MyTheatre DVB Network Encoder Plugin

[Slicky]

Ok making some progress. I used the new dll and also changed the channel types to 1 (thanks for both tips).

The results are that the channels do change now in MT. However, there is still no sound or video. The logs look better to me:

9/10/2005 11:42:06 AM SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
9/10/2005 11:42:06 AM SageTV - SWITCH
9/10/2005 11:42:06 AM Channel change request - SageTV Channel No : 2 MyTheatre Channel No. :2 Channel ID :29 Channel Name : SHNBC
9/10/2005 11:42:06 AM MyTheatre - MT_CMD_SWITCH_CHAN_BY_CHID Received
9/10/2005 11:42:06 AM Debug - WM_CHANGE_CHANNEL Processed
9/10/2005 11:42:07 AM SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
9/10/2005 11:42:07 AM SageTV - NOOP
9/10/2005 11:42:07 AM SageTV - NOOP
9/10/2005 11:42:07 AM SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
9/10/2005 11:42:07 AM SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
9/10/2005 11:42:07 AM MyTheatre - FT_EVT_CHANNEL_CHANGED Received
9/10/2005 11:42:07 AM Debug - Stop Recording...
9/10/2005 11:42:07 AM Debug - Delete PS Filter - Filter ID : 33554432
9/10/2005 11:42:07 AM SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
9/10/2005 11:42:07 AM Debug - Close Recording File
9/10/2005 11:42:07 AM Debug - WM_STOP_RECORDING Processed
9/10/2005 11:42:07 AM Debug - Start Recording...
9/10/2005 11:42:07 AM Debug - Open PS File :C:\DVB recording\1822448357_1_0910_1142-0.mpg
9/10/2005 11:42:07 AM Debug - Add PS Filter - Filter ID : 33554432
9/10/2005 11:42:07 AM Debug - WM_START_RECORDING Processed
9/10/2005 11:42:07 AM SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE

but this is the error:

[peterjb]

Oops.. I set the plugin to only look for channels in the channels.mdb with a type of 1 - Which on my DVB-T card indicated that they were for TV ( Type 2 was Radio ). I put this in as I wasn't getting any video - only audio on a particular channel. I thought it was a bug until I worked out that I'd added a radio station to my Favourites - hence the SQL restriction. Doh!

From your results, the type values for DVB-T don't hold true for DVB-S - I'll update the SQL to remove this dependency. On a positive note, from your output it looks like MT is responding to channel changes in a second or so. Which is Great!

On the video front, do the recorded mpeg's play correctly in Zoomplayer or WMP? I'd recommend that you do a run in MyTheatreSetupTest mode to validate that the MT is working correctly and that you can playback the recorded mpeg's(They can be found in the plugins Video sub-directory ).

Cheers

Peter

[Slicky]

The channels changes are very decent. I am running both apps on the same machine until I can get this to work.

I see various mpg's saved when I run in test mode. I just opened a few in wmp and they play with no problems.

One idea is I'll try and play back some saved media in Sage to test everything is ok.

[peterjb]

Ahh.. Good! That means that the Plugin is working correctly - In that case the problem is likely a video codec issue in SageTV Itself.

You don't by chance have the Nvidia PureVideo decoders installed do you? There are a couple of threads that indicate that these can stuff up your Codec settings if you have multple codecs installed and can result in the playback error you've got.

I myself have fallen victim to a similar issue using the 3.0.7 beta, once I removed the Nvidia PureVideo codec, re-selected the appropriate codec ( In my case Sonic/Overlay ) in SageTV and restarted it - All was well.

Cheers

Peter

[Slicky]

More success. I reinstalled Sage as a test and it solved the codec error. Either Sage properties was messed or my codecs were not the best. Before the reinstall I installed a new codec pack.

Initially in overlay mode the video was corrupted on a channel change. Now using vmr9 I can get clear channel changes.

So thanks to your efforts I have some level of success. Next step is to see if this can actually work well in a real setup. Would a pvr150 (thinking of buying one) work with this in a final config? I think this is treated as any other video source so it should. I have a winfast 2000 xp deluxe but I have a feeling it might not work in Sage. I'll install it and try soon.

Channel changes appear slower now. I'm not sure why that is.

Are the video files erased on shutdown? Also if it is running for a long time are they reset to avoid getting to be too large?

I'm going to do some more experimenting.

[peterjb]

That's good news!

I don't run an analog setup in my rig at all, as I've got twin DVB-T tuners. But I can't see any reason why a combination of digital & tuner types shouldn't work.

In regards to channel changes, I find that in general ( On my DVB-T hardware ) that channel changes across transponders are slower than changes within channels on the same transponder. BDA devices also appear to have a slower channel change ( and consume more CPU cycles ) than non-BDA devices. Channel changes in MT also appear to be quicker with subsequent changes to the same channels. I suspect that this is due to MT caching TP details after the first access. I'm assuming that various DVB-S H/W will have varying channel change times due to the multitude of different configurations ( LNB's, Switches, etc ) out there.

Unfortunately, I've got no control over the speed or lack thereof of channel changes. I merely ask MT to change the channel when SageTV requests it and MT does all the work.

Cheers

Peter

[insomniac]

oddly, MT changes channels very fast through its gui. The same channels when changed through the network encoder are much slower. When I get some time, I will try to figure out why. Great logging btw

I.

Originally Posted by peterjb

That's good news!

I don't run an analog setup in my rig at all, as I've got twin DVB-T tuners. But I can't see any reason why a combination of digital & tuner types shouldn't work.

In regards to channel changes, I find that in general ( On my DVB-T hardware ) that channel changes across transponders are slower than changes within channels on the same transponder. BDA devices also appear to have a slower channel change ( and consume more CPU cycles ) than non-BDA devices. Channel changes in MT also appear to be quicker with subsequent changes to the same channels. I suspect that this is due to MT caching TP details after the first access. I'm assuming that various DVB-S H/W will have varying channel change times due to the multitude of different configurations ( LNB's, Switches, etc ) out there.

Unfortunately, I've got no control over the speed or lack thereof of channel changes. I merely ask MT to change the channel when SageTV requests it and MT does all the work.

Cheers

Peter

[insomniac]

FYI... That new version of your plugin does not work for me at all. The change in MT and show that they changed, but nothing streams to sage. Any ideas?

If I throw the old version in there everything works just fine...

I.

[peterjb]

Uhm that's odd - Is the plugin still recording the files and just not rendering them in SageTV? What Version of SageTV are you running?

Is there anything odd in the logs?

Cheers

Peter

[insomniac]

err...lemme rephrase that. The plugin shows that it changed channels through its interface, yet MT does not show the channel change. It will tune the first channel after a fresh restart of MT. After that it will just continue to stream the first chanel to sage from any future channel changes. Sorry for the misdirection.

Ill go take a look at the logs in a bit to see what I can find.

I.

[Slicky]

New question: sometimes channel changes don't appear to be processed.

9/17/2005 4:07:25 PM SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
9/17/2005 4:07:25 PM SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
9/17/2005 4:07:32 PM SageTV - SWITCH
9/17/2005 4:07:32 PM Channel change request - SageTV Channel No : 503 MyTheatre Channel No. :503 Channel ID :431 Channel Name : TVL
9/17/2005 4:07:32 PM Debug - Stop Recording...
9/17/2005 4:07:32 PM Debug - Delete PS Filter - Filter ID : 33554432
9/17/2005 4:07:32 PM Debug - Close Recording File
9/17/2005 4:07:32 PM Debug - WM_STOP_RECORDING Processed
9/17/2005 4:07:32 PM Debug - Start Recording...
9/17/2005 4:07:32 PM Debug - Open PS File :\\tv\View-371069-0.mpg
9/17/2005 4:07:32 PM Debug - Add PS Filter - Filter ID : 33554432
9/17/2005 4:07:32 PM Debug - WM_START_RECORDING Processed
9/17/2005 4:07:32 PM SageTV - NOOP
9/17/2005 4:07:32 PM SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
9/17/2005 4:07:33 PM SageTV - NOOP
9/17/2005 4:07:33 PM SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
9/17/2005 4:07:33 PM SageTV - SWITCH
9/17/2005 4:07:33 PM Channel change request - SageTV Channel No : 504 MyTheatre Channel No. :504 Channel ID :431 Channel Name : TVL
9/17/2005 4:07:33 PM Debug - Stop Recording...
9/17/2005 4:07:33 PM Debug - Delete PS Filter - Filter ID : 33554432
9/17/2005 4:07:33 PM Debug - Close Recording File
9/17/2005 4:07:33 PM Debug - WM_STOP_RECORDING Processed
9/17/2005 4:07:33 PM Debug - Start Recording...
9/17/2005 4:07:33 PM Debug - Open PS File :\\tv\View-646149-0.mpg
9/17/2005 4:07:33 PM Debug - Add PS Filter - Filter ID : 33554432
9/17/2005 4:07:33 PM Debug - WM_START_RECORDING Processed
9/17/2005 4:07:33 PM SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
9/17/2005 4:07:33 PM SageTV - NOOP
9/17/2005 4:07:33 PM SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE
9/17/2005 4:07:34 PM SageTV - GET_FILE_SIZE

Edit: I think I worked it out. If the channel name is the same as another channel it can mess up channel changes.

[peterjb]

Not sure of the cause of the channel change issue. I have seen MT not respond to channel change events if the signal or quality of the selected channel is low or if there is a problem with the actual DVB device. MT will happily accept a channel change request when it can't change to a channel - It just won't send the subsequent notification event to the plugin. I've been investigating ways of hardening the error handling for this situation, but have yet to come up with a foolproof mechanism. I'll investigate the possible channel name issues over the next couple of days.

Has anyone else had the problem with the new version of the plugin that Insomniac has reported???? I can't replicate it in my DVB-T setup, so I'm wondering if it's a DVB-S only issue or something related to his particular setup.

Cheers

Peter

[insomniac]

just wanted to appologize for not responding sooner. I have not had any time to look into why the new version does not work for me. I had experienced the channel name change issue, but was not sure what or why that was. I will have to take a look and see if that is another issue with the new version or if it is an addditional issue..

My signal gets a little weak at times. 55% is the lowest. With the previous version, this is not an issue, so i figured that it was moot.

The previous version works pretty much flawlessly, besides the very long channel changes. Although I do have one issue. It seems that after running this plugin for more than a couple of days, the LNB seems to shut down (or something). No matter what I have done to try to get the signal to work again, I have had no luck. With a quick reboot, signal comes back and all is well again. Quite an annoyance, but very consistent at least

I promise to switch back to the new version and take a look at the logs sometime this week to see what I can find.

I.

[insomniac]

yep..i completely missed that it was a channel name duplicate issue. Same problem as Slicky stated. Disaster overted. So far, so good on the new dll.

I.

[Slicky]

Originally Posted by peterjb

Has anyone else had the problem with the new version of the plugin that Insomniac has reported???? I can't replicate it in my DVB-T setup, so I'm wondering if it's a DVB-S only issue or something related to his particular setup.

Change a few of your channel names to the same name in the channels db and I think you will see the problem.

[peterjb]

Thanks, I know what the problem is! I put some code in to determine if the new channel requested was for the same channel that MT is currently tuned to - And I simply used Channel Name on it's own for the comparison.. So instead of changing channels it simply switches recording files... Bugger...

I'll fix it as part of the next build

Cheers

Peter

[Slicky]

Another thing I just noticed. I think I see in the log that sometimes a recording starts after a channel change that actually belongs to a previous channel. I can't tell the reason. I do see the odd file left at zero bytes in the recording directory.

If at any point you decide to open source your code I may be able to help out. I also understand if you want to make your own progress.

[insomniac]

either of you lose your signal like I stated in my previous post?

[Slicky]

Originally Posted by insomniac

either of you lose your signal like I stated in my previous post?

Not signal as such but I think there are a few bugs still. Sometimes the feed drops to zero - I think it might be related to the channel switching.

[peterjb]

I haven't seen any problems with loss of signal with MT. But I am cycling my two instances of MT every time I suspend/resume - roughly once per day. Saar has stated that he hasn't built MT for 24x7 use, so perhaps a daily cycle may clear any possible problems?

I do this via the command "<MyTheatre-Home>\ MTStart /toggle /card2 /set /chnum 4" - Either as a scheduled task or by Suspend & Resume Events in Hip.

In regards to the log output - This is fairly normal. The way the DVBCore API is implemented is that within the plugin you make the API call to change the channel ( which provides no indicator of success or failure ) and then catch the relevant MT command event in a seperate callback routine in the plugin code. As such the Channel Change & Recording Start are two actually two seperate asynchronous events.

Cheers

Peter