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[The Mastermind]

I updated to the latest version of MC17 today.

When I tried to start TV in ROHQ, MC tried to update components, which caused a crash. When I restarted the program and tried to start the TV I got a message along the lines that 'A device has failed and can't be connected' or something to that effect.

At this point I tried to start the TV in PVR2, the software that came with the TV card. It didn't work and found no signal. I reinstalled the drivers, restarted the computer and MC. The same crash happened again, followed by no TV card being found.

So, again I reinstalled the drivers and restarted the computer. Rather than use MC17, I started PVR2 instead. This time the program worked. As a final test, I started TV in MC and the same crash happened again. Going back to PVR2, I found that program no longer worked. From this I can only conclude that MC17 is corrupting the drivers to my TV card.

[The Mastermind]

As an update, I have tested RO Standard and Windows Merit and the same happens each time. A crash, which stops TV working but can be repaired by reinstalling drivers.  ?

[Sandy B Ridge]

I don't think MC is corrupting drivers.

I see this error from time to time, less now than I used to though. Here's what I think is happening (which is very likely to be wrong!):

The drivers can only talk to one program at a time, so in effect a PVR program 'takes over' the tuner when it starts an instance of TV watching/recording. I see a failed to connect or timeout error in MC when I have DVBViewer open, and closing down DVBViewer will allow me to then watch TV with MC. Also vice versa, if I'm recording or watching TV with MC, then DVBViewer fails to initialize and I get a black screen.

Now occasionally MC used to crash whilst trying TV (I think it was lavcuvid that was the culprit, but that is just my hunch). And any TV, whether in MC or DVBViewer wouldn't work after - it was as though MC had initialized the tuner, but couldn't then release it (or initialise another tuner). Just a reboot would cure it for me. There was a phase where I had to reboot a couple of times for MC TV to work, but that was rare.  With the latest beta 17.0.46 it is hugely more stable for me.

If you have MC set to autostart on boot, and you have a recording programmed in, MC will again automatically try to 'restart' the recording. Occasionally this seemed to bungle the tuner up, maybe because it hadn't fully reset, dunno. All I did in this situation was cancel any due recordings and then reboot. Or I could unset MC from autoloading on boot.

I have been testing DVB-T2 betas over the past few weeks and getting an awful lot of problems needing reboots and this kind of error in MC, sometimes thinking my card/driver was borked, but *every* time all I did was disable MC from autoloading on boot, reboot and run DVBViewer to assure myself that the card was working fine. I've not once had to reload the drivers. 

I must admit that DVBViewer feels 'cleaner' in the way it 'hogs' and 'releases' the tuner card. MC sometimes runs into trouble. I think documentation from Microsoft on implementation of these interfaces is shockingly poor which is part of the problem.

SBR   

[The Mastermind]

The drivers can only talk to one program at a time, so in effect a PVR program 'takes over' the tuner when it starts an instance of TV watching/recording.

I am aware of this and am certain that both programs were not running at the same time. I never use the PVR program and only started it now as part of my trouble-shooting process.

I rebooted multiple times and reinstalled MC17.

After the crashes TV neither worked in MC or PVR2. I'm confident that my trouble-shooting points to MC as the culprit here.

[JimH]

As an update, I have tested RO Standard and Windows Merit and the same happens each time. A crash, which stops TV working but can be repaired by reinstalling drivers.  ?

That is a driver problem.  A program can't make a driver crash.  It only creates the conditions that cause the driver to crash.

Did you try updating the driver?

[The Mastermind]

I tried updating the drivers, but no newer versions are available.

I reinstalled the drivers multiple times and could make the TV card work in other software, but each time I use MC the program crashes and following that the TV card no longer works until I go in a circle and reinstall the drivers.

I have been using MC for TV for a while now and haven't had any problem like this previously.

[JimH]

Did you try a reinstall?  And reboot?

[The Mastermind]

I did. I'm out of ideas at present.

[Yaobing]

So, again I reinstalled the drivers and restarted the computer. Rather than use MC17, I started PVR2 instead. This time the program worked. As a final test, I started TV in MC and the same crash happened again. Going back to PVR2, I found that program no longer worked. From this I can only conclude that MC17 is corrupting the drivers to my TV card.

OK, for some reason MC crashed.  Did you try reboot and start PVR2 without reinstalling the driver?

It could be that MC did not release the device because of the crash.  That prevents the other application from using it until the computer is rebooted.  In other words, maybe you should not need to reinstall the driver.

Why did MC crash is a more important question.  It could be a video driver issue.  But please provide a log so I can check whether there is bug in our code.

[The Mastermind]

OK, for some reason MC crashed.  Did you try reboot and start PVR2 without reinstalling the driver?

Aha, I have been needlessly reinstalling the drivers as PVR does work after a reboot. I had made an untested assumption it appears, live and learn I suppose.

But sadly TV still crashes MC.

I have sent a log to your jriver email.

[The Mastermind]

A bit of further testing.

I rebooted and then deleted all RO folders. Next I rolled back to version 38. Once the program had updated RO components TV worked with version 38.

So, I updated to version 46 and, once RO components had updated, MC crashed. As I expected.

So I tried to delete the RO folders again so I could roll back to 38 and stay there until a fix was in.

The deletion couldn't proceed because an RO file called avcodec-lav-53.dll was in use. I don't know whether this file has something to do with the problem, but I thought the info might be useful.

[Yaobing]

I have sent a log to your jriver email.

The log does not contain any television related logs.

After a crash and restart of MC, you need to send "Previous Log.txt".

[The Mastermind]

Damn, I'll have to reinstall 46 to do it.

[Sandy B Ridge]

After a crash and restart of MC, you need to send "Previous Log.txt".

And, I assume, make sure TV is ticked in the checkbox in the logging pane.

See also the sticky post on top of the TV Card subforum.

SBR

[Yaobing]

Thanks for the log.  It shows that MC crashed right after building a player graph.

Are you able to play jtv recordings?

Do you have "Use FFDShow for post processing" enabled (TV Settings > select the first digital tuner device in the list > Configure... > Advanced Properties tab)?  If yes, try unchecking it and see if it makes a difference.

[The Mastermind]

Switching off the FFDShow post processing got the TV to work again but the picture was appallingly choppy.

I fiddled with some MADVR settings and ticked 'Use managed upload textures' which fixed the choppiness, but the picture quality is not as good as it was.

What changes took place with FFDShow since version 38 to cause this?

[JimH]

Are you using Red October Standard for your video setting?  Try it with no modification.