Live TV no image but sound, also how do I record?

[tiff]

Total newbie with NPVR. Installed it about two weeks ago when the software that came with my KWorld TV card started crashing constantly. After first installation of NPVR I scanned all my channels in. At that point I found I had neither picture or sound. Following the advice of this forum I downloaded and installed FFDSHOW. On selecting FFDSHOW codecs I then had picture and sound. RESULT! However, there was no option / button / method of recording anything.

I searched this forum and various other places and I found nothing on this particular problem, so I assumed I'd screwed up the install somehow, and I removed NPVR and did a re-install. Now I have sound, no picture (which I can't fix and I've tried EVERY codec in the options list), and still I can't find any way of making a recording.

I've tried starting the NPVR Service from the start menu shortcut and I get an error popup. I've attached a gif of the error pop up for full info. on what it says exactly.

What do I do to:
1: restore my picture, cos it must work, as it worked fine before!
2: make a recording, I'm assuming the NPVR service is the thing I need to get running?

Thanks in advance.

Windows XP Home SP2
KWORLD DVB-T 100
If you need any other info just ask :-)
Cheers
T

[tiff]

Update:

I've just installed the patches from
http://forums.gbpvr.com/attachment.php?a...1302512127
and it's made no difference

Thanks in advance
Cheers
T

[sub]

For the service not starting, it sounds like something went wrong with the install. You might need to try reinstalling.

For not being able to record, do you not get the tv guide screen? If you press enter (or double click) on any show, then you should get the popup showing you the show details, with options to record or quick record. Alternatively you can use the 'manual record' option from the to of the Recordings screen.

[tiff]

Hi Sub

Thanks for your reply.

I uninstalled NPVR using the Windows Control Panel Add/Remove Programs function, made sure all the folders were removed from the installation directories and then made sure nothing of the install remained on the hard drive. I then went through the registry removing all references to NPVR. I then downloaded the installation package again from the NVPR site.

After rebooting the machine I turned off COMODO Internet Security and re-installed NVPR. The install itself went smoothly with no issues as it did before. I rebooted the machine, tried to start the NVPR service and I got the same error popup shown in my first post above.

Thanks for your guidance on where to find the recording options. All I was seeing was the "blank" blue screens when I went into "Recordings" from the main menu. I didn't know the Top Menu existed and only found it when I rolled over the top of the screen with the mouse cursor. Now I know how to do the recordings. Thank you very much.

The reason I asked about recording was because I had seen on other posts on here that people had been asked to check if recordings were visible if they were having issues seeing live TV, like I am. After receiving your help, I managed to make a recording and I can't see it in NVPR, however I can view the .ts file in VLC (V1.1.8). The recorded video is however a little choppy and sometimes pixelated though.

I've been reading as much as I could find on here about the "got no video but got sound" problems and am I correct in assuming that this is a codec issue?

My options are as follows:
Video Renderer: EVR(selected)/VMR9/VMR9CUSTOM/VMR9FSE/VMR7/OVERLAY.
Audio Renderer: Default(selected)/SoundMAX Digital Audio/Default DirectSound Device/Default WaveOut Device/DirectSound: SoundMAX Digital Audio
MPEG2 Video: ffdshow Video Decoder(selected)/Nero Video Decoder/Nero DVD Decoder/Nero Video Decoder HD/Nero Closed Captioning Multiplexer
H.264 Video: ffdshow DXVA Video Decoder/ffdshow Video Decoder(selected)
MPEG1 Audio: ffdshow Audio Decoder/MPEG Audio Decoder/Nero Audio Decoder 2 (selected)
AC3 Audio: ffdshow Audio Decoder/Nero Audio Decoder 2 (selected)
E-AC3 Audio: ffdshow Audio Decoder(selected)
AAC Audio: ffdshow Audio Decoder/Nero Audio Decoder 2 (selected)/RealAudio Decoder
HE-AAC Audio: ffdshow Audio Decoder(selected)
"Only use mapped audio decoders during .ts playback" is checked

Incidentally, I forgot to mention, I did read the website instructions before installing the first time, and I did install DotNetRuntime 2.0, DX9, DX9Runtime, Windows Media Player 9.00.00.3367, Virtual C++2008 Runtime and Windows Installer v3.1. I installed all of these before installing NVPR.

ffdshow version is 3800

And I re-installed the patches afterwards as well and rebooted. Sorry, I forgot to say.

Hope this helps?

Cheers
T

[tiff]

Oh I've also got a red text warning in "Settings/About", telling me I don't have DirectX Runtime installed, and I definitely have.

Cheers
T

[tiff]

OK I've been busy with this! I went into ffdshow decoder settings and modified the MPEG2 decoder options and I've now got live TV albeit choppy and pixelated from time to time. I then changed the Video Renderer to Overlay and it's better, but still choppy/pixelated, but we're getting there!

Question is now: how do I improve the video quality now that I have a TV picture?

Many thanks
T

[tiff]

Well well! :-)

I figured that the problem was related to how ffdshow was "talking" to NPVR or vice versa. After much rummaging around in ffdshow codec settings, NPVR now works like a dream.

Many thanks!
T

[sub]

I figured that the problem was related to how ffdshow was "talking" to NPVR or vice versa. After much rummaging around in ffdshow codec settings, NPVR now works like a dream.

Great - glad you got it working.

[Reddwarf]

@tiff, have you checked that you have the NPVR Recording service running (run Services.msc)? If not it will only record as long as NextPVR is running. And btw: did you run the installer as Administrator?

[tiff]

@tiff, have you checked that you have the NPVR Recording service running (run Services.msc)? If not it will only record as long as NextPVR is running. And btw: did you run the installer as Administrator?

Hiya.

Sorry I've been away working.

Yes my XP account, the only account, is an Admin account.
No the service is not running and I can't get it to start. I get the same error pop up as shown in my first post every time I try to start it.

Interestingly I tried to use NPVR today for the first time since my last post. It crashes after a few minutes and is now unusable. The machine has had no MS or any other kind of updates applied. No changes have been made. It hasn't even been turned on until today, and there were no updates pending reboot when I turned it off.

It produces a crash report which I've looked at but it means nothing to me.

I thouroughly uninstalled as before, re-installed and applied the patch. NPVR still totally crashes after a few minutes.

Any ideas anyone?

If you need to know anything else just ask :-)

Best wishes
T