Tuning lock is a mystery in GBPVR. Why not in Windows Media Centre?

[togbabe]

Any help would be very welcome:

My system has always worked flawlessly with two cards in it:
Twinhan Visionplus and
Videomate 878
1 terrabyte nnvidia nforce RAID
OS Windows XP

Recently, I decided to expand the system:
Twinhan Visonplus (same old card) and
Vdeomate 878 (same old card) and
Videomate E750 dual card
3 terrabyte RAID
Windows 7 (no choice as XP can’t handle the large RAID)

Now before we jump to any conclusions about OS or my hardware spec not being able to cope with the extra card, here comes the strange stuff:
Have installed all BDA drivers only
Microsoft Media Centre can record on all cards simultaneously, stopping and starting with absolutely no failed attempts
Uninstalled Microsoft Media Centre.
Installed GBPVR
THE FOLLOWING OCCURS ON ALL CARDS
*Most of the time they record fine
*Some of the time they produce a 6k file, and then another 6k file, or another file of a random kilobyte size like – say – 135k. From reading the GBPVR forums, I am told that this is because the software was not able to get a ‘tuning lock’ on the signal. But read on as this does not make sense.
*When I get this 6k failure, it is repeatable, and yet, I can choose [watch] on exactly the same card, on exactly the same channel as the one that – supposedly – can’t get the tuning lock, and the picture quality is absolutely perfect!
*Additionally, I can record the exact same channel on the exact same card – or any card for that matter – under Windows Media Centre, and the recordings are perfect. The BDA drivers have not changed
*Additionally, if I choose to record the whole ‘ts stream’ instead of ‘dvr-ms,’ the ‘tuning lock problem’ never ever occurs.


Help!! I really don’t want to give up on GBPVR.

[sub]

I'd try the new NPVR app. It has a better scanning and tuning model than GBPVR.

[togbabe]

Don't even know what that is. Can't find anything on the site about it except for a 'support forum.'

[McBainUK]

Look at the recent threads here: http://forums.gbpvr.com//forumdisplay.ph...ouncements

[sub]

Don't even know what that is. Can't find anything on the site about it except for a 'support forum.'

Its basically the replacement for GB-PVR. I'm no longer developing GB-PVR, and NPVR is the new application being developed instead.

[togbabe]

Thank you for your reply, however, it doesn’t actually help me with my GBPVR recording problem. You have written outstanding software in GBPVR, so people are not going to want to just switch over to – what looks like – a beta. If I read correctly, there is no ‘client server’ support yet? At this time I really need the ‘client server’ support. I have wasted quite a few weekends on this version already; and am hoping that somebody can help with this strange recording problem as I appear to be “that close.”

Is there anybody out there who has had similar issues and managed to solve them?

[sub]

If recordings work with "TS Mux" but not with "DVR-MS", then this is usually a sign that the audio/video PIDs have been changed by your broadcaster since you mapped them. The DVR-MS would only use data arriving on those audio/video PIDs, and if no data arrives, then you end up with a 6KB file. TS Mux on the other had recordings all the streams associated with a channel, regardless of what PIDs.

[togbabe]

Thanks for the reply, I thought the same. But if it was the pid, it would – surely – not record on that channel ever? Sometimes it records and sometimes it doesn’t. Most of the time it does. Media Portal has a ‘signal strength tester’ and it says that all tuners have excellent reception and ‘signal quality.’ Also, as soon as the problem occurs, I open the picture with the ‘watch option,’ and the picture quality is perfect.

[sub]

Does it always recorrd when using 'TS Mux'?

[togbabe]

Yes, always.