GBPVR w/HDHomeRun

[bjt3]

I've been using gbpvr for a while with the Hauppauge PVR150 for some time. Generally, it's worked pretty well. Please move this as necessary; it wasn't clear after searching and scanning that this topic has a focused entry.

Recently, I picked up an HDHomeRun (http://www.silicondust.com/). It works flawlessly with vlc. With gbpvr, not so much. After getting caught up in, and past, the bda.inf issues, I can now get gbpvr to come up, channel scan and do some slight amounts of work. Overall, though, it's not a pleasant experience. This is quite disappointing and puzzling, and I'm hoping for some clues and ideas on what to try to improve the situation.

The issue(s) that I've seen:

- gbprv will hang in channel mapping (while doing assigments)
- gbprv will crash (c0000005) during channel changes
- gbpvr will show black screens (sometimes w/audio, sometimes not)
- gbpvr will indicate "No signal", yet the HDHR shows lock, signal strength of 100%, symbol quality of 100% and signal quality of 90%
- flicker, video and audio drops and generally poor viewing
- almost always, instant audio on channel switch, even when the video fails
- This is all related to live TV, I haven't tried recording/playback yet.

The system:

- somewhat old, but dedicated 2.8 GHz P4 system with 512MB memory
- SATA drive
- Intel 82865 graphics
- Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet
- Windows XP Pro/SP2 (up to date)
- gbpvr (current)
- added ts and NativeUtilities patches (no observable change, though)
- I'm currently using only OTA, leaving QAM for when this works (note that I've set up QAM, channel scanned, etc,etc and the issues are the same). For simplicity I've removed the QAM tuner info and am just sticking to the OTA.

The system never appears to be in CPU or memory pressure/trouble.

Is this a tuning issue (no pun intended) ?
What should I be trying and/or looking for ?

Thanks !

[sub]

It sounds like you're seeing a few different problems here.

- gbprv will hang in channel mapping (while doing assigments)
- gbprv will crash (c0000005) during channel changes

I'm assuming you did manage to get the mapping done eventually though? If so, try setting <BDAUsePsiParser>false</BDAUsePsiParser> in config.xml. You'll need to remember to set it back to 'true' if you need to scan again. Let me know if this helps with crashes.

- flicker, video and audio drops and generally poor viewing
- This is all related to live TV, I haven't tried recording/playback yet.

I would probably focus on recording/playback at this stage and ignore live tv, since it is more complex in many regards. Try doing a recording, then playing back in GB-PVR or another player, which should help you decide if its a playback issue or a recording issue. A recording issue should show the same behaviour in both players.

[bjt3]

It sounds like you're seeing a few different problems here.

I'm assuming you did manage to get the mapping done eventually though? If so, try setting <BDAUsePsiParser>false</BDAUsePsiParser> in config.xml. You'll need to remember to set it back to 'true' if you need to scan again. Let me know if this helps with crashes.

I concur; sometimes it feels like sooooo many issues.. ;-)

So, yes, I did get the mapping done. Since modifying the PSI Parser element, I haven't seen a crash. So far, on that one, so good. Thanks. When this gets a little further along, I'll add in the QAM tuner and see what happens. Not just yet, though.

I would probably focus on recording/playback at this stage and ignore live tv, since it is more complex in many regards. Try doing a recording, then playing back in GB-PVR or another player, which should help you decide if its a playback issue or a recording issue. A recording issue should show the same behaviour in both players.

I tried the following:

1) bring over something recorded with gbpvr on the PVR150. (this is a .mpg file)
2) manually record something via the HDHomeRun (this is a .dvr-ms file)

1) seems to play ok in both gbpvr and vlc. No noticeable video issues, or any a/v sync issues. I may be losing my mind, but the vlc playback is noticeably crisper and sharper. This amazed me enough that I played them and examined them side by side. They're both playing the same media, so it's not necessarily a source issue.

2) this gets weird. The recorded info clearly has some issues. There are pauses and dropouts in both gbpvr and vlc. gbpvr has what I'm beginning to think of as the "seasick issue". There's a very slight, but perceptible, pause in the video about every second. It gets annoying very fast. vlc did not show this. gbpvr didn't appear to have any a/v sync issues, but vlc did towards the end of the recorded segment (2 minutes).

I also played back the #2 clip with Windows Media player. Other than the drops/freeze/pause in the same place in the recording, there were no issues. No pausing, no a/v sync issues, no clarity issues.

This just gets weirder. The upshot seems to be some issues with the recorded data in some places, as well as the pausing in gbpvr.


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The other issue of being unable to "tune" (completely inaccurate term here) also remains. I know we're not focusing on that right now (do you want separate threads for each issue ??). When changing channels, audio comes right up. If the video aspect ratio is different, the video changes aspect (but not necessarily pixels). Then, black frame (or frozen frame from previous channel). Then a "no signal" overlay. In this case, I've noticed in the logs that the channels that complain about "No signal" (even though there's clear audio) have:

Checking signal stats took total: 0ms (1,1,82,85).....(,0,0,0)


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Last, but certainly not least, I appreciate the help and tips. I'm more than willing (eager ?) to do some grunt work and investigation, but need to know what to try and where to look. Also, if there's some other way of presenting the info, please just ask.

I'm hoping that this helps other folks as well.

Thanks !

[sub]

1) seems to play ok in both gbpvr and vlc. No noticeable video issues, or any a/v sync issues. I may be losing my mind, but the vlc playback is noticeably crisper and sharper. This amazed me enough that I played them and examined them side by side. They're both playing the same media, so it's not necessarily a source issue

The quality of the video you see in GB-PVR pretty much comes down to video decoder and/or video renderer you're using - so try some different combinations to find those that work best for you. What are you currently using?

The other issue of being unable to "tune" (completely inaccurate term here) also remains. I know we're not focusing on that right now (do you want separate threads for each issue ??). When changing channels, audio comes right up. If the video aspect ratio is different, the video changes aspect (but not necessarily pixels). Then, black frame (or frozen frame from previous channel). Then a "no signal" overlay. In this case, I've noticed in the logs that the channels that complain about "No signal" (even though there's clear audio) have:

Checking signal stats took total: 0ms (1,1,82,85).....(,0,0,0)

This "no signal" doesnt necessarily mean "no signal", it can also mean no video data is flowing, which given you're hearing audio is likely to be the case here. The first thing I'd try is changing video decoders, since another HDHomeRun user commented a few days ago that if fixed their problem.

[bjt3]

The quality of the video you see in GB-PVR pretty much comes down to video decoder and/or video renderer you're using - so try some different combinations to find those that work best for you. What are you currently using?

This "no signal" doesnt necessarily mean "no signal", it can also mean no video data is flowing, which given you're hearing audio is likely to be the case here. The first thing I'd try is changing video decoders, since another HDHomeRun user commented a few days ago that if fixed their problem.

Sigh...

Why did I know that this going to get to codecs - the part I know least about.

This system has (according to deccheck): MPV, Elecard(trial version), DScaler and Intervideo

only Elecard is MCE compatible, only Intervideo is mildly acceptable to MP10.

MPV - recorded: works, but has pausing issue
live: audo, no video, eventually get "No Signal" overlay

Elecard - recorded: works, has pausing issue
live: audo, no video, eventually get "No Signal" overlay

DScaler - recorded: will not work ("Error playing file")
live: no audio, no video, eventual "No Signal" overlay
(and, once, "Attempt to read protected memory...")

InterVideo- recorded data: seems to play ok
live - audio, no video, no "No signal" overlays

All of these were with the VMR9 Custom as the video renderer, and deinterlacing set to either none or encoder pass-through (these didn't seem to affect this issue).

So, to me, this is inconclusive and while some made it worse, none really made it better.

Let me ask the inverse: what is a good codec set ? I picked up the Elecard as I thought I had read some good things about it, but the trial version doesn't appear to be any better than the others. Suggestions ?

Another, I-am-curious, question. Would codec data flow issues manifest themselves as working on some channels, and not on others ? I can imagine it, but have no experience to confirm/deny this.

Once again, thanks for the time and suggestions.

[sub]

Let me ask the inverse: what is a good codec set ?

A lot of people doing ATSC swear by the nvidia decoders + overlay renderer.

None of the decoders you mentioned are ones I commonly see people mentioning in relation to high definition.

Another, I-am-curious, question. Would codec data flow issues manifest themselves as working on some channels, and not on others

Some ATSC channels are high definition, some arent. Some decoders cope with high definition, some dont, or only do so poorly.

[sub]

Its probably worth mentioning that the audio decoder and/or audio renderer may also be playing a part here. The video tries to sync itself to the audio, which acts as the master clock.

[bjt3]

Thanks for the info.

I just tried the Nvidia, and it actually got worse. Same video issues, and no audio at all ! ;-)

I'll try some others.

(I should probably also mention that it kills gbpvr almost every time I start it)

[sub]

Did you try the Overlay renderer? and any other audio decoder/renderers?

[bjt3]

Well, Cyberlink isn't any better, either. FYI, for anyone reading this.

All in all, though, vlc still performs by far the best. Does it use different graphs or codecs ?

From my uninformed point of view, this is all a bit puzzling.