Very serious bug scanning with DVBViewer Pro 4.96.2 or TransEdit 3.8.5

[amirhs]

Dear Griga and all,

 

I have a Skystar USB HD and DVBViewer Pro 4.96.2. In the past I also reported serious and documented problems with my Skystar card -- please check http://www.DVBViewer.tv/forum/topic/45405-DVBViewer-pro-and-problem-scanning-with-skystar-usb-hd

Anyhow, as I hadn't upgraded my DVBViewer Pro and TransEdit for some months, yesterday I decided to upgrade both. I was using a 3.95.XX release of DVBViewer and a 3.7X release of TransEdit. As I upgraded both to the latest release, I noticed that neither of them can scan nor play channels belonging to the Badr/Eutelsat satellites. This is very strange as even TransEdit 3.8.5 fails to find a single channel belonging to these satellites located at 26/25.5ºE. I tried TransEdit 3.8.1 and nothing worked. However, as I tried the older TransEdit 3.7.2, TransEdit again managed to find and preview all channels belonging to these satellites with ease.

Here it's worth mentioning that I access 4 satellites here with 4 dishes and 4 LMBs, and Badr/Eutelsat 25.5 are located at "POS B/OPT B." The rest of my satellites, namely Hotbird 13, Nilesat/Eutelsat 7W and Eutelsat 7E, are detected and their channels are played as expected. I'm also using BDA drivers for my Skystar USB HD -- not the very latest malfunctioning ones which are provided by Windows Update for Windows 7, but the ones which ship with the card. Finally, I've tried all possible numberical combinations in the Scanner 2 tab of the Settings dialog in TransEdit 3.8.5 to no avail. Exporting channels from TransEdit 3.7.2 to DVBViewer 4.96.2 doesn't force the DVBViewer to play them either. Sadly, here I no longer have that older 4.95 release of DVBViewer to use while this gets fixed.

 

Your help and advice are most appreciated.

 

All the best,

Amir

[amirhs]

Just a small correction: I meant DVBViewer Pro 4.95.X and DVBViewer 4.96.2. So 3.9.5 was a typo on my part.

[Griga]

Does the TransEdit 3.8.5 Analyzer receive data?

 

Does it work with TransEdit 3.8.1 from the members area -> older versions?

[amirhs]

Hi Griga,

 

Quite interestingly, only if I select Hotbird (POS A/OPT A) in TransEdit 3.8.5 or 3.8.1 I get data analysis or channel scans. These newer releases both fail with the rest of my satellites located at other POSs/OPTs as DVBViewer 4.96.2 does. However, TransEdit 3.7.2 -- the last working release I have here -- properly scans and previews all POSs/OPTs. So the problem is even much more serious than I thought.

Now is this due to that problematic Skystar USB HD problem? Does using the non-BDA drivers from the CD help? I prefer BDA, but if that doesn't help I'd be willing to use network drivers.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Best,

Amir

[Griga]

only if I select Hotbird (POS A/OPT A) in TransEdit 3.8.5 or 3.8.1 I get data analysis or channel scans.

Looks like DiSEqC commands are not sent. Did you perform Settings -> Hardware -> Detect Devices after installing the latest TransEdit version?

[amirhs]

Sure, I did but it didn't resolve the issue. The moment I use the 3.7.2 executable and DLL instead of the 3.8.5 or 3.8.1 ones, the issue gets resolved. The point is that DVBViewer 4.96.2 also suffers from the same problem -- it can't even play those channels taken from previous scans with V4.95 other than the Hotbird channels. I'm confused and highly suspicious of whatever Skystar manufactures!

 

Best,

Amir

[Griga]

Maybe the old BDA driver for the SkyStar USB HD doesn't support the DiSEqC method that we have implemented for this device. It works with the latest 4.7 BDA driver - that's what I have tested.

 

You can change the DiSEqC handling by editing the file TransEdit.ini. It is located in the configuration folder (see Info -> Configuration Folder in TransEdit, opens an Explorer Window). Close TransEdit 3.8.5, open TransEdit.ini with NotePad and search for the Vendor entry in the Hardware section. Most likely you will find

 

Vendor.0=10

 

assuming that you have only one DVB device, so that the device number after the dot is 0. If you want to revert to the old DiSEqC handling, try

 

Vendor.0=33

 

or if this doesn't work

 

Vendor.0=26

 

Save the change, launch TransEdit and scan. If it works with one of the vendor numbers above, it can be fixed similarly in the file hardware.xml for DVBViewer Pro, that also contains a vendor entry.

[amirhs]

Well, Griga, I have no problem updating to Skystar's BDA release V4.70 but, as you know, it tends to make both DVBViewer and TransEdit unresponsive after some time and the problem would persist unless the card is unplugged. That's why I'm still using V4.69 of the BDA drivers. So did you test with the new but problematic drivers?

As for those values, mine was strangely set to =0. I modified it to =10 but that didn't help. Also, I tried both the =26 and the =33 values but the problem remained.

 

Best,

Amir

[Griga]

So did you test with the new but problematic drivers?

Yes. For some odd reason it ceased to be problematic after I tried this and that, particularly removing everything from the WDM/NDIS driver installation, including the TechniSat software, and a lot of rebooting. You got a report about it via PM on 12 August 2011. It is still in my PM folder.

 

It's strange that TechniSat doesn't provide the 4.7 BDA driver for download. However, I have found it in the 4.7 download for the SkyStar eXpress HD. At least the SYS file is version 4.7, but the version number in the INF file is still 4.6. It seems TechniSat can't get it right for some reason.

 

As for those values, mine was strangely set to =0.

...because you didn't click Save after device detection?

 

I modified it to =10 but that didn't help. Also, I tried both the =26 and the =33 values but the problem remained.

I can't imagine why. One of it should work. Did you close TransEdit before changing the file?

 

Please attach your TransEdit.ini here. Maybe I can see something there...

[amirhs]

Well I tried it this time and the =33 value worked! It also fixed the DVBViewer's scanning and playback issues after having modified Hardware.xml (it was set to =10 there), so I'm a happy camper now! BTW, I did click "Save" after detecting the device but it's working now nonetheless.

Would it be possible for you to attach your working BDA drivers? I'd very much like to try them here as I'm still sick and tired of these big delays when switching to some of the channels. Perhaps your drivers -- taken from a similar card -- can work around my long-standing issue.

 

Thanks again for your help.

 

Best,

Amir

[Griga]

Well I tried it this time and the =33 value worked! It also fixed the DVBViewer's scanning and playback issues after having modified Hardware.xml

Fine! But please note: Performing a device detection will overwrite the value again. So better don't.

 

Would it be possible for you to attach your working BDA drivers?

It is the same that you already got last year. No change whatsoever.

[amirhs]

Thanks, Griga. So I'm actually tempted to give the newer BDA drivers one more try to see how they work this time. In case I do it' I'll report my findings here. In the meantime, I'll avoid purchasing Skystar's products in the future for their failure to address problems and provide updates as before. Perhaps the TBS5922 or the professional and more expensive/more exciting TBS5925 is the way to go -- please see http://www.tbsdtv.com/products/tbs5925-dvb-s2-tv-tuner-usb.html for more on the latter.

 

Best,

Amir