Yet another resume from standby problem (1 Viewer)

[nzkc]

Hi,

Ive been all over these forums trying to find a solution to my specific issue, but have been unsuccessful.

Short version of the problem:
In short my issue is that I have everything working fine when MediaPortal first starts up, but if I send the PC to sleep and wake it back up (with the remote) the blasting to the STP stops working. Restarting the MediaPortal client (only - not the TV Server and I dont need to restart the "Input Service" service) fixes the issue...until the PC is sent to sleep of course.

Long version of the problem:
I have set up IR Server Suite 1.4.2.2627 (from post 1 here https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/mce-replacement-plugin-165/ir-server-suite-version-1-0-4-1-1-4-2-test-build-2627-a-33512/) on MediaPortal 1.0.1. I have configured it to only do blasting to the STP. I have found that I did not need it to do the receiving or translating of my remote so have disabled that functionality (I'd post a screenshot but I'm in the office not at home - will do that later). My remote is actually a Logitech Harmony One remote acting as a Microsoft MCE remote. My blaster is the MCE remote IR receiver.

My set up actually has two TV cards. A HVR-2200 to pick up Freeview (NZ) over DVB-T, the analog tuners are not currently employed on this card. I also have a Hauppauge PVR-150 MCE card that is receiving Sky TV from a set top box. I have set up the Sky TV channels on this card and have assigned TV3 Blaster to this card. Testing it all works perfectly.

When I start Media Portal I can then watch any of the channels I have configured and assigned to the various cards. When selecting a Sky TV channel the channel number is correctly blasted to the STP. Changing to another Sky channel sends the new channel to the STP perfectly. Even scheduling a recording of one of the Sky TV broadcasts causes the blasting to work as expected.

Everything looks fantastic. But then I go to bed, I send my media centre pc to S3 sleep (using the remote) and the next evening my problems start. I wake the pc (using the remote) and all looks good....right up until I try to watch a Sky TV channel. MediaPortal changes to the PVR-150 card but the channel blasting does not take place.

I have tried various things to resolve this (from forum entries and my own ideas) but nothing has worked so far. The only step that seems to fix the problem is to restart the MediaPortal client. No changes to the server part or to IR Server Suite are required. I simply close and restart the client and voila the blasting kicks off perfectly again (until the next time the PC goes to sleep).

My thoughts

• As this seems to be the MediaPortal client not talking to the server plugin I think the issue is related around the client plugin. How could I confirm/disprove this?
• I need to find and post logs for you all to help me I'll dig those out tonight. I'll grab 2 sets...a working and non-working set if possible
• I could configure the client to restart on resume from standby - but I dont want to have to do this.

There's been a lot of similar problems; so if I missed a solution I apologise.

Thanks.

 

[nzkc]

Log files...

Here are my log files as promised.

Cant see anything obvious (though I'm not sure what I'm looking for). Only message I did see was in the error.log file for the TV service that reads:

2009-04-18 12:11:54.148000 [GenericPCQueue]: TV3BlasterPlugin: Failed to blast IR command

But couldn't see any messages anywhere as to why it failed. And remember, restarting the MediaPortal client fixes the issue.

Looking at the Windows event view logs I also see the following messages upon resuming from standby for both the TVServer and Input Service services:

PowerEvent handled successfully by the service.

Which would make you think everything is all good. I did notice that when my PC was woken at 12:11pm (and I had the blaster problem) that initially the PC failed to re-reserve its IP address from the DHCP server (which is the router). This is a bit strange as it has a reserved IP address. It then renegotiated the IP address 2 minutes later. Could this be the issue?

Thanks
nzkc

 

[nzkc]

Almost 90 views...doesn't anyone have a suggestion or question?

 

[nzkc]

I did notice that when my PC was woken at 12:11pm (and I had the blaster problem) that initially the PC failed to re-reserve its IP address from the DHCP server (which is the router). This is a bit strange as it has a reserved IP address. It then renegotiated the IP address 2 minutes later. Could this be the issue?

It's not. I manually set the IP address to a fixed one. Still no joy.

Have even configured MPStandbyHandler to restart the Input Service on resume from sleep. Didnt work.

I'm beginning to come to the conclusion that this plugin just doesn't work with S3 sleep.

 

[thesystemera]

Same problem and also from New Zealand.. Did you find a solution...

 

[nzkc]

Nope. See the last comment of my previous post

My solution is to have the PC on all the time. Not the best, not what I wanted but its the only thing that stops TheWIFE™ from complaining to me.

As it happens I "upgraded" to 1.0.2 the other day. Unfortunately this completely borked my MediaPortal setup requiring me to uninstall and reinstall. I have not, as yet, re-set up IRSS or the Sky channels as a result. I'm tempted to not bother until this is fixed. Everytime I upgrade this seems to happen for me...I dont know why I dont have a particularly clever setup. Its pretty much all the defaults!

All I really want is a reliable blasting solution but I cannot find one. I will very probably move to Windows 7 Media Center when its released. I've persevered with MediaPortal for a good 18 months to 2 years but there are still too many issues like this one for it. Thats a shame, its a darn good project otherwise.

 

[thesystemera]

I decided to tackle standby last night and found a solution.... The secret is to run a batch program that disables and enables your services while the system sleeps and then resumes.. This causess all drivers, IRSS and TVService to re-inisualize and there for work properly.. I'm also using "For the Record"... Would recommend it..

Tell me when you get your stuff sorted, I will send you the software and script...

 

[nzkc]

I'm pretty sure I'd tried that, using MPStandbyTool I believe, which is how I had isolated it as a client issue. If I decide to setup Sky TV again (maybe I will this weekend) then I'll give it another go.