WMC 7: deleted corrupted database - now system corrupts Freeview recording

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ajkiwi

109 posts

Master Geek

#143952 2-May-2014 18:48

Oh, this is just WEIRD. WMC had been working perfectly for 2 years on Freeview DVB-T, no issues at all. A crash took out the media center database - suggestions online said to delete it, rescan channels, and it would rebuild.

Okay, no problem.

Deleted the media center database C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\mcepg1-2.db as it had become corrupted, reset windows media center, and now ALL of the freeview channels are having crappy playback. Signal strength is 90%+ every time, NOTHING else has changed, but now I get pixelation and sound skips every 5-10 seconds, especially on TV3.

Utterly bewildered. What settings do people use for their tv decoding on WMC 7? Standard microsoft, or other?

Considering blowing the machine away and start again. *nervous noises*

AJ

gbwelly

1243 posts

Uber Geek

#1036037 3-May-2014 16:13

Does it happen with live tv and recorded shows? Do you use the same hard drive for your recordings and the OS? If so perhaps the database corruption and the recording/playback issues are both symptoms of a hard disk issue.
Usual troubleshooting applies. perform chkdsk /F . Check windows system log.
Edit sources on channels and confirm it's not tuned the same channel multiple times and is using incorrect signal. Do old recordings made prior to the issue still work? (tuner fault) Can you play back a known good show from another system correctly? (video card check) Do your problematic recordings show the same issues when played back on another system? (tuner fault/video card check depending on result)
Change recorded tv location to another drive. (drive check)

Just stick to the factory standard codecs for TV on media center.

ajkiwi

109 posts

Master Geek

#1036215 3-May-2014 21:42

gbwelly: Does it happen with live tv and recorded shows?

Hi gbwelly - thanks for the reply! Old recorded TV - prior to the database rebuild - is fine. New live TV and new recorded TV playback glitches - a little on prime, four, c4, maoriTV; LOTS on TV1, 2, 3. Does anyone know if there are any format differences between the channels that may explain that?

gbwelly: Do you use the same hard drive for your recordings and the OS? If so perhaps the database corruption and the recording/playback issues are both symptoms of a hard disk issue.

Nope. Database and windows install is on SSD c:. Recorded TV is on 2TB seagate e:.

gbwelly: Usual troubleshooting applies. perform chkdsk /F . Check windows system log.

No issues on either.

gbwelly: Edit sources on channels and confirm it's not tuned the same channel multiple times and is using incorrect signal.

All signal strengths 100%, no dupes, no issues in the sources that I can see.

gbwelly: Do old recordings made prior to the issue still work? (tuner fault)

Yep, no issues.

gbwelly: Can you play back a known good show from another system correctly? (video card check)

Heck, I can play it back on THIS system. No issues with an old recording, so the issue is occuring during new recording. Also h264 MOV without issues through WMC. Also tested the bluray (via cyberlink plugin to WMC), no issues with playback from DVD or 1080p Bluray there either.

gbwelly: Do your problematic recordings show the same issues when played back on another system? (tuner fault/video card check depending on result)

Sample of a minute's TV3 with at least 4 glitches can be seen in a 100mb sample at https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24993181/All%20New%20CSI-%20NY_TV3_2014_05_03_20_27_00.wtv

Recorded on 7MC machine in question, with 4 noticeable bad incidents.
Tested on high spec Win 8 workstation/gaming machine with glitches, but corrected v.quickly - more quickly than the MC.
Tested on mid-high spec win 7 HP laptop, same glitches as the MC.

gbwelly: Change recorded tv location to another drive. (drive check)

Switched over to the SSD as recording drive for a test - still glitching.

Resource monitor shows that CPU utilization sits constantly around 10-20%, and disk utilization doesn't seem to vary much either. Nothing spikes during a pixelation glitch.

gbwelly: Just stick to the factory standard codecs for TV on media center.

Okiedokie...

THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING. The system worked perfectly up to 2 weeks ago. I just can't figure out how rebuilding the media database and tuning settings has done all this damage to recording.

gbwelly

1243 posts

Uber Geek

#1036400 4-May-2014 12:56

Do you have another tuner in the system (not just the second tuner on the same hvr-2200 for example)? If so can you move it up in the source priority list and make sure it's doing the recording for testing. If you don't, can you be bothered moving your tuner to the other system and test?

Basically it's looking like a tuner or signal issue (the DVB-T gurus may be able to explain the difference between signal strength vs signal to noise ratios)
Also there was some freeview restack thing on the 1st -I don't know what that means but I had to retune everything on 1st May.
Random coincidences do happen, you may be going mad trying to connect the corrupt database problem to a failed tuner or Freeview monkeying round with the signal even though they are not related.

P.S Better take down that sample recording file too as I think it's prohibited here even if it's a recording of nothing of consequence.

Good luck, you have my sympathies!

ajkiwi

109 posts

Master Geek

#1041644 11-May-2014 11:58

PROBLEM FIXED.

Went and did some research. My GPU is a radeon 4250, built into the cpu. By disabling AMD processor power management/slowdown tools - cool'n'quiet - in the BIOS (not just in software, but in bio), 99.9% of glitches disappeared. Discussion on other forums indicates that 1080i HD, and Freeview (in the UK, and possibly NZ) signal in particular, are particularly susceptible to AMD processors thinking that things are going well, so slowing down, then getting corruption as they fail to process quickly enough. That would certainly explain the intermittent nature of it!

Thanks to gbwelly for the directional troubleshooting tips - it was good to go back over all the common faults to isolate possible issues!