"Unable to start graph" DVB-S tuning (1 Viewer)

[fitzy75]

MediaPortal Version: 1.1.3
MediaPortal Skin: Blue3Wide
Windows Version: XP Home SP3
CPU Type: Pentium 4 3GHz
HDD: Seagate Pipeline HD 500GB
Memory: 4GB DDR2
Motherboard: Dell XPS specific
Video Card: ATI Radeon X300
Video Card Driver: ATI 8.23.0.0
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Live 24-bit (Dell specific)
Sound Card AC3: ??
Sound Card Driver: Creative 5.12.1.514
1. TV Card: Pinnacle 7010ix
1. TV Card Type: 2x DVB-T, 2x DVB-S
1. TV Card Driver: BlackGold BGT3695 8.1.09
2. TV Card:
2. TV Card Type:
2. TV Card Driver:
3. TV Card:
3. TV Card Type:
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec: Unknown, the one that is included with MP
MPEG2 Audio Codec: Unknown, the one that is included with MP
h.264 Video Codec: Unknown, the one that is included with MP (if any)
Satelite/CableTV Provider: Freesat
HTPC Case: Dell XPS Gen4 Tower
Cooling: Stock Dell cooling
Power Supply: Dell specific, I believe around 450W
Remote: None
TV: LG 19LS4D 19" & Sanyo PLC-SW35 Projector
TV - HTPC Connection: VGA/DVI


Hi Guys

I'm reasonably new to satellite and I've never used it on a computer before or had to set it up on any other device in my life. After about 18 hours yesterday reading what satellite I should be scanning and the settings to use, I am able to find around 700 channels on the Astra/Eurobird 28.2E satellite. I will start by adding that with the standard Pinnacle driver for this card, I could find all these channels in the channel scan but when trying to watch all of them I received the "Cannot start graph" error. After reading several forum posts I have forced the card to use the BlackGold driver for the BGT3695 card which has showed partial success, in that I can now happily view BBC1 London, BBC1 South and ITV1 (in SD). All other channels still have the same error mentioned above.

The machine that it is installed on is pretty much a fresh load of windows, it has only been used to run a game server so there's not really any other apps that I think could be causing the problems. If it matters, we live in Cranleigh, Surrey with post code GU6 8PW and the dish is correctly aligned to receive Sky, there is also a Sky+ box and a standard Sky box in other rooms of the house running from the same dish. It should also be noticed that I am currently only using one DVB-S tuner on my card due to there only being a single feed available from the dish at this time (until I get the LNB upgraded).

Also, the BBC1 & ITV channels that I can successfully receive, they only work using the preview function of the TV-Server configuration screen and not within MediaPortal itself, when trying to watch them within MP it just hangs up and stops responding and I have to close it using task manager.

Please let me know which log files you need and I will attach them with my next reply.
Cheers
Rob

 

[mm1352000]

Hi Rob

Welcome to the forum!
I have 2 Pinnacle 7010ix cards here.

After reading several forum posts I have forced the card to use the BlackGold driver for the BGT3695 card...

Um, you want it to be using the BGT3540 driver, not the BGT3595 or BGT3600 driver.... unless I'm very much mistaken. I'm using the 6.0.0.49 BGT3540 driver myself...

Please let me know which log files you need and I will attach them with my next reply.

We want them all!
Use the watchdog (instructions and info on our wiki -->here<--) - it makes collecting logs easy and it gives us all the information that we need. In your case, use option 1 then attempt to start viewing a channel that is troublesome. After the failure close MP and a zip file containing the logs will be created.

mm

 

[fitzy75]

Hi mm,

Thanks very much for your very fast, friendly and helpful response (I don't see much of that on other forums!)

I have changed the driver to the BGT3540 from the BlackGold website which I assume is the latest version, 6.0.0.49.

I ran watchdog, the first channel it started to play I had tried previously (without success) and it said "no free card" (not sure why, unless it was grabbing an EPG in the background or something). The next one I tried was BBC1 London which worked fine, then I tried BBC2 England which resultd in the "Unable to start graph" error.

Log files are attached, hope this helps

Cheers
Rob

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again Rob

Thanks very much for your very fast, friendly and helpful response (I don't see much of that on other forums!)

I like to help where I can.

I have changed the driver to the BGT3540 from the BlackGold website which I assume is the latest version, 6.0.0.49.

Yep, that is the version I'm using - its the latest version I'm aware of.

I ran watchdog, the first channel it started to play I had tried previously (without success) and it said "no free card" (not sure why, unless it was grabbing an EPG in the background or something).

This was Scuzz? Apparently that channel is not mapped to either of your satellite tuners. That should be a quick fix. Just map that channel to both tuners in the "TV channels" -> "mapping" section as described -->here<--.

1. Select the first satellite tuner in the drop down field.
2. Select all the channels on the left and use the >> button to move them all to the right.
3. Repeat (1) and (2) for the second satellite tuner too if it is connected.

(Note: if you rescan as I suggest below then you'll need to do this again after the rescan.)

...then I tried BBC2 England which resultd in the "Unable to start graph" error.

Okay, so that is a PMT error - basically TV Server locked on to the frequency but couldn't find the channel on that frequency. When was the last time you did a scan? Based on the Lyngsat information BBC 2 England should be on 10773H, but the tuner attempted to find it on 10876V. I note that there are *a lot* of those same errors in your logs for various channels. I hesitate to suggest this since scanning does take awhile, however it might be best to wipe your channel list and do a fresh scan to ensure all the tuning details are correct. Make sure you also click "update satellite list" before you scan so that you have the most up-to-date list of transponders.

mm

 

[fitzy75]

Thanks again for the quick reply.

I may not have mapped the Scuzz channel yet, I just picked a block of channels at the top of the list to map to it after I changed the drivers to test it so I will map these now.

I did a channel scan yesterday at about 8pm I think, it took around half an hour to pick up just over 700 channels and I also had updated the transponders before doing this, I have seen a few posts about MP finding the channel on the correct frequency but saving it to the config with a slightly different one? I think I remember something like this happening with DVB-T cards a few years ago?

I have now cleared the list, updated the transponders again and rescanned for the channels and the number it has picked up this time is just short of 700 (less than before, not not much and I'm not worried about it). Now the channels that worked before no longer work and some of the less-popular channels do now work.

Is there a channels list I could download that will work from my location if I copy it into MP? For example, assuming you are in the UK and you are tuned to the same satellite (I think we would be?) is there an XML file or something with a list of channels I could copy from your computer to mine? Just wondering what my options are from here.

Thanks for your help so far and I look forward to hearing from you again.

EDIT: I should add that the errors are mostly the same "Unable to start graph" but also with a new one on some channels "No signal detected".

 

[fitzy75]

Hi mm,

Sorry to bump but I saw you were online and thought I would see if you had any more ideas on this problem, the mrs is nagging me to get it sorted lol

Cheers
Rob

 

[mm1352000]

Hi Rob

No worries. Yeah, I went quiet for a day or so because I discovered a relatively serious problem in your logs and we've been discussing that internally. You know how you talked about channels being saved with the wrong details? Well... it seems there is such a bug, and it is playing havok with you for some reason. I've tried to copy what you do from reading your logs, but I can't reproduce the problem. In any case, I've been working on a solution which I can provide to you for testing. I've got something to do first, but if you give me an hour or so I'll post a patch for you to test...

mm

 

[fitzy75]

Hello again

Thanks for the update, that's very efficient of you to get a patch out that quick was there a pattern to the frequencies it was saving? Such as +/- 2KHz or something (I think this is what I remember from a few years ago with DVB-T).

If you need updated logs after my most recent channel scan I can attach these if you like or any other system logs.

Cheers for your help, I will give MP and the forum community a glowing review on my review site when it's all sorted

Thanks
Rob

 

[mm1352000]

Rob, please accept my apologies. It took *much* longer than I expected to get what I had to do done. :sorry:

The patch [for 1.1.3] is attached. Installation instructions:

1. Stop the TV service.
2. Take a backup of the TVLibrary.dll in your TV Server install folder.
3. Download and extract the attached TVLibrary.dll into your TV Server install folder.
4. Start the TV service.

I think it would be best if you could delete all your channels and do a full rescan, but its up to you.

mm


[PS: There was no pattern this time. What you're remembering was related to offset handling (the UK uses a 167 kHz offset, Australia uses a 125 kHz offset etc.). This is completely different.]

 

[fitzy75]

Hi mm

Looking promising so far, I'm not in front of the machine at the moment but I've logged in via remote desktop, applied your patch and redone the channel scan. All channels I've tried so far have opened the preview window (I can't see if there's anything on it due to me being connected by RDP) but I will have a look in the morning and let you know for sure.

Never expected a fix this quick, very impressed indeed!

Thanks for your help, I will confirm in the morning if it has resolved the problem.

P.s. a half-done copy of my MP review is available here Media Portal HTPC Software | Rob's Reviews