HOWTO: Sky through DVB-S card within MCE *Part 3*

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Does anyone use a Harmony remote with Media Centre? I think my standard MCE remote that has done me proud for about 6 years is starting to struggle with button pushes and I thought about replacing it with a Harmony one (second hand probably!).

Thanks,
Ben.

I've a Harmony One and 1100. Both work fine with this setup.

There's two versions of the One, the One and One+. The latter uses a web configuration tool, which is fairly new, and I don't think has all the options of the original tool.
 
Hi nzsjb, I recently clean installed my HTPC and put on EPG Collector with Fixpack 7. This seems to have been causing a .NET crash with DVBLink Server in both versions 3.2 and 4.1.

I saw some posts on an Australian forum from the early days of development and wondered if you had isolated and fixed the problem - or indeed if it was a known issue to you?

I don't really understand it as before the rebuild of my HTPC EPG collector had been working perfectly.

Thanks
 
Hi all,

First report back on the "Oscam only S*y UK solution". One week in and it's working perfectly. EMMs updated this morning so all is well. I've had a few pms so I thought I'd do a longish post and share my setup. My needs are particular so if you want to do something different I'm probably not knowledgable enough to help. If you want a similar setup to mine, the instructions below will work a treat!

/snip

Hi Neil, tried to follow your guide to the letter and didn't have any success whatsoever.

Was using the same PLI image and OSCAM binary you'd listed, and was able to get to the point where I was able to select "oscam" as the cardserver. But no encrypted channels available on the DM500. Even used your config files line for line, to be sure I'd not introduced any problems of my own making!

I checked that the OSCAM binary and plimgr file had the same case. Is there a script or something that needs to be run to execute the OSCAM binary that I'm missing.

The whole DM and Linux side of things hasn't clicked with me yet - so might be missing something obvious.

Thanks
 
No known problems with v3.1 with fixpack 7 and DVBLink 3.2 or 4.

Two things to check.

Do you have .Net 4 installed and have you installed the plugin correctly by using EPG Centre to transfer it to the correct TVSource EPG directory.

What is the actual error you are getting?
 
Hi nzsjb, thanks for coming back so quickly.

Definitely all installed properly and all updates for .NET 4 installed and downloaded. Reinstalled the HTPC twice, once from Windows 7 original media and once from Windows 7 SP1 media just to make sure!

I'll need to dig out the logs as my HTPC is occupied at the moment, but will let you know. They are not directly related to EPG Collector however, but a .NET event and a DVBLink Server event. The reason I suspect it's EPG Collector is that the crash occurred immediately a scheduled collection had completed.

I'll get back to you with the logs/events I have, but have uninstalled for the time being as it was crashing the TV practically every hour, so making it unusable.
 
Did you copy the plugin across after you installed fixpack 7? Check the file date/size in the TVSource directory. It should be 3/11/2011 time 12:28pm and size 88.0kb.

If that's correct check the EPG Collector log to see if it actually ran and if it collected any data.
 
Forgot to mention the log will still be there even if you have uninstalled and you don't need to uninstall. Just disable the plugin in the TVSource configuration.
 
Hi Neil, tried to follow your guide to the letter and didn't have any success whatsoever.

Was using the same PLI image and OSCAM binary you'd listed, and was able to get to the point where I was able to select "oscam" as the cardserver. But no encrypted channels available on the DM500. Even used your config files line for line, to be sure I'd not introduced any problems of my own making!

I checked that the OSCAM binary and plimgr file had the same case. Is there a script or something that needs to be run to execute the OSCAM binary that I'm missing.

The whole DM and Linux side of things hasn't clicked with me yet - so might be missing something obvious.

Thanks

Hi,

have you tried viewing the oscam config page: for example, http://192.168.1.5:8087, where this is the ipaddress of your DB.

entering the username/password oscam?

What does this show, does it show the card reader has found entitlements etc?

Tony
 
Did you copy the plugin across after you installed fixpack 7? Check the file date/size in the TVSource directory. It should be 3/11/2011 time 12:28pm and size 88.0kb.

If that's correct check the EPG Collector log to see if it actually ran and if it collected any data.

Thanks nzsjb,

Yes I installed everything including the fixpack, turned off UAC and then ran EPG Collector. I used the tool to save to the source\EPG folder. I have four tuners and saved it to each one (could this be the cause of my problem)?

The last part of the log looks like this:

07:10:30:302 Station: Sky Intro (2,2012,4525) Start: 22/02/2012 06:00:00 End: 29/02/2012 12:00:00 Records: 29 Overlaps: 0 Gaps: 0
07:10:30:302 <S> Summary: Total Stations = 615 Total Gaps = 15 Total Overlaps = 1 Total Time = 00:01:20.7601131
07:10:30:312 Deleting any existing version of output file
07:10:30:312 Creating plugin output file: C:\Program Files (x86)\DVBLogic\DVBLink2\Sources\Sky_3\EPG\EPG Collector Plugin.xml
07:10:32:572 <C> Finished - created 124082 EPG entries
07:10:32:572 <C> Exiting with code = 0
07:10:32:612 Plugin notified that collection has completed with code 0
07:10:32:672 Get EPG data called for plugin monitor 2
07:10:32:672 Get EPG data buffer address=0 size=0
07:10:32:672 Replying with buffer size = 46315497
07:10:32:672 Get EPG data called for plugin monitor 2
07:10:32:672 Get EPG data buffer address=1501036576 size=46315497
07:10:32:672 Passing 46315497 bytes
07:10:32:702 Data transfer complete
07:10:32:702 Plugin monitor 2 has been deleted
07:10:32:782 <C> Finished - created 124082 EPG entries
07:10:32:892 <C> Exiting with code = 0
07:10:32:912 Plugin notified that collection has completed with code 0
07:10:32:942 Get EPG data called for plugin monitor 1
07:10:32:942 Get EPG data buffer address=0 size=0
07:10:32:942 Replying with buffer size = 46315497
07:10:32:942 Get EPG data called for plugin monitor 1
07:10:32:942 Get EPG data buffer address=1601372192 size=46315497
07:10:32:942 Passing 46315497 bytes
07:10:32:972 Data transfer complete
07:10:32:972 Plugin monitor 1 has been deleted
07:10:33:152 <C> Finished - created 124082 EPG entries
07:10:33:152 <C> Exiting with code = 0
07:10:33:162 Plugin notified that collection has completed with code 0
07:10:33:242 Get EPG data called for plugin monitor 3
07:10:33:242 Get EPG data buffer address=0 size=0
07:10:33:262 Replying with buffer size = 46315497
07:10:33:262 Get EPG data called for plugin monitor 3
07:10:33:272 Get EPG data buffer address=2044264480 size=46315497
07:10:33:322 Passing 46315497 bytes
07:10:33:352 Data transfer complete
07:10:33:352 Plugin monitor 3 has been deleted
07:10:34:252 <C> Finished - created 124082 EPG entries
07:10:34:252 <C> Exiting with code = 0
07:10:34:262 Plugin notified that collection has completed with code 0
07:10:34:272 Get EPG data called for plugin monitor 4
07:10:34:272 Get EPG data buffer address=0 size=0
07:10:34:272 Replying with buffer size = 46315497

And at 07:10:33 I get a Windows Application EventID1026 .NET Runtime.
Application: DVBLinkServer.exe

Framework Version: v4.0.30319

Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Shortly followed at 07:10:34 with Windows Application EventID1000. Application Error.

Faulting application name: DVBLinkServer.exe, version: 3.2.1.0, time stamp: 0x4d5bdb20
 
Hi,

have you tried viewing the oscam config page: for example, http://192.168.1.5:8087, where this is the ipaddress of your DB.

entering the username/password oscam?

What does this show, does it show the card reader has found entitlements etc?

Tony

Thanks Tony, no I can't even get the webpage up. From DM500 itself on the softcam settings page it doesn't recognise a card is inserted either.

It's as though it's recognised I've installed the package (perhaps incorrectly) but not executing or it's not reading the config files.
 
Looks like all 4 tuners are running the plugin at the same time and they are all returning the same amount of data so presumably they re collecting the same data.

Try disabling the plugin on all but one of the tuners.
 
Thanks Tony, no I can't even get the webpage up. From DM500 itself on the softcam settings page it doesn't recognise a card is inserted either.

It's as though it's recognised I've installed the package (perhaps incorrectly) but not executing or it's not reading the config files.

Hi

have you gone to the cam setup page, and set it as active?

Tony
 
Hi Tony, what do you mean by active?

Blue Button (Softcam setup), Select oscam from cardserver drop down, Red button Restart Cardserver.

Am I missing something?
 
Hi Tony, what do you mean by active?

Blue Button (Softcam setup), Select oscam from cardserver drop down, Red button Restart Cardserver.

Am I missing something?

That should be fine :)

Have you tried using DCC and navigating to the /bin folder, and manually running the oscam executable from there? If not, may be worth giving that a try, and see if you can then access the web page then.

Tony
 
Hi,

Sorry t obe late in replying - been away. Tony has definitely said all that I could have though.

From personal grief, the most likely candidates are:

1. Did you set static ip and does it match what you're trying to enter to view the web page?

2. Did you chmod 755 the binary?

3. Does your newcamd port match what you've put in the acamd config files?

4. Are you definitely using the ppc-tuxbox-linux binary?

5. Did you successfully complete the " touch /var/etc/plimgr/cardservers/oscam" command?


Can't really think of anything else at present. Because I had a spare box, I followed my own instructions exactly and had no rpoblems on the second box. I'm happy to share the binary and Jade image I used if that would help - just let me know.

Regards
 
Hi Neil, thanks.
Followed your instructions to the letter, and even used the same images/binaries you referred to after a bit of hunting around. Even tried other images and binaries with the same result.

In answer to points 1 - 5. With the exception of #3 I'm pretty positive everything was done right. I couldn't get local encryption on the DM500, so never got as far as #3.

I think I'll wipe the box (again) and have another look from scratch at the weekend :)
 
It seems so long ago now that I was trying this on my cloned DB, fortunately my Technomate, once you've got the plugin installed, just works!

However, good luck with it, let us know how you get on!
 
Do people find that their guide is slow to open once/twice a day? (normally the first time it's used that day)

If so have you a work around? It freezes my media centre completely, apart from any video that is currently playing.

I use DVBLink TVSource (3.1.3 or whatever the most current was prior to 4) and EPG Centre/Collector.

I'd hazard a guess that it's windows trying to index the EPG DB?
 
Hi Ben,

what is your system drive on, is it on an SSD? Mine is on an ssd, and there is a slight delay, not much and not so that you'd actually notice, unless you're looking for it. I use digiguide data imported by BSEPG still

HTH
Tony
 
Hi Ben,

what is your system drive on, is it on an SSD? Mine is on an ssd, and there is a slight delay, not much and not so that you'd actually notice, unless you're looking for it. I use digiguide data imported by BSEPG still

HTH
Tony

I've not upgraded to an SSD yet, I'm just running a normal HDD running via SATA. It only seems to lock up the first time you load the guide for the day, after that it's almost instant.

Ben.
 
I've not upgraded to an SSD yet, I'm just running a normal HDD running via SATA. It only seems to lock up the first time you load the guide for the day, after that it's almost instant.

Ben.

Hi Ben

thats also my finding. It seems that the first time you open the guide each day it seems to go through some sort of guide population/indexing task. I simply leave it for a few minutes and then its fine for the rest of the day

edit: im on a 7500rpm 3.5" disk
 
I've been fiddling about with the Performance Monitor this morning to try and see what might be causing Media Centre to freeze up when it opens the guide for the first time. I'm pretty sure it is down to HDD access times/readwrite threads and queue length.

Unfortunately this starts to get out of my area of expertise, so maybe someone else would be able to interpret it better?

The GIF (poor quality, sorry.. I hadn't figured out Data Collection Sets at this point) shows when I first opened the guide today.

The Zip includes data collected from Performance Monitor that you should be able to view yourselves (provided you are running Windows 7 I guess). This is after a restart and shows Media Centre loading and the guide trying to populate.

Any thoughts?

Ben.
 

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@BenRyder - How big is your epg db, mine has a problem of getting up to around 2gb and then eventually causes mce to crash, I run a weekly ObjectStoreRecoveryTask in Task Scheduler which keeps it in check.

have a look at Program Data\Microsoft\eHome\mcepg2-x.db
 
Off the top of my head I don't know and I'm away from my machine at the moment, however I know I rebuilt it within the last couple of weeks so I'd guess around the 500-700mb size. So not too big.

I just wondered if it was a problem experienced by all not using SSD drives.

Ben.
 
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