SingleSeat Mediaportal- TV dropped out and broken (1 Viewer)

[swamprat96]

MediaPortal Version: 1.1.1.0
MediaPortal Skin: Standard
Windows Version: XP MCE sp3
CPU Type: Pentium D 2.8
HDD: 1TB seagate Sata
Memory: 2 GB
Motherboard: Intel D945PVS
Video Card: Gigabyte Nvidia Geforce 210
Video Card Driver: Gigabyte original
Sound Card: On Board
Sound Card AC3: On board
Sound Card Driver: Soniq
TV Card: Hauppauge HVR-2210
Remote: Harmony 515
TV: LG 42PX5d
Case: Aristec HT400
Codecs used are all the install defaults- with default settings

Watching TV tonight and the tv dropped out with the message "no spare TV card available". Rebooted- no joy. When I hit TV guide it asks for the address of the master TV server? If I open Mediaportal TV server and preview- the TV works. And if I run the hauppauge WinTV it works. Mediaportal seems to think its multi seat maybe? Any clues?

I also just started having a problem with AVI files stuttering two days ago- which its never done before. Stored VOB (DVD files) are OK. I wonder if its related.

SQL server perhaps?- or is the hardware dying. The memory is under 6 months old, likewise the TV card and the graphics card. The motherboard and CPU are old- but the machine worked fine up to recently. Only new software/hardware is the USB wifi stick- but that was 4 weeks ago and its worked fine up until now. Help!

 

[tourettes]

Please post logs, those might give some clue what it going on.

 

[swamprat96]

Re: SingleSeat Mediaportal- TV dropped out and broken RESOLVED (I hope)

Multitude of problems
I had prepared my logs to post and decided to try System restore again. That fixed the tv problem - but it was taking a very long time to boot. It would sit on "starting TV service"forever.

After trying various things I disabled the antivirus completely (avast) and it booted fine. After researching, repaired Avast and fixed that problem permanently.

So I was back to the relatively new AVI stutter issue. AVI's are really important to me as most of the content we watch is in this format. I could also duplicate it outside mediaportal by simply playing avi's in Windows Media player- and they all had the same issue. Updated the DIVx codes- no difference. Uninstalled the DIVx and reinstalled- no change. Disabled the antivirus again- no change. Reinstalled the audio driver (IDT- a real POS) - no change. Replaced the Sata cable to the HDD- no change.

So I went back to Task Manager and saw I had three instances of Capture~3 running - using a fair chunk of Ram each. Researching told me that its the Hauppauge TV server. But that was disabled originally. Somehow it had been re-enabled. Killed it and changed it in msconfig so it would not restart - and (I think) I've got it.

Looking at the shift+1 screen I get a jitter count of 2 to 3 and one dropped frame. However I don't recall what I had previously. Does that seem OK? It seems to play alright now.

I've made a system restore point and hopefully thats the end of it.

 

[swamprat96]

spoke too soon. Reformat underway. This is this machines last chance- its the most unreliable appliance in the house. Its now often refusing to boot.

Update: After all this time I've finally found the problem- and it's the motherboard - or actually the sound module on the board. I've just fitted a new motherboard and cpu (well used that I know works) - and the problems seem to be gone. I say seem as I haven't finished rebuilding it yet- just got the OS up to date last night and mediaportal on. Yet to tune the TV tuner and a few tweaks to get it back to where it was.

The sound module was halting the boot process - proven when I disabled it - and the machine booted fine. Fitted a sound card and it worked. But I had a newer m/b sitting here so I binned the old one.

Now hopefully this thing will be reliable

 

[swamprat96]

And after four days of tweaking the damn thing to get all my old settings back- the TV card stopped for no apparent reason tonight.

Thats it- enough. I've scrapped the box and dissasembled. This thing has never been reliable

1. S3 resume frequently played up
2. This so called top of the line Hauppauge constantly froze in MP
3 Audio was a comstant PITA
4. But MP itself is a crashy and problematic. Too many bits to it- and too many parts that don't work with other parts. Its the work og many but it shows it. Menus that talk about stuff long gone and switches that do nothing

18 months I've tried hard to make it work. It doesn't