TV-Server on WHS - Collection of fixes and workarounds (2 Viewers)

[yhoogi]

TommySharp:

Here some generic hints
1)
What kind of TV card are you using? The best and most reliable service is with the DE fireDTV or floppyDTV.

I am using them for quite sometime and had never RTSP problems.

2)
What processor are you using? A low power multicore should be sufficient. Atoms may be a little bit too slow.

3)
In case you have HDD power management features enabled, stuttering may occur during spin down / spin up.
You have to disable them all.

4)
Did you ever checked your processor and IO load on the server? Maybe some other processes running on the machine are stealing ressources. (e.g. other third party tools installed)

5)
Try to give the TV service in the management/configuration setting higher priority (but no realtime)

6)
Did you by chance running your dedicated HDD in IO and not in DMA mode?


Cheers,

 

[TommySharp]

I'm okay with all your suggestions yhoogi but how would I check to see if my HDD drive is in IO or DMA mode?

Sorry I'm not at home right now.
But here is what I did:

Server Side:
- created a Folder for the timeshift
- shared this folder for all users

Client Side:
- Mapped a Networkdrive ( Folder: eg '\\server\timeshiftbufer' Drive: X)
- changed the MediaPortal.xml file like this (search for section "tvservice"):

  <section name="tvservice">
    [b]<entry name="usertsp">no</entry>
    <entry name="timeshiftingpath">X:\</entry>[/b]

please make sure that MediaPortal is closed on client side. Otherwise the changes in the XML file don't get saved!

I edited my xml file to have the following but the client still comes up under the "streams" option????

 <section name="tvservice">
    <entry name="hostname">Server01</entry>
    <entry name="usertsp">no</entry>
    <entry name="recordingpath">Y:\</entry>
    <entry name="timeshiftingpath">Y:\</entry>
    <entry name="preferac3">no</entry>
    <entry name="preferAudioTypeOverLang">yes</entry>
    <entry name="dvbbitmapsubtitles">no</entry>
    <entry name="dvbttxtsubtitles">no</entry>
    <entry name="audiodualmono">no</entry>
    <entry name="isWakeOnLanEnabled">no</entry>
    <entry name="isAutoMacAddressEnabled">yes</entry>
    <entry name="macAddress">00:00:00:00:00:00</entry>
    <entry name="preferredaudiolanguages">
    </entry>
    <entry name="preferredsublanguages">
    </entry>
  </section>

@TommySharp:

Here some generic hints
1)
What kind of TV card are you using? The best and most reliable service is with the DE fireDTV or floppyDTV.
I'm using the hauppauge HVR-2200 tuners which seem to work fine...

I am using them for quite sometime and had never RTSP problems.

2)
What processor are you using? A low power multicore should be sufficient. Atoms may be a little bit too slow.
Pretty high powered dual core processor

3)
In case you have HDD power management features enabled, stuttering may occur during spin down / spin up.
You have to disable them all.
Drives are set to never power down... Any other settings?

4)
Did you ever checked your processor and IO load on the server? Maybe some other processes running on the machine are stealing ressources. (e.g. other third party tools installed)
Yep, sits at about 15% and then spikes a little when the demigrator runs etc...

5)
Try to give the TV service in the management/configuration setting higher priority (but no realtime)
I have set it to higher priority a few days ago... No joy....

6)
Did you by chance running your dedicated HDD in IO and not in DMA mode?
They are SATA drives so not sure I can even change this setting?

Your help is very much appreciated!

did u also installed the dvbfix?

Just installing the dvbfix again in case it wasn't done properly....

 

[winniwinter]

I have to say, that I'm using the FloppyDTV on my WHS and since MP 1.1RC1 I had very bad stuttering at live-tv. After I disabled RTSP everything is fine again.

 

[yhoogi]

winniwinter:
Strange - This never happened to me.

TommySharp:
You can check the HDD setting in the hardware manager tab, when opening the tree for the ide/sas controller. Normally there is indicated if a channel/drive is in 3GB/1.5GB mode (for SAS) or DMA (for IDE)

Cheers,

 

[TommySharp]

yhoogi:
Nope can't see anything like that so I'm guessing it's using a default?

 

[JACOB B]

Just a moment:
Did you said WHS-pool?

SO you use a whs-share folder for all records?

If that's the case:
This is a very bad idea, as the pool-shares are quite loaded with background processes from WHS.
I recommend you install a dedicated HDD, completely unused by the pool. This can be done via the Windows HDD manager as a new partition.
If you want to have network access to the HDD, this can be done as normal network share.


And as a side-note: Try to avoid power management for the HDD's in WHS. My experience is that this is also disturbing smooth playback/records. When checking afterwards recorded files, there were a significant number of bad sections. Windows (not only WHS) seems to be unable to buffer sufficient data when a HDD (and this could be any HDD, not only the one for recording) spins up and stalls data transfer.


Cheers,

Hi All
I am updating my current TV-server setup which is
- TV-server and client in office on a HP laptop (NW8440) with core2duo 2.0 GHz, running Win XP SP3 (32bit), 3 FireDTV DVB-C tuners are connected to the laptop. All 3 timeshift to OS HDD and record to external USB2 HDD.
- MP client in living room Asrock ION 330HT-BD.
- Media server for long term storage of recorded TV, as well as DVD, music and photos is a HP Mediasmartserver EX475 (1.6 GHz single core, "GB ram) running WHS.
- Gigabit network connects everything.

I plan on building a new Media/TV server running WHS, based on the Tower system here:Guide to Building a HD HTPC - Page 437 - AVS Forum
I will use an older Antec TWR and start out with 6 HDD which the MOBO has SATA connections for. This will cost me 296$ (incl. OS HDD) + storage drives. I can expand as desired later.

Now, I am in doubt as to how many dedicated drives I need for the 3 HDTV tuners...
Requirements:
I need to be able to record 3 HD channels simultaneously, while either
- watching (timeshifting) a HDTV channel or streaming a recorded HDTV program on 2-3 clients,
- or streaming a HD movie (from recorded TV or Blu-ray rip) to 1-2 clients while timeshifting a HDTV CH to another client.

I tested how TV server uses the cards. One card can actually record two channels (on same freq.) while timeshifting live TV of one of the channels. As it is, this is a very realistic scenario with the TV channels I have and normally watch.

Worst case, this will require 3 HDTV streams being recorded to the same harddisc (saving to HDD), while streaming 1-3 recordings from same harddisc (reading from HDD), all the same time.

So I need to figure out how to minimize the bottleneck.

Should I have:
1) one HDD pr. tunercard, and timeshift and record to same HDD (three HDD in total, maybe 500 GB a piece)?
- this will give a worst case scenario, as the example above will 3 x read and 3 x write to same HDD.
2) one HDD for recordings from tunercard 1, one HDD for timeshifting from tunercard 1 (maybe a SSD?), and one HDD for recording AND timeshifting for card 2 and 3.
- this will use 2 HDD for the load from the example above.
3) tuner 1 to record to pool (tuner 1 is always the first one used, and therefor also the one with most recordings to read/stream), and timeshift to dedicated HDD from tuner 1 (maybe a SSD?). Tuner 2 and 3 can share a dedicated HDD for recording, and share a dedicated HDD for timeshifting.
- this will spread the load from streaming (reading) and recording (saving) from tuner 1 out to the pool, while timeshifting
(live TV) is optimized. If Tuner 2 is recording and timeshifting at the same time, it will use two HDD fot these tasks.
When tuner three comes in play (seldom, but it happens), it will share with tuner 2...

Thoughts:
- Solution 3) differs from 2) in using the pool rather than a dedicated HDD for recording from tuner 1. If the load is high, as in example above, won't this be better than a dedicated HDD?
- However, if I stream a blu-ray rip from the pool at the same time, the load on the pool in solution 3) is suddenly a lot higher, which might influence recording..? This would not matter in solution 2.

OK, shoot away, both theoretical anwers and answers based by experience are welcomed

Cheers,
Jacob

Anyone one dare to comment?
I would really appriciate some good advice!

 

[joit]

Did someone install MP on the public beta of Vail yet?
Unfortunately, there will still not be an official tuner support!
MediaCenter Integration

If you have signed up for connect, you could vote this entry up:
https://connect.microsoft.com/Windo...3076/i-would-like-to-have-media-center-in-whs

 

[mguebert]

I am wondering if anyone has successfully upgraded from RC1 to RC2 on WHS. I am afraid to try for fear of messing up a fairly stable system.

 

[JACOB B]

I am wondering if anyone has successfully upgraded from RC1 to RC2 on WHS. I am afraid to try for fear of messing up a fairly stable system.

Keep us updated on your eventual effort

I will be building a new WHS soon, and will try a MP server install (1st time)
I ended up buying a dedicated HDD for the OS, and three HDD for TV-server. On top of that 4 x 2 Tb Green caviar HDD for the pool.

cheers,
Jacob

 

[Schicksal]

AW: TV-Server on WHS - Collection of fixes and workarounds

i have switched today from RC1 to RC2. working like before.