Tuner is locked after single transponder scan (1 Viewer)

[rogerleifert]

MediaPortal Version: 1.2.1
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Windows Version: XP (MCE2005) SP3
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Sound Card AC3: Coaxical Out
Sound Card Driver: (5.10.0.6392) Azalia HD-audio V6409
1. TV Card: Hauppauge HVR3000
1. TV Card Type: Hybrid:Analog+DVB-T+DVB-S+FM-Tuner
1. TV Card Driver: latest Hauppauge BDA-Driver (2010)
2. TV Card: Hauppauge WinTV Nova-HD-S2
2. TV Card Type: DVB-S(2)
2. TV Card Driver: latest Hauppauge BDA-Driver (2010)
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: PowerDVD11 or SFA-ffdshow
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TV: Philips 56PFL9954H-12
TV - HTPC Connection: HDMI


A minor issue occurs when I do a single-transponder scan with "advanced tuning options" with my DVB-T tuner (part of a hybrid card)

When I do a single transponder scan after scanning I can't do another scan immediately thereafter because TV-server configuration tool says that tuner-card is locked, when I press the "scan for channels" button.

When I go to "manual control" I see that card is not locked!

When I now simply go back to the tuner-card without doing anything else, (single transponder) scan is possible again.

So it seems, that after a single-transponder scan is finished, the tuner-card isn't correctly freed again (or a flag is not correctly set?)

Have at the moment only tested with my DVB-T tuner.
Could possibly be also with DVB-S or analog channels when doing multiple single-transponder scans.
Will report later, if bug/issue can be confirmed by someone else.

TV-server log is attached.
If you need full logs, please notify me.

Kind regards

Roger

 

[mm1352000]

Hi Roger

I have a similar arrangement with a hybrid card and I can't reproduce. Perhaps you could give precise steps? Also the tv.log is not attached...

mm

 

[rogerleifert]

AW: Re: Tuner is locked after single transponder scan

Hi mm again,

the original tv.log was too big, so now it should be attached compressed as .rar

The playing around with advanced tuning/manually tuning to single transponder is near the end of the log.

Steps to reproduce:

- Select the DVB-T tuner-card in TV-server configuration

- check "Use advanced tuning options"

- check "Scan Type" --> "Single transponder"

- fill out a valid frequency for DVB-T (e.g. 738000 kHz) and a valid bandwidth (e.g. 8 MHz)

- press "Scan for Channels" and wait until the transponder scan is ready
(during scan the "Scan for Channels"-button changes to "Cancel Scan". Then after finishing the scan it changes to "New Scan")

- press "New Scan"-button --> button changes to "Scan for Channels" again

- fill out a new frequency and try "Scan for Channels"

- message "Tuner is locked..." appears

- Click "OK" and go to "manual control"

- There the tuner card is either remarked as idle or grabbing EPG. Do nothing else!

- go back to the DVB-T tuner-card

- Press "Scan for channels" and now the scan is possible (tuner-card mysteriously unlocked

only a little bit of a nuisance if you want to try out some frequencies manually to avoid a complete channel scan or try out signal strength/-quality.

Kind regards

Roger

 

[mm1352000]

Hi Roger

It is the idle EPG grabber trying to grab EPG in between your scans, so the tuner really is unavailable because the EPG grabber is using it. The grabber is repeatedly trying to grab EPG for Press TV. Does Press TV provide EPG in the broadcast stream? If not then I would advise you to disable grabbing for that channel to reduce the chances of the EPG grabber causing problems like this. Either that or disable the idle EPG grabber and rely on the timeshifting EPG grabber.

mm

 

[rogerleifert]

AW: Re: Tuner is locked after single transponder scan

Hi mm,

could be that Press TV doesn't have EPG-data.
Have to check.

But as I remember the card didn't show as EPG-grabbing when I went to "manual control".
There the cards, that belong to the hybrid card, were very briefly marked with red lines, which immediately vanished without even "touching" (=selecting) a card in "manual control"???
I thought that this briefly showing red line was the last "sign" of the locked tuner-card/hybrid card from tuning, which is then freed immediately and automatically?

I just have tried it again for the steps to reproduce.
There in one instance I really had a tuner-card showing "grabbing EPG-data".
But also then without "touching" anything it was enough to select "manual control" and immediately go back to the tuner-card for a scan.
So it seems that scanning has priority over EPG-grabbing and stops EPG-grabbing anyway.

So I still don't understand why a basically "free" or "only" EPG-grabbing tuner-card is not directly available for a rescan from the tuner-card section?

Kind regards

Roger

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again

Grabbing was starting even 1 second after you finish the first scans and as far as I can tell scanning does not appear to take priority over EPG grabbing, so grabbing will block scanning. It should be easy to test this theory. Use the "refresh DVB EPG" button in manual control to drop all existing EPG. This should make the grabber want to start grabbing. Attempt to reproduce the issue. Then disable the idle EPG grabber temporarily and try to reproduce the issue. I think you'd find it quite easy to reproduce the issue in the first case as the EPG grabber will prevent scanning, however it will be impossible to reproduce in the second case as the EPG grabber is disabled.

I can't explain what you're seeing in the "manual control" section. I don't see the red highlighting on the other parts of my hybrid cards when another part is in use - perhaps this is a bug - and just visiting the "manual control" section does not stop the grabber. The grabber usually runs for 15 - 30 seconds per channel...

mm

 

[rogerleifert]

AW: Re: Tuner is locked after single transponder scan

Hi mm,

perhaps we're seeing the thing from two different sides.

I just have waited until the DVB-S tuner of my hybrid card was busy with EPG-grabbing.
(At the moment I have EPG-grabbing only enabled for DVB-S channels)

Then I quickly went to the tuner-card section, selected the DVB-T card of the hybrid-card and immediately pressed the "Scan for channels" button (this time a full scan).

So in this special case scanning (DVB-T) has priority over EPG-grabbing (of the DVB-S part of the hybrid-card).
The DVB-T scanning either must have stopped or ignored the EPG-grabbing of the current DVB-S EPG-channel.

At the moment I don't want to refresh my EPG, because I need a fully populated EPG for programmed schedules and it sometimes takes quite some time until the whole EPG is fully filled.
But I think the above behaviour clearly shows, that in this special case (DVB-T scan while DVB-S EPG grabbing) scanning has priority and kicks out or ignores the DVB-S EPG grabbing.

BTW: Can you do successively DVB-T single-transponder scans without a "Tuner locked"-message?
In that case we will lay my issue to rest as setup-specific, non-critical, minor annoyance instead of a bug

I do believe the very briefly visible red lines for the hybrid-card tuners are perhaps caused by a delay until the software has checked out the availabilty of all 5 cards (DVB-S/-T/Analog-Hybrig; DVB-S2; RadioWebStream)?

I always have this behaviour when i go to the "manual control" section, not only when coming from the tuner-card section.
For about half a second the fields (card, type, state...) are totally empty, then they are populated all at once with one or more red lines and this changes to all white after another half a second.
Same behaviour in the "Test channels" section!

Any idea?

Kind regards

Roger

 

[mm1352000]

Re: AW: Re: Tuner is locked after single transponder scan

Hi again

I just have waited until the DVB-S tuner of my hybrid card was busy with EPG-grabbing.
(At the moment I have EPG-grabbing only enabled for DVB-S channels)

Then I quickly went to the tuner-card section, selected the DVB-T card of the hybrid-card and immediately pressed the "Scan for channels" button (this time a full scan).

So in this special case scanning (DVB-T) has priority over EPG-grabbing (of the DVB-S part of the hybrid-card).
The DVB-T scanning either must have stopped or ignored the EPG-grabbing of the current DVB-S EPG-channel.

I'm finding it hard verify this because I don't use the DVB EPG grabber and my hybrid cards are DVB-T + analog, and the code is very complex.

At the moment I don't want to refresh my EPG, because I need a fully populated EPG for programmed schedules and it sometimes takes quite some time until the whole EPG is fully filled.

You could still temporarily disable the grabber to prove that when it isn't in operation then there is no problem.

BTW: Can you do successively DVB-T single-transponder scans without a "Tuner locked"-message?

Yes, I can do this with no problem whatsoever. This - along with what I see in the logs - is why I am blaming the EPG grabber.

I do believe the very briefly visible red lines for the hybrid-card tuners are perhaps caused by a delay until the software has checked out the availabilty of all 5 cards (DVB-S/-T/Analog-Hybrig; DVB-S2; RadioWebStream)?

I always have this behaviour when i go to the "manual control" section, not only when coming from the tuner-card section.
For about half a second the fields (card, type, state...) are totally empty, then they are populated all at once with one or more red lines and this changes to all white after another half a second.
Same behaviour in the "Test channels" section!

I think I need to look into this as I don't get the highlighting at all but I would have expected red highlighting on tuners that can't be used.

mm

 

[rogerleifert]

AW: Re: AW: Re: Tuner is locked after single transponder scan

Hi mm,

OK.
I will disable DVB-EPG-grabbing completely and then try successive scan-attempts to find out if the EPG-grabber causes the locking of the tuner-card.

Can only report results tomorrow (for your side of the earth) because in the next hours my hybrid card is recording and Ihave to wait until evening (for my side of the earth).
Thanks for your immediate and insightful help.

Kind regards

Roger

 

[rogerleifert]

AW: Re: AW: Re: Tuner is locked after single transponder scan

Hi mm,

I have disabled EPG and then multiple successive scans were possible without a problem.
So the issue definitely has something to do with EPG-grabbing.

Next I disabled all channels from EPG-grabbing where obviously there are no EPG-data available again.
My EGP-settings can be seen in the attached settings.
Then I enabled EPG-grabbing again.

Now same behaviour as before again.
At one time 2 successive scans were possible, but at the 3. try I got the tuner-locked message again.

Ususally the 2. attempt fails with the tuner-locked message.
And again simply going to the "manual control" and returning to the tuner-card scan-section frees the card so that the next scan is possible.

And again even if the DVB-S section of the hybrid card is busy EPG-grabbing, a DVB-T scan has priority and seems to automatically finish EPG-grabbing in the DVB-S section and frees the card.

Kind regards

Roger