Settop Box Blasting Issues (1 Viewer)

[mm1352000]

Hi again Randy

Sorry I didn't manage to test until this morning. For me (not using a blaster - I don't have one), setting the channel and frequency override works fine. I tested with two channels which are usually 55.25 MHz (ch 7) and 224.25 MHz (ch 63). I changed channel 7 to 37 and 63 to 33 and everything still worked. Changing between channels that did and didn't use overrides (like you seem to be doing as you're not overriding for channel 3) also worked fine.

mm

 

[randyh]

Thanks for the info on ServerBlaster. Now that i know more about it i'll probably try IRSS again at some point. During my first half-hearted try at it i was still unable to get it to learn the remote so for now i'll stubbornly pursue ServerBlaster until i've exhausted that possibility. The simplicity of it and working specifically with my remote appeals to me. The bigger challenge is still getting the channels to tune properly.

This should be considered as a hack. I actually get the impression that leftover registry entries from your earlier testing may be the reason why your channels below 12 are working. This would be 100% sheer coincidence though. The fact that channel 12 works is also sheer coincidence - for some reason there happens to be signal (maybe from the STB) at 204 MHz.

I checked the registry and channels are tuned to 61250000.

I don't think you're going to be able to resolve the no signal "issue" until you figure out exactly what is going on

Agreed. Nothing beats stepping through code so i'll try to get my dev env setup on the HTPC and i'll let you know what i find.

If it were me, I would be doing be going back to s-video, if only to get rid of the apparent unreliability of the tuner when overrides are used.

I'm still with coax because:

1. The audio sync issues
2. Running the STB audio right into the soundcard creates significantly higher sound levels - high enough i have to separately adjust the volume on the receiver
3. When i stop live tv, the audio doesn't stop

I'm not an AV expert so this may sound dumb but the last point makes me wonder if it's going through the audio codec at all. Setting the audio delay on ffdshow makes no perceivable difference. I've tried every codec combination installed on my machine and the sync problem is consistent.

 

[mm1352000]

...so for now i'll stubbornly pursue ServerBlaster until i've exhausted that possibility. The simplicity of it and working specifically with my remote appeals to me. The bigger challenge is still getting the channels to tune properly.

Fair enough. I'm hear to help if I can.

I checked the registry and channels are tuned to 61250000.

Hmm, well that blows my theory out of the water. I also checked my registry this morning before I left and overrides were set for channels 33 and 37.

...i'll let you know what i find.

Please do. I'm by no means backing out of help on this issue because I'm also learning.

Running the STB audio right into the soundcard creates significantly higher sound levels - high enough i have to separately adjust the volume on the receiver

Ahhh! You didn't mention you were doing that. With MP the sound should always be fed through red and white RCA plugs directly into the TV card, and from there controlled by the Windows mixer (wave input). The second processing path could definitely explain all three issues:
sync = different processing path
level = for me this is controlled through a separate audio mixer for my TV card *before* it gets mixed into the main mixer wave channel
audio doesn't stop = clearly this means MP is not controlling the audio you're hearing. Did I ask about recordings - are they in sync?

We actually don't support tuners that *require* that connection to the soundcard for these and other reasons. For example, if TV Server doesn't have control over the audio then recordings wouldn't contain audio and timeshifting wouldn't work. I'm sure your tuner is supported though as other tuners that *require* the connection to the soundcard don't work at all in MediaPortal.

I'm not an AV expert so this may sound dumb but the last point makes me wonder if it's going through the audio codec at all. Setting the audio delay on ffdshow makes no perceivable difference. I've tried every codec combination installed on my machine and the sync problem is consistent.

As above - running the audio through the soundcard is the wrong approach. If audio wasn't working prior to you doing that then it is because the wrong audio input is selected in your channel tuning details. Either that or the TV tuner has its own audio mixer and the inputs are muted.

mm

 

[randyh]

running the audio through the soundcard is the wrong approach.

Well, there we have it. I didn't even bother to look at what the other mini-jack on the tv card was for. Running it through the soundcard seemed the logical thing to do.

So just like that i'm back to S-Vid, no audio problems and blasting works. All in all a good day thanks to mm.

 

[mm1352000]

So just like that i'm back to S-Vid, no audio problems and blasting works.

Fantastic!
I'm sorry you've gone through so much hassle to get to this point, but hopefully you can see it as just another learning experience. Now is the best time though - when we get to kick back and enjoy the fruits of our labours.

Enjoy
mm