Topic: Digital TV in Australia using MC 15? (Read 8185 times)

Zeno · « **on:** November 08, 2010, 02:35:43 pm »

Hi

I am having lots of problems with getting MC 15.0142 to properly work with digital TV in Australia. I am running Win 7 Home prem 64, and have an AverMedia Twin Star dual digital tuner, MC recognises the card as "AVerMedia 716x BDA DVBT Tuner (digital)" and "AVerMedia 716x BDA DVBT Tuner (1) (digital)". I can get what looks like all free to air channels when I scan, but the quality is very poor. The symptoms are: audio/video delay, stuttering, echoing, freezing.

In the TV Options MC seems to also have also found an AverMedia analogue tuner (I don't have one), "AVerMedia 716x BDA DVBT Tuner (analog)", and something called "ASUS GSB (analog)" (I have ASUS graphics and sound cards but no ASUS tuner).

Also when I try to load the EPG (which I should be able to over the air) I get the message "Over the air scan could not be started", "Please ensure That you have a valid television tuner and that it is not in use".

I can scan, tune in, get EGP and decent TV image/audio with WMC, so seems problem is with MC.

This all on a brand new HTPC.

Appreciate any ideas.

raym · « **Reply #1 on:** November 08, 2010, 02:57:56 pm »

My guess is your card may not be supported but the JRiver devs would be able to confirm this. I've not tried that card but I've had a heap of dvico, asus and Leadtek cards over the years which have worked flawlessly.

Also, I don't think MC supports OTA EPG for DVB-T. It's for ATSC broadcasts only.

rpalmer68 · « **Reply #2 on:** November 08, 2010, 03:12:56 pm »

Quote from: raym on November 08, 2010, 02:57:56 pm

Also, I don't think MC supports OTA EPG for DVB-T. It's for ATSC broadcasts only.

Correct. The OTA EPG doesn't work for DVB-T devices, you'll have to get the guide externally and then load it in MC.

Where are you located? A few of us have various scripts working that I'm sure we can share with you.

In terms of the TV playback issues, we may have to wait for Yaobing to comment as there are some cards that need a little special attention from MC and maybe your card is one of them. Maybe if you can post a log of TV playback that may help. (Turn logging on under Help and just have TV ticked)

I can tell you that I have a 7162 DVB dual tuner (not AverMedia though) and it works perfectly in MC.

Richard

Yaobing · « **Reply #3 on:** November 08, 2010, 04:46:30 pm »

Most digital TV cards should work out of box nowadays. There maybe some that needs special attention. Please email me a log file. Read this thread for instructions.

yaobing at jriver dot com

It may also be a decoder filter problem. What decoders are loaded when you play a channel?

Zeno · « **Reply #4 on:** November 08, 2010, 07:40:53 pm »

Thanks. I am in Sydney, Australia.

Australia, like Europe, is on the DVB-T standard rather than the ATSC standard, so sounds like I need to "get the guide externally" and "load it in MC" using a "script" - sorry, but what does this mean? I'm still learning! Is there a guide on how to do this? Will this give me an updated forward looking EPG each day, just like I get on my Samsung digital TV?

I'll have a look at the decoders loaded in my MC and try the create a log file.

Thanks again for your very timely help.

MikeAus · « **Reply #5 on:** November 08, 2010, 07:56:00 pm »

I am in Melbourne and would be very interested in EPG setup. I was thinking of paying for the ICETV guide. Does this work ok with MC?

raym · « **Reply #6 on:** November 08, 2010, 09:00:59 pm »

Quote from: MikeAus on November 08, 2010, 07:56:00 pm

I am in Melbourne and would be very interested in EPG setup. I was thinking of paying for the ICETV guide. Does this work ok with MC?

Yes! This is what I use and works perfectly.

Zeno · « **Reply #7 on:** November 08, 2010, 09:56:33 pm »

I have a 3D capable LED TV and bought the AVerMedia Twin Star because AVerMedia say it's 3D capable and I wanted to be ready for 3D broadcasts. Does anyone know if its the TV tuner card that determines whether 3D TV broadcasts can be viewed? or is it the graphics card or some software or other? I have an ASUS EAH5450 Silent which uses a Radeon HD5450 GPU, which I believe is enough to deliver 3D blu ray.

What are Australians using as a dual digital TV tuner card with MC 15 with success?

Thanks!

jmone · « **Reply #8 on:** November 09, 2010, 03:10:46 am »

I'm in Syd and I use rpalmer68 scripts (fee and the work but it is black magic to me!). I use the HDHomeRun and it all works perfectly for both tuners.

Zeno · « **Reply #9 on:** November 09, 2010, 04:14:37 am »

Hi Raym

How do I get ICETV to work with MC? Looking at Help on the ICETV website seems to suggest that the media center app automatically loads the guide - is this how it will be for MC? How does the functionality of ICETV (favorites, series recording etc) work in the MC environment? I'm having trouble picturing it. I'm in Sydney, Australia. Thanks

rpalmer68 · « **Reply #10 on:** November 09, 2010, 06:53:24 am »

For those interestd have a look here for free Oz guides here. http://forums.dvbowners.com/index.php?showforum=47

I use the "Multiple Source XMLTV downloader" scripts http://forums.dvbowners.com/index.php?showtopic=6598 but have disabled everything now except the part that grabs the guides from OTA, as they are pretty reliable now.

Zeno, I can zip up the Sydney scripts and email them to you if you want, just PM me your email address. You then just have to unzip it all into a folder and setup a schedule to run the .bat file each night and the rest is as "jmone" says "black magic". For those in Melbourne, Calvi who wrote the original script is in Melbourne so they should work straight off for you.

Richard

Yaobing · « **Reply #11 on:** November 09, 2010, 11:07:43 am »

Zeno,

Your logs indicate possible problems with WASAPI audio device.

Try the following tests (one at a time):

1. Tools > Options > Audio > Audio Output, set Output mode to "Direct Sound" instead of "WASAPI".

2. Tools > Options > Video > Audio for Video, DVD, &Television, set Playback device to "Default Windows Playback Device" instead of "Same as device used in audio playback".

Additionally, Media Center loaded "Microsoft DTV-DVD Audio Decoder" when you played a channel with MPEG audio, and "FFDShow Audio Decoder" when you played a channel with AC3 audio. That is because the Microsoft filter can not be used for AC3 decoding outside of Microsoft applications. This could be a problem if you try switching channel. It is a good idea to install an updated version of AC3Filter.

MikeAus · « **Reply #12 on:** November 11, 2010, 07:09:40 pm »

Quote from: rpalmer68 on November 09, 2010, 06:53:24 am

For those interestd have a look here for free Oz guides here. http://forums.dvbowners.com/index.php?showforum=47

Is there a link to download the actual scripts and a setup guide? I couldn't see it there. I'm only interested in Melbourne.
Thanks.

rpalmer68 · « **Reply #13 on:** November 11, 2010, 07:37:29 pm »

Quote from: MikeAus on November 11, 2010, 07:09:40 pm

Is there a link to download the actual scripts and a setup guide? I couldn't see it there. I'm only interested in Melbourne.
Thanks.

Yes, but you'll need to be logged into the forum tio see the links.

There is a pre-prepared Melbourn guide here http://mail.lewis.com.au/public/xmltv/xmltv.zip this is genrated around 5am each day.

Or if you want to run the scripts that I use to build your own guside data, then calvi's script is here; http://mail.lewis.com.au/public/xmltv/SafeXMLTV.7z

Richard

Sasa_RI · « **Reply #14 on:** November 15, 2010, 12:35:37 pm »

Is there a chance for EPG over stream for DVB-T to be implemented in future versions?

rpalmer68 · « **Reply #15 on:** November 15, 2010, 03:49:41 pm »

Quote from: Zeno on November 08, 2010, 09:56:33 pm

What are Australians using as a dual digital TV tuner card with MC 15 with success?

Thanks!

All my cards/USB tuners have come from Digitalnow.com.au and have all worked perfectly.

I have a dual PCIe card, a dual USB tuner, and a couple of single USB tuners. I also see they now have a Quad PCie tuner card!

Richard

Redmist · « **Reply #16 on:** June 06, 2011, 05:02:48 am »

Quote from: Sasa_RI on November 15, 2010, 12:35:37 pm

Is there a chance for EPG over stream for DVB-T to be implemented in future versions?

+1

That's the only thing stopping me from buying J River at the moment. It's a deal-breaker. With a media center, it's all or nothing. You can't use a media center which has some good features but is missing other key features. I absolutely LOVE the WASAPI and gapless seek/skip options in J River, but TV is very important to me.

JimH · « **Reply #17 on:** June 06, 2011, 06:24:26 am »

Quote from: Redmist on June 06, 2011, 05:02:48 am

+1

That's the only thing stopping me from buying J River at the moment. It's a deal-breaker. With a media center, it's all or nothing. You can't use a media center which has some good features but is missing other key features. I absolutely LOVE the WASAPI and gapless seek/skip options in J River, but TV is very important to me.

Did you try mc2xml? Start at our wiki page on http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/XMLTV. You may have to search for mc2xml.

imugli · « **Reply #18 on:** June 06, 2011, 09:56:27 am »

Also take a look at IceTV. A paid guide service but I use it and it works well in MC (Not ALL of their features, however and you need to configure a separate command line in the TV Guide settings but I'm happy to help with that if needs be.

There are also a couple of free ones out there, just take a look :-)

Redmist · « **Reply #19 on:** June 08, 2011, 04:44:37 am »

Yeah, but the OTA TV guides work flawlessly for DVB-T in MCE. Seems ludicrous to actually pay for the service or even jump through the hoops of setting up a scraper.

imugli · « **Reply #20 on:** June 08, 2011, 05:48:11 am »

Agreed, but what are you going to do?

Redmist · « **Reply #21 on:** June 09, 2011, 02:47:59 am »

Quote from: JimH on June 06, 2011, 06:24:26 am

Did you try mc2xml? Start at our wiki page on http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/XMLTV. You may have to search for mc2xml.

mc2xml doesn't support Australia(!) at least as far as I can see.

jmone · « **Reply #22 on:** June 09, 2011, 06:23:32 am »

I'm in Syd and thanks to rpalmer68 scripts I get an EPG imported into MC everyday that is a combinations of (I think) OTA and Scrapping. I have NO IDEA what it all does but rpalmer68 is the "man" on this!

Redmist · « **Reply #23 on:** June 10, 2011, 05:44:10 am »

What sort of tuner are you using for DVB-T in OZ?

My Avermedia takes 10+ seconds to change channel and 15+ seconds if timeshifting is enabled and my no-name USB tuner is much the same. The audio is usually out of sync and the aspect takes a few seconds to correct itself too....and this is after I typed in the channel frequencies manually because they were detected incorrectly. Because of this, I just assumed that TV was ultra-buggy in JRiver but some people seem to have it working.

Both of my DVB-T tuners are rock-solid in Windows MCE and only take 1-2 seconds to change channels.

JimH · « **Reply #24 on:** June 10, 2011, 05:50:34 am »

What build of MC16 are you using? 16.0.105 is available at the top of the MC16 board.

Redmist · « **Reply #25 on:** June 11, 2011, 02:35:20 am »

Yeah, I've tried using the latest version. I've studied the logs in detail and they seem to indicate that everything is fine.

PVR functionality is what really sorts out the men from the boys in the media center software world.

I've just discovered "ForTheRecord" which is a free Windows TV/PVR streaming server engine that's very comprehensive and stable. XBMC & MediaPortal have client plugins that can make use of it. I managed to record ten channels at once as it can record multiple channels on a single transponder with a single tuner. It has no problems with retrieving the guide from the signal either. Unfortunately it has unacceptably slow channel changes too (5+ seconds) and seems to crash any client that's recording one channel and then trying to watch another channel on the same transponder.

Anyhow, maybe it would be easier for JRiver to just make a "ForTheRecord" plugin since it's dramatically more advanced than the TV engine in JRiver?

JRiver devs/testers: Is there anything we can do to assist in improving support for very common hardware like Avermedia Twinstars?

rpalmer68 · « **Reply #26 on:** June 11, 2011, 05:25:13 am »

Redmist,

I use MC16 for all my live TV and recording now and overall am pretty happy with it.

Channel changes are about 5-7 seconds on average (with timeshifting on).

I used to have audio sync issues when playing live TV, but that seems a bit better lately using Red October with the latest builds and using the video clock option enabled.
Although having said that I'm using Red October Standard at the moment not Red October HQ, so the deinterlacing settings may be different and it was the yadif deinterlacing with double framerate in FFDShow that seemed to cause the sync issue for me.

I agree it would be really good to have an OTA TV guide especially so the now and next information was current should programming change during the day, but at the moment what I have works and updates at 4am every day so will just use that until somethig better comes along.

Richard

Redmist · « **Reply #27 on:** June 11, 2011, 07:49:24 am »

Quote from: rpalmer68 on June 11, 2011, 05:25:13 am

Channel changes are about 5-7 seconds on average (with timeshifting on).

Ouch. If a PVR was released with those sort of numbers, it would be crucified in the market place. Microsoft copped a lot of flack for the 3-4 second channel changes in XPMCE so they've optimised it down to 1-2 seconds in Vista/7.

I'm not really interested in a geeky toy to tool around with. It has to at least be somewhat comparable to other stuff that's out there...be it software or dedicated hardware. I don't really see the point otherwise.

imugli · « **Reply #28 on:** June 11, 2011, 08:07:05 pm »

Have to say mine isn't that long at all... It's still probably 3 or 4 seconds, but certainly not 5 - 7... I'm using Hauppauge internal card though, so don't know if this would have anything to do with it...

Redmist · « **Reply #29 on:** June 12, 2011, 10:09:58 pm »

I just tried the latest 110 release and it fixed the audio sync and aspect switching issues.

I'm guessing it's related to the whole Red October thing.

So here's my status now....

- My USB and PCI-E DVB-T tuners are both working but I have to enter the channel frequencies manually as they are wrongly detected.
- Picture and audio are 100% fine.
- Channel change time with timeshifting is 6-7 seconds but at least it works and is stable.

...getting there.

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Author Topic: Digital TV in Australia using MC 15? (Read 8185 times)

Zeno

Zeno

Zeno

Zeno