Stand alone TV server not finding channels (1 Viewer)

[wb228]

Hi

I have a Windows XP box to be my standalone TV server.

I have a ClimaxDigital USB2 Dual DVB-T stick (DTV395)

I have installed the drivers, and the software finds over 70 TV and radio channels from my aerial.

Happy that it worked and had good signal, I installed TV server stand alone but when I scan for channels it isn't finding anything at all...

I am not sure it if it MediaPortal not liking the TV stick, or a conflict with the drivers, or something I am just doing wrong.

Windows XP Service Pack 3
MediaPortal TV Server 1.2.3.0

Latest drivers for TV stick - 09/02/2011,11.9.2.1 (as far as I can tell)

Any help would be amazing... Thank you.

 

[mm1352000]

Hi wb228

Sorry for the delayed response.
This is a strange issue - I've never seen anything quite like it before. The issue seems to be something to do with the graph files (ignore the technical jargon ) that TV Server saves for each of your tuners. Please can you try the following:

1. Open TV Server configuration.
2. Go to the "manual control" section and click "stop service".
3. Open Windows Explorer.
4. Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\ (note: that is a hidden folder, so the easiest thing to do is copy and paste the path into the address bar in Windows Explorer).
5. Delete all the grf files that you find there.
6. Back in TV Server configuration, click "start service".

After that, please try scanning again.

mm

 

[wb228]

Hi

There were no grf files to delete. I noticed that one appears while scanning than goes away when scanning complete

Seems odd that it works with it's own but not within the TV server.Advice from the manufacturer seems to be to use their software and not 3rd party (not helpful - defeats the point) and the drivers are the most up to date.

Thanks for your help so far.

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again

There were no grf files to delete. I noticed that one appears while scanning than goes away when scanning complete

Well that is really bizarre. According to the logs, TV Server is not successfully scanning - it moves through the frequencies, but it is not actually scanning because it fails to create that graph file. Hmmm. The error that is logged is:

System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80030050): already exists. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80030050 (STG_E_FILEALREADYEXISTS))

To me that reads "file already exists" and couldn't get much plainer than that. Not that I doubt what you are saying; rather, it just adds to the mystery!

Please could you try the attached patch for MP 1.2.3. This contains extended debug so that I can see exactly where the failure is. I'll need a fresh tv.log after you've tried it:
1. Stop the TV service (this can be done in the "manual control" section of TV Server configuration - just click "stop service").
2. Ensure that TV Server configuration is closed.
3. Take a backup of the TVLibrary.dll in your TV Server install folder.
4. Download and extract the attached TVLibrary.dll into your TV Server install folder.
5. Restart TV Server (this can be done by attempting to open TV Server configuration and clicking "yes" when it prompts to start the service) and test.

The other strange thing that I noticed is that TV Server seems to only be detecting one of the tuners. Can you confirm - is one of the tuners in the tuner list in TV Server configuration listed as "unknown" type? You could try a fresh tuner detection as follows:
1. Remove tuner stick.
2. Restart TV service.
3. Go to the tuner list (under "TV Servers"->[server name]).
4. Select tuner 1 and click "remove".
5. Repeat for tuner 2.
6. Restart the TV service.
7. Double check that there are no grf files in that folder I mentioned named like "IT9135 BDA Filter - DVBT Graph.grf".
8. Replug the tuner stick.
9. Restart the TV service.
10. See if it works.

mm

 

[wb228]

Hi

Have followed your instructions for the patch, deleting the logs before restarting server - no change. All new Log files attached.

Both the tuners are listed as below, but tried the instructions for re-detection anyway. Again, same results.

Priority: 3 Type: DvbT Id: 7 Name: IT9135 BDA Filter
Priority: 2 Type: DvbT Id: 6 Name: IT9135 BDA Filter
Priority: 1 Type: DvbT Id: 4 Name: RadioWebStream Card (builtin)

I Watched the folder where the grf files appear...
Definitely no .grf file before or after running a scan, but there is IT9135 BDA Filter - DVBT Graph.grf during the scan.

It wouldn't be because they have the same name would it? (I am clutching at straws).

Thank you in advance.

 

[wb228]

Hi again,

I have been playing around a bit (not getting very far, but may provide you with some clues - or just a red herring).

If I delete the errors log, and do a new scan, the log is not recreated until the first frequency has finished scanning and it has moved on to the second frequency. The .grf file exists because it was created when I started the scan and is deleted at the end of the scan.

As I said, it could be nothing and I am just confusing matters. ( Sorry if it is :-s )

 

[mm1352000]

Hi wb228

Be assured: you're not confusing matters. This could very well be tuner name related... but then having said that, we take the tuner name as supplied by the driver, so that doesn't really help. The creation of the graph file doesn't seem to be important for anything other than debug, so the attached patch should let you get it working. I can't help but wonder if the problem might be related to this:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323299

... though you're already using SP3. From my perspective it would be good to know whether the same problem occurs under Vista or 7. If you have a machine kicking around it that you could install TV Server on for a quick test it would be much appreciated. Please post the tv.log after your next attempt regardless of whether it works or not - I've snuck some other tweaks in to see if they make any difference. This patch will work for now, but unless we find a permanent solution you'd need a patch for each new version of MP, and that is a situation I'd rather avoid.

Cheers,
mm

 

[wb228]

Hi

Progress update: Using your second patch, scanning finds 19 channels. I have attached the new tv.log file for you again.

So TV server is finding:
BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4, Channel 5, ITV2, BBC Three, BBC Four, Channel 4 + 1, More 4, E4, ITV1 +1, CBBC, Cbeebies, BBC news, BBC parlament, BBC red button, 301, 302.

But then when I previewed a channel it it seemed to hang. Tried scanning again - found nothing, tried all regions - found nothing... Prolly because it had added all the channels it could find already?

Tried the software which came with the card. This finds another 27 channels in addition to the ones TV server finds, of those extra ones we would watch:
Dave, E4+1, Pick TV, ITV2 +1, ITV3, 5 USA, 5*, Yesterday, ITV4
- The rest are shopping channels or other channels we tend not to watch...

---Windows 7 test ---

So I stole my partners laptop which is Windows 7. That finds all of the channels above plus loads more (75 in total). But when you go to TV channels and select one to preview the message Preview failed: No signal detected. It then hung and once rebooted the cards were unknown

- so I followed your instructions for a fresh tuner detect - scanned for channels and 75 were found again. Preview failed: No signal detected

Will search the forum and see if anybody has come across this - not sure if this is related to the existing problem or just a new one.

There is

I haven't tried your patches on the Windows 7 install - which I can do if you think it will help.

I also have a Windows Server 2008 R2 in the attic which runs my home network, active directory, DHCP, web server, file server, print server etc. but looking through the forum this OS will cause another bag of worms.

Many thanks for your help so far.

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again

Cheers for your persistence!
So if W7 works without the patch I suspect that OS bug is responsible for the XP issue. The question would be why does the problem occur even though you appear to have SP3 installed (?). I can't find an individual patch for that issue so not sure what to do there. For the moment it is perfectly safe to continue using the patch I provided.
Under W7 it looks like your tuner driver is not stable with the current settings - please switch from "pause card" to "stop card" for the setting described "when card enters idle state..." here:
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_...nfiguration/02_TV_Servers#Edit_Tuner_Settings

Tried scanning again - found nothing, tried all regions - found nothing... Prolly because it had added all the channels it could find already?

No, it should find them again. When you scanned with the second tuner in W7 I note that nothing was found at all - what kind of aerial are you using (indoor or outdoor)?

For your convenience, the frequencies that seem to be "live" are:
498000 kHz
522000 kHz
690000 kHz
714000 kHz
722000 kHz

Under XP you're only picking up the first two for some reason. You could try an "advanced" scan with the frequencies listed above using bandwith 8 MHz and see if that makes any difference.

I haven't tried your patches on the Windows 7 install - which I can do if you think it will help.

It won't help. The patch only fixes a specific problem that you're experiencing with your XP install. Try the setting change mentioned above first - I expect that may help a lot.

mm

 

[wb228]

Thank you very much for your help so far - I will give all this a go at the weekend and get back to you.

As it works better on Windows 7, I will look at updating the XP machine. The only reason we were using XP was because of an old CCTV card which is only supported in XP. This was the first thing I thought was causing the problem and removed... I am sure there must be a windows 7 compatible CCTV card somewhere.

Again, thank you and I will let you know how I get on.