Slow channel changes after move to Vista (1 Viewer)

[SweMart]

TV-Server Version: 1.0 RC1 + 25/4 SVN
MediaPortal Version: 1.0 RC1 + 25/4 SVN
MediaPortal Skin: BlueTwo Wide
Windows Version: Vista Ultimate SP1
CPU Type: AMD64 X2 6000+
HDD: Seagate 320GB
Memory: Corsair 3GB
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-M55S-S3
Video Card: Club3D ATI HD2600Pro 512MB
Video Card Driver: 8.4
Sound Card: Realtek HDMI
Sound Card AC3: HDMI
Sound Card Driver: 1.91
1. TV Card: Digital Everywhere FloppyDTV-C
1. TV Card Type: DVB-C
1. TV Card Driver: 4.5N
2. TV Card: Digital Everywhere FloppyDTV-C
2. TV Card Type: DVB-C
2. TV Card Driver: 4.5N
MPEG2 Video Codec: PowerDVD 8.0
MPEG2 Audio Codec: TV=MS,Video=PowerDVD
h.264 Video Codec: PowerDVD 8.0
Satelite/CableTV Provider: Comhem
HTPC Case: Silverstone LC17
Cooling: Noctua NH-U9F
Power Supply: Zalman 600HP
Remote: MCE 2005 Remote+Keyboard
TV: Samsung LE40R51 40"
TV - HTPC Connection: HDMI

Yesterday I decided to move from XP to Vista, the reason for the upgrade was that proper DD/DTS via HDMI is only supported in Vista by Cyberlink(i.e. PowerDVD). The reinstall went really well and caused no problems.... BUT... channel changes was gone from 1-2 sec to 5-10 sec. Doesn't matter which codec I use or if I use EVR or VMR. If I revert back to XP I get fast channel times again.

It's really weird since if I start a recording on one(1) channel and then change to another(2) and then change back to the original(1) channel the channel change time is as slow as tuning to a new channel.

The weird thing is that I'm using the same drivers in Vista, the only difference is that I've added 1GB RAM.

The only thing other than MP on my PC is:
- Latest DivX codec from divx.com
- AnyDVD HD
- PowerDVD 8 Ultra
- Daemon-Tools
- AVG Free

Any help is much appreciated.... does this count as a bug?

Update: Tried running using admin rights, channel changes are a bit faster. Is UAC somehow decreasing the performance?
Update2: I've cut the times down to 4sec. I've excluded the different MP and MS SQL paths in the real time virus scanner.

Many thanks,
Martin

ps. I know that I can do DD/DTS via HDMI using Ac3filter in XP but I don't want to go that route ds.

 

[rayskater]

I seem to have the same problem. Have been setting up a new HTPC this weekend:

Mainboard: Gigabyte GA-MA78-GM-SH2,
Processor: AMD 4850e,
RAM: 2 GB,
TV Card: Technotrend S2-3200,
OS: MS Vista Home Premium SP1, 32 bit
MediaPortal 1.0 RC1

Technotrend MediaCenter is working reasonably well; just not the ultimate software I'd like to use.

With MediaPortal, the channel change time is about 10 seconds ... if I'm lucky. Sometimes after about 10 seconds only an error message appears saying: "No Video/Audio detected".

The problem can be reconstructed in the TV Server management console, Manual Control:

(1) select a channel and press "Start TimeShift" -- 10 seconds delay, starts
(2) press "Stop TimeShift" -- immediate reaction, stops
(3) press "Start TimeShift" -- 10 seconds delay, starts
(4) select another channel and press "Start TimeShift" -- 10 seconds delay, error "No Video/Audio detected"

CPU load is below 5%; only for a short moment around 10% if time shift starts after 10 seconds.

At least I'm happy to hear that this is not the normal behavior of MediaPortal ... so there is hope!

 

[rayskater]

This is just an update as things have changed during the last days. The channel change issue is resolved; now I'm on the way to make it working as a whole.

I re-installed MediaPortal with built-in TV engine. This was working. I'm really impressed by this software! There are so many details that as a whole make MediaPortal appear really superior. Like the sliding EPG messages, great menus, the soft fade-out during shutdown, many important general configuration options, ... A commercial software nowadays often classifies such things as "nice to have" and removes them from the todo lists.

There was a remaining problem in my installation with waking up from standby: either the PC showed a blue screen before Windows came up or MediaPortal raised an error. This is why I updated the BIOS to the current V4.

Surprise: Now TV Server is working and switching channels without delay!

Unfortunately MediaPortal crashed during start-up ... seems to be related to Vista's user access control. MediaPortal starts if the user access control is disabled.

The next point is to re-configure MediaPortal to use TV Server again. Unfortunately the configuration options of MediaPortal have changed. The configuration of a TV Server has gone. After re-installation of MediaPortal the TV configuration looks again different: neither TV Server nor channel scan using built-in TV engine is accessible anymore...

Will go back to an image I had saved before the first installation of MediaPortal and re-install everything from scratch.

To cut a long story short: MediaPortal is a great piece of software. Just its installation is a demanding task for someone like me who is building his first HTPC and did not know anything about MediaPortal before. The installer of RC1 makes things a lot simpler, compared to the tutorial videos explaining a manual installation. Just the parallel support for built-in TV engine and separate TV server and the adaptation of the MediaPortal configuration to only support one of them appears confusing.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Unfortunately MediaPortal crashed during start-up ... seems to be related to Vista's user access control. MediaPortal starts if the user access control is disabled.

I do not know of anyone who has not had problems running UAC, Found if i changed my account after installing Vista RC1 to full admin with UAC on, had no such problems.
Really did try to get MP\TVServer running as a user account, after 3 days gave up because just to many problems.

 

[rayskater]

Thank you for the motivating words! Now MP is working with UAC as well.

Unfortunately the problems changing channels are back. I had a look into the log files and found out that TVServer was dealing a lot with CI issues, even though I'm only watching FTA so far and no CI module had been attachted to the Technotrend card. This is why I now attached a CI module, without any CAM. Now the problem seems to be really resolved...

 

[Stone]

i want to move from xp to vista, but i am note sure if my technotrend with ci will run find under vista. any experience ?

 

[1200assassin]

Keep in mind that if you have a hardware encoder card vista no longer supports hardware encoding so video problems related to your cpu getting clobbered will happen on lower spec systems. Went through this with MCE, etc.

 

[rayskater]

In my case switching of channels does only work with TVServer if the CI module is attached to the TechnoTrend card -- I would expect the CI to work. I'm not having a CAM though. Btw. the built-in TV engine is also working without CI module attached -- this is why this does not seem to be a Vista issue.