Weird issue with Live TV on network clients

[klosz007]

support.zipsupport.zipHi,

 

I think it started when I upgraded my PVR server by replacing old MSI Cubi miniPC with Intel NUC. Nothing was reinstalled, I just moved Windows 10 installation to new hardware using disk imaging.

My TV server (PVR) is NUC7i7BNH with TBS5881 USB tuner. It runs DVBViewer 6.4.1 with Media Server 2.1.4.

 

Here's what is working fine:

- I can watch Live TV with DVBViewer on PVR itself (hence TV signal and tuner is good)

- TV programmes are recorded fine and play back fine on DVBViewer on PVR (so as above)

- network clients (PC with DVBViewer 6.1.4 or PCs/other devices like nVidia Shield, with Kodi) can play back TV recordings from PVR fine (so network between clients and PVR is OK I guess and recordings are fine/not corrupted)

 

What is not working... sometimes, sometimes it's OK for a day and then it's bad again the next day:

- I cannot play Live TV on network clients - both Kodi and DVBViewer clients are affected same way. A lot of random block noise, typical for very high bit error rate, sometimes playback stops at all. Completely unusable TV.

 

The most weird thing in it is that when I start DVBViewer on PVR and watch Live TV on it too, everything returns to normal with Live TV on network client !

In other words:

- I start DVBViewer or Kodi on network client and watch Live TV -> very bad image quality, block noise

- in parallel I start DVBViewer on PVR itself and watch Live TV -> everything fine on PVR and on network client (I watch same programme on two screens)

- I close DVBViewer on PVR -> again very bad image quality on network client

 

Any ideas ?

 

I added screenshot of how Live TV looks like on network clients when it's bad.

 

Thanks,

Zbyszek

 

 

support.zip

Edited April 29, 2019 by klosz007
small edits, example image added

[Griga]

vor 14 Stunden schrieb klosz007:

it started when I upgraded my PVR server by replacing old MSI Cubi miniPC with Intel NUC. Nothing was reinstalled, I just moved Windows 10 installation to new hardware using disk imaging.

 

How can you get a properly working system in this way? A new mainboard at least requires new chipset drivers.

 

vor 14 Stunden schrieb klosz007:

sometimes it's OK for a day and then it's bad again the next day:

 

Maybe ok after a reboot, but bad after switching the PC off and restarting it later? Sometimes Windows 10 causes problems, because by default switching the PC off triggers a kind of hibernate mode, so that you don't get a "fresh" system after restart, but rather a continuation of the last session. There are devices / drivers that can't cope with it properly.

 

Generally it seems that your TBS device and the network connection get "out of sync" in some way. Data originating from a DVB device must be processed quickly. If there are delays, data may get lost. The broadcasters don't wait..

 

vor 14 Stunden schrieb klosz007:

when I start DVBViewer on PVR and watch Live TV on it too, everything returns to normal with Live TV on network client !

 

Using DVBViewer as Sat>IP client on the server PC means, that data is sent via localhost (127.0.0.1), which is a very fast network connection. It  seems to adjust the timing somehow. But it hard to tell how and why...

 

[klosz007]

Hi,

 

Of course I had to (re)install a couple of drivers to support new hardware. I just wanted to emphasize that nothing was touched on DVBViewer/RS side. Recordings were not touched either because they were located on external USB 3.0-attached HDD.

 

I hope I eventually found a sloution to it but it costed me a lot of time experminenting. Nothing was changed hardware-side except the miniPC (and its PSU) alone - same antenna cable, same USB tuner, same network/USB cables, switches etc. etc. As with all weird issues, the root cause is in the hardware.

 

The key that opened my eyes was (sad) finding that actually some of the recent recordings were corrupted in the same way too (but corruption it was in the middle of them, as mentioned the issue comes and goes periodically without touching anything). So it has proven that something is wrong on the USB tuner side.

 

Those timely experiments lead me to conclusion that tuner is somehow incompatible with 'new' Intel USB 3.0 controller in Intel NUC. Intel USB 3.0 port(s) on Intel NUC are somehow 'weaker' or less tolerant than Intel USB 3.0 ports on the older MSI miniPC. And there are simply (too many) transmission errors.

I tried other USB 2.0 A-B cables that I have at hand but I could only make it worse (with the shortest 1.5m cable that I have TBS5881 wasn't detected at all !). Sadly I have no shorter cables (all other ones, including TBS original one, are 1.8m). I have to get a shorter one.

 

Why I'm certain the issue is there ? I connected TBS tuner to USB 3.0 port on NUC via 4-port USB 3.0 hub, which ten acts as a signal condiitoner only (other ports on hub are vacant). Then this issue instantly went away completely...