MPEG-TS Errors - Debugging

[NumberFive]

My recordings made with a Hauppauge Quad HD sometimes have pixellation ... I have alsways assumed that it is a reception problem.  I have tried with and without a booster on the aerial input but I have never been able to get a signal that is good all of the time.  I haven't tried the sort of device comparison that you describe.

My guess is that the Quad HD is differently sensitive to the other devices that you have tried ... My only suggestion (if you want to go the extra mile and spend the extra money) ... get a signal quality meter and a variable booster so that you can adjust the signal input strength to a value that suits the Quad HD ... but that is only my best guess ... it's probably cheaper to stop using the Quad HD and buy a different tuner.

I have never noticed a heat problem but I have never investigated the heat of the tuners.

Edit: I have now seen your other post ... You have already been round the houses with signal quality and boosters and all that so I have nothing to tell you.

Thanks Graham,

I really appreciate that and your advice.  Yes as you've seen I've been round that loop.  I've tried a 20 dB amplifier and a variable attenuator, so I've swept between +/- 20 dB from "nominal" and the card produces the same results with all signal levels.  I can rule it out as a reception issue as the Nova-T-500 and the 'unbranded' USB sticks all work fine from the same antenna feed.

It's interesting that you sometimes have pixilation too.  Since my own experience, I now see several reviews on Amazon mentioning the same (links below for the community's sake).  I usually discount these as people expecting too much from the toy aerial that comes in the box with DVB-T tuners, but now I wonder if this is an underlying design flaw in the Hauppauge quadHD.

It reminds me of the pre-analogue switch off days when DVB-T pixelation was common.  I've invested enough in my aerial setup (receiving from three transmitters) that it has become a bit of a hobby, and I can see with a spectrum analyser that all the muxes are loud and clear, and with a DVB-T stick and analysis tool I can see that the BER on them remains zero over days.  For the quadHD to see several packets dropped in an hour is definitely not right.

Hauppauge have been very proactive in helping we with the IR problem, so I'll reach out to them and see if they are aware of this as an issue and if, perhaps, it's on the PCI-E driver side of things.  Hopefully it's not an issue with the tuner / demodulator chips.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-rev...B01FMO2FIS
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-rev...B01FEOJE30
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-rev...B01FEOJE30

[Lao Pan]

Hi NumberFive

Keep us informed if you get any joy from Hauppauge.

I too am having problems with the Quad dropping frames / picture breakup. I thought it was poor signal, but only being 15 miles from Mendip transmitter, using a log 36 aerial and amplifier, but through roof slates , it should be better. TV running off the same amp has a perfect signal.

I am using what I think are the latest drivers - driver85_1_59_37308 and wintv-solo_dual_quadhd_5_2020_0406_38125 for the PCTV 290e & 292e

I tried updating just the drivers using the latest WinTV 10 download, but they remained unchanged.

[NumberFive]

Thanks Lao Pan,

That's interesting to hear you are experiencing dropped frames and breakup too.  This appears to be a common enough problem, Googling for it I find similar sounding issues on Myth TV and Emby forums, that is people with otherwise strong signals getting breakup with the quadHD. 

I have a more recent driver as Hauppauge was helping fix an issue with the IR receiver, but I did have issues with an earlier driver too which was dated circa 2018.

This is the output from 'MPEG-2 Transport Stream Packet Analyser' for a recording made on the quadHD and an Astrometa USB tuner connected to the same distribution amplifier, using the same length / type of cable.

Hauppauge quadHD

Code:

Checking D:\Test\quadHD\New Grand Designs_20210203_21002200.ts
ERROR! packet: 286810 pid: 301 found: 3 expected: 2
ERROR! packet: 1116326 pid: 301 found: 1 expected: 0
ERROR! packet: 1783187 pid: 301 found: 0 expected: 15
ERROR! packet: 4274752 pid: 301 found: 14 expected: 13
ERROR! packet: 5546703 pid: 301 found: 15 expected: 14
ERROR! packet: 5553328 pid: 301 found: 10 expected: 9
ERROR! packet: 6029916 pid: 301 found: 6 expected: 5
ERROR! packet: 7079511 pid: 301 found: 7 expected: 6
ERROR! packet: 7442216 pid: 301 found: 7 expected: 6
ERROR! packet: 7484286 pid: 301 found: 1 expected: 0
ERROR! packet: 8204977 pid: 301 found: 14 expected: 13
ERROR! packet: 9062191 pid: 301 found: 6 expected: 5
ERROR! packet: 12201123 pid: 301 found: 7 expected: 6
ERROR! packet: 13729573 pid: 301 found: 8 expected: 7
Complete, 14055690 packets checked
14 errors found
2011813 elapsed ms

Astrometa USB

Code:

Checking D:\Test\Astrometa\New Grand Designs_20210203_21002200.ts
Complete, 14066394 packets checked
0 errors found
2001945 elapsed ms

"found: 3 expected: 2" means that packet 2 is missing, so 188 bytes are gone.  

Each time the quadHD loses a packet, it results in about 8+ frames being corrupted.  It's quite annoying.