narrowing the problem

Phyxius · Post by **Phyxius** » Fri May 23, 2014 10:57 pm

Hi there,

1st time user of Argus TV and I am loving it.
Installation when't without a hitch.
That said I do have a few hiccups now and then that is very annoying,
I would like to know how I can find and solve/improve these hiccups.

My installation:
Windows 7 x64 Ultimate
XBMC Gotham 13.0
SQL server 2012 express
Argus TV 2.2.2
VLC Player
Argus TV web access (IIS)
MDAPI Plus v0.9.0.1607
ACamd v0.6.2.0
TBS 6982 (Dual tuner) DVB-S2

The hiccups:
"Failed to tune" at first try
Losing connection while watching
Switching between channels takes 5 seconds or more.

Thanks for reading and I hope someone can help out.

Post by **rudig** » Sat May 24, 2014 4:28 pm

Hi,

Failed to tune can somtimes be solved by changing card timings.

Changing in 5 seconde of channel is in my setup normal already for years. I'm not sure this can be solved.

Phyxius · Post by **Phyxius** » Tue May 27, 2014 12:14 am

What can I expect from these 3 timming settings? So that I know what I am doing when I change these values.

Post by **rudig** » Tue May 27, 2014 7:54 am

The exact expression used for this value I don't know but it waits longer for a signal to come through, in my cardsharing setup this helps because my cardreader Needs time to process the codes

Phyxius · Post by **Phyxius** » Tue May 27, 2014 9:36 pm

OK, thanks
The main goal of this post was actually to find the means to identify the problem and do a step by step analyses for finding a solution.
I can start changing the timing settings of the DVD-S2 card but what would be the message inside the log files that would point in this direction?

Post by **Christoph21x** » Wed May 28, 2014 8:40 am

Phyxius wrote:OK, thanks
The main goal of this post was actually to find the means to identify the problem and do a step by step analyses for finding a solution.
I can start changing the timing settings of the DVD-S2 card but what would be the message inside the log files that would point in this direction?

Hi Phyxius
I had similar issues on one recorder with new CI-cards - they needed, especially when some time unused, a new "acknowledgment" from the provider - which could take up to 10 minutes, according to my provider (also on my TV).. In fact I never had an issue since I set to 60 seconds, which is the maximum.
I decided to move "on the safe side" and changed the timings acc. to what you see in the screenshot.
The values are "time-outs". If "operation is successful" earlier, it simply takes shorter. So at the end you're just losing time that is actually needed by the system.

: Snippet of Recorder Console -> Cards -> Show Settings -> Advanced
I went nearly to maximum times - since then, all issues were gone; Clipboard01.jpg (16.85 KiB) Viewed 16352 times

The related cards are DVB-C with CAM module & active CI cards

"Wait for signal": does exactly what it says If not successful, you'll get error message "can't tune"
"Wait for service PMT": Receiving Program Map Table, which is a table within the transport stream that links PID's containing information about video, audio and additional data. If not successful, you'll get error message "can't tune"
Wait for signal decryption: does, what it says. Sometimes the most cruxial value. If not successful, you'll get error message "is scrambled"
Services scanning: Timeout during scan. Increase this value, if you have "no signal" response during scan on frequencies, of which you know, that services are present.

Hope, this could help you? Please note, that my cards are quite outdated - newer cards, especially with PCI(e) should take shorter). Remember, if you prolongue the times, you eventually need to have a longer pre-time for wake-up of the server (Scheduler Console -> Settings; Power-Management)

Kind regards - Chris

PS: maybe we should enhance the Wiki...

Phyxius · Post by **Phyxius** » Fri Jul 04, 2014 9:35 pm

Chris,

Thanks for the home work...

Unfortunately changing these settings did not solve the issue.
It just took longer before "Failed to tune" message appeared.
Also looking at the logs did not make me any whisser.

How about more home work...

Thx Phyxius

Post by **andrewNZ** » Fri Jul 04, 2014 11:49 pm

I wonder if you have poor reception or dish alignment. Typically TV tuners are much more picky about signal than TV's or STB's.

It could also be a hardware problem.

Phyxius · Post by **Phyxius** » Sat Jul 05, 2014 12:54 pm

There is this tool that can be used to help align, measure signal strength and quality.
It has been used during the installation of the dish and this morning, with the help of this tool, it has been re-checked.
Result is that signal quality and strength is very very good right before it goes into the "TBS 6982 (Dual tuner)".
So the relevent hardware outside the HTPC, functions fine.

My dual tuner is brand new and checking if it has an problem is some what difficult.
I think installing another TV client to see if it gives similar problem would be a quick and dirty tuner hardware check.
What I cannot check with this is if the "Failed to tune" at first try is do to a decoding timeout.
Let see if I can do the installation of the second client this weekend.

Thx

Phyxius · Post by **Phyxius** » Tue Aug 05, 2014 10:27 am

So did allot of thorough test with a different TV client software and also with use of a "Dreambox" and this took me, obviously, more time them initially thought.

I can now say for sure that the problem does not lie on my hardware.
NONE of the initially reported problems in this post occurs when I am using a different TV client software or use a "Dreambox".

The question now remains why it does happen when i am using Argus TV.

ARGUS TV

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