'Cannot start timeshifting Uknown error' Media portal

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kiwijunglist

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#155156 8-Aug-2008 10:51

HTPCnewbie:
I'm just about to setup a HTPC with a HVR-2200 and Media Portal, but on Vista - so I hope your solution works for me as well!

To make sure the fix is fully working, I was wondering if you had tried the following tests:
(1) Start recording a digital channel; then see if you can switch between watching analogue and digital channels (on a different mux to the one you are recording)
(2) Start recording an analogue channel; then see if you can switch between watching analogue (different to the one you're recording) and digital channels

I'm thinking that the scenarios you have tested already don't force a tuner to go from being analogue to digital, and vice versa.

Would be interested to know what you think / find out.

I did a similar test. I disabled some of the tuners so that i was only using one hybrid tuner. I was able to switch back and forth between analog and digital using the one tuner. This is in XP Pro SP2 / MP RC2 / HVR2200. Hope that helps you a little.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

HTPCnewbie

57 posts

Master Geek

#155173 8-Aug-2008 11:46

kiwijunglist:
HTPCnewbie:
I'm just about to setup a HTPC with a HVR-2200 and Media Portal, but on Vista - so I hope your solution works for me as well!

To make sure the fix is fully working, I was wondering if you had tried the following tests:
(1) Start recording a digital channel; then see if you can switch between watching analogue and digital channels (on a different mux to the one you are recording)
(2) Start recording an analogue channel; then see if you can switch between watching analogue (different to the one you're recording) and digital channels

I'm thinking that the scenarios you have tested already don't force a tuner to go from being analogue to digital, and vice versa.

Would be interested to know what you think / find out.

I did a similar test. I disabled some of the tuners so that i was only using one hybrid tuner. I was able to switch back and forth between analog and digital using the one tuner. This is in XP Pro SP2 / MP RC2 / HVR2200. Hope that helps you a little.

At first I was thinking Amigo was using XP, but now I understand he is using Vista (like I will be). So I'm hoping he can replicate your successful test on his Vista setup...

amigo

161 posts

Master Geek

#155723 10-Aug-2008 22:16

kiwijunglist: Thanks good to know. Few questions; (as i'm reluctant to install vista32 sp1 as i only just went back to XP Pro SP2)

Sorry, when I got home Friday night I checked the CPU and saw that it was up high and realised that the h/w acceeration wasn't kicking in.

When I tested it late on Thursday night, it seemed to be going quite well, but it just have just been that the CPU was much better than the one in my old test machine. Plus I couldn't get a good test as only informercials were playing.

Turned on EVR and got h/w acceration going, however, with the same problems that you've had, eg green screen on C4, flickering menus etc.

Plugged in the nVidia 8500 I had lined up, and got everything going smoothly to watch and record the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Yay!

Sorry to get you hopes up! Hope you didn't switch back to Vista yet!

amigo

161 posts

Master Geek

#155738 10-Aug-2008 23:01

HTPCnewbie:
I'm just about to setup a HTPC with a HVR-2200 and Media Portal, but on Vista - so I hope your solution works for me as well!
To make sure the fix is fully working, I was wondering if you had tried the following tests:
(1) Start recording a digital channel; then see if you can switch between watching analogue and digital channels (on a different mux to the one you are recording)
(2) Start recording an analogue channel; then see if you can switch between watching analogue (different to the one you're recording) and digital channels

I'm thinking that the scenarios you have tested already don't force a tuner to go from being analogue to digital, and vice versa.

Would be interested to know what you think / find out.

Hi,

With a HVR2200 and nVidia 8500 graphics card (not the ATI H3200 onboard graphics), I can confirm the following:

Yes, to both of your above questions, you can record one analog or digital and switch over to an analog or digital in both situations. However, the switch between analog and digital is a lot slower (at least 5 secs), and sometime you see the screen blank, or the current channel may start to stutter a bit while it is in the process of changing. But it does work and there is no issue with the recording.

There is only one situation where I do still get the 'Unable to Timeshift' error, and that is if I begin recording analog, then switch to digital and start to record that as well. This works fine and you can even go onto another digital channel on the same mux and watch or record that too. You can then switch between the digital channels, no problem, but if you go back to the analog channel while it is recording, you get the error message and you can't even switch to it to manually stop recording.

I would assume that if you had a programmed recording on analog (along with a digital recording + viewing) then the analog would happily record and then stop then release the tuner so you could go back to analog later on (or once the digital has stopped recording).

I think to get into a situation where this error will occur will be very rare, and typically when your recording two channels, you wouldn't really be flicking back to watch the analog while it is still recording.

Overall I'm happy with the situation! :)

The biggest issue I want to sort out now is a slight lip-syncing problem with the sound going a bit faster than my plasma will display, which I've not looked into yet. I know it can easily be fixed with a decent amplifier, but I can't afford that at the moment. I'm sure there is a s/w solution.

andynz

360 posts

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#155802 11-Aug-2008 09:38

A bit off topic guys but is the general concensus that XP SP2 and Vista CAN both be stable or is one better than the other with MP, 2200 and a 8500GT. I am still having occasional lock up issuses and thinking about a complete reinstall and if I should stay with XP or go to Vista.

Cheers
Andy

Little

83 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 6

#155808 11-Aug-2008 09:46

I went from Vista to XP SP3 to Vista in one weekend. This is with a XFX 8500GT, HVR-2200 and HVR-3000 and MediaPortal RC2. Vista gave me better picture quality and a faster resume speed. All seems to be quite stable on Vista Ultimate SP1 now.

HTPC - CASE: Silverstone LC17 Black MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L VIDEO: Asus 430GT SOUND: Onboard Realtek SPDIF out CPU: Intel C2D 8400 RAM: G.Skill 4GB DDR800 HDD: WD 500GB TUNER: HVR-2200 + HVR-3000 O/S: Ubuntu 10.10, XBMC+PVR, TvHeadend

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amigo

161 posts

Master Geek

#155953 11-Aug-2008 16:57

With Vista SP1, I've not experienced any 'lockups' while actually using Media Portal. However, one time I found that it had crashed upon waking up from sleep though.

Yesterday I had noticed that I was getting the odd minor breakup artifects in the digtal picture that I had not seen eariler, however, a restart fixed this problem completely. I had been messing around with a few things which may have upset the system a little. Actually at first I thought it may have been interference in the signal as I've actually seen this far worse in Freeview setup boxes on display in the stores. Had it running for several hours last night though without a glitch.

Haven't tried it with XP to comment.

kiwijunglist

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#155973 11-Aug-2008 17:58

for me vista64 ultimate sp1 slightly more stable than xp sp2. however i was unable to get hardware acceleration in vista. i'm thinking of either upgrading to XP SP3 to see if that changes anything or change to vista32 ultimate. if i can't get hardware accleration in vista32 then i'm gonna buy a geforce 8500/8600.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

andynz

360 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 28
Inactive user

#156178 12-Aug-2008 08:58

Looks like Vista gets the thumbs up. I'll give it a go. I have noticed some pixel breakup as well. Didn't see much on the olympics opening ceromony but quite bit over the past day or so. Not sure if it is the TVNZ signal or not. I replaced the aerial cable last weekend and have improved the signal strength so don't think the breakup is signal strength related.

Any feedback from anyone on using an XFX 8500GT silent graphics card ? I am starting to suspect the card after some BSOD and yersterday the DVI output disapeared completley whilst MP and sound kept running.

Little

83 posts

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#156188 12-Aug-2008 09:30

I havent had any problems with it. Been running over a month now.

eXDee

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#157260 15-Aug-2008 17:53

I'm now getting this error as well as "unknown channel" sometimes on the analogue channels. If i switch between analogue and digital more than twice i can no longer watch any TV - i have to reboot. Also i can pickup Freeview HD which is obviously UHF off te aroha, and the Analog channels on VHF but channel 60 which is apparently Prime it's just a blue screen. It doesn't come up on an analog scan.

Analogue is being a pain, and i would go and get an analogue PCI Tuner and disable it on the HVR-2200 but i'm not sure how to wire it in without loosing gain on the UHF antenna. We run RG6 quad shielded all the way from the 91 element UHF antenna and the VHF antenna to a masthead amp, then to a splitter which runs to one TV with freeview integrated, and the other obviously to the HTPC.
Signal tester says we get around 48db at best on any freeview frequencies.

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eXDee

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#157516 17-Aug-2008 13:17

Bump.
I've had my tuners setup like the following from the beginning. I think they are grouped correctly in hybrid (first two on this list and last two) but i cant tell the difference between them at all.

Is this meant to be the fix, because i still get problems.

kiwijunglist

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#157518 17-Aug-2008 13:26

From Memory

It initally looks like this

Priority Type
5 DVB-T (A)
4 DVB-T (B)
3 Analog (C)
2 Analog (D)
1 Radio stream (E)

Then setup hybrid with the following

Group (A) with (C)
Group (B) with (D)

I'm not sure how necessary this next step is,
but it is designed to keep 1x tuner focused on digital and 1x tuner focussed on analog, it was suggested by another user.

Increase the priority of (D) so that it is greater than (C) --> This means that (B)+(D) is preferred for analog
Keep priority of (A) > (B) --> This means that (A)+(C) is preferred for digital

NB - There are actually no (letters) i just added that to explain what i did. I wish TV Server would automatically label each tuner with a different name, because they are extremely easy to get confused

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

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