Topic: Does MC switch between Live TV Channels without having to go back to Guide? (Read 7331 times)

CountryBumkin · « **on:** May 23, 2013, 04:29:20 am »

On my System (Client machine running RO+HQ with Hauppauge Tuner located on Server) if I try to switch live TV channels (using remote "Channel +/-" buttons), MC will switch channels a few times then Crash. If I switch channels by first hitting the Stop button, returning to TV Guide, then selecting next channel, it will work fine.

Is it just my System, or is everyone having this problem? Is MC supposed to be able to switch channels on live TV? I only have Over-the-Air tuning (no cable).

If it is just my System, I'll work on finding a solution - if it is a MC issue, I'll wait for a fix.
Thanks

jmone · « **Reply #1 on:** May 23, 2013, 04:54:40 am »

I can only do a limited test as there is a construction site between me and the transmission tower that is stuffing up FTA but it is fine (using a HDHomeRun).

Adcom · « **Reply #2 on:** May 23, 2013, 05:42:38 am »

Hi,

It's not just your system, happens with me also. Must press stop before changing channels or the MC freezes.

Regards
Mike

Sandy B Ridge · « **Reply #3 on:** May 23, 2013, 08:32:45 am »

Works fine here with latest MC updates. Used to be an issue about 50-60 versions ago for me.

Can swap HD to SD or vice versa. Occasionally I get a slight audio stutter immediately on playing a new channel, but all seems fine after about 5-10s. The audio sounds like intermittent audio loss for a fraction of a second at about 2Hz, but is only sometimes.

SBR

PS I'm not on a client though. My tuner card is on the main and only HTPC.

gtgray · « **Reply #4 on:** May 23, 2013, 10:53:34 am »

Channel up/Channel down works smoothly on ATSC in MC . Almost works as well as WMC. The banner and and transition animation on WMC effectively masks any stutter but both WMC and MC do this change well using a total of 4 HD Homerun Tuners. I have a Ceton 4 and this too works effectively though not alwasy with style in MC. Sometimes it stutters loudly and occasionally will hang. I have no hesitation to use it that way on MC with the Ceton but I would not want to just keep switching channels sequentially without popping out to guide. With the new favorites the guide is much more useful. If I was only dealing with ATSC I would not give a thought. This was however a huge problem for a long time in MC 18 but has really been solid for a month or two.

Now when it come to changing channels with the Ceton in MC, WMC is much smoother. I suggest a powerful GPU with the Ceton if you are using ROHQ.

CountryBumkin · « **Reply #5 on:** May 23, 2013, 12:06:21 pm »

I'm thinking this is RO+HQ related. When it crashes I see (most of the time) the MadVR crash dialog box.

My client is a Intel i3-2100 with Nvidia GTS450 card. I have another client with an Intel 8400 and nVidia GT440 that does the same crash (both are RO+HQ and have no issues with BD playback. Is live TV channel changing more demanding?)

I am exploring setting the "Custom Video Mode" to switch to EVR (or is there something better) when watching Live TV.

I will switch everything over to RO+STD and do some TV testing this week. If it doesn't crash in STD, I'll assume the problem is MadVR (RO+HQ) - but from some of the posts above it appears that live channel switchign is working for some with RO+HQ. However lookign through older posts it doesn't sound like my problem is unique http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=80591.0

Thanks for responding.

gtgray · « **Reply #6 on:** May 23, 2013, 01:50:34 pm »

Quote from: CountryBumkin on May 23, 2013, 12:06:21 pm

I'm thinking this is RO+HQ related. When it crashes I see (most of the time) the MadVR crash dialog box.

My client is a Intel i3-2100 with Nvidia GTS450 card. I have another client with an Intel 8400 and nVidia GT440 that does the same crash (both are RO+HQ and have no issues with BD playback. Is live TV channel changing more demanding?)

I am exploring setting the "Custom Video Mode" to switch to EVR (or is there something better) when watching Live TV.

I will switch everything over to RO+STD and do some TV testing this week. If it doesn't crash in STD, I'll assume the problem is MadVR (RO+HQ) - but from some of the posts above it appears that live channel switchign is working for some with RO+HQ. However lookign through older posts it doesn't sound like my problem is unique http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=80591.0

Thanks for responding.

This madVR crash will most likely go away if you disable video acceleration. I see the crash returning to the guide with a GTS 450. My AMD box worked fine until 188 or 189. I don't know why you can't run acceleration but it seems to be the case.

CountryBumkin · « **Reply #7 on:** May 23, 2013, 01:59:22 pm »

I already disabled it. No help. But I see in another post that turning off "Cropping" in TV settings has helped some. I'll check into this tonight.
If I can find the cause of the problem (or what makes the problem stop) maybe Yaobing can fix it.

CountryBumkin · « **Reply #8 on:** May 24, 2013, 04:11:47 am »

It is not a RO+HQ (MadVR) only problem. Crash happens running RO-STD too. Cropping has nothing to do with it either. Last night the crash/freeze caused the last TV picture to freeze on the screen. Sometimes the mouse pointer would be visible and could move it around but I could not get out of the freeze unless I CNTRL+ALT+DEL and then use Task manager to Stop/Close MC.

Yaobing · « **Reply #9 on:** May 24, 2013, 08:39:22 am »

Please provide a log. I will try to reproduce the problem, but am currently having trouble setting up.

Yaobing · « **Reply #10 on:** May 24, 2013, 11:13:22 am »

The crash happens on the client?

I just set up my systems and tried it. Channel switching works fine (in Theater view, using remote Channel+/-). I have three types of tuners on this machine. Channel switching both among different tuners, and within a single tuner, works as expected.

Yaobing · « **Reply #11 on:** May 24, 2013, 12:10:59 pm »

I am now seeing something. Will look into it.

raym · « **Reply #12 on:** May 25, 2013, 04:18:06 am »

I was just about to start a new thread about this. I can reproduce a FREEZE every time by changing channels via the OSD programs menu (left/right + Enter).

CountryBumkin · « **Reply #13 on:** May 25, 2013, 06:46:05 am »

Here's some more detail on how it crashes (and "freeze" is a better term for it).
In RO-STD, I only need to change channels about four times and picture freezes (audio stops). I find that even though the picture is frozen I can still use my mouse to right click and bring up menu, then I can close the Display. This gets me back to the Guide or I can get to the main menu. Regardless, the frozen picture is still in the Tag window, and I can't start any new Video (Movie, TV Show, or Live TV) I see the word "Play" come up when I try to start a movie or TV Show but nothing starts.
Also, when the TV screen freezes in Live TV, I can still see the TV Channel info/display when I try to change channels and it shows that I am changing channels, but the picture is frozen and I have no audio. I see the channel number, description of the content, and it says "opening" but never gets past that.
Since I can no longer do anything in MC, I used the menu to do a "computer restart", when I did that a Windows 7 message popped up saying MC Stopped working. the fault module is MCJVTcontroll.dll

I tried twice to create a Log (running RO-STD) after the freeze but MC does not create one. Only the SystemInfoLog is created. I'm glad to read that you may have found something to investigate.

If I am in RO+HQ the "failure message" is a little different because now the MadVR crash dialog box comes up, and I can create a Log (attached), but I am now convinced the problem has nothing to do with MadVR (or being in RO+HQ or RO-STD).

raym · « **Reply #14 on:** May 26, 2013, 05:09:46 pm »

Quote from: raym on May 25, 2013, 04:18:06 am

I was just about to start a new thread about this. I can reproduce a FREEZE every time by changing channels via the OSD programs menu (left/right + Enter).

Forget that. Freezing for me on every channel change REGARDLESS of the method used.

Let me know if you need additional logs.

Yaobing · « **Reply #15 on:** May 28, 2013, 10:56:19 am »

While I was able to test during the weekend, I had crashes when using the latest build. However I could not repeat it when I use the version built on my machine using the latest code. Maybe something has changed for the good. Unfortunately my test machine died over the weekend. So I can not do more test until another one is up running.

CountryBumkin · « **Reply #16 on:** May 29, 2013, 07:23:51 pm »

Just tried 191, but no better. This time I got two logs - one running RO+HQ and one running RO-STD. Both logs were cleaned and both have (hopefully captured) the crash/freeze after a few minutes of channel changing.

EDIT: I forget to add - when I closed MC there was a little black text box on the desk top with this message "failed to open a parse file (hr = 0X80004005) unspecified error ....". Then when I closed that text box, the Windows APPCRASH box showed the fault module as MUTVControl.dll

Yaobing · « **Reply #17 on:** May 30, 2013, 07:17:42 pm »

I am still working on this one. One thing I learned from your logs is that you were using a local TV tuner. so client-server setup has nothing to do with it. I will just try reproducing it without a client machine.

CountryBumkin · « **Reply #18 on:** May 31, 2013, 04:29:43 am »

Quote from: Yaobing on May 30, 2013, 07:17:42 pm

I am still working on this one. One thing I learned from your logs is that you were using a local TV tuner. so client-server setup has nothing to do with it. I will just try reproducing it without a client machine.

I do have a USB Tuner stick (Hauppauge 950Q) on the Client machine - but I thought I was using the Hauppauge 2250 on the Server when I watched Live TV. I will unplug the Client stick (and turn of TV in MC on the Client) and see if things work better. If nothing else, at least this should provide some additional info.

imugli · « **Reply #19 on:** May 31, 2013, 08:32:12 am »

Seems this is happening to me as well...

If I press Ch+ or Ch- one, maybe even two at a time, it changes OK, but if I go any more without actually CHANGING the channel (even momentarily) it crashes.

CountryBumkin · « **Reply #20 on:** May 31, 2013, 05:32:35 pm »

I think we're on to something.
I unplugged the USB Stick/tuner and uninstalled the drivers. Then I unchecked "TV" under General, and restarted MC. I tried Live TV. This time I had no problems changing channels. No lock up or freezing. The channel changing is a little slower. It takes about 2 seconds to change a channel - and it doesn't show the TV channel info anymore when changing channels - but it works every time.

Then I reinstalled the 950Q Tuner and tried again. After about eight channel changes the picture froze.

Now I'm going to see if there are any updated/newer Hauppauge 950Q drivers. I so, I install and try again - and report back.

UPDATE: I found newer drivers and installed. I am now able to switch channels on the client (Hauppauge 950Q Tuner) without any freezes or crashes.

So it looks like issue was on my end all along. I do not get the little box at the bottom of the channel anymore that tells me what channel I just switched to or what is the current show playing. This used to show for a second or two when switching channels. Now I get a blank screen for 2 seconds and then it says "Opening" and the channel displays. No complaints here though. I just glad I don't have the crash/freeze anymore.

imugli · « **Reply #21 on:** May 31, 2013, 06:59:14 pm »

Hmmm... I'm also using a Hauppauge tuner locally, so I miight see if there are updated drivers for it as well.

CountryBumkin · « **Reply #22 on:** May 31, 2013, 07:20:42 pm »

This is the driver I just update to "HVR-950Q_1_99_31088_0_WHQL.zip" from 4/09/13.
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/support/support_hvr950q.html

Yaobing · « **Reply #23 on:** May 31, 2013, 08:21:51 pm »

I made some change in code that may help. It will be in a new build next week.

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: Does MC switch between Live TV Channels without having to go back to Guide? (Read 7331 times)