DVB-T Radio Support

[imilne]

I've PM'd you with a link to a copy which does.

Cheers,
Brian

Yep, that's worked perfectly, and everything appears to have worked via GraphEdit. It tuned and played audio from Radio1 (I think). I was using the nVidia audio too.

Iain

[bgowland]

It tuned and played audio from Radio1 (I think). I was using the nVidia audio too.

Yes, the freq., TSID and SID I specified were for Radio 1 on your transmitter.

I'm not sure if the success of this test helps or not. In fact, I'm not sure what to try next. I'm using a different version of the LAME Encoder (3.98 beta 1) but since you posted your problem, I've reverted to 3.97 and it works. The problem seems to be with writing the mp3 buffer file but the file writer filter is part of GB-PVR and is the same for everyone.

OK - some more thoughts...

1. Which version of Windows are you using (including Service Pack version etc.).

2. Which version of GB-PVR?

3. One more test with GraphEdit....

Assuming you still have the original Dvbtr.grf file (with the LAME Encoder and gbnetradio-1.mp3 file writer), open it with GraphEdit again and just do the bit where you enter the tuning info (ONID, TSID, SID, Freq., Symbol Rate) in the DVBT Network Provider and then Play the graph. In other words, steps 3 and 4 from my list in the earlier thread. If it doesn't throw an error, check your recordings folder to see if there's a growing gbnetradio-1.mp3 file there.

Cheers,
Brian

[imilne]

1. Which version of Windows are you using (including Service Pack version etc.).

2. Which version of GB-PVR?

Windows XP, SP3, with GB-PVR 1.2.13.

3. One more test with GraphEdit....

Assuming you still have the original Dvbtr.grf file (with the LAME Encoder and gbnetradio-1.mp3 file writer), open it with GraphEdit again and just do the bit where you enter the tuning info (ONID, TSID, SID, Freq., Symbol Rate) in the DVBT Network Provider and then Play the graph. In other words, steps 3 and 4 from my list in the earlier thread. If it doesn't throw an error, check your recordings folder to see if there's a growing gbnetradio-1.mp3 file there.

Cheers,
Brian

It doesn't work, crashing out (completely) with:

DirectShow SDK Filter Graph Editor has encountered a problem and needs to close.

Clicking error details shows the ModName as lame.ax

Should I try a different version of LAME?

Iain

[bgowland]

Windows XP, SP3, with GB-PVR 1.2.13.

I had a feeling you were going to say SP3. I did some searches on the forums last night and there are a number of issues with people trying to scan/map digital TV channels where it crashes with SP3. I'm wondering if it is related.

Should I try a different version of LAME?

I've PM'd you with some things to try.

Cheers,
Brian

[bgowland]

First, thanks to Iain (imilne) for his patience. We got there in the end.

It seems that the current release version of the LAME Encoder filter (v3.97) doesn't like XP SP3.

If you update to SP3 and DVB-T Radio stops working, unregister your current lame.ax then download and register the latest v3.98 beta version from...

http://www.rarewares.org/mp3-lame-dshow-...beta-dshow

Cheers,
Brian

[jockgbpvr]

Way-hey! works for me now also. Many thanks for your work.

[bgowland]

Way-hey! works for me now also. Many thanks for your work.

Excellent. Enjoy!

Cheers,
Brian

[Pob]

Just wanted to say thank you for this plugin - it's great to have DVB-T radio available in PVRX2 now!
I did have some problems though with the install...using XP Pro SP3
Like some others, I initially had problems because of using VM9-FSE. When first trying to run DVB radio windows throws up several security prompts - Dvbtr.exe is not digitally signed, do you want to run it?
DvBtr.exe is trying to access the internet, do you want to allow it (Windows Firewall)
And of course I could not see these messages, which resulted in a hard-locked PVRX2 - could not exit or continue...
Next issue was probably caused by me not installing Lame first. I thought it may not be needed as I have so many MP3 codecs already - but of course I was wrong! Got past the scanning stage but could not play any radio, and PVRX2 crashed. Installed lame 3.98 beta but every time I tried to launch Dvbtr I got a crash. Found the problem was that DvBtr.exe was already running, and whatever I tried it could not be stopped using 'End process' from task manager. In fact Dvbtr.exe prevented windows from restarting or closing down! This is the first time I have encountered a program that Windows just could not close - eventually I had to use the reset button on my PC - the first time I have ever had to use it!
Anyway after a restart all working well!
Some questions;

1. Why does Dvbtr.exe need to access the internet, requiring a firewall exception?
   
2. And I noticed that my recordings directory has several gbnetradio mp3 files left in it - are these meant to auto-delete when you exit DVB-T radio?
   
3. And on a genreral point, why does Dvbtr need the Lame encoder? I am assuming the DVB-T radio is broadcast the same way as the TV audio used by PVRX2, and Lame is not needed to listen to the TV audio; I notice that the WinTV program does not seem to create any temporary files when listening to DVB-T radio, so I assume it does not encode the radio audio to MP3 'on the fly'...
   

[bgowland]

Just wanted to say thank you for this plugin - it's great to have DVB-T radio available in PVRX2 now!

Glad you like it.

Like some others, I initially had problems because of using VM9-FSE.

I need to find time to update the wiki with respect to FSE and also firewal warnings etc. I'll try to do this for the next release.

Found the problem was that DvBtr.exe was already running, and whatever I tried it could not be stopped using 'End process' from task manager. In fact Dvbtr.exe prevented windows from restarting or closing down! This is the first time I have encountered a program that Windows just could not close - eventually I had to use the reset button on my PC - the first time I have ever had to use it!

OK - that's a new one on me. Using 'End Process' in Task Manager has always killed Dvbtr.exe without problems. It's not a particularly complex beast so I'm not sure why it would lock your machine up.

Some questions;

1. Why does Dvbtr.exe need to access the internet, requiring a firewall exception?
   
2. And I noticed that my recordings directory has several gbnetradio mp3 files left in it - are these meant to auto-delete when you exit DVB-T radio?
   
3. And on a genreral point, why does Dvbtr need the Lame encoder? I am assuming the DVB-T radio is broadcast the same way as the TV audio used by PVRX2, and Lame is not needed to listen to the TV audio; I notice that the WinTV program does not seem to create any temporary files when listening to DVB-T radio, so I assume it does not encode the radio audio to MP3 'on the fly'...
   

1. To cut a long story short(ish)...Dvbtr.exe was the first step towards a recording service for dvbt radio. The fact that it is external to the plugin UI (as a recording service would also need to be), means that the UI has to have some way of communicating with it. There are a number of ways of doing this but .NET Remoting is probably the most powerful. The plugin UI and Dvbtr.exe talk to each other with TCP remoting (specifically tcp://localhost:3112). Firewall software sees anything like this (even though it is a localhost inter-process communication) as accessing the internet.

2. The process will cycle through gbnetradio-0.mp3 to gbnteradio-2.mp3 each time you start a radio station from scratch. If you change channel during playback it will continue to use the same mp3 buffer. The files are never deleted by Dvbtr.exe but only -0 to -2 are ever used so you won't end up with an inifinite number of them.

3. The original idea was to use GB-PVR/PVRX2 as the playback engine so buffering to an mp3 file and using the gbpvr PlayAudioFile() method seemed a nice way of doing things. I could build a DirectShow graph for live playback within the plugin itself but I wanted to keep the DirectShow stuff out of the plugin.

Cheers,
Brian

[Pob]

Thank you for the information. The main thing for me is that it is working now!
Out of interest what settings does lame use in the encoding? I am wondering how the sound quality is affected by the conversion. In all the DVB-T ads the sound is described as 'near CD quality', so what impact does encoding to MP3 have?