Stuttering Live TV

[mvpaaagh]

Hi SUB,
I have downloaded your latest beta software and am trying to set up my TV channels. I am living in Ireland but unfortuneately Ireland isn't listed as one of the supported countries. Undaunted I have tried dfiferent countries and managed to find most of my channels. However, live tv stutters along. Every two seconds or some there is a slight pause. Any thoughts as to why this might be? My tv card is a PVR250. If I can get this working on the PC I can then try my MVP. BTW my PC is a DELL with a 2.66GHz processor and 512MB RAM.
regards and thanks

[sub]

If you pause for about 10 seconds then press play again, does it stutter? Do the LiveTV mpeg files playback alright outside of GB-PVR? Try windows media player or other.

BTW, LiveTV on the PC and MVP are implemented very differently so if you see a stutter on the PC its unlikely you'll see the same behaviour on the MVP unless there is a problem with the recording.

[Guest]

Thanks for the prompt response. I'll have another try this evening and get back to you.

[mvpaaagh]

Sub,
tried pausing for 10 seconds as suggested but video continued to stutter after resuming playback. Tried playing in Media Player (version 9) but if failed to download a valid codec so I got audio only. Tried to play using WINTV2000 and it played back fine.
regards,
mvpaaagh.

[sub]

GB-PVR doesn't do any of the playback itself, but relies on third party MPEG decoders to do the hard yards. In your case, the decoder the system is using doesnt appear to be doing a very job.

Do you have a preferred decoder set in the Config app? If not, and you have additional ones available on you machine, you might want to try a different decoder. It may also be worth trying it on your MVP.

[mvpaaagh]

Hi SUB,
I have selected Intervdieo NonCSS Decoder for Hauppauge (I have a PVR250 installed so I assume the CODEC came with it). The only other option I have is System Default. Playback of files recorded using WINTV2000 are fine with GBPVR. As you suggested Live TV thorugh the MVP is fine although I do have one or two questions about MVP use. Firstly can you confirm if both MVP servcies should be stopped. If I stop both I get "Failed to contact GUI server" on the MVP. If I leave MVPMediaSvc running I can get the GBPVR frontend but it crashes out if I pause Live TV. I will do some more playing around but if you have any pointers I would appreciate it.
regards,
MVPAAAGH.

[sub]

I do the following when I start GB-PVR with the MVP for the first time.

1 - boot the MVP with the normal hauppauge software (you should see Hauppauge menu screen on the TV)
2 - Click the Start -> Programs -> Hauppauge MediaMVP -> Stop icon (TV will say 'contacting servers)
3 - Click the Start -> Programs -> Devnz -> GBPVR MediaMVP Server icon. (GB-PVR will appear on the TV).

I think behind the scenes the Stop icon stops both of the services, but I've never looked.

[lagrian]

mvpaaaaaagh I used to have this problem when I had 2 NICs in my machine. I used to have to disbale the NIC that wasn't being used as the MVP connection temporarily whilst GBPVR loaded I could then re-enable it after GBPVR had loaded.

I have had it working with 2 NICs though with out this issue.

I think GBPVR was trying to connect on the other NIC, this only happened though when I was using a crossover cable to connect to the MVP.

[colin]

To get the MediaMVP connected with GBPVR you need to make the initial connection with the MediaMVPSvc. The other service is the GUI, so if can change this service from automatic to manual and neve bother running it.

You can run GBPVR in its place as the GUI but you must stop the MediaMVPSvc once its at the stage of contacting servers (to get the GUI) otherwise live tv crashes and other weird things happen when watching previously recorded stuff.

Colin.

[mvpaaagh]

Thanks Largian. Good spot. I do have two NICS. The MVP NIC was connected via crossover. I have now replaced this with a switch. Not only does video playback work on the MVP it now works on the PC. Thanks again.

Colin thanks for the input. You are exactly right the MVPMediaSvc service must be running for the initial connection. I had some stability problems last night but it just occured to me the I had left this service running after connecting to GBPVR. I have now set this service to manual so hopefully the MVP frontend will be more stable. Cheers.