Stutter/video freeze some channels Ziggo 8888 (1 Viewer)

[Lotsofjazz]

Hi,

I have a strange problem since a few weeks. I have been using Mediaportal for a couple years now, and it has been working quite well for me, but lately some important channels for me giving me huge stutter and sometimes freezing image completely.

Its about Dutch TV channels Nederland 1HD, and Nederland 2HD, and probably also Nederland 3HD. All other ducth HD channels working fine, I have been watching CSI this night at RTL4HD.. brilliant, no problems whatsoever. But when zapping to Nederland 2HD for the news, problems started and also earlier this evening when trying to watch the news on Nederland 1HD, lots of stutter and even a minute or two the image was completely frozen!

To emphasize, I am not talking about a minor glitch once in a while, its just very unwatchable stutter and freezing of the image (and in the end also Audio).

Strange thing is that when starting watching Nederland 1HD, the first 1 or 2 minutes it is working fine, but after 2 or 3 minutes the problems start. and when I do a ctrl-Alt-del, to check task manager, it shows between 20% and 70% CPU usage, and also about 50% memory usage, which I think is quite normal for the allready getting a little outdated system I have..But windows 7 is running fine and all other channels are running very well, so it is not underpowered or something.

Spec see below, I changed Mediaportal to 1.2.0 RC1, did remove the beta completely yesterday and did a complete clean reinstall, and rescanned the channels(which I hoped to help but unfortunately it did not)

When I check the reception details (inside MP)at the time the stutter starts, the channel reecption and quality are lower then 100%, but I have not seen it lower then 74%.. But when stutter stops for a moment reception and quality jump to 100% again!

OK, I also attached a logfile made in debug mode. I hope someone here can help me improve this and getting rid of this stutter problem.

Thanks in advance

Lots

MediaPortal Version: Mediaportal 1.2.0 RC1
MediaPortal Skin: Deafault
Windows Version: Windows 7 Pro 32bit (all important updates)
CPU Type: Intel Core Duo E6600, @2.7Ghz
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint SATA2 500Gb
Memory: 4x1Gb DDR2 800Mhz
Motherboard: Abit fatal1ty I90HD
Video Card: Gainward 4650 1024Mb DDR2
Video Card Driver: ATI CCC 10.2
Sound Card: Realtek HD Audio (on Board)
Sound Card AC3: Realtek HD Audio (on Board)
Sound Card Driver: 1.91
1. TV Card: Digital everywhere FloppyDTV-C/CI
1. TV Card Type: DVB-C
1. TV Card Driver: 4.8.0
2. TV Card:
2. TV Card Type:
2. TV Card Driver:
3. TV Card:
3. TV Card Type:
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec: PowerDVD10
MPEG2 Audio Codec: AC3Filter 6.3 (SPDIF OUT)
h.264 Video Codec: PowerDVD10
Satelite/CableTV Provider: Ziggo (8888, former Multikabel)
HTPC Case: Antec Fusion 430 silver
Cooling: Antec tricooler/Scythe Mini Ninja
Power Supply: Antec Fusion 430Watt
Remote: Microsoft MCE RC6
TV: JVC LCD LT32S60
TV - HTPC Connection: HDMI @720P50Hz

 

[mm1352000]

Did you forget the logs?

 

[Lotsofjazz]

No I did not.. let me try to attach again..

 

[HomeY]

I'm not a log guru, but maybe this helps:

1. Update your FloppyDTV driver to the latest (which can be found here)
2. When i look at your logs and compare the frequencies to the updated frequencies after September 1st, it seems you're tuning into different frequencies then where the channel is supposed to be located. You can find all (updated) frequencies here.
Lbr_Lion already made an updated transponderlist for Ziggo, which can be found/downloaded here.

Maybe that helps.

 

[Lotsofjazz]

I'm not a log guru, but maybe this helps:

1. Update your FloppyDTV driver to the latest (which can be found here)
2. When i look at your logs and compare the frequencies to the updated frequencies after September 1st, it seems you're tuning into different frequencies then where the channel is supposed to be located. You can find all (updated) frequencies here.
Lbr_Lion already made an updated transponderlist for Ziggo, which can be found/downloaded here.

Maybe that helps.

I think I have the latest Floppy DTV driver, but I will check anyways.

That of the transponder can be true, I just used the Ziggo8888 transponder available in the latest 1.2.0RC MP install, asuming this one was allready updated. It did find all HD channels I usually watch, but if Ziggo allso still has the old frequencies available, squeezed in between other channels, this might cause problems. I will rescan tonight.

Thanks anyways for the sugestions,

Lots

One other thing I noticed.. if left MP on Nederland 1HD for a long time (more then an hour) at some point it does return to normal and seems to remain normal.. but it takes a hell of a long time. But yesterday after 30-40 minutes it was so bad that at one point MP stopped the timeshift (MP warning pop up), and I had to restart MP completely.

Lots

 

[HomeY]

I think I have the latest Floppy DTV driver, but I will check anyways.

Not according to your System Specs

That of the transponder can be true, I just used the Ziggo8888 transponder available in the latest 1.2.0RC MP install, asuming this one was allready updated. It did find all HD channels I usually watch, but if Ziggo allso still has the old frequencies available, squeezed in between other channels, this might cause problems. I will rescan tonight.

Hope that helps for ya. I haven't been able to test the new frequencies myself since my FloppyDTV 'died' last week and waiting for new card now

One other thing I noticed.. if left MP on Nederland 1HD for a long time (more then an hour) at some point it does return to normal and seems to remain normal.. but it takes a hell of a long time. But yesterday after 30-40 minutes it was so bad that at one point MP stopped the timeshift (MP warning pop up), and I had to restart MP completely.

Lots

Still strange but could be related to signal strenght (although i always thought that with HD channels it's all or nothing. They work or they don't). If rescanning with new frequencies doesn't improve things for you, you can always try another codec.
I just upgraded my PDVD10 codec to PDVD11, and the 'artifacts-problem' i was having on loads of MKV videos are over since i upgraded.
When my FloppyDTV was still working, i never had issues with NL1, 2 & 3 (HD) in combination with PDVD10 codec. Well, like many others, the first 1/2 seconds were needed to get the 'slowmotion' out of it (probably related to refreshrate changes).

 

[Lotsofjazz]

Thanks for the help guys.

So far
I have reinstalled the latest FloppyDTV firmware (the latest was installed already)
I have reinstalled the latest driver software of the FloppyDTV (setup 5.7) (the latest was installed)

During these reinstallations I noticed that that for Windows 7 the Legacy IEEE 1374 OHCI driver is required, so I have installed this driver according the instructions as well, I cant remember I ever installed a driver for the firewire card, it simply allways has worked. So if things do improve, I suspect this driver was the source of the problems.

Did not find much time to test, but after this I have watched the Nederland 1HD for a few minutes and seems to work OK, but I need to watch a little longer to be sure. If it turns out not to have helped, I will rescan the channels using the upgraded transponder.

I will also upgrade to PDVD11 anyways

System details updated to my current configuration.. MP version 1.2.0 RC1 and Driver of the floppyDTV adjusted to "Setup 5.7"

 

[Lotsofjazz]

Tested a bit more, but still the same problems.. in the end the TV stopped working altogether, thinking it was my system and suspecting the TV card was broken, but later I found out on the internet that Ziggo itself suffered a mishap yesterday evening.

Installed MP 1.2.0 Final, no change.
Installed CoreAVC 3.0.1.0 but still stuttering takes place, and now also many blocking.
Will try the Win 7 codecs, but I remember from a few weeks ago that cause interlacing problems, will try again as I see so many good reviews about the Windows DTV-DVD codec.
Will try PDVD11 today as well.

Because Ziggo itself had a problem I did not know about at that time, I did a clean reinstall of 1.2.0 Final again. Of course scanning did not work as Ziggo itself was out of order, So I scanned channels again this morning and noticed some channels are not found, or show about 75% strength and quality. Nederland 1 HD was not found at all! I wonder why the signal has gone so bad all of a sudden on certain channels. Most channels (96 out of 100) show a 100% quality and 100% strength. I had no time to watch and test more.

One other thing I can try is to place the signal amplifier at the other end of the coax in my house, because the coax in my house has been replaced by better quality cable and plugs, so the signal should remain pretty good upto the HTPC, from the signal amplifier to the cable entrance in my house is about 25 meters of coax.

To be continued.

Lots.

 

[HomeY]

Have you tried to start MediaPortal in windowed mode and watch TV then? That way you can open up Task Manager on the side and use the 'Performance' tab to watch the CPU load.

I can't test things myself now, because my new TV Card is still on it's way, but when it arrives (hopefully before the weekend) i also need to setup TV from the start (switching to the HD channels also) and then i can tell you my experience.

Remember a signal-amplifier also strengthens noise.
Did you rescan with the new frequencies?

About the FireWire driver: The standard driver always worked for me also, but the Legacy driver really improved stability of the FloppyDTV Card, especially on resuming from standby. I had a lott of errors like 'unable to start graph' and 'unknown channel' after resume, the Legacy driver solved those problems.

 

[Lotsofjazz]

Thanks Homey for your sugestions.

With MP TV running full screen I can get Taskmanager by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del It shows me that it uses between 20%-80% CPU, but during stutter this can go back to 15% or so.. so it does not seem a CPU load problem, more a memory leak or something.. I have 4GB DDR2 RAM installed (maximum for Win 7 32bit), so that should be more then enough. The ATI HD 4650 graphics card has 1Gb DDR2 RAM on board, also more then enough.

What I have done yesterday..

I have upgraded the ATI drivers (now 11.8, I will change this in my system settings)
I also have changed to the Windows DTV-DVD decoder for video and Live TV, (I had to unregister CoreAVC, because no matter what filled out in MP configuration, CoreAVC was used to render Live HD TV!..check with Shift-1 while MP TV is running)
I have done a channel scan again with the Ziggo 8888 as available in the 1.2.0 Final installation, as I noticed the transponder files in the final install were newer then the transponder provided in the link a few posts back. Now all dutch HD channels were found.

Before all this I have also noticed using right click menu "program reception details" that when stuttering takes place the signal turns very bad, less then 50%. Checking with Shift-1 the frame rate is dropped to 10 or even less, but the dropped frames number remains the same (lesss then 50 last time I checked during stutter.. not really bad). When TV turns to normal, frame rate goes back to 50FPS, signal quality returns to 100%..

I must say that the situation has improved significantly after above actions, there were still some little stutters now and then, but not so bad as it was before... Also I could relate them to events happening on my PC (like wifi connection that dropped)

I will continue testing tonight. Maybe I will record a video and post on youtube, so you can see what appens.



Lots