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DVBViewer Beta


Guest hackbart

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Guest hackbart

Hi,

 

since we are working on a couple of new things which will probably take time till they are finished, we decided to upload a working beta. There are a lot of new features implemented as well as almost every mentioned bug fixed.

The most important updates are:

1. brand new Source filter which will replace Marfi and the Skystar2 filters. This allow us to be more flexible, since we can easily add other things like Multicast/Unicast Clients which have the same behaviour like DVB cards. To test this ability i added a dvb emulation which uses transponder/channel dumps as DVB source. Simply select the DVBSource filter and give as parameter filedvb://dvbs:filename or filedvb://atsc:filename, filedvb://cable:filename resp. filedvb://dvbt:filename.

 

2. Fixes and compatibility with the new driver

3. ATSC support

4. Better and easier support for Cable,DVB-T cards

5. source cleanup *yay*

6. improvements inside the teletext window

7. fixed problems with non western european characters

8. improved Jaws mode

 

And a lot more..

 

Next things which will come before xmas:

 

1. HTPC

2. Multicast/Unicast Client

3. new Options Dialog (more restructured)

4. Nordic/BBC Subtitles

 

Christian

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Some initial feedback after about 10 minutes of tinkering:

 

It works.

It works very well indeed!

 

My existing configuration is (still) working fine, with the updated files copied over it. The new source filter seems to work very nicely indeed - better, AFAICT, than the old DVBViewer source filter.

 

I tried switching between a number of channels with AC3, odd video resolutions, and HDTV - and the application remained stable.

 

I noticed a few issues, though:

- Switching to VIVA PLUS yielded working audio, but

blocky video, spread over three columns, as if the

video codec had not adjusted properly to the new

resolution (F5 = fix)

 

- It's possible to channel-switch "too quickly" using

the Favourites menu items:

 

* tune to station A

* wait

* tune to station B

* IMMEDIATELY tune to station C as soon as possible

* Continue switching and you'll eventually confuse "something", with the effect that video and/or audio are stopped. A refresh / rebuild (F5) fixes this reliably.

 

Remember to use the mouse and the favourites menu... Do not use the cursor keys (up/down) for favourites zapping; I was unable to switch "too quickly" via the keyboard.

 

- Serious problem: I have four instances of the nVidia codec running at the moment (four working NVDVD icons in the try area). Might be related to the switching issue above (yes, this indeed seems to be the case). Probably a side-effect: The "Display" menu item is disabled (oh, and speaking of "Display" - this seems to be working better than ever on W2K3 server). Restarting DVBViewer closes all instances of the nVidia codec. Seems you are loosing track of codecs, somewhere.

 

BTW, 'Optic affected support (JAWS)' should probably read "Enable support for visually-impaired users (JAWS)'

 

Config: W2K3 Standard Server, P4 2.4 GHz (HT), 1 GB RAM, nVidia codecs in overlay mode, some nVidia MX440 card, Skystar 2.6B, 4.2.11 drivers + DLLs (I decided to roll back from 4.3.0 for now).

 

It would be quite nice if the status information in the "DVB Source Properties" window could be documented. "Video" and "Audio" are self-explanatory, but what about

- "Error"

- "Discontinuities" ("3" being displayed for me right now)

- Queued Video Buffers (fluctuates between 40 and 60 for me)

- Latency - a setting that can be changed?

- Graph / Orig(inal?) PTS

- Pre Audio Packets

- Auto Update vs Manual Update

 

If things keep working the way they are, ditching both the DVBViewer source filter and marfi's source filter should be no problem.

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Guest Lars_MQ

One thing about the new sourcefilter:

 

If you use vmr and the OSD, it's much cleaner und nicer graphics now, because the filter now reports the correct mediasize :bye: Marfi still has his issues with the mediasize...

 

lars

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Switching to VIVA PLUS yielded working audio, but

blocky video, spread over three columns, as if the

video codec had not adjusted properly to the new

resolution (F5 = fix)

 

Works here with InterVideo and NVida 3.0. Try to enable "Automatic Video Detection" under Settings\ Options\ DirectShow Filters\ Source Filter. This checkbox (and automatic audio detection) now also applies to the DVBViewer Filter 2.0 (formerly only to Marfis Filter). It lets the source filter dis- and reconnect itself on channel change, thus negotiating a new connection media type with the decoder. Slows down channel switching a bit, however.

 

It's possible to channel-switch "too quickly" using

the Favourites menu items

 

Will be checked

 

It would be quite nice if the status information in the "DVB Source Properties" window could be documented.

 

Mainly intended for debugging purpose (and for posting screenshots, if something doesn't work).

 

Discontinuities are missing transport stream packets. The source filter keeps track of a continuity counter in the TS headers. Usually occurs when the graph is rebuilt (something that still has to be looked after), but shouldn't occur later on. If it does, it indicates reception problems or processor overload.

 

Queued Buffers: The number of 8 kb buffers that are waiting for being fetched by the decoder/renderer. Usually video has to be buffered, since it arrives earlier than audio (considering a longer processing time in STBs)

 

PTS: Presentation Time Stamp. Every sample comes with a PTS, based on the PCR (Program Clock Reference) sent by the broadcasters. The source filter must convert the original PTS to a stream time, that is based on the filter graph's reference clock.

 

Latency: Can be changed (becomes valid after rebuilding the graph). A value that is added when calculating the stream time PTS from the original PTS. It considers a certain latency within the filter graph (= the time for buffering and processing the data until it reaches the renderer filters). Increasing this value shifts the presentation time to future, which may result in more buffering. Decreasing it accelerates channel switching a bit, but may lead to disturbances, if the renderer gets a sample with a PTS of e.g. 00:00:00.500 at 00:00:00.600. Then it will drop it or try to catch up.

 

Pre Audio Packets: The source filter uses the original audio PTS for calculating the stream time PTS. Furthermore, the audio renderer provides the filter graph's reference clock, by using the soundcard's hardware clock. In order to create a stable time base and to get the audio renderer going, the source filter first processes some audio packets (while video data is queued).

 

The default Latency and Pre Audio Packets are heuristic values. Since we weren't really sure how to set them, we've provided a possibility to adjust them.

 

After all I can tell you: Dealing with time stamps and reference clocks in a DirectShow filter is a real drag... :bye:

 

Auto/Manual Update: Try and you will see. Manual Update facilitates screenshots.

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"Automatic Video Detect" has always been on for me, regardless of the the source filter I have been using.

 

I noticed the blocky display only once and am trying to reproduce this now switching between channels with uncommon configurations (CNN comes to mind) - to no avail. It's probably not specific to VIVA PLUS; I noticed a similar problem (with 2.2 RC1) watching one specific programme on an otherwise perfectly working station. Ah! There is is. Now on VIVA! Please don't ask how to produce it. Might be switching randomly between most excellent, superb quality stations such vox, sat1, viva. Screenshot of the source filter properties page attached. An F5 fixed that promptly.

 

Last time I tried some nVidia 3.0 codecs with 2.2 RC1 they performed horribly in the presence of channel switching, so I very quickly rolled back to 2.55. Has this situation improved? Do your 3.0 codecs (any version info?) have any perceptible advantage over the 2.55 codecs which, apart from giving me major headaches with mono audio programmes, are working to my utmost satisfaction?

 

Thank you for providing some background on the source filter properties page - having glanced over the DX docs a long time ago, I feel your pain ;-)

 

Latency, BTW, can be set to negative values. This is not intended, I suppose?

 

I tried "Manual Update" and it influences updating of status data on the properties page - audio and video appear to be unaffected? Easily taking screenshots from within the application would be an interesting feature.

 

Extremely minor issue: Try switching channels with the "DVB Source Properties" page open; you will notice that sometimes, but only sometimes, data updating will survive the switch. Most often, though, the "Filter State" will stay at "Stopped" which is somewhat irritating when you see this wunderbar video image ;-) I understand that making this work across switches probably is too much to ask for, but I would like to suggest that the properties page should display some "Please close and reopen window" text to indicate that the data shown is invalid.

 

Another minor defect in the DVBViewer UI I just noticed: There is a "Settings -> Playrate" sub-menu item which is always present but always disabled. How about not showing it at all? ;-)

 

Ah, and one more - not reproducible currently, though:

 

Switch channels until you are blue in your face or until a switch does not "complete". An "incomplete switch" would be indicated by the status bar showing the new channel name, the OSD having flashed the name, too - but without audio and video being shown.

 

Now "View -> Filters -> DVB Source". The filter properties page will show, but then the complete DVBViewer application *might* hang.

 

This is very difficult to produce, though - and, as mentioned above, I cannot reliably reproduce this.

 

All in all, I have yet to notice a single serious issue in DVBViewer 2.3 (beta) - and, on top, I like it better than 2.2 RC1!

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I tried "Manual Update" and it influences updating of status data on the properties page - audio and video appear to be unaffected?

No, this function only updates the information when clicking "update" instead of continuously updating the PTS. As Griga said: Useful für screenshots. :bye:

 

Bye, Oliver

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Try switching channels with the "DVB Source Properties" page open; you will notice that sometimes, but only sometimes, data updating will survive the switch.

 

Whenever the graph is rebuilt, the source filter instance the property page refers to doesn't exist anymore. OK, some hint would be nice...

 

Latency, BTW, can be set to negative values. This is not intended, I suppose?

 

It is intended. Since the MSDN docs don't enlighten very much, getting the PTS right was/is a highly experimental thing.

 

"Automatic Video Detect" has always been on for me

 

Then try to switch it off :bye: maybe the initial discontinuities in conjunction with reconnection confuses the video decoder. Usually the NVidia doesn't need reconnection to get the picture right.

 

Do your 3.0 codecs (any version info?) have any perceptible advantage over the 2.55 codecs

 

Never had the 2..55, only an earlier version, which showed a few problematic issues. The 3.0 seems to be more stable.

 

apart from giving me major headaches with mono audio programmes

 

Mickey Mouse Voices? They should no longer occur with the new source filter, if "Automatic Audio Detection" is ticked.

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Do your 3.0 codecs (any version info?) have any perceptible advantage over the 2.55 codecs ?

 

Never had the 2..55, only an earlier version, which showed a few problematic issues. The 3.0 seems to be more stable.

It's version 3.00.52.00. There is no longer a problem when switching between channels with different resolution (extreme pixelation, could be resolved by rebuilding the graph, though).

 

Bye, Oliver

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Interesting. I just got myself some NVDVD codecs (NVIDIA ForceWare Multimedia) which show version information of "4.0.20.0" for both audio and video. And I was ignorant enough of any potential problems to actually install them.

 

These seem to be working fine for all video streams, mono audio, stereo audio, but do not seem to like switching of AC3 audio streams terribly much. Well, "did not like". Seems as if these things needed to get used to my system? Most odd. But, hey, who am I to complain...

 

I'll try running with these codecs, the new DVBViewer source filter, and any "auto-detect" settings OFF for a little while.

 

Channel-switching times have gone down significantly, in particular when switching between "normal" and AC3 channels (cycle through, for instance, Pro7 AC3, CNN, 3sat, Sat.1 AC3 and so on)

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by the way nvidia just released their nvidia dvd decoder (but there is no trail out there, so you have to buy it)

 

Hey, the release is great, new technisat-driver are working perfectly with the new dvbsource-filter, and athe new nice menu style :bye: haa, nice :bye:

 

Danke !

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but do not seem to like switching of AC3 audio streams terribly much.

 

Well, I never got happy with the NVidia Audio Decoder - e.g. it doesn't allow to use the Audiorecorder Plugin. After disconnecting it in order to insert another sample dumper for audio data grabbing, it won't reconnect.

 

So I'd recommend to use the Moonlight Odio Dekoda, InterVideo or AC3 Filter.

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Try switching channels with the "DVB Source Properties" page open; you will notice that sometimes, but only sometimes, data updating will survive the switch.

 

OK, I fixed that one - the property page now automatically closes when it becomes invalid due to rebuilding the filtergraph. Believe it or not - it took me hours to find out how to do it.

 

The first simple idea was to call something that closes the window in the filter's destructor. But it never gets called as long as the window is present, because the property page holds a reference to the sourcefilter interface... and COM objects live and die with their interfaces - kind of deadlock. After lengthy researches I found a BaseClass function that is called when the filtergraph is killed, and by overriding it and adding something like frmPropertyPage.Free I got some nice AVs, since the MS property sheet framework around the form relies on its presence... :bye: finally

 

PostMessage(GetParent(GetParent(Handle)),WM_COMMAND,IDCANCEL,0);

 

did the trick. Don't ask me why I have to send a message to the form's *Grandparent* - just a trial and error thing. Incredible how Microsoft manages to make simple things like closing a window complicated...

 

Anyway - whoever wants this as an DVBViewer Filter update will find it in the Service Center.

 

P.S. This one fixed too:

 

It's possible to channel-switch "too quickly" using

the Favourites menu items:

 

with a simple:

 

procedure SetChannel;
begin
 if InsideSetChannel then exit;
 //Now try to get in between here by switching too quickly :)
 try
   InsideSetChannel := true;
   //....
 finally
   InsideSetChannel := false;
 end;
end;

 

Since it's not a major bug, Christian won't update, I assume...

Edited by Griga
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Good news! :-)

 

Regarding the SetChannel() fix, I'd rather prefer something that updates the UI, too.

 

I guess that the new menu code is driven by action items, so additonally disabling any favourites in the "favourites" action list (my assumption of what the GUI code looks like ;-)) (my disabling the action list itself) would provide sufficient feedback to the user that any ongoing channel switch has not yet completed.

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Just downloaded 2.3beta and the new VideoRec and TSPlayer. I was hoping tsplayer would play ATSC HDTV .ts streams from the hard drive, but no luck, it "Can't find valid Video\Audio Streams". Decoder is the new NVidia DVD Decoder v.1.0.58. On the other hand, the Elecard demultiplexer can identify the streams and Mplayer 10 can play them using nvidia decoder. I hope i'm not off topic here, i only post cause you say that in this version there is ATSC support (but only for the channel section of DVBViewer???)

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The DVBViewer 2.3 itself should handle it. Try this:

 

Simply select the DVBSource filter and give as parameter filedvb://dvbs:filename or filedvb://atsc:filename, filedvb://cable:filename resp. filedvb://dvbt:filename.

Bye

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Can this new beta version be install in a new folder, so I can test it and still keep my current version. (It there any seting/reg-key entry that may cause problem to have 2 seperate version of DBViewer)?

rgds

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I'm running DVBViewer 2.3Beta, DBVviewer Filter 2.0 and VR Plugin 2.9 for a week now and it works perfectly. No issues encountered so far. Congratulations.

 

I'm using the tool chain TV Genial -> DVBViewer with VR-Plugin -> TMPGEnc DVD Author to generate DVDs. This work's great at all, even with AC3. Just select the videos in TV Genial, put the PC in hibernate mode and leave. It's guaranteed you won't miss any record. That's what I call a perfect Video Recorder.

 

Just a small request for future versions: a SETUP.INI switch to select the behavour after record (close app, standby, hibernate, etc..). Currently I have to update this manually in DVBViewer after programming the records in TV Genial. I would like to have a default "hibernate".

 

Stefan

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Just a small request for future versions: a SETUP.INI switch to select the behavour after record (close app, standby, hibernate, etc..). Currently I have to update this manually in DVBViewer after programming the records in TV Genial. I would like to have a default "hibernate".

that's already scheduled for further releases

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Well, I don't know if it's allowed to ask such a question, so I won't get to specific.

Did you cross-check the 2.3ß with third party plugins?

Seems as if there are some issues in rebuilding the graph correctly - no probs with the 2.2RC1 though.

Tested with DVBViewer Filter, DVBViewer classic filter and Marfi's filter - problem consists.

 

Furthermore I noticed that starting the program with Marfi's filter selected or changing the directshow filter while Marfi's filter is selected results in a:

Warning

SkyStar2 already used by other program. Use Skystar2?

Oh ja, Marfi's SkyAVC.ax v1.0.4.3148. Any suggestions?

 

And I guess there needs to bee a bit of a finetuning in the error handling. Changing the directshow filter while its property page is still open (let's say, from CL audio codec to IV audio codec) and closing the obsolet property page afterwards forces DVBViewer to crash. Would be "a nice to have" if that would be prevented ...

 

 

Now some more questions that might be OT - what's about the "packet size"?

As you might know, some plugins require a packet size of 184, but it seems to be fixed to 920 in DVBViewer. Any plans to change that in the future?

 

And - as I already started with feature requests - are there any chances to integrate a screen capture button or is there any plugin for snapshots planned?

 

Thanx ahead,

mittern8

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Changing the directshow filter while its property page is still open (let's say, from CL audio codec to IV audio codec) and closing the obsolet property page afterwards forces DVBViewer to crash.

 

Download the latest DVBViewer Filter 2.0 from the Service Center. It closes the property page automatically when the graph is rebuilt - as already mentioned in this thread. What about reading before writing?

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What about reading before writing?

The answer is quite simple - because I stop reading when you start discussing program code details and because I expect a known "bug" will result in an updated packet instead of a "patchwork thingy".

 

Maybe this might help you to understand why I didn't notice your sentences

Anyway - whoever wants this as an DVBViewer Filter update will find it in the Service Center.

and

Since it's not a major bug, Christian won't update, I assume...

between all those "BaseClasses", "frmPropertyPage.Free", "PostMessage(GetParent(GetParent(Handle)),WM_COMMAND,IDCANCEL,0);" statements.

 

I'm not a coder, but just a customer - so no reason to feel offended, I assume ...

 

But anyway, thanx for your kindly support!

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Guest hackbart

Dear Mittern8,

 

while reading between the lines i suppose i know which third party plugin you mean. To your question as customer: The DVBViewer sends 188 byte packages to each filter, so its not the fault by the DVBViewer if your S*****a buffers 940 bytes (which determines it kicks the 4 byte header from each package).

 

Christian

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Well, you hit the spot!

Thanx for that info!

It's not a great disadvantage for me, I've just been curious.

By the way, I'm very happy with your program and your affords (this includes also the affords made by the boards staff, Griga, Hartwig, Klausing, Lars, ...) - although I might ask stupid questions from time to time.

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Guest hackbart

well, not completely replacing but sooner or later i will. The reason is that the filter (even if marfi did a great job) does not fit into the current structure. I plan (resp. i did) adding a couple of dvb classes which offers:

1. skystar2/airstar/cablestar/atsc devices

2. multicast devices

3. unicast devices

4. filesource devices

 

All four classes are acting like a real dvb card (even if only the first one is a real one). This means you don't need a dvbcard to have the look and feel inside the program and the best is it offers systems you would not receive regionally (like atsc in my case). Sooner or later it might be also able to integrate other cards without too much work (only 4 functions have to be implemented to do this).

The SkyAVC is just too much wrapped with the Skystar2 that almost 3 of those classes mentioned above are not working.

 

Christian

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hallo everyone,

 

first of all thanks for the new version! It works great and TimeShift works better now than before (DVBViewer doesn't hang anymore when skipping forward).

 

But there is one downside :radscorpion: I tried to record some music clips on TangoTV today and it crashed twice - randomly - I didn't do anything special in the background - it just crashed.

Tell me what information you could need to fix that bug, then I'll help where I can.

 

Padde.

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All right - the problem still exists - but not on every station - crashes happened on MTV (528x576, 25fps, 192kbps / 48,0 kHz) and TangoTV (720x576, 25fps, 192kbps / 48,0 kHz) so far.

 

No, my CPU isn't HT capable. It's an AMD AthlonXP 3000+ on an MSI mainboard with NForce2 chipset.

Recording from these stations worked in the 2.2 RC version, but makes trouble in 2.3 beta.

 

Klausing's codec detector program gives the following information on my system:

MPEG2 Video Decoders:

---------------------

InterVideo Video Decoder: 00700000

DVD Express Video Decoder: 00600000

 

MPEG Audio Decoders:

---------------------

AC3Filter: 40000000

ffdshow Audio Decoder: 3FFFFFFF

MPEG Audio Decoder: 03680001

InterVideo Audio Decoder: 00700000

Nero Digital Audio Decoder: 00600000

DVD Express Audio Decoder: 00600000

 

Setup.ini and DVBViewer.log are attached.

 

Padde.

files.zip

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what for setting do you have in ffdshow ?

 

That's a good question! Especially have a look at the FFDShow configuration/property page, codecs section. Is "Raw Video" enabled?

 

If yes, disable it. If not - does it make any difference if you select other decoders, e.g. InterVideo audio? Which AC3 Filter version do you use?

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DVBViewer is set to use AC3Filter (V 0.70b). I don't use ffdshow with DVBViewer AFAIK, but could be wrong.

 

That doesn't matter. FFDShow can come in by itself. Please read again, and this time more carefully!!!

 

Especially have a look at the FFDShow configuration/property page, codecs section. Is "Raw Video" enabled?

 

Go to start menu, FFDShow...

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