TVNZ picture is jumpy and pixelated on Media Portal

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › TVNZ picture is jumpy and pixelated on Media Portal

Tufkato

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#116654 6-May-2013 02:01

Ok so I have read through and searched, for hours, have tried several things, but have yet to fix this: My TVNZ picture is jumpy and pixelated, worse on TV2 than TV1 and sometimes affects the TVNZ SD chans as well, mostly U and TVonePlus1 but to a much lesser extent. Problem only occurs in Media Portal, quality fine in WinTV, but that don't do what I need it to!

I have disabled AVG Anti-virus, all non essential services, still bad.

It worked fine originally, but SD chans were all pixely, I know right, wrong way round!! they cleared up after watching for 30-60 secs, but who wants to sit through that! so I had a hunt around, and found that the HW acceleration was off, turned it on (the Intel QuickSync stuff) that solved it! but then then in the morning I noticed the above problem :( tried turning the HW accel off, no effect, on anything so far as i can tell! Even most of the SD chans are still fine.

Any thoughts or suggestions anyone? or perhaps have somewhere I should be posting this rather than this super long thread! I think perhaps we need a specific NZ folder thingy, anyhoo, system deets in the sig below (hopefully, this is my first post!)

Oh and I bought and built it very recently, everything is brand spankers except the WD blue drive, with the intention of dumping SKY as it is more money than I need to be spending to record mainly TVNZ/Mediaworks anyway! Plus I like the idea of watching it on other machines and the other advantages of having an HTPC, I have always wanted to build a new one. I used to use a TV card in a PC eons ago instead of a VCR so I guess that was my first HTPC as I watched everything on it, even SKY, though that's not possible any more ;)

Please help!

Auckland, NZ (DVB-T - Waiatarua Mast)
HTPC:
HW: ASRock B75 Pro3-M; Intel Core i3 3225 3.3Ghz (HD4000 Gfx); Kingston HyperX DDR3 PC12800/1600MHz CL9 XMP 2x2GB; Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2210; Lite-On iHBS312; WD Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX 16MB 500GB - OS +; Seagate Barracuda ST3000DM001 64MB 3TB. All inside: Antec NSK2480B 380W
SW: Win7x64Pro; MediaPortal 1.3
Nearly ready to DUMP mySKY HDi!

turb

881 posts

Ultimate Geek

#811831 6-May-2013 06:18

I'm pretty new to HTPC myself. Loving life without Sky bills!

I think you have an antenna problem.

Make sure you have a proper UHF aerial.

Make sure it is pointed at the best transmitter for you, and it is the right way up. (after the weather last night make sure it's still on the roof!)

Make sure you are using proper UHF grade cable (RG6). That is what will be running to your dish. My dish and TV aerial were next to each other so I took the cable off the dish and put it onto the TV aerial. Make sure your contract with Sky has finished though!

Make sure the cable goes straight to your TV card, with no junctions or splitters.

If all the above looks okay to you, I'd say get a proper installer in to look.

The TV card that you and I both have, has two tuners - so the signal gets shared out between them. I guess we need a really strong signal. I had my issues too until I used proper cable.

Interests: HTPC, Web App authoring.

Tradepub

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KiwiTim

376 posts

Ultimate Geek

#811851 6-May-2013 08:38

Try using this

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?22274-Standalone-DVB-T-Signal-Strength-Quality-Utility

Tim

turb

881 posts

Ultimate Geek

#811857 6-May-2013 08:52

If you do a full install of wintv from your tv card installation disc, there is also a signal strength app.

That uk one looks interesting, I'll try it too.

Interests: HTPC, Web App authoring.

askelon

863 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

#811873 6-May-2013 09:16

What codec are you using for playback? What vid card?

turb

881 posts

Ultimate Geek

#811877 6-May-2013 09:25

From his sig I think he's using the onboard graphics.

Interests: HTPC, Web App authoring.

askelon

863 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

#811887 6-May-2013 09:41

I havent used the intel onboard cards for MP as they were generally pretty bad at things. No idea what their like now though. On my Win7 MP machine Im using the LAV codecs with the hardware decoder set to DXVA2 Native which are working pretty well. I previously used cyberlink powerdvd pack but found on Win7 the LAV ones work much better. I will always get some sort of breakup for 1-2 secs after changing channels but after that everything is rock solid.

dan

1134 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#811897 6-May-2013 10:04

askelon: What codec are you using for playback? What vid card?

start with the codecs first, what have you set under tv codecs, in Codecs and Renderer section of Mediaportal Configuration

geoffw

21 posts

Geek

#811924 6-May-2013 11:00

hi

before you go changing too much or buying stuff. i would suggest that you get a copy of a TV recording made by someone else who has a good MP pic and see if it plays back on your rig.

This will identify if its in an input or output issue, then once you know you can direct fixes accordingly.

Sounds like reception, but thats a guess.

GW.

Nety

2584 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#812032 6-May-2013 13:49

The other way to check is playing back a recording and see if it breaks up in the same places every time of it is varies. If it breaks up in the exact same way in the exact same place it is most likely reception. If it moves then most likely codec/hardware.

Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

Tufkato

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#813295 7-May-2013 21:32

Wow OK everything sorted itself out!

I can only guess that it was a signal issue, the weather was real bad when it wasnt working, and must have been enought to lower the signal on TVNZ (always they seem to have the weaker signal) to cause problems on this box! the aerial isn't great but it is a 'proper' one, just resonator and reflector, no directors so not high gain!

We are moving this weekend, and I made note that the new house (just up the road) has a crazy high gain aerial, so hopefully even when the next weather bomb hits we can still watch TVNZ, thanks for all your help and suggestinos guys, I did learn some things.

In case anyone is interested, there is no vid card, as stated in the specs in the OP it's using the HD4000 onboard Intel stuff, and the Codec is the standard LAV that Media Portal likes to use, with the Intel HW acceleration turned on.

When next I'm at home, the box isn't recording, and I'm not asleep, I will check with those utilities you guys pointed out, and check the actual signal strength & quality.

Ta all!