TV Channel Scanning 4x Tuners (1 Viewer)

[Charlie TV]

Hi guys

I have a strange issue, I have 4x tuners and can watch TV on any of them.

However I can only do a tv scan on two of the tuners, if I do a scan on the other two tuners they don't find any channels at all, is this normal??

All the feeds come from a mast and powered splitter, so they originate from the same source.

Cheers

 

[mm1352000]

Hello

Need more detail please.

• tuner type (DVB-T/T2, DVB-S/S2, DVB-C???)
• tuner vendor/manufacturer and model
• log files showing the problem http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_MEDIAPORTAL_1/16_Support/3_Forums/2_Log_Files

mm

 

[Charlie TV]

Hi

I did some more investigation and found that actually 2x of the cards are not functioning correctly.
(MP was skipping over them and using other cards.)

My setup is;
1x PCTV 292e (Works ok)
3x PCTV 290e (1x of 3 Works ok)

Cards support DVB-T2 and DVB-T.

The 1x PCTV 290e card that works is shown as;
PCTV 290e/460e BDA 2875 TVTuner

The two other 290e cards that do not work are shown as;
PCTV 80e/290e/460e BDA 2875 TVTuner C

The cards are shown correctly in Windows Device Manager as; PCTV 292e and 290e

Any ideas why those two cards are showing as 80e.. TVTuner Cs and is this the reason they aren't working?

Please find attached my logs, I've done a lot of fiddling removing cards, restarting MP and adding cards in singularly but nothing worked so far.

Thanks in advance for your help

 

[mm1352000]

Hello again

Unfortunately your log verbosity is set to info so I don't have the information I need to help you. Please set to debug and post new log files:
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_.../TV-Server_Configuration/06_General#Log_Level

mm

[edit: ...and please plug all tuners in before you do that. I'd like to see you test with all tuners plugged in.]

 

[Charlie TV]

Hi, Sorry!!!

Please find attached, my method;
1) Change MP to debug (with the 2x non-working PCTV 290e cards unplugged)
2) Stop MP.
3) Plug in the 2x PCTV 290e cards
4) Shown correctly as PCTV 290e in Windows Device Manager
5) Start up MP
6) Go to one of the "new" 290e cards and changed settings to UK and the correct transmitter (same as the other working cards)
7) Ran a scan... no channels found
8) Switched over the aerial from a working card to the card I ran a scan on, in step 7)
9) Ran a scan on the working PCTV 290e card just for reference to show the aerial cable is ok.. channels found.

Hope its helpful, thanks very much for your help

 

[mm1352000]

Thanks, that's the info I need.
So what I'm seeing is that TV Server is not able to determine the tuner type for those two non-working tuners.
Here's the log output from tuner detection, broken down a bit...

Tuner 00000006ll4v [non-working]

[2014-06-30 18:52:30,776] [Log ] [TVService] [INFO ] - Detected new digital BDA tuner device PCTV 80e/290e/460e BDA 2875 TVTuner @devicenp:\\?\usb#vid_2013&pid_024f#00000006ll4v#{71985f48-1ca1-11d3-9cc8-00c04f7971e0}\{7c8095ab-c110-40e5-9f4d-310858bbbf64}
[2014-06-30 18:52:30,776] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - check type with MS NP
[2014-06-30 18:52:30,792] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - network type count = 0
[2014-06-30 18:52:30,792] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - check type with specific NPs
[2014-06-30 18:52:30,792] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - failed to connect to specific NP

[2014-06-30 18:52:30,792] [Log ] [TVService] [INFO ] - Detected new digital BDA tuner device PCTV 80e/290e/460e BDA 2875 TVTuner C @devicenp:\\?\usb#vid_2013&pid_024f#00000006ll4v#{71985f48-1ca1-11d3-9cc8-00c04f7971e0}\{b50b8116-da24-4f97-80d1-00451702c5f7}
[2014-06-30 18:52:30,792] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - check type with MS NP
[2014-06-30 18:52:30,807] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - network type count = 1
[2014-06-30 18:52:30,807] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - network type 0 = 216c62df-6d7f-4e9a-8571-05f14edb766a
[2014-06-30 18:52:30,807] [Log ] [TVService] [INFO ] - tuner type = DvbT


Tuner 00000006n5by [working]

[2014-06-30 18:52:30,963] [Log ] [TVService] [INFO ] - Detected new digital BDA tuner device PCTV 290e/460e BDA 2875 TVTuner @devicenp:\\?\usb#vid_2013&pid_024f#00000006n5by#{71985f48-1ca1-11d3-9cc8-00c04f7971e0}\{7c8095ab-c110-40e5-9f4d-310858bbbf64}
[2014-06-30 18:52:30,963] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - check type with MS NP
[2014-06-30 18:52:30,979] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - network type count = 1
[2014-06-30 18:52:30,979] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - network type 0 = 216c62df-6d7f-4e9a-8571-05f14edb766a
[2014-06-30 18:52:30,979] [Log ] [TVService] [INFO ] - tuner type = DvbT

[2014-06-30 18:52:30,994] [Log ] [TVService] [INFO ] - Detected new digital BDA tuner device PCTV 80e/290e/460e BDA 2875 TVTuner C @devicenp:\\?\usb#vid_2013&pid_024f#00000006n5by#{71985f48-1ca1-11d3-9cc8-00c04f7971e0}\{b50b8116-da24-4f97-80d1-00451702c5f7}
[2014-06-30 18:52:30,994] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - check type with MS NP
[2014-06-30 18:52:30,994] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - network type count = 2
[2014-06-30 18:52:30,994] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - network type 0 = 143827ab-f77b-498d-81ca-5a007aec28bf
[2014-06-30 18:52:31,010] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - network type 1 = dc0c0fe7-0485-4266-b93f-68fbf80ed834
[2014-06-30 18:52:31,010] [Log ] [TVService] [INFO ] - tuner type = DvbC


Tuner 000000100bsc [non-working]

[2014-06-30 18:52:31,010] [Log ] [TVService] [INFO ] - Detected new digital BDA tuner device PCTV 80e/290e/460e BDA 2875 TVTuner @devicenp:\\?\usb#vid_2013&pid_024f#000000100bsc#{71985f48-1ca1-11d3-9cc8-00c04f7971e0}\{7c8095ab-c110-40e5-9f4d-310858bbbf64}
[2014-06-30 18:52:31,010] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - check type with MS NP
[2014-06-30 18:52:31,026] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - network type count = 0
[2014-06-30 18:52:31,026] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - check type with specific NPs
[2014-06-30 18:52:31,026] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - failed to connect to specific NP

[2014-06-30 18:52:31,026] [Log ] [TVService] [INFO ] - Detected new digital BDA tuner device PCTV 80e/290e/460e BDA 2875 TVTuner C @devicenp:\\?\usb#vid_2013&pid_024f#000000100bsc#{71985f48-1ca1-11d3-9cc8-00c04f7971e0}\{b50b8116-da24-4f97-80d1-00451702c5f7}
[2014-06-30 18:52:31,026] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - check type with MS NP
[2014-06-30 18:52:31,041] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - network type count = 1
[2014-06-30 18:52:31,041] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - network type 0 = 216c62df-6d7f-4e9a-8571-05f14edb766a
[2014-06-30 18:52:31,041] [Log ] [TVService] [INFO ] - tuner type = DvbT


Tuner 0011357486 [working]

[2014-06-30 18:52:31,057] [Log ] [TVService] [INFO ] - Detected new digital BDA tuner device PCTV 291e/461e BDA 28179 TVTuner @devicenp:\\?\usb#vid_2013&pid_025f#0011357486#{71985f48-1ca1-11d3-9cc8-00c04f7971e0}\{7c8095ab-c110-40e5-9f4d-310858bbbf64}
[2014-06-30 18:52:31,057] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - check type with MS NP
[2014-06-30 18:52:31,072] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - network type count = 1
[2014-06-30 18:52:31,072] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - network type 0 = 216c62df-6d7f-4e9a-8571-05f14edb766a
[2014-06-30 18:52:31,072] [Log ] [TVService] [INFO ] - tuner type = DvbT

[2014-06-30 18:52:31,088] [Log ] [TVService] [INFO ] - Detected new digital BDA tuner device PCTV 291e/461e BDA 28179 TVTuner C @devicenp:\\?\usb#vid_2013&pid_025f#0011357486#{71985f48-1ca1-11d3-9cc8-00c04f7971e0}\{b50b8116-da24-4f97-80d1-00451702c5f7}
[2014-06-30 18:52:31,088] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - check type with MS NP
[2014-06-30 18:52:31,088] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - network type count = 2
[2014-06-30 18:52:31,088] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - network type 0 = 143827ab-f77b-498d-81ca-5a007aec28bf
[2014-06-30 18:52:31,088] [Log ] [TVService] [DEBUG] - network type 1 = dc0c0fe7-0485-4266-b93f-68fbf80ed834
[2014-06-30 18:52:31,088] [Log ] [TVService] [INFO ] - tuner type = DvbC


A few things stand out to me.
First it is incredibly unusual to see the "network type count = 0" and "failed to connect to specific NP". That means TV Server detects the tuners, however it can't detect what type they are (DVB-T, DVB-C etc.) so it can't use them.
Second, each of your tuners actually expose two tuners to Windows: one "...TVTuner C" and one "...TVTuner". My guess is that the "C" tuners should be DVB-C and the "non-C" tuners should be DVB-T/T2. This matches what we see for the working tuners... but not so much for the non-working tuners.

As far as I'm concerned these sorts of issues can only be caused by drivers or bad hardware. In this case probably either the drivers for the tuners themselves or the USB hub/controller drivers that are used for the USB ports that you've connected them to.
To be specific, I think:

• incorrect/incompatible drivers are installed and/or used for some of the tuners OR
• the drivers installed are okay, but they only support one "instance" of each model of tuner OR
• the correct drivers are installed but the tuners are so similar that the drivers are confused about which tuners they're actually compatible with OR
• the tuners are in some way incompatible (eg. sucking too much power, USB 3 vs. USB 2 issues etc.) with the USB port(s)/hub you've plugged them into

I'd recommend that you install the correct tuner drivers from PCTV/Pinnacle, and install the correct motherboard and peripheral drivers (USB etc.) from your motherboard vendor (eg. ASUS, Gigabyte etc.) in the first instance or the original chipset vendor (eg. Intel, Realtek etc.) in the second instance. Default drivers from Microsoft can and do sometimes cause problems like this.

If that doesn't help I think you'll need to contact PCTV for support.

Regards,
mm

 

[Charlie TV]

Hi mm

Many thanks for taking the time to look into it. The cards have worked together before in WMC but I might have installed the PCTV software (can't really remember). I'll have a go and report back

Cheers

 

[Charlie TV]

HI mm

Quick update, I fixed it

I stopped the MP service.
Download TVCenter 6.4.8.992 from the PCTV site and installed it, selecting NO for installing DivX (It was optional and I like to try and keep the system clean).
I had the Device Manager open and could see it fiddling with the cards, it rolled the drivers to a 2010 version and then installed 2013 drivers.

The end result according to Device Manager is exactly the same driver versions as I had before (5.2013.1206.0) however when I started up MP it saw them differently.
292e is now 291e
80e cards are now 290e

I ran a channel scan on each card and its now finding signal for all the cards!

Well happy. Thanks for all your help

 

[mm1352000]

Ahhh, drivers - gotta love 'em. Glad you're sorted.