TV-Server crashes on scanning channels with Hauppauge WinTV HVR-900H (1 Viewer)

[Curry]

After another evening of debugging I'm now completely at a loss for a solution

I've deployed MP 1.1.0 Alpha on my development laptop with Vista Ultimate. The fix I suggested in this topic solves the problem of the WinTV CI device not being succesfully inserted into the graph, however on all my systems (XP, Vista and Win7 now ) the issue remained that it couldn't finish the graph because of the MPEG2 demultiplexer not being connected. I debugged all the graphs being produced, switched some of the pin logic around and that worked fine.

So I got it to the point where my test code scans and detects non-FTA and FTA channels without crashes or errors, which is great. HOWEVER.....

My test code scans 754MHz only band because I know channels are there in my area, while TVServer obviously scans all possible frequencies. If I deploy my custom tvlibrary.dll into the live TVServer I still get a BSOD after 'some time of scanning'. Yesterday after 12 scans it BSOD'd in hwc11bda.sys, which is the CI-driver. After I added some delays in the code between scans, it made some 20 scans before crashing in the same driver.

So I'm completely lost for solutions now. I see the following possibilities:
- My WinTV-CI device is borked. This is highly unlikely since WinTV works fine on all 3 test systems.
- The CI driver is borked in combination with the 900H device. Again, then why does WinTV work?
- The CI driver has borked DirectShow support in combination with the 900H device.

The last one is what I'm settling for now, because I noticed that while WinTV is running.... GraphEdit sees no remote graphs to connect to. This leads me to suspect WinTV doesn't use DirectShow internally but just hacks into the drivers directly. And it is the only reason I could think of why WinTV is stable and a generic DirectShow applicaton such as MediaPortal is not. Also, the 900H has specific drivers as mentioned before, so it could be a problem in the 900H DirectShow filters as well.

Anyone see a problem with my reasoning in this?

 

[Anders]

Some testing

Hi all,

I have the same problem as Curry has descibed earlier. I have a laptop with XP Pro SP3, fully updated with Hauppauge HVR900H and the WinTV-CI module. On this i have installed a clean MP 1.0.2 and also the compleate WinTV7 application from the WinTV 7 CD 1.1d.

The WinTV7 aplication runs as it should, with both FTA and scrambled channels so the hardware is there and working. When I start MP though the problem starts. If I don't assign the CI-module to the HVR-900H I can scan for channels, it finds all channels (FTA and scrambled) and I can preview FTA channels without any problem, but of course I cannot view any scrambled channels. At least that is, after starting WinTv7 once.

If I assign the CI-module to the HVR-900H BDA tuner I will get BSOD as soon as I try to do something with the card, scanning for channels or, as I have the channels already found from the scan without the CI-module, trying to preview any channel, FTA or scrambled. It doesn't matter wether I have indicated that the HVR-900H has a CAM or not it is the assignment of the CI-module that starts the problem.

With Currys new TVLibrary.dll it still dosn't work. I don't get BSOD but instead I get the message "unknown error" when I try to preview any channel, FTA or scrambled. In the Error log the relevant message must be:


2009-07-07 23:24:17.515625 [14]: Exception ystem.MissingMethodException: Metoden hittades inte: Boolean TvLibrary.Interfaces.IChannel.IsDifferentTransponder(TvLibrary.Interfaces.IChannel).
vid TvLibrary.Implementations.DVB.TvCardDVBT.Tune(Int32 subChannelId, IChannel channel)
vid TvLibrary.Implementations.Hybrid.HybridCardGroup.Tune(Int32 subChannelId, IChannel channel)
vid TvLibrary.Implementations.Hybrid.HybridCard.Tune(Int32 subChannelId, IChannel channel)
vid TvService.CardTuner.Tune(User& user, IChannel channel, Int32 idChannel)


(the swedish part simply states that the method couldn't be found, as if one could not understand that from the rest)

The question is here; is there any other module you have changed Curry? Or do I have to install morpheus' CI-updating test build? Can I do that on my 1.0.2 build?

It would be really nice to get this working. I hope this description can help somewhat. I can also test any new modules should anyone have some input.

I can also add, as a final note, that I've had the CI-module working with a HVR1300 card. The 900H was present in that system but I choose to use the 1300. At least it worked initially it might have stopped working after a while but that is another issue I think.

 

[Curry]

I have posted 2 tvlibrary.dll's in this topic: the 143KB one is built on 1.0.2 codebase (current stable), and the 146KB is on 1.0.3 code (Morpheus' build and 1.1.0 ALPHA). On the relevant code both are identical - if you use the latter on your 1.0.2 install I would expect the exception you mention because it contains various huge other changes as well.

I've requested Hauppauge support on the problem again and they're actually responding now (albeit in a single one line response) so I'll stick to this bug and try to solve it when they fix something on their side - as described above I see no realistic possibilities for fixing this on the MediaPortal side, it appears to be something in the 900H and/or CI driver support for DirectShow.

Thanks for confirming the issue - at least that excludes borked hardware on my side I'll gladly use your testing assistance when I have updates!

 

[Anders]

I was quite sure that I downloded the one for 1.0.2 and based on the size I confirmed, it is the 1.0.2 version I have. So something interesting is happening there. Lets hope HAuppauge comes up with something, soon, and I will test it. I'd very much like to get a working solution for this.

 

[jaymode]

I have posted 2 tvlibrary.dll's in this topic: the 143KB one is built on 1.0.2 codebase (current stable), and the 146KB is on 1.0.3 code (Morpheus' build and 1.1.0 ALPHA). On the relevant code both are identical - if you use the latter on your 1.0.2 install I would expect the exception you mention because it contains various huge other changes as well.

I've requested Hauppauge support on the problem again and they're actually responding now (albeit in a single one line response) so I'll stick to this bug and try to solve it when they fix something on their side - as described above I see no realistic possibilities for fixing this on the MediaPortal side, it appears to be something in the 900H and/or CI driver support for DirectShow.

Thanks for confirming the issue - at least that excludes borked hardware on my side I'll gladly use your testing assistance when I have updates!

Any updates on this issue? I believe that I am running into the same issue with my Hauppauge HVR-1800 PCIe card.

 

[Curry]

Hauppauge are being very Hauppauge about things. In short they're taking 1 to 4 weeks on average to answer a new mail, and then they reply with something I already know and is completely unhelpful. Last example, in response to me sending the kernel minidumps of the BSOD's:

it'S hcwbda11.sys that causes the crash, this is the CI driver...

....that's all, including fubar capitalization. Seriously, I posted on these forums somewhere in June that the BSOD happens in the CI driver, and I pasted them all the topiclinks. Also note the entire lack of any followup question or notice that they're fixing anything, they just appear to think 'being helpful' means telling me something I don't care about and doesn't solve my problems....

 

[Curry]

Given another 2 weeks of absolute deafening silence I consider it safe to assume that Hauppauge simply does not give a s**t about thousands of potential MediaPortal customers and sets out to prove their support is as good as their hardware.

I think I'm going to sell my USB kit and look around for a supported solution from another vendor.

 

[Curry]

While I haven't pursued the issue in a while I just noticed that Hauppauge's UK site now contains HVR-900H driver version 1.0.709.27154, as opposed to my mediacenter still running build 27051.

I'll have a desperate unbelieving go to see whether it fixes anything

[edit] Build date turns out to be 3-6-2009 so I'm not holding my breath for anything.

[edit2] Thankfully it crashed right away on beginning scan, I was already fearing the world would tear asunder once Hauppauge started giving proper support on their hardware.

If anyone else has more time than me they could have a go with all the latest WinTV 7 software matched with the latest 1.1.0a build of MediaPortal?

 

[Curry]

After a large number of new reminder emails to Hauppauge support I got another mail today:

Dear sir,

sorry, but for the moment there is no other solution as to use WinTV instead of MP

mit freundlichem Gruß, met vriendelijke groet, bien cordialement, kind regards,

Gaëtan Mallé

I think he's missing the solution 'never buy Hauppauge', but at least they're clear on that their support is junk.