DVB-S on nova-s and Media Portal

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Old Grey Geek

140 posts

Master Geek

# 20629 1-Apr-2008 13:53

Well. I had it all working, even recorind and playing programs. AND THEN!!!
I came home to watch the news that I had set up to record, all I got was a black screen. I tried live TV but that was also black.
After messing about for about an hour I decided to reinstall Media Portal and rescan. Signal quality came up as good and it scanned the channels, I got 9 tv and 2 radio, all scrambled SKY stuff even though I was using the correct .tol file.
satname=FreeView on Optus D1 (160E)
12456,H,22500
12483,H,22500
This should preclude Sky channels, right?
Tried WinTV again and it showed the channels and played them but when I rebooted all that was gone too. So I reinstalled Windows (xp hm sp2) after a full format and lo and behold, same problem "must be the card" I figured so I took it back to the shop and they swpped it for me.
Get home and install everything again, same problem.
Is it possible that my motherboard is shot? everything else is fine.
I'm thinking of doing a manual tune but need some settings to fill in these fields.
DVB-S form

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I have very little hair left now.

Old Grey Geek

140 posts

Master Geek

# 120202 1-Apr-2008 13:57

I think I got the image thing wrong, try this.
Form DVB-S

Old Grey Geek

140 posts

Master Geek

# 120204 1-Apr-2008 13:59

I guess I need help with that too. :-(

walt12

324 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 120205 1-Apr-2008 14:00

It's far more likely to be a MediaPortal issue than hardware. It's very hard finding a stable SVN release that suits your particular combination of drivers/hardware config.

My advice is try GB PVR. It just works out of the box, and config is a relatively painless process.

Of course the die-hard MP users are going to jump all over me for that, but if you don't have the time/inclination/tech-savvy to tinker endlessly, then try GB PVR.

mcraenz

1091 posts

Uber Geek

# 120212 1-Apr-2008 14:21

BOO!

No but seriously MediaPortal isn't that hard. I sounds like you might be using the old built-in TV support in MediaPortal, Id highly reccomend you install TV-Server thats where you'll se the the real benifitis over all the other PVR packages. Checkout the guide for TVServer in the NZ Wiki. And if you're still having trouble come and ask at the NZ thead on the MP forums. Black screen, really sounds like a codec issue though.

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geekiegeek

2231 posts

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# 120216 1-Apr-2008 14:40

I have recently found that the powerDVD h.264 codec doesnt like having either the FFDShow or WinDVD codecs being used as MPEG2 codecs - results in black screen. So I think you may find that it is a codec issue. Try changing which codec you use and see if that helps.

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freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
64681 posts

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Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

# 120218 1-Apr-2008 14:42

On my dvbviewer I have the Cyberlink decoders in use for everything...

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walt12

324 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 120219 1-Apr-2008 14:50

geekiegeek: I have recently found that the powerDVD h.264 codec doesnt like having either the FFDShow or WinDVD codecs being used as MPEG2 codecs - results in black screen. So I think you may find that it is a codec issue. Try changing which codec you use and see if that helps.

Using GB PVR I use ffdshow for MPEG2 and PowerDVD for H.264 decoding - no black screens or associated issues. Ultimately I'd like to dispense with the PowerDVD decoders entirely - I prefer open-source wherever possible, although the ffdshow developers are going to have to find a way to activate/access the hardware decoding available on supported PureVideo HD cards, before this will be viable.

Old Grey Geek

140 posts

Master Geek

# 120466 2-Apr-2008 11:06

I finally got it working.In the config setup I found that, for some inexplicable reason, in the GROUPS setting there was no "Unscrambled". So I created one and rescanned, all channels came up. That, it would seem, was the only problem (crosses fingers, toes etc.)
I may have a look at SERVER but is it worth it on a single PC?

mcraenz

1091 posts

Uber Geek

# 120469 2-Apr-2008 11:33

Yes well worth it for the RAM and configuration overhead. Allows recording multiple channels using only 1 CARD (DVB). Recordings happen even if MediaPortal is not running, it runs as a system service. it's well supported, built-in support is a dying beast and will eventually be removed from mediaportal.

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