[WiP] TV upgrade - Combined RTSP, HEVC video and live TV rate-matching improvements (3 Viewers)

[Owlsroost]

I found an issue with the new version:

I manually added Internet Radio Streams as Radio Channels. Those channels were not working anymore with your latest version. MediaPortal is "playing" the radio stream but there is no audio anymore. This worked with all previous version without any issues.

I need your logs to investigate this (the full set, client and TV server).

 

[mm1352000]

I found an issue with the new version:

Thanks for the report, but:

1. Radio web stream functionality is completely unchanged, and...
   
2. I can't reproduce.

Therefore you'll have to provide log files if you want anybody to investigate.

MediaPortal is "playing" the radio stream but there is no audio anymore.

Maybe you've just muted the audio on the client?
Did you check that?

- Existing channels were not updated.

Channel movement is handled where possible if you enable the "enable channel movement detection" option. If that option isn't working for you, it's because there is no reference between the old and new channels, and so there's no way to know that the channels are the same and that the channel moved.

- Also renamed channel names were not applied after a new scan

That's true, however some people don't want the names to be overwritten because they customise them. It's hard to please everybody.

- It would be very nice to see which channels are new and which channels are updated after a scan.

TVE 3.5's scan progress will show added and updated channels for each transponder.

So please add columns like "Last updated" and "Added" to the All Channels list, so you can sort the list by timestamp to see which channels were new or updated

Each channel can have multiple tuning details (DVB-S, DVB-T etc.), and each tuning detail can be added or updated independently (ie. each tuning detail has it's own date). Therefore your suggestion is not directly possible.

- The All Channel list is very, very slow... would be nice if this could be optimized to a ListBox with Virtual List Items, a cached channel list, etc. Because typically a ListBox with ca. 1400 items is not freezing an application. Also searching, filtering, sorting is very, very slow in the All Channels list.

How many channels do you have?

 

[mm1352000]

I need your logs to investigate this (the full set, client and TV server).

Note that radio web streams are an exception to regular TV and radio. They're opened and played directly by the music player engine (BASS) and can't be time-shifted or recorded. Hence my previous comment. We really haven't made any changes anywhere near that area of the code.

 

[Owlsroost]

Note that radio web streams are an exception to regular TV and radio. They're opened and played directly by the music player engine (BASS) and can't be time-shifted or recorded. Hence my previous comment. We really haven't made any changes anywhere near that area of the code.

Thanks for the info - I've never used radio web streams so I wasn't aware how they are handled. I agree we haven't touched that area.

Also the (current at the time) master branch was merged into the bulids I posted, so other updates were included unrelated to the TV server/TV plugin updates.

 

[Snoopy87]

Of course I will provide logs as soon as I have them ;-)

I don't meant the scan log output of new and updated channels. This is totally unuseful. Yes, the "detect channel movement" option has no effect.

After improving the the TV server itself, those suggestions are the most important things to do next to let MediaPortal become userfriendly and easy to use as any other set top box or integrated TV Tuner solution on Smart TVs. And also the big issues with EPG which were not shown in 90% of the time in the MediaPortal client since years. The configuration dialogs are so 1990 and not optimized for a HTPC. Have a look at Kodi (XMBC). Everything is configurable with remote control. Also have a look at any set top box around the world. It's easy and it's working. Also there are no issues with channel movement, new channels, updated channels, etc. It's just working, so I think it would be possible to optimize this.

There are many properties you can use to create an intelligent algorithm to detect channel movement. (e.g. same channel name plus same provider). The problem is also, that the old channel is not deleted.

Changing channel names: There could be an option for each channel to keep the name. E.g. Sky Germany often change channel names and/or replace channel, so that the channel name does not fit to the channel you are watching. In all those cases you want to automatically change those channel names as they do on any other device and software.

As said I have ca. 1400 channels (or 1200?). I only use Astra 19.2 E. The issue has nothing to do with the amount of channels I have. It's a design and implementation issue to fetch, handle and show all channels.

I spoke with so many users the last months and years and those issues (scanning, updating channels, epg) are the biggest one everyone are unhappy with it. So would be nice to focus work on this., especially if you guys are still improving the TV Server. After that MediaPortal would be perfect and the TV Server Configuration dialog and MediaPortal Configuration dialog could be then completly integrated in MediaPortal 2 GUI to set up and handle everything from your couch with remote control But yes, I know, this is a lot of work and will take time.

 

[mm1352000]

@Snoopy87
In my opinion we're going too far off topic here.

From past discussions with you I know that you have strong opinions about various aspects of TV Server. Obviously you are only one of many people who use TV Server. Everybody else is also entitled to their opinion.

I think the best way to move forward would be to start new threads for each idea in the improvements section of the forum:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/forums/improvement-suggestions.46/

P.S. I remember in the past you've said you're an experienced developer. Why don't you try to grab the code and implement some of the ideas that you have?

 

[w8andc]

A real problem now concerning build 1.15.0.771 and build 1.15.0.746.

Not a problem in the current release version Mediaportal 1.15.0.
Using Digital Devices Tuner Device (cineS2 v6.5) running by latest drivers in combination with 4 LNB's (Diseqc 1.1 - 4 ports) on a Windows 10 64bit system (insider preview build 14965).

When I start scanning, f.e. Astra 19.2° E, the first 8 frequencies are normally tuned and scanned.
At the 9th frequency (10979000) scanning stops without an error showing and the button " Cancel ... " changes in " Start new ".

Have tried different things, but with no releave.
In the ProgramData directory TuningParameters\DVBS also deleted all the files and let them import again. So I have the most updated frequencylist 19.2°E Astra 1KR,1L,1M,1N.xml.

This also happens using other satellite frequency list (Astra 28.2, Astra 23.5 and Horbird 13.0).

I seems the vertical polarisated frequencies are scanned first.

Exported the .xml file to Excel and sorted it by Frequency.
This is the order used when scanning is running on my system.

CarrierFrequency Polarisation SymbolRate Modulation InnerFecRate Pilot Rolloff
10729000 LinearV 22000 Mod8Psk Rate2_3 On ThirtyFive
10758000 LinearV 22000 ModNotSet Rate5_6 NotSet NotSet
10788000 LinearV 22000 ModNotSet Rate5_6 NotSet NotSet
10818000 LinearV 22000 Mod8Psk Rate2_3 On ThirtyFive
10847000 LinearV 22000 ModNotSet Rate5_6 NotSet NotSet
10876000 LinearV 22000 ModNotSet Rate5_6 NotSet NotSet
10906000 LinearV 22000 Mod8Psk Rate2_3 On ThirtyFive
10936000 LinearV 22000 Mod8Psk Rate2_3 On ThirtyFive
10979000 LinearV 22000 ModNotSet Rate5_6 NotSet NotSet
11038000 LinearV 22000 ModNotSet Rate5_6 NotSet NotSet
11068000 LinearV 22000 ModNotSet Rate5_6 NotSet NotSet

When I scan frequency 10979000 manually with the same parameters as in the frequencylist there is no problem !

Can someone put a light on this?
Maybe something wrong on my side, but it could also be a bug.

I uploaded the LOG files.

Thanks !

 

[mm1352000]

@w8andc
DD tuner support is not changed in these versions.

Log file shows that something is sending a "stop" command to the tuner after scanning 10936 V:
[2016-12-14 21:29:03,999] [Log ] [15 ] [INFO ] - dvbs: ScanVBS:tv: Freq:10936000 ONID:-1 TSID:-1 SID:-1 PMT:0xFFFFFFFF FTA:False LCN:10000 SymbolRate:22000 Modulation:Mod8Psk Polarisation:LinearV InnerFecRate:Rate2_3 DisEqc:Level1BA band:Universal Pilot:On RollOff:ThirtyFive
...
[2016-12-14 21:29:04,319] [Log ] [15 ] [INFO ] - dvb: LockInOnSignal ok
...
[2016-12-14 21:29:24,328] [Log ] [15 ] [INFO ] - Scan Got 8 from 8 channels
[2016-12-14 21:29:25,069] [Log ] [15 ] [INFO ] - Stopcard

So the scan is intentionally stopped by something. I don't know what that "something" is, but I doubt there's a bug in TVE. Like I said, there are no relevant changes since 1.15 final (actually, since a lot earlier - maybe 1.5 final), and you said that 1.15 works fine so...

 

[Vasilich]

As said I have ca. 1400 channels (or 1200?). I only use Astra 19.2 E. The issue has nothing to do with the amount of channels I have. It's a design and implementation issue to fetch, handle and show all channels.

it is dependent on channel count. Even if your subjective feeling is different - without real tests with different channel count it is still your feeling, not a proof.
But anyway - there was a try to optimize it a bit - https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...ing-in-tvsetup-channel-list-for-groups.98092/
but it is offtopic here, as it has nothing to do with playback

 

[wouter1971]

Is the pin code lock on channelgroups also present in this release. Would be very nice too.