Problem handling two USB DVB-T tuners

[reflect]

I have Artec T14BR with 3.6.0.1 BDA driver and Pinnacle PCTV 72e with it´s own DBA driver. The problem occurs when I want to record one channel in first MUX and watch another in second MUX. If I manually start the recording, DVBV uses the tuner that is currently in use to do this and when I try to change to a channel in the second MUX, there is no video or audio. Although, when I try to record from the second MUX, it creates an .mpg, but it´s 0kb. It seems that DVBV activates and tunes the second tuner right, but cannot receive the stream.

 

Both devices work, and there´s no problem if I rec and watch channels which are in the se same MUX as it uses only one tuner. There´s no difference whether I set the other tuner´s state to preferred or normal. I took a debug log while trying to rec and change channels, it showed no errors but maybe someone can tell me what to try next. New tuning method or changing codecs didn´t have an effect. Both tuners are set to open the whole transponder. I´m ready to give more info if needed.

 

-reflect

support.zip

[jascdvb]

I have Artec T14BR with 3.6.0.1 BDA driver and Pinnacle PCTV 72e with it´s own DBA driver. The problem occurs when I want to record one channel in first MUX and watch another in second MUX. If I manually start the recording, DVBV uses the tuner that is currently in use to do this and when I try to change to a channel in the second MUX, there is no video or audio. Although, when I try to record from the second MUX, it creates an .mpg, but it´s 0kb. It seems that DVBV activates and tunes the second tuner right, but cannot receive the stream.

 

Both devices work, and there´s no problem if I rec and watch channels which are in the se same MUX as it uses only one tuner. There´s no difference whether I set the other tuner´s state to preferred or normal. I took a debug log while trying to rec and change channels, it showed no errors but maybe someone can tell me what to try next. New tuning method or changing codecs didn´t have an effect. Both tuners are set to open the whole transponder. I´m ready to give more info if needed.

 

-reflect

 

Hi, I have built a machine with two Pinncale DVB-T Diversity Receivers working fine.

 

Please try the following:

• Try one receiver at a time while setting the other to disabled in DVBViewer/Options/Hardware. From your explanation above I cannot read that you did this. First both receivers need to work on their own in DVBViewer before trying a multi setup
  
• Try both receivers with the supplied vendor software. In your case this should work because they use different drivers
  
• DISABLE Unicast and Multicast device in the DVBViewer Hardware sektion and try again with both DVB-T set to normal. Preferred is usually not needed in standard setups. Also check that channelgroups A,B,C are enabled for both devices because both can receive the same stuff. I had this issue myself and it fixed it for me
  

hope I could help :-)

Edited April 7, 2008 by jascdvb

[reflect]

Thank you for your advice, unfortunately the problem still persists. Both tuners work, tested it again just to make sure. I deleted multi and unicast, but they were not in use before. I also tried opening two DVBV instances, but the second showed no audio/video. Tuners are in completely different usb ports so bandwidth can´t be an issue.

If I open Pinnacle tuner with Pinnacle software and Artec with DVBV, they work smoothly together in different MUXes. I´m running out of ideas soon

[Griga]

Two more attempts to pinpoint the problem:

 

1) Download the RadLight Filter Manager. Launch it. Have a look at the "BDA Receiver Components" and "BDA Source Filter" sections in the treeview. What is listed there? Only components that are obviously related to your devices are of interest.

 

2) Download and install DVBViewer GE from the members area. Read the ReadMe! No need to uninstall DVBViewer Pro, both programs can coexist. The DVBViewer GE hardware management is slightly different in some respects. Same problem?

[reflect]

Two more attempts to pinpoint the problem:

 

1) Download the RadLight Filter Manager. Launch it. Have a look at the "BDA Receiver Components" and "BDA Source Filter" sections in the treeview. What is listed there? Only components that are obviously related to your devices are of interest.

 

2) Download and install DVBViewer GE from the members area. Read the ReadMe! No need to uninstall DVBViewer Pro, both programs can coexist. The DVBViewer GE hardware management is slightly different in some respects. Same problem?

 

1) Everything has MERIT_NORMAL (0x00000...), this is everything that´s listed

BDA Receiver components

• BDA MPE filter
   
  
• BDA Slip De-Framer
   
  
• PCTV DiBcom BDA Digital Capture (Dev1 Path0)
   
  
• Pinnacle File Capture
   
  
• T14BR Digital TV Capture
  

BDA Source Filter

• PCTV DiBcom BDA Digital Tuner (Dev1 Path0)
   
  
• T14BR Digital TV Tuner
  

2) Both devices appear in hardware/device list and work on their own but not together. I tried setting each one out of use at a time.

I get an error message when trying to change MUX while other tuner is recording: Initializing the DVB device has failed!

I used the old channels.dat.

 

Basically the exactly same problem appears with GE version. At least this one gives an error message while the pro version says nothing.

[Griga]

Now your next step toward becoming a BDA & DirectShow expert

 

Download and install GraphEdit, e.g. from

 

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Gr...GraphEdit.shtml

 

Launch DVBViewer Pro. Start recording, switch over to a different mux. Then launch GraphEdit. Go to File -> Connect to Remote Graph.

 

A list containing three entries should appear (some strange IDs, don't mind). Each of them stands for a filter graph (= collection of connected components used by DVBViewer). One of them is the playback graph, containing a video decoder, audio decoder etc. The other two are BDA graphs - that are the ones we are after. Try the entries, until you get a graphical representation of the BDA graphs. One of them (for the Pinnacle device) should look like

 

Microsoft DVBT Network Provider -> BDA Tuner -> PCTV DiBcom BDA Digital Capture -> BDA Dumper

 

and the other one like

 

Microsoft DVBT Network Provider -> BDA Tuner -> T14BR Digital TV Capture-> BDA Dumper

 

Do they really? Everything connected? If you are not sure, attach a screenshot.

 

What I suspect: DVBViewer somehow connects the wrong components (or fails to connect the right ones) in your case, because they don't identify themselves clearly enough. Vendor software knows exactly which components it has to use, but DVBViewer has to find out heuristically, in order to be able to work with all BDA components in the world

[CiNcH]

Maybe it is better to use GE to test this. I believe that not all Pro versions expose the BDA graph so that you can connect to it. Just if you fail seeing all 3 graphs within GraphEdit...

 

There is also a nice alternative to GraphEdit, which also allows conntecting to remote graphs, GraphStudio.

Edited April 9, 2008 by CiNcH

[reflect]

Okay, so I did some testing. Here´s what I found out.

 

I set artec disabled in DVBV - GraphEdit shows initially 2 graphs, artec and playback graph - led in the Artec stick is turned on so DVBV uses Artec while it says Pinnacle in device status.

 

If Artec is physically removed - then GraphEdit shows Pinnacle graph and obviously Pinnacle tuner is used.

 

If both are connected and set to normal use and I´m trying to record - GraphEdit shows 3 graphs but 2 of them are Artec.

 

So if both devices are connected while starting DVBV, no matter how the settings are, it uses only Artec.

Only way to take advantage of both tuners is to physically remove Artec, start DVBV and then plug it back in. This way it´s forced to use Pinnacle tuner first. This is the only way to record and watch different muxes.

Same happens with pro, beta and ge version.

[Griga]

so DVBV uses Artec while it says Pinnacle in device status.

Ok, I think I know what's going on. The result of badly written drivers resp. programmers who didn't consider two BDA devices in one PC:

 

DVBViewer inserts the Pinnacle tuner filter and tries to find a matching capture filter by letting Windows enumerate all receiver components. At first DVBViewer finds the T14BR Digital TV Capture filter and checks the hardware IDs. But obviously the tuner or capture filter (or both) don't expose such an ID, though they should according to the Microsoft DDK. So DVBViewer tries to connect the two filters, and unfortunately they do (though they shouldn't), most likely due to the same reason. There we are... that's how things get mixed up.

 

However, there is a tweak for cases like that:

 

1) Launch DVBViewer GE. Select Info -> Configuration Folder. It opens an Explorer window. Close DVBViewer GE.

 

2) Open the file Setup.ini from the Explorer window with a text editor (Notepad). Search for the [Hardware] section.

 

3) Insert the line

 

SkipComponents.1=1

 

in this section. SkipComponents.1 refers to Pinnacle and SkipComponents.0 to Artec (if it is the other way round, you will see it). This line will let DVBViewer GE skip the first matching receiver component and take the second (hopefully correct) one.

 

4) Save the changed Setup.ini. Launch DVBViewer GE. Try whether it works now.

 

I think DVBViewer Pro provides a similar tweak, but that's something Lars has to tell you...

[Lars_MQ]

It's the same in the Pro

 

Insert into the hardware.xml in the section of the device in question

<entry name="SkipComponents">1</entry>

[reflect]

I added the entry and the problem seems to be solved! Thank you very much for your fast replies and advice. Technical support seems to be in great shape!