losing SAT signal?

[airberger]

Hello all,

First hiccup with gbpvr/nPVR in quite some time - my HTPC has been running so smoothly for so long it's really a shock to suddenly have a problem I can't solve.

Anyway, out of nowhere my recordings from UK satellites now last 0-3 seconds before going black and then ending, with a final file size of 1-3 MB. I have a Hauppauge HD-S2 card for satellite recording. When I try to watch over Live TV it's the same situation - 0-3 seconds before it blacks out and returns to the menu along with a "the tuner being used for live tv is no longer available" message. The behavior is the same no matter which satellite channel I tune to. The satellite signal is fine, if I run the cable into my satellite box I get a strong signal and no problems with video. The NRecord log (logs are attached) indicate "Renew lease failed" which sounds like I'm losing the signal and not picking it up again, but I'm far from an expert here. The video is fine for the 3 seconds it plays but then vanishes.

I also have a Hauppauge HVR-1300 for OTA digital recording from German channels (I'm in Germany) - these channels record fine and Live TV works fine as well.

I've tried reinstalling nPVR (I'm on 2.4.3), uninstalling and reinstalling video card and drivers, as well as rebooting many times over, I'm not sure where to go from here. I have a feeling this is a hardware issue, but before I shell out cash for a new card I thought I'd see if this problem rang a bell with anyone, though I haven't found much through searching the forum archives.

Any ideas? I'm on XP (SP3) if that makes a difference.

Thanks!
Derek

[airberger]

Quick update - plugged in a different Hauppauge Nova HD-S2 and am experiencing the exact same behavior as with the old card, so the tuner card was clearly not the problem. Any ideas at all?

Thanks,
Derek

[sub]

If I were you, as a first step I'd probably check if it's working in other software, like the Hauppauge WinTV software.

[airberger]

Thanks sub - I just installed WinTV for the first time in years and - surprise! No problems at all scanning for channels and then watching live TV from the satellite feed in WinTV. I just tried nPVR again as well, but am still having the same problem as before.

Any suggestions? It's getting late here so I'm done for the night, but maybe tomorrow I'll try a more thorough nPVR uninstall/reinstall unless somebody has a better idea.

Thanks,
Derek

[sub]

To be honest, I'm not really sure what to suggest on that one.

Can you temporarily set the video renderer back to EVR, then reproduce the problem and repost the logs?

[airberger]

Thanks again sub - I've changed renderer to EVR, attempted a recording and attempted a couple Live TV viewings, all failed to produce video. I've attached the logs.

Thanks,
Derek

[sub]

I'm wondering if it's something to do with diseqc control. Are you using multiple satellites and a diseqc switch?

[airberger]

You may be onto something, sub . . . I do have a diseqc switch with two inputs, the "A" LNB is for UK satellite and the "B" LNB for German satellite. The funny thing is, I was never able to get the switch to work in npvr so I never set up any German channels on the B LNB, I only used it for UK satellite. (I have a satellite box which uses both LNBs and another diseqc switch.)

Anyway, in response to your post I did a scan for German channels on the B LNB and voila, suddenly it works for both LNBs. But strangely, while the German channels on the B LNB work perfectly, the UK channels on the A LNB still suffer from the same problem I mentioned above, 0-3 seconds and then recording/viewing stops.

I also tried setting up both LNBs through the Hauppauge WinTV app, and there all channels play perfectly through both LNBs.

Any idea where to go from here? If the weather's decent tomorrow maybe I'll climb up and remove the diseqc switch, see if that makes a difference.

Thanks again,
Derek

[airberger]

OK, I'm back.

Last week, this problem miraculously solved itself. I went away on vacation and NPVR worked flawlessly, recording all my British satellite programs with no issues.

Then, today, the problem returned.

I upgraded to 2.5.5 a few minutes ago, on the off chance it would fix things. It didn't. But now the error message has changed - instead of "the tuner being used for live tv is no longer available" it says "The tuner you were using was required for a recording. Would you like to switch to watching a recording, or exit back to the menu?" Below this it allows me to select "Exit back to menu" but no other option.

On the same satellite card, with a diseqc switch, I can watch German satellite on the B LNB, but am still having problems on the A LNB with British TV. I still haven't tried messing with the diseqc switch, since the problem solved itself last week before I could check.

Any further ideas?

Derek

[airberger]

Update - I was able to remove the diseqc switch today and connect the NovaHD-S2 card directly to the LNB for British satellite. Unfortunately, the problem persisted.