Dvb Stutters Randomly But Often

[Kimpsu]

Hi!

 

Watching DVB-C programs the picture/sound sometimes has a pause every now and then. Sometimes the images become a "slide-show" or a complete lockup until the channel is changed to a channel on a different mux. Note that DVBViewer still functions normally during this, so that I can for example play a dvd-normally without closing and restarting DVBViewer.

 

Watching other videos like DVDs does not have this problem.

 

I first came up with the problem when I installed a new graphics card (NVidia GeForce 7300GS) and a Conax card reader (Digiality Conax CA 5.0, though DVBViewer says it is TechniSat Digital). During the install I also changed my DVB-C card (Twinhan Cab-CI 2033 Mantis) to another PCI-slot.

 

I did try to remove the DVB-C card and install it on the original PCI-slot, and reinstall the drivers, and also try without the Conax card reader. It did not help, so I tried removing the graphics card and revert back to my integrated graphics card, but that did not help either.

 

This is also the time I installed the NVidia PureVideo package. Could it be that it interferes with my Cyberlink codecs? It happens with both of them, but it did not happen before installing the PureVideo package (version 1.02-223), so that is also one possibility for the problems. Note that I did try to uninstall the PureVideo package but it did not help, but that does not mean it is not possible that it might have messed the Cyberlinks up.

 

Now I am kinda lost on what to try next, maybe install the whole system again to avoid driver mixups etc? I also updated to DVBViewer version 3.6.1.2 a while ago, but I am not quite sure when it was, but it was a few days before upgrading the graphics card, and everything worked just fine with it, at least I did not come across these problems.

 

My system setup:

Motherboard: Asus P5V-VM DH + S/PDIF module

Graphics card: MSI GeForce 7300GS DVI/HDMI (driver 93.71)

DVB-C card: Twinhan Cab-CI 2033 Mantis (driver 1.0.3.0)

Operating system: Windows XP Professional

Codecs: ffdshow, Cyberlink (PowerDVD5), NVidia PureVideo (NVidia is the one I have been using, but this happens with Cyberlink also. ffdshow is only for x264 and such, but not for DVB-C. I have also tried with and without NVidia PureVideo Post-processing.

 

I attached the supporttool zip-file, which I created right after having that "slide show" effect. Please ask if you need any additional information.

support.zip

Edited March 9, 2007 by Kimpsu

[Kimpsu]

I reinstalled everything and tried several different codecs and drivers, but the random stuttering remained.

 

Then I removed the GeForce graphics card and reinstalled everything again, and everything works like a charm.

 

I did some more research on the matter it seems that in the tight space that my htpc is located combined with the rather large DVB-C card blocking a bit of the already low airflow to the graphics card, causes the graphics card to heat up quite a bit (the heatsink on it is too hot to be able to keep a finger on it for more than a couple of seconds). This heating up causes the DVB-C card to heat up too, since there is not a lot of space between them. So since all other videos besides DVB-C broadcast works well, my theory is that the heat causes the DVB-C card not to function properly.