Scythe42's fixes for 1.4.0 (1 Viewer)

[Scythe42]

Sorry I haven't been able to provide any useful data. Only thing I can think to add is that prior to installing this build I was using the first "internal" 1.4 build which included your branch. Quite a lot has changed since then. Having said that, it doesn't explain why @HomeY still sees this problem. There must be something we're missing?

There is something off with the D3D timer used here by MP. I have no idea why and cannot reproduce it. It must come down to some system configuration/component/driver that requires some special handling on the MP side.

We need to find something you and HomeY have in common on their system and then find another user to confirm the issue.

The user is probably not aware of the issue at all. I cannot reproduce it regardless how hard I try. I called some friends asking to do an install and start MP (they do not use MP normally). Works perfect.

Also maybe some process plugins doing bad things here?
What happens only with stock MP?
What is when the refresh rate changer is not activated?
Same when using the Full Screen Splash Screen or not using it?
Windowed vs. Fullsceen mode?
Autostart involved and the system was not fully ready yet?
Any special GPU settings to MP?

And so on and so on. Too many possibilities for me to handle it over a thread. Would take me forever to find this out this way.

Only thing clear yet: when the refresh rate changer was run once everything is fine. Great, does not help me.

I can only offer currently one workaround to try: Set Windows refresh rate to 60Hz, set a default refresh rate for MP to 50Hz. Then the refresh rate changer ran at least once when MP started and the problem should not occur.

There is clearly something when this does not happen on the system or everyone would see it (including me).

 

[Scythe42]

Please dont get me wrong...i dont use this setting at all but this thread is for testing so i test everything available
I am totally on your side that MP has a lot of settings and features that maybe nobody really uses and makes it hard for the developers.

I really appreciate your testing.

I am just a bit annoyed over exotic options that do not make sense to me and always need some special attention because they try to change the whole general behavior without bringing anything to the table.

 

[GeoffC]

Tried the new build last night - watching a recorded tv show. Couple of things were not right.
The show was in 4:3 format so would normally be shown using the full height of the screen with black down each side (as was the case in your previous build) but in this build the picture did not fill the full screen height, black all round the picture. Zoom function did work. but this may be annoying if you need to zoom when playing any 4:3 shows.
Also the rendering rate seemed really slow very jerky movement.
And also the audio and video were not quite in sync.
Had to return to the previous build (needed system for entertainment not testing, sorry no chance to grab logs) and all back to good.

Anyway got some time to test so if no one else has reported these problems I will reinstall and get some logs

 

[ltfearme]

I just made some changes to TVSeries Option class as per discussion here. If you find anything else I will be happy to make changes.

 

[Lightning303]

So, i found some time to do the testings a promised @Scythe42

What i did:
I used the exe you gave me from https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/scythe42s-fixes-for-1-4-0.118345/page-25#post-988672
I enable threaded plugin loading with

<entry name="threadedstartup">yes</entry>

in mediaportal.xml.
I then started mediaportal, send it to sleep (as it is way faster then hibernate, i used sleep for my tests).
Woke up my htpc again and gathered to logs.

00 test: all plugins enabled (my normal system)
Crash

01 test: using only the stock plugins from mp (titan skin updater, radio, tv, play disc, home, music, pictures, settings, video, viewmodeswitcher)
NO Crash

For the next tests (03-13), i enabled 1 plugin, and did a testrun. If everything worked fine, i continued adding another plugin and testing again. You will be able to tell what plugin was enabled for which logs from my folger naming. When i came across a plugin that let mp crash on resume, i disabled the plugin again and added a new plugin for the next test. My finding at this tests were:

MovingPictures, MPTVSeries, IMDbPlus, InfoService, OnlineVideos, World Weather Lite, Fanart Handler and Latest Media Handler did not make mp crash on resume. I can enable them all and get no problems on resume.

However these 4 plugins made mp crash:
Extensions, Trakt, PowerSheduler++ and WifiRemote

Now i made another testrun, where i just enabled the stock plugins like in test 01 and then added just one of the plungins that crashed mp before (tests 16-19).
Strangely these plugins would work without problems when using with just the stock plugins.

On another note. While doing my tests, i saw that sometimes i also didnt get a fluid gui. Instead of 50fps i got 25ftp. Its not exactly the same problem @HomeY and @Wo0zy are seeing, but i just noticed it and wanted to inform you.

I hope that helps you with your development of threaded plugin loading

 

[Scythe42]

Extensions, Trakt, PowerSheduler++ and WifiRemote

Now i made another testrun, where i just enabled the stock plugins like in test 01 and then added just one of the plungins that crashed mp before (tests 16-19).

Strangely these plugins would work without problems when using with just the stock plugins.

You probably need at least two I guess to create an issue. Just one third party plugin is not enough as it would be the only one, meaning there is no difference in threaded loading vs. unthreaded. But as said I cannot reproduce. And there is no exception and nothing logged.

Anyway, threaded plugin loading is turned off by default and not even exposed to the user over the GUI. In the end we'll find the guilty combination and it will be clear what is wrong and why.

On another note. While doing my tests, i saw that sometimes i also didnt get a fluid gui. Instead of 50fps i got 25ftp. Its not exactly the same problem @HomeY and @Wo0zy are seeing, but i just noticed it and wanted to inform you.

Seems to be related. I guess the whole idea where MP currently used a D3D timer and tie it to some refresh rate is flawed to begin with. Probably covered by the constant device rests done on every playback and stuff like it so that nobody paid attention to it.

I need more input on reproducible steps there. Once I can reproduce it will be easy to correct it.

But I need more people with the issue I can work with to identify the root cause. Logs do not show anything in that regard.

Which means I need add more and more logging until I find something that is not right and treat it correctly.

 

[RoChess]

@Scythe, would it help if you had say TeamViewer access to a system from a user that experiences the problem. I come across the same myself at a much smaller scale with IMDb+, because websites serve different HTML code based on GeoIP. Perhaps some locale/culture/driver/3rd-party-tool/etc is causing it, and you would never be able to reproduce locally. At least with direct access to a system that can reproduce the problem it will allow you to come up with a quicker diagnostic.

Unless of course you prefer others do all the testing and you just read the log files

 

[Wo0zy]

Hi Scythe,

Here's a bit more info about my setup to get the ball rolling.

The logs I supplied were generated using watchdog so that should rule out plugins (I think?).

I don't have DRR configured. Windows desktop is set @50Hz (I'm in PAL land). On launching MP to GUI renders at 32Hz. If I then start a TV channel and then stop it the GUI is rendering at 50Hz even though no refresh rate change should have taken place.

Hardware wise this system is quite old. GPU is an AMD Radeon 4650 running the catalyst "legacy" driver version 12.6 under Win7 x64 (will update to latest 13.1 and test when I can get access to the system).
Chipset is D975 (an Intel Badaxe MoBo) and CPU is a Core 2 E6420.

Display is a single HDTV connected directly to the HTPC via HDMI and running at 720p50Hz.

Audio runs through an old AVR connected via s/pdif. Audio chip is sigmatel using stock windows driver.

Will install stock MP 1.3 and test later.

@HomeY, anything in the above that matches your setup?

Cheers,

Wo0zy.

 

[catavolt]

I hear the train a comin'
It's rolling round the bend
And I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when,
I'm stuck in MP forums, and time keeps draggin' on
.........
When I hear that whistle blowing, I hang my head and cry..

(variation of Johnny Cash´s "Folsom Prison Blues")

 

[Wo0zy]

Hi again Scythe,

Actually I seems that starting any video playback (not just TV) fixes the issue. Daughter just finished watching an NTSC rip and when I checked the GUI was rendering at 50Hz!

Again, no DRR enabled (judder on movie was terrible but she's only 4 and doesn't notice ).

Cheers,

Wo0zy.

Edit. Even stranger. Starting music playback fixes it on my system as well?? @HomeY is it the same for you?