Buffering issue

[myamid]

Hi,

I use NextPVR as my main TV watching tool (OTA HTDV with HDhomerun tuner connecter via ethernet).

Everything's worked flawlessly for months, but for some reason, I seem to be having some issues recently where changing channels.
I think it's related to buffering... when I change channels, I hear the sound for a second (no image), then after a second or so the sound cuts. If I press FFW/skip then it syncs back up and I'm ok most of the time, but it's highly frustrating

I tried changing the TV buffer HD (not set to my SSD...), uninistalling/reinstalling, rebooting, etc... to no avail.
As a last resort, I installed XBMC (configured to used the NPVR backend), and it's not having any issues - when I change channels I see it buffering for half a second then everything's OK.

Any idea what could be causing this? I'm seeing this both with 2.6.2 & 3.1.1 (I blamed the latter at first, but after downgrading I see the same issues so.....)

Any insight is appreciated!

[Reddwarf]

This sounds very much like the issue I had with LAV video decoder, but for us trying to help you should post your logs so we don't have to guess. Information about logs and where to find them/post them is found in the sticky thread on top of this forum. It might also help if you enlighten us about your operating system, codecs in use etc.

[johnsonx42]

with NextPVR the usual causes for this are the video decoder and also a setting in config.xml <AlternateOSDForMissingVideo> which you should set to false.

[Zeb]

"Use alternate OSD with missing video" is on Settings->Misc2, so there's no need to open Config.xml for that setting.

[johnsonx42]

ah, thanks for pointing that out, I hadn't noticed (or had forgotten) it had made it onto a Settings screen.

So that box Zeb pointed out should be unchecked.

[myamid]

This sounds very much like the issue I had with LAV video decoder, but for us trying to help you should post your logs so we don't have to guess. Information about logs and where to find them/post them is found in the sticky thread on top of this forum. It might also help if you enlighten us about your operating system, codecs in use etc.

Thanks for the replies. I'll test along those lines later tonight and post an update with more info if adjusting the codec setup doesn't resolve the issue.

[myamid]

This sounds very much like the issue I had with LAV video decoder, but for us trying to help you should post your logs so we don't have to guess. Information about logs and where to find them/post them is found in the sticky thread on top of this forum. It might also help if you enlighten us about your operating system, codecs in use etc.

You were dead on, changing the MPEG2 video decoder from LAV to "Mainconcept (HCW)" fixed the buffering issue. I can't believe that I didn't look in that direction.

That being said, any recommendations on the ideal codec setup? My current config is in the sreenshot.
I'm on Win8.1 64bit, and ideally the audio codecs support 5.1 output as the computer is connected to my homet-heater through HDMI (nivdia output)

Thanks for the help, I'm pretty relieved that in the end it was something relatively basic!

[Reddwarf]

I would not use the LAV video decoder for anything, lots of users use the SAF package and the Cyberlink decoders works really well. For MPEG1 and AC3 audio you can choose between AC3Filter and LAV, both works fine, and I'd recommend LAV for the rest.

[myamid]

I would not use the LAV video decoder for anything, lots of users use the SAF package and the Cyberlink decoders works really well. For MPEG1 and AC3 audio you can choose between AC3Filter and LAV, both works fine, and I'd recommend LAV for the rest.

Thanks for the insight, I'll look into SAF.

Any experience with FFMPEG/FFDSHOW codecs for Video/Audio with NextPVR?
I've had good experiences with them in the past (admittedly on MacOSX when that was my cup of tea) and was wondering if it could be an option.

[Reddwarf]

I have never managed to get ffdshow to work properly with npvr, but several others claim to. LAV is a development of ffdshow, so should be better, but my best experience is with Cyberlink/AC3Filter/LAV.