6.0.15 DVB-T Intermittent No Video - Sanity check, please?

[Mark SS]

Likewise, I've stuck with SBDARecorder. While testing DVB-S during the beta I saw exactly the same tuning issues as everyone seems to be having with DVB-T.

[rickgillyon]

Not everyone, I know that for a fact!

[Chris_AMG]

I have this problem with windowed or system tray mode. I have not tried service mode yet.


Regards, Chris.

[rianscott]

i too have this problem, how do we raise a bug report? or has someone else done it.

it's doing my head in

[Mark SS]

http://www.sagetv.com/bugs.html

The more people that report it, the more likely that it will be fixed.

[John.Kelly]

I have installed SageTV on three different systems. I experience the "no video" problem on the first installation, last September, with a Hauppauge WinTV 500 (dual tunner) card and SageTV 5.0.4. I returned the card and purchased two Hauppauge WinTV 250 tuners. The problem went away. My system also uses 3 Hauppauge Media MVP's and I am experiencing no problems. My operating system is XP Pro, and the computer is a 3.4 Mhrz Dual Pentium.

I discribed by 1st installation because I know that the problem can be caused by a weak signal (weak relative to the video tuner used), but I just experienced the same problem (on my 3rd installation) which appears to be caused by a completely different issue.

The 2nd installation was in November on a HP AMD computer for my oldest daughter. We used a single Hauppauge WinTV 250 tuner, and SageTV v 5.0.4. Her operating system is Microsoft XP Media Center. To get the card and the software to work, I had to turn off the Media Center services, but, after doing this, everything works perfectly.

The 3rd installation was just a week ago for my youngest daughter. Her computer is identical to the 2nd installation, but I had purchased, last summer, a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2 unit for her. She has been using the Hauppauge software since then, but saw the SageTV software when she came home from college for winter break, and wanted SageTV for her computer. I downloaded SageTV v6.0.19 and installed it. When trying to watch live tv, the first channel usually comes up, but when changing the channel, the "no Video" message appears. After some testing, I also found that even recording a program sometimes has this problem. I had left the Hauppauge software on her unit, and could switch to the WinTV 2000 (I think that is the name of the Hauppauge program) and had no problem switching to any channel. I uninstalled version 6 and installed v 5.0.4 to see if there was a difference. The "no video" message came up less often (about 1/2 the time), but it was still unacceptable. I just sent a service request, but I don't think this is a weak signal problem. I believe it is something else.

Hope SageTV finds the problem because, right now, it appears I have wasted my money for this 3rd computer.

Originally Posted by SteveB

I'm currently running 6.0.15 with a Nova-T (9003), on a test box. I'm experiencing an issue when I flick through the channels, where certain channels appear as "no video". If I scan through the channels, and make a note of which ones are not working, restart Sage, the channels appear to work. Typically Sky Three (ch11) and UKTV History (ch12) appear to be a problem. But following a Sage restart (not system restart), generally they work.

I'm in the UK, using freeview from Crystal Palace, and I've enclosed my frq file. The frq file was generated from within Sage, but I've massaged the channel numbers to match the Freeview lineup.

My next step is to backup my Sage install, and re-install from scratch and re-test. Before I do this, has anyone else experienced this? Or got any recommendations or advise?

Thanks,

Steve

[sjgore]

Apologies for resurrecting this slightly old thread, but I'm having the exact same problems as everybody else in this thread, and I was wondering if any of the original posters (or anybody else, for that matter) has managed to resolve this issue, or has had an official repsonse from Sage?

I'm using SageTV 6.0.19 and a Hauppauge Nova-T 500, using the BDA drivers from the latest CD zip file downloaded from Hauppauge (version 3.3c, dated 12th Jan 2007, from here... http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/sup...b-t_wintv.html)

I started a thread on this here:
http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=23090
and I was pointed in the direction of this thread.

I sent a report to the Sage support team yesterday evening, haven't had a response as yet (but it does say 72 hours).

It's a very frustrating problem! I'm still on my trial licence, and this is the only thing preventing me from purchasing the software.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Steve.

[SteveB]

I'm now running v6.0.19 (trial) on a freshly rebuilt test sage box with a Nova-T and the 3.3c drivers and I'm still seeing the problem. I've also just upgraded my main v5.0.4 box to v6.0.19 and installed a Terratec Cinergy 2400i, I've only had a few hours to play so far, but I did run into a problem with tuning some channels, and then ran out of time....

<ramble>
I'll be doing some more testing during the week. I'll certainly be looking quite closely at my custom built FRQ file, I originally used the tuning information from WinTV (after an autotune), and remapped it to the channel numbers I wanted. The Nova-T would do the usual "No Video" on certain channels, but following a Sage restart (non-service mode) the channels would re-appear. I then used the same FRQ for the Cinergy tuners and found that one or more channels failed to tune, and resulted in "No Video" even though the auto-tuning information agreed with the Terratec Cinema application....

However Terratec Cinema also showed the same channel (for example UKTV History) on another frequency (and stonger signal strength - 91% vs 81%), so I re-tweaked the FRQ for the Cinergy 2400i, and lo-and-behold the channel appeared.

I am in range of Crystal Palace and Bluebell Hill, so I need to take a look at frequencies, transmitters, and signal strength to see whats in my area, and if I can see any correlation between the behaviour of the Cinergy 2400i and the Nova-T. Should be fun!
</ramble>

[pschweig]

Originally Posted by SteveB

I am in range of Crystal Palace and Bluebell Hill, so I need to take a look at frequencies, transmitters, and signal strength to see whats in my area, and if I can see any correlation between the behaviour of the Cinergy 2400i and the Nova-T. Should be fun!

The problem I was having did not seem to have any logic behind it. So before tinkering with the fine tuning just check if a reboot or stop and start of the sage service causes your channels to come back.

When I was testing it I noted the channels that gave "No Signal" and then rounded their freqs. Restarted and found that some of the channels came back and some that were ok were giving "No Signal".

In the end I decided that there was a number of channels that would flit between tuning and not on sage restart. In the end the tuning just settled down and all my channels now tune

[sjgore]

I got a reply from Sage, which simply said that my device (a Hauppauge Nova-T 500) is not supported. I already knew this, but I was hoping for a bit more of a helpful response, something like "we'll be supporting this card in the near future". Probably just wishful thinking on my part.

Steve.

[Mark SS]

Has anyone had a response from Qian on this problem yet?

[pschweig]

I sent him a sample video but he said he couldn't reproduce the problem.

He sent me a new tssplitter to test but I never got a chance because the problem resolved itself.

[Chris_AMG]

A quick update on my "no signal" DVB-T problem.

I didn't get any feedback from support on the issue after I submitted a bug and sent the logs. I have now upgraded to 6.1.3 and still have some "no signal" problems, although the MVP Extender is much faster now (thanks Sage).

I am currently testing Qian's updated dshowcapture.dll from http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23616 and it looks like it may be the fix I have been looking for. I have not seen a "no signal" message yet after a couple of days use from 2 different extenders and a PC client.

Regards, Chris.

[sjgore]

I have not seen a "no signal" message yet after a couple of days use from 2 different extenders and a PC client

Cool, sounds promising.

Thanks for the update!

Steve.

[Alfiegerner]

Yes, likewise, thanks for keeping us informed. I'll be sure to try this out when I get home.

[mrcandu]

Originally Posted by Chris_AMG

A quick update on my "no signal" DVB-T problem.

I didn't get any feedback from support on the issue after I submitted a bug and sent the logs. I have now upgraded to 6.1.3 and still have some "no signal" problems, although the MVP Extender is much faster now (thanks Sage).

I am currently testing Qian's updated dshowcapture.dll from http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23616 and it looks like it may be the fix I have been looking for. I have not seen a "no signal" message yet after a couple of days use from 2 different extenders and a PC client.

Regards, Chris.

I am Still using 6.0.18 at the moment, but thought I'd try replacing the original dshowcapture.dll with this new one (not sure if I should be doing that with 6.0.18 or not!?!)......... Unfortunately it didn't sort out this problem 4 me...... no signal is still appearing on some channels until I restart.

might give it a try with 6.1 over the weekend.

Mat.

[Chris_AMG]

Things are still looking good for me at the moment although I did have one instance of correct tuning but no sound.

One thing I did notice in 6.0.19 and 6.1.3 is the aspect ratio is wrong on the first channel tuned after startup (again with an MVP). It looks like it selects 4:3 cutout when the channel is transmitting 16:9. Any subsequent channel changes always show the correct aspect ratio.

I will be interested in hearing your experiences.

Cheeers, Chris.

[mrcandu]

Unfortunately I am still having problems with this one and I am now considering switching over to the TerraTec Cinergy DVB cards, as it seems users are having fewer problems with them. Before I do thought, I’d like to know if anyone has got there NOVA-T’s working with the SageTv beta’s and are not experiencing the “No Signal” issues discussed here?
Cheers,
Mat.

[rickgillyon]

Have you logged the bug? Maybe you should drop them another email, I know this whole area is still under development, so I'd think Sage would want to work with you on it.

[mrcandu]

Yeah, sent the bug a while back, but no resolution yet i'm afraid. I have chased them up again today so hopefully we can work through the problem in more detail.