tvserver, as there's a lot of us that is forced to use this ugly workaround. Tv with MP and the CI.exe leaves the WAF at 0,

 

[DieBagger]

Thx for the hint Pirppuli, using the CommonInterface.exe works pretty well for now.

 

[DieBagger]

*bump* Is this issue on the radar of a developer or could this be added as a bug to mantis (since it's confirmed by multiple people)?

Fortunately I can watch the encrypted channels by running the "CommonInterface.exe" but it's a workaround nevertheless...

 

[orphess]

I'm experiencing the same problem and would really like to see a fix for this. Running the CI-workaround is really annoying since the program window keep popping up every 5 seconds.

 

[mr viggo]

When I ran the CI.exe in the background I had problems with some certain non-FTA channels, some worked and some didn't, one had severe stuttering. The workaround doesn't allow you to record and watch a different channel on the same mux either. And the annoying popup kills WAF. In other words, it's no workaround. And there's not anything wrong with the card since it works as supposed in Firedtv viewer.

Edit:

OK, made some logs. Rebooted and started tvsetup. CI menu was accessible and non-fta could be previewed. Closed config and started MP - no scrambled channels worked. Closed MP and open up tvsetup again, CI menu showed nothing and non-fta failed to preview.

 

[mr viggo]

I have some news to this. I'm not sure to be happy or sad about it but I bought an identical floppy card a couple of months ago and just tested the CAM in the other card right now with MP1.1b, same driver and same FW. And it works, but the CAM can only decode 1 channel at a time but that has probably nothing to do with MP. And I also tried the CAM one more time in the older card and same old story, the connection with the CAM crashes.

My only theory at this point is that the CI at my older card is broken or something. But the weird thing remains, the CAM works in that card with FireDTV Viewer.


UPDATE: Seems that the other card looses the CAM too. I was just able to watch TV for 30 min