Tuner Problem "all cards busy" (1 Viewer)

[Sakols]

Hi,

Im running Media Portal 1 on Windows 10, with a EyeTV usb tuner card. On another computer with the very same tuner, I have not seen problems but on a new build Win 10 box, it seems like communication between the TV Server and the card is intermittent. During channel scanning in set up, progress stopped before the scan completed. after several tries, it finally completed.

I have installed the latest driver for the Eye TV tuner, and it always shows properly in device manager

While using MP, I seem to irregularly get errors "all cards busy" or "unknown error" and of course nothing tunes in. To fix this I have had to get the server to restart, by toggle on or off DVB IP as a source in addition to my ATSC tuner. sometimes I have to unplug and replug the usb tuner. This usually gets the tuner working again. Attached is a log from today where I had several of these problems before I finally got it working again in the end.

Any ideas how to trouble shoot this would be a big help.

thanks,

dan

 

[mm1352000]

Hi Dan

Sorry in advance for all the questions. More specific details are required in order to assist you.

Im running Media Portal 1 on Windows 10...

What's the motherboard (both vendor and official product name please)?
Are you running the latest BIOS and chipset drivers?
Is the tuner plugged into a hub of some kind, or directly connected to a USB port on the motherboard?
Is the USB port USB 3 or USB 2?

Please also list any other USB devices connected to the PC.

...with a EyeTV usb tuner card.

Which EyeTV USB tuner please?
EyeTV made more than one product that could receive ATSC TV...

On another computer...

Same questions as for the other system.

Attached is a log from today where I had several of these problems before I finally got it working again in the end.

Thanks for the log files. Unfortunately they're of no help because they're the MediaPortal client log files. What we'd need are the TV Server log files:

1. Open TV Server Configuration.
2. Click "open log directory" in the top left corner.
3. Zip/compress all the files in that folder.
4. Attach the zip file to your next reply.

Regards,
mm

 

[Sakols]

The computer with the problem:
Its a Cincoze, fanless, ruggedized Haswell PC (see picture)

, really for industrial applications (but makes a cool looking media PC). Im using the USB 2 ports for the tuner, which is a EyeTV Hybrid usb dongle. I just updated the Cincoze bios to the very latest version, and have updated all the drivers. The only other USB device is an RF dongle for a wireless keyboard.

The other PC is a Dell Vostro 460 desktop PC. I used the same wireless keyboard (usb dongle) on it. No other USB devices plugged in.

Playing more with the Cincoze today, I have managed to get the tuner stable opening and closing the MP app a number of times today. What breaks it is if I unplug and replug the tuner dongle.

Attached is the right log I hope. lets see if it has any clues

 

[mm1352000]

Thanks for the info.

Playing more with the Cincoze today, I have managed to get the tuner stable opening and closing the MP app a number of times today.

Opening and closing MediaPortal (the client) shouldn't make any difference. However restarting the TV Server and/or the PC might.

What breaks it is if I unplug and replug the tuner dongle.

Generally speaking this is not a surprise.

Tuner dongles are not like flash drives. In other words: you can't just unplug and replug them at will. Before unplugging you ought to disable the tuner in Windows device manager; after replugging it, you re-enable it. TV Server (and by reference, MediaPortal) should be able to handle the unplug/replug process without any special interventions... but only if you do the device manager stuff. If you don't, expect trouble.

Expect trouble because TV Server will not be notified that the tuner is unavailable. If/when TV Server tries to use the tuner, all manner of random errors may be encountered (I see some examples in your log files). This can also put the tuner driver into a tail-spin. So yeah, don't do it!

When a tuner is unplugged with the proper process, TV Server will be notified that the tuner is unavailable. Subsequently when you try to tune channels, TV Server will throw out "all cards busy" errors if there are no tuners available with which to tune. Again, I see that sequence in your log files.

1. TV Server working fine.
[2016-12-05 08:41:45,017] [Log ] [33 ] [INFO ] - Controller: StartTimeShifting WhatsOn 65
...
[2016-12-05 08:41:46,959] [Log ] [33 ] [INFO ] - card: WaitForFile - video and audio are seen after 0.115972 seconds

2. TV Server notified of tuner removal.
[collapse][2016-12-05 08:42:55,076] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - BDA/WDM device @devicenp:\\?\usb#vid_0fd9&pid_0031#100504004877#{a799a800-a46d-11d0-a18c-00a02401dcd4}\{e6223d77-45f9-4025-a86f-27bddb4c8ca9} removed
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,079] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - Controller: remove device EyeTV Hybrid Analog TV Tuner @devicenp:\\?\usb#vid_0fd9&pid_0031#100504004877#{a799a800-a46d-11d0-a18c-00a02401dcd4}\{e6223d77-45f9-4025-a86f-27bddb4c8ca9}
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,082] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - BDA/WDM device @devicenp:\\?\usb#vid_0fd9&pid_0031#100504004877#{71985f48-1ca1-11d3-9cc8-00c04f7971e0}\{eec5a519-643f-4a74-bc7f-5ce7d46fefd5} removed
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,084] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - Controller: remove device EyeTV Hybrid Digital Tuner (ATSC) @devicenp:\\?\usb#vid_0fd9&pid_0031#100504004877#{71985f48-1ca1-11d3-9cc8-00c04f7971e0}\{eec5a519-643f-4a74-bc7f-5ce7d46fefd5}
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,087] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - dvbecompose
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,090] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - tvcard:FreeAllSubChannels
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,093] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - stop
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,200] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - Disposing ConditionalAccess
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,210] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - free...
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,220] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - free pins...
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,231] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - free graph...
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,241] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - Remove filter from graph: BDA MPEG2 Transport Information Filter
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,251] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - Remove filter from graph: MediaPortal Ts Analyzer
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,277] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - Remove filter from graph: MPEG2-Demultiplexer
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,288] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - Remove filter from graph: Inf Tee
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,300] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - Remove filter from graph: EyeTV Hybrid Digital Capture
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,310] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - Remove filter from graph: EyeTV Hybrid Digital Tuner (ATSC)
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,315] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - Remove filter from graph: Generic Network Provider
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,320] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - free devices...
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,324] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - decompose done...
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,329] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - BDA/WDM device @devicenp:\\?\usb#vid_0fd9&pid_0031#100504004877#{71985f48-1ca1-11d3-9cc8-00c04f7971e0}\{9c40b733-1a99-496e-bc6a-88a85232fad6} removed
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,333] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - Controller: remove device EyeTV Hybrid Digital Tuner (QAM) @devicenp:\\?\usb#vid_0fd9&pid_0031#100504004877#{71985f48-1ca1-11d3-9cc8-00c04f7971e0}\{9c40b733-1a99-496e-bc6a-88a85232fad6}
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,338] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - BDA/WDM device @devicenp:\\?\usb#vid_0fd9&pid_0031#100504004877#{71985f48-1ca1-11d3-9cc8-00c04f7971e0}\{a9224736-86b6-4242-9cc4-4328f2cd2df4} removed
[2016-12-05 08:42:55,341] [Log ] [47 ] [INFO ] - Controller: remove device EyeTV Hybrid Digital Tuner (DVB-T) @devicenp:\\?\usb#vid_0fd9&pid_0031#100504004877#{71985f48-1ca1-11d3-9cc8-00c04f7971e0}\{a9224736-86b6-4242-9cc4-4328f2cd2df4}
[/collapse]

3. Try to tune channel again while tuner disconnected.
[2016-12-05 08:43:12,204] [Log ] [38 ] [INFO ] - Controller: find free card for channel WhatsOn

4. "All cards busy" result.
[collapse]
16-12-05 08:43:12,212] [Log ] [38 ] [INFO ] - Controller: got 1 tuning details for WhatsOn
[2016-12-05 08:43:12,216] [Log ] [38 ] [INFO ] - Controller: channel #1 ATSC:tv:Terrestrial WhatsOn Freq:-1 ONID:1 TSID:4055 SID:1 PMT:0x80 FTA:True LCN:42 phys:42 maj:1 min:1 mod:Mod8Vsb
[2016-12-05 08:43:12,220] [Log ] [38 ] [INFO ] - Controller: card:1 type:RadioWebStream is disabled
[2016-12-05 08:43:12,223] [Log ] [38 ] [INFO ] - Controller: card:2 typevbIP is disabled
[2016-12-05 08:43:12,227] [Log ] [38 ] [INFO ] - Controller: card:3 type:Analog is disabled
[2016-12-05 08:43:12,230] [Log ] [38 ] [ERROR] - card: unable to connect to slave controller at:TVComputer
[2016-12-05 08:43:12,238] [Log ] [38 ] [INFO ] - Controller: card:5 typevbC is disabled
[2016-12-05 08:43:12,241] [Log ] [38 ] [INFO ] - Controller: card:8 typevbT is disabled
[2016-12-05 08:43:12,245] [Log ] [38 ] [INFO ] - Controller: found 0 card(s) for channel
[2016-12-05 08:43:12,248] [Log ] [38 ] [INFO ] - AdvancedCardAllocation.GetAvailableCardsForChannel took 40 msec
[2016-12-05 08:43:12,251] [Log ] [38 ] [INFO ] - Controller: found 0 free card(s)[/collapse]

Again for emphasis: this is normal and expected. When you remove your tuner, TV Server has no other ATSC tuners available. The message is to tell you that there are no tuners available. Sorry the message wording is not more direct/understandable... but that is in fact what TV Server is trying to tell you. As far as I can see in the log files, TV Server is only throwing out that message when the tuner is disconnected. Therefore for now I would come to the conclusion that everything appears to be working as expected.

Does this make sense?

 

[Sakols]

This is making sense. Unplugging the tuner was just one thing that caused the failure. I got failures just using MP. One occurred when I tuned to a channel with no broadcast content. MP froze, I don't recall it if had to go as far as task manager to restart it, but afterward the tuner didn't show up in the tree under the server name (TVComputer). I had to restart the server.

I understand hot plugging the tuner is invalid from your explanation, so I won't consider that again. Let me use it more, and see if I can better characterize the failure conditions. If I do, how can I reference that to a log file so you can see the log for that event?

Thanks for your help. Im keen to have some fun with MP!
dan

 

[mm1352000]

This is making sense.

Good.

Unplugging the tuner was just one thing that caused the failure. I got failures just using MP. One occurred when I tuned to a channel with no broadcast content.

Hmmm, okay. Can you explain what you mean by "no broadcast content"? I'm not clear on what that means.

MP froze, I don't recall it if had to go as far as task manager to restart it, but afterward the tuner didn't show up in the tree under the server name (TVComputer). I had to restart the server.

I've had a quick look back but so far I'm not seeing this in the log files you've provided. Sorry.

Let me use it more, and see if I can better characterize the failure conditions.

Yup by all means do that.
I'm happy to look at any and all scenarios. From my perspective it'll be easiest if we take one at a time to avoid confusion.

If I do, how can I reference that to a log file so you can see the log for that event?

Good question.
You can reference the log files by specifying a date/time. Knowing the channel name (where applicable) can also help.

 

[Sakols]

Hi, Everything has been working fine until I accidentally unplugged my USB tuner. Now I can't manage to get rid of All Cards Busy error. Ive stopped and restarted the TV tuner service under "manual" where the tuner is "idle" Ive also reinstalled the tuner drivers. Im not sure how to get this working again

 

[mm1352000]

Try restarting the machine. If that doesn't help, you'll need to provide log files so I can actually see what's going on.