BDA DVB Network Encoder (2.0.0.6 - February 12 2006)

[nickjp]

I tried the ts stream. The file in recorder grows, but I am not able to view it using VLC, also tried PowerDVD to view it. This results in an error message stating that the type is not supported.

Furtermore I noticed that I can not record all the channels using tsstream. There are channels that do record with the 'director mux' and do not using the ts stream.

[archie658]

Originally Posted by AndersNolberger

archie658: Could you change mux to TSStream in settings and then open the record dialog in SBDARecorder and try to record some from one of the untuneable channels. How is the file size growing? Stop and try to play with for example VLC, did it work?

Is you frequencies for dvb-t for one city/region in the Netherlands?

Tried. Stream starts growing rapidly after some delay. On some of the tuned channels it stops strangely enough at 200. VLC shows only a progress bar.
TSReader Lite seems to be showing some kind of main stream and many, many other pids. Channel not descrambled?

Sorry, might not be very helpful.

Found the frequencies for DVB-t in The Netherlands. Broadcasing done by Digitenne. Extracted and sorted the info for the cities that should be able to receive "Digitenne". Broadcasting is not free-to-air over here. Since I'm not living in the small area that has DVB-t reception and don't have a DVB-t receiver, I cannot verify the list.

source: http://home.planet.nl/~ploe2070/fmtv/dvbt/dvb.html

[Madcoder]

Hi.
PROBLEM 1:
Last night HTV in Helsinki changed some frequencies and most symbol rates. I have updated my file for Helsinki and attached it. However, now I am having tuning problems with the first transponder (274 mhz). This had happened with the old frequency set on a different transponder, but back then I was able to do a manual search for the missing one, and the channels were found. However, I tried to manually search the 274 mhz transponder for the missing channels this time and SBDARecorder could not find them. Next I tried to enter the data for one of the missing channels directly in my settings.xml file. SBDARecorder still could not tune this channel. I used the "record" feature of SBDARecorder to try to just capture the channel. The file size stops at 200 or 2048, after many attempts. I also tried using the PowerDirector filter or just the plain TSStream option for doing this. In all cases, when trying to tune either the problematic transponder OR the manually entered channel that I added, the FireDTV box light on the front turns red. The channels on the transponder in question are all free channels that should not require CI access.

PROBLEM 2:
I have a different problem also with everything hanging when switching between some CI encoded channels. This was a problem with the old frequency set as well as the new one. It seems to not happen if you tune to a free channel in between switching among encrypted channels. This was somewhat fixed, or at least it seems to happen less after I set my CommonInterface.exe system tray applet to HIGH priority in the task manager. Sometimes SAGE can recover from the incident after 15 to 30 seconds, but usually if the hang occurs then I have to ctrl-alt-del and kill Sage. One "hack" that you might be able to implement in the short run if we can't fix this (all softwares I have tried have this hanging problem, including MyTheatre) is to make an option in SBDARecorder that anytime an encrypted channel is selected and the current channel is also an encrypted channel, then SBDARecorder tunes just for a second to some specified "free" channel, since manually doing it this way seems to avoid the lockup. Again, that would kind of be a hack, but acceptable to me if it fixes things in the short run.


Equipment:
FireDTV-C with newest firmware, and BDA 2.0 light driver package
Conax 4.00 CAM (CAM 4.00 03/2004 printed on back)
Conax access card
Windows XP w/SP2 and both hotfixes recommended by Digital-Everywhere for use with the FireDTV
Sage 4.1.6 (Beta, but shouldn't matter as SBDARecorder can't tune the problem transponder on its own anyway) running in service mode. Sage front end running on the same box though (I like to run the separate service mode for the backend, as it seems to make things a bit more stable especially if you are doing a lot of things while a recording is taking place).

I also will paste the new frequency file for SBDARecorder for the new HTV frequencies in Helsinki, as well as my settings.xml where I tried to manually enter a new channel (channel 2)...
The data for the transponders came from here...
http://dvb.swelcom.fi/cable.php
Settings.zip

dvbcFinland.zip

[Madcoder]

One more thing...
None of these problems exist on a Xsat Digibox using the same HTV Conax access card.

hmmmmmm...

[AndersNolberger]

I will make a test version that can be used by all three of you with problems tomorrow. But if the light on the FireDTV turns red then it is probably not the problem that I thought it would be.

If you can get MyTheatre to tune the problematic transponder could you please see if there are some more settings that is required that I don't use in SBDAR?

Anders

[Madcoder]

I believe that newer MyTheatre implementations can use BDA driver cards, so do you mean for me to try it with that version, or should I load the non-BDA drivers, and then use the custom version of MyTheatre that came with the FireDTV box? I have a license for the full version of MyTheatre, so I can try whatever versions you want. I also have saved some of the older revisions of MyTheatre, so I might have some older version to try too if you specify what to try. Thanks!

[AndersNolberger]

Originally Posted by Madcoder

I believe that newer MyTheatre implementations can use BDA driver cards, so do you mean for me to try it with that version, or should I load the non-BDA drivers, and then use the custom version of MyTheatre that came with the FireDTV box? I have a license for the full version of MyTheatre, so I can try whatever versions you want. I also have saved some of the older revisions of MyTheatre, so I might have some older version to try too if you specify what to try. Thanks!

The latets MyTheatre with BDA drivers would be best. If you can tuine with that I should be able to with SBDAR too!

Anders

[AndersNolberger]

Madcoder, nickjp and archie658: Could you all download the test version from http://www.nolberger.se/SBDARecorderTest.zip and replace the exe file in your SBDAR directory with this test version. Back up the current one since you probably will want to put it back after this test.

Start SBDAR and open settings. Try to "manually" scan one of the frequencies where you have the missing channels. Shut down SBDAR and look in your SBDAR directory. If you have files called .bin and .pmt in there please send them to me. If there are no files can you also try to scan a frequency that has working channels and see if the files appears then.

Madcoder: Could you also test if this version is better at switching between coded channels (Problem 2).

Anders

[archie658]

Originally Posted by AndersNolberger

Try to "manually" scan one of the frequencies where you have the missing channels.

Sorry Anders, this one does not scan at all on my system. The preview button flashes, and that's it. An automatic scan stops at the first frequency in my list.

On recording: no files are being created, except for an empty .mpg (even for the channels that were tuneable in the stable version).

[AndersNolberger]

Sorry. I did not realize that I had made changes in tsparser for the next version that made it fail. Try to download the zip file again and copy the file tsparser.ax also. Make a backup of the old file so you can go back.

Anders

[Madcoder]

Hi Anders. I have the same kind of result as archie658 here in Finland. I tried your instructions, and nothing happened except for a 1 second "busy" mouse pointer, and then it acted like it was done scanning and nothing was found. There are no files created in the program directory either. I tried the problematic frequencies and known to work ones as well with the same result. I also tried to do a recording from your program directly, and that too made no files, as if the tuner wasn't doing anything! I tried Sage too with the known good channels in the configuration, but of course, those didn't work either, and I saw only a black screen. In trying to test everything, in every way with this test version you made, nothing will tune, and no files are made. I will start playing with MyTheatre now in the meantime too, and try those tests you suggested with that.

[Madcoder]

Ah ok, you posted while I was writing my message! I'll try the new version now.

[Madcoder]

Hi again. Results this time...

1st try = 274 mhz, the known "bad" transponder. I got again the red light when trying to tune, and NO files were created in the directory.

2nd try = 282 mhz, a known "good" transponder. I got tuning like normal, and new channels appearing in SBDARecorder. Several files were created as you intended this time. I have attached those in a zip.

I will now do some testing and see if the hanging problem is any better now (my problem #2).

[AndersNolberger]

Then i am very interested in knowing how it goes with MyTheatre on 274 MHz.

Am I right that all other frequencies scanned as they should for you? If so the problem is not in the actual scanning algoritm but in tuning the card (as the red light also indicates).

I am still interested in files from the Netherlands.

Anders

[Madcoder]

Now I did some channel hopping, and sure enough, I got Sage to hang. I had to ctrl-alt-del and kill Sage to get things back to normal. Here are a bunch of test files that got created while I was channel hopping. I cleaned them out since my last post, so these are all fresh test files generated while I was channel hopping. You can see from the time stamps maybe the order I was going through the channels. I believe I was on Discovery channel, trying to switch to Animal Planet when the hang occurred. You can see from my link or files earlier about the tuning information for those channels. This is not to say that this one hangs less, as I get the feeling that I need to test both versions of your program x number of times, and compare how much one hangs compared to the other to see if you are on the right track. Does that sound like something that would help, or do you already have other ideas to try before I do some statistical analysis like that!

[Madcoder]

Yes, all other frequencies scanned. As I said, I had problems before the recent frequency changes too. They DID manage to align all the symbolrates to be the same, so I had hoped that with the FireDTV not having to "switch gears" so to speak between different channels, that I might have a smoother experience, but that is not the case. At least before all channels were tunable! I can try the MyTheatre now also.

[AndersNolberger]

If SBDAR failes to get a stream going after three atempts it does a complete reset of the CI part. In this test version I do the reset on every channel change and I hoped that would help. Since it does not I think I will implement your suggested workaround so that a free channel gets tuned inbetween.

So no further testing of this problem is necessary for now.

Plase test with MyTheatre if you can tune to 274MHz. If you can tune with that can you compare settings to see if there are something that I don't do?

Anders

[AndersNolberger]

I am using CI with Boxer DVB-T in Sweden and i have never experienced a problem with encrypted channels. Maybe you should file a bug report with Digital-Everywhere and tell them your problem and what CAM you are using.

Anders

[Madcoder]

Blah.... I loaded the newest MyTheatre, and no luck. I don't get it. It is either that the FireDTV just has some inherent problem with htis frequency/mux combination, OR that data is wrong on the HTV web site. I did check my XSat box. Unfortunately it will not tell me all the details but it does tell me the frequency. 274 is indeed correct. Just for fun I tried some other setting with 274 mhz, like the old symbol rates, other modulations, etc...no luck still. This is really strange.

For the second problem, lets see if the "work around" get the problem fixed with the hanging. At least that would be some progress.

[AndersNolberger]

Madcoder: I sent an email to you...