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[fobos8]

Hi all

I just can't get TV to work properly. My hardware is; TBS6981 tuner card, I7 quad processor, 8GB mem, windows 7 64 bit, AMD Sapphire ATI Fanless HD6570 graphics.

Please can someone help. Am I doing something wrong??

Below are the errors I'm getting.

(1) Frozen video on TV channels. Only resolved by closing down JRiver. The frozen video stays when you switch channels but you hear the audio of the new channel.

(2) Some channels have a line across the top of the screen and lots of vertical lines and no audio.

(3) Frozen screen with a crazy repeated noise a bit like a drum machine.

(4) 15 seconds to switch between channels

(5) On the guide (theater view) sometimes channels are shown - sometimes not.

(6) As you scroll down the TV guide it occasionally just stops on a line/channel.

(7) this error message kept popping up "digitalTSRenderStreamsToWriter- failed to create tune request"

Cheers, Andrew

[Yaobing]

What tuner device do you use?  What type of TV signal (ATSC, DVB, analog, digital cable etc.)?

[Sandy B Ridge]

(1) Frozen video on TV channels. Only resolved by closing down JRiver. The frozen video stays when you switch channels but you hear the audio of the new channel.

I wonder how much of this is driver related? I swear that this wasn't an issue before I changed drivers. I've been on the same release of MC for absolutely ages. The only change to my htpc has been a new graphics card (NVIDIA GT430 -> GTX660) and driver update (306.xx to 314.xx). Now changing channel from the osd that involves (SD -> HD or HD -> SD) causes the video to stall whilst the audio carries on. Now, changing channels in this way isn't something I normally do or have done for months (I usually press 'stop' to get back to the guide and then restart another channel) so I'm not really sure when it changed.

I'm still on an old version of MC by the way (~131 or 132 I think). Life has got in the way of upgrades recently and having a stable system has been vital. Running ROHQ so maybe it's a madVR format change issue. Not sure.

SBR  

[imugli]

I have trouble with TV unless I use the Microsoft DTV codec in video settings (for jtv and TS files). Otherwise, similar to you, if I go from HD > SD or vice versa, I get sound but no Video, or video with no sound.

[fobos8]

I'm using a TBS6981 DVBS tuner card. Works great with Windows Media Centre.

[Yaobing]

(1) Frozen video on TV channels. Only resolved by closing down JRiver. The frozen video stays when you switch channels but you hear the audio of the new channel.

I wonder how much of this is driver related? I swear that this wasn't an issue before I changed drivers.

SBR, you are saying you can reproduce this?  And the behavior probably started after updating the driver?

Does rolling back driver help?

(2) Some channels have a line across the top of the screen and lots of vertical lines and no audio.

(3) Frozen screen with a crazy repeated noise a bit like a drum machine.

These could be all related to (1).  But does it help using different filters (i.e. Red October vs. Red October HQ)? How about turning Video Clock on and off?  How about hardware acceleration?

(4) 15 seconds to switch between channels

This is definitely not normal.  I would expect channel switching to happen within a couple seconds.

(5) On the guide (theater view) sometimes channels are shown - sometimes not.

A channel shows up in Theater view only if there are guide data associated with the channel.

(6) As you scroll down the TV guide it occasionally just stops on a line/channel.

With large number of channels, scrolling can be slow.

(7) this error message kept popping up "digitalTSRenderStreamsToWriter- failed to create tune request"

Can you email me a log? yaobing at jriver dot com

[fobos8]

If this was a free product and there weren't other product available I'd soldier on with it and try to find a solution. But I'm just going to switch back to Windows Media Centre until I can see from the forums that TV works well on JRiver.

There are far too many problems with it, and the set up of channels is far too painful (why are earth does the scan show up to 5 versions of the same channel) for me.

Good luck with it - i hope you get a decent reliable product in the end. I'll check back in a year or so. 

I think its a shame TV is so poor as the rest of the product is fantastic.

[Sandy B Ridge]

SBR, you are saying you can reproduce this?  And the behavior probably started after updating the driver?

Does rolling back driver help?

These could be all related to (1).  But does it help using different filters (i.e. Red October vs. Red October HQ)? How about turning Video Clock on and off?  How about hardware acceleration?.

I've just updated to 18.175 over the weekend and it is fixed. I was definitely getting video hangs with the old version (18.13x), but no more.  Channel changes are also slicker than they were. It's my fault for being slow to update!

Tried with hardware acceleration on and off and there is no difference.

Sorry for the trouble!

SBR (now vaguely updated!)

[Yaobing]

Thanks for the update.

[fobos8]

Hi

Are the problems I reported in my original post fixable? Is so I think I'll give it go.

Is the tuner TBS6981 okay to use or is it this that could be causing problems?

Kind regards, Andrew

[astromo]

My sympathies for you. These sort of problems are painfully frustrating. I had a period where MC TV wasn't working for me but I persevered and all's well now.

I've had, in the main, a pretty straight forward experience with my Tuner and MC. Here's the forum post on tuners:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=33741.0
Your tuner isn't listed but this info stands out to me as being relevant for you:

Digital TV tuners:

ATSC and DVB-T/T2/S/S2/C devices are supported. All devices that conform to Broadcast Driver Architecture (BDA) should work.

So this is your tuner and the manufacturer claims that it's good to go with Windows BDA.
http://www.tbsdtv.com/products/tbs6981-dvb-s2-dual-tuner-pcie-card.html

From here:
http://www.tbsdtv.com/news/drivers-applications-update.html
5th entry on 12 April 2013 the TBS6981 driver was upgraded to v2.0.1.6 - covering Windows 7.

However on the manufacturer's forum it's evident that the TBS6981 has had some compatibility issues:
http://www.tbsdtv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=8478&hilit=TBS+6981
This post might also be relevant - dunno, not my thing:
http://www.tbsdtv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=8501&hilit=TBS+6981

So, have you sent Yaobing a log file as requested?
Have you ruled out driver issues, either by making sure that you're up to date or rolling back to prior versions?
Have you reviewed your MoBo BIOS version currency as the tbsdtv forum post indicates that this is a relevant check point? From the relevant post, note the manufacturer's advice:

Before reporting any compatibility issue, it is very important to check if the BIOS of the motherboard you are using are up-to-date, since we have a bunch of cases where the problem was easily solved just by updating the BIOS.

All I know is that I use a tuner that's noted on the MC supported list and have had a pretty smooth ride all up and the TV function works fine for me. From experience with Yaobing, if you give him the technical data that he asks for and you follow his lead, you stand a good chance of sorting the problem out.

You may have had one-on-one correspondence outside the forum but from what I see here, you've got a few stones to turn over before you pronounce last rites on MC's TV capability for your system. So, I urge you to do everything you can to help yourself. I'm confident that it will pay dividends if you do.

Hope you get it sorted soon. All the best..  

[astromo]

I have trouble with TV unless I use the Microsoft DTV codec in video settings (for jtv and TS files). Otherwise, similar to you, if I go from HD > SD or vice versa, I get sound but no Video, or video with no sound.

imugli, it might help if you provide some further detail. Maybe I've missed the obvious but I can't find where to set the DTV codec in either Tools > Options > Video or Tools > Options > Television. Where is it hiding?

[Yaobing]

imugli, it might help if you provide some further detail. Maybe I've missed the obvious but I can't find where to set the DTV codec in either Tools > Options > Video or Tools > Options > Television. Where is it hiding?

Choose Custom video mode (base it on either Red October or Red October HQ), and create customization for "jtv".

[JimH]

Nice post, Astromo.  Thanks very much.

[fobos8]

thanks very much astromo for you encouraging post.

When I first tried out JRiver I guess expected it to work "straight out of the box" and it didn't so I got a bit fed up. However I'm willing to put some effort in to try and resolve my probs.   

I'll install the trial version again and so what happens and send some logs in if I get problems.

I'm sure the TBS8981 tuner card I have is okay with my motherboard and windows 7 as I have been using it with Windows Media Centre and it works just fine.

I'll start again and take it from there.   Which version of JRiver should I try - 18.0.175 - as on the download page?

Kind regards, Andrew

[fobos8]

still got problems with live TV. I thinks its best to do a separate post for each problem.

Cheers, Andrew