Windows 7 Live TV Freezing

[PsyVision]

Hi,

I am using 7MC to watch Live TV. When I change to a channel the picture loads and freezes on the first frame whilst the time counter/progress bar continues to count up. If I leave it to go for a few seconds and then skip playback back by clicking on the bar it then plays the TV channel fine.

Has anyone else had a similar problem? The TV card is a Nova TD 500 PCI and it is receiving a strong signal (i.e. the picture displays fine once it is actually playing).

I took a recording last night and the first 30 seconds was the same picture over and over until the point that I skipped playback back and the recording was then fine onwards.

 

[bagg3rs]

Could be hard drive not keeping up with the buffer, If you have another drive you could change live buffer to another drive? or follow the hackmc7 gude to use a usb flash drive.

 

[PsyVision]

Hmm sounds possible although the drive isn't too old. I'm hoping to change to a SSD once cash allows. I will try a flash drive tonight, thanks!

 

[spyder viewer]

Tell us your hardware.

 

[PsyVision]

Hmm so I symlinked to a USB drive and that hasn't resolved the problem, if anything it is maybe a little worse, I get a black screen instead of a frozen first frame. Oddly enough the BBC channel showed the Red Button logo this evening while the football was on but the picture was black.

I'm going to remove the symlink and see what the results are but I'm not expecting much change.

My machine specs are:

AMD 64-bit X2 Dual Core 4600+ (2.4GHz)
Asus M4A785D-M PRO Motherboard
2GB Corsair RAM
250GB HD with only about 20GB used
Windows 7 RTM 32-bit

Minimum software running as its a nearly fresh build, all fully patched and up-to-date.

Edit - as a further note, pausing the TV and then playing it does not resolve the problem, only skipping back.

 

[bagg3rs]

I doubt its the hardware looking at your setupm, (to remove the symlink just delete the shortcut)

It must be drivers or software.

Do you have reclock installed, I had a strange issue that just popped up. I ran reclock config removed reclock link to Media Centre and that fixed it. At first I thought I had broken something when playing with codecs. basically the picture would freeze and then I would only get sound.

Have you installed any codec packs?

 

[PsyVision]

Thanks for the reply, any help with this is greatly appreciated as I'm not sure what could cause it as it's such an odd problem.

I don't think it's my system based on the specs either - I should have stated its an ATI 4200 based chipset with no dedicated GFX card.

I haven't got reclock installed, will look into that now, do some reading and give it a try tonight.

Codec wise, I've setup my system as set out by Daveybryce with nothing extra on top so nothing out of the ordinary. The Nova TD-500 driver is the most recent release by Hauppauge and the general consensus from others appear to be that they are very good/reliable.

I'm ordering a signal amplifier today to see if this is the problem, I think the signal is okay to the tuner card but this will make sure. I need one for the bedroom in my flat so if it doesn't make any difference then it isn't wasted.

 

[jcsp]

I have a similar problem, both with recorded tv and occasionally live on the extenders and the main rig just skiping back once fixes my issue when it happens but, if there is some software/codec issue causing this it may be an idea to tyr and narrow own the culprit?

 

[PsyVision]

I doubt its the hardware looking at your setupm, (to remove the symlink just delete the shortcut)

It must be drivers or software.

Do you have reclock installed, I had a strange issue that just popped up. I ran reclock config removed reclock link to Media Centre and that fixed it. At first I thought I had broken something when playing with codecs. basically the picture would freeze and then I would only get sound.

Have you installed any codec packs?

I'm not sure what you mean by "removed reclock link to media center"? I presume you mean you hooked up to reclock by watching tv and then stopped and didnt hook up again?

Either way, I started watching TV and hooked up ReClock. I then double clicked the task tray icon and under Media infos it says:

Video stream: No video stream found
Audio stream 48000 Hz, 2 channel(s), 16 bits PCM

Renderer infos shows EVR for Video.

Can someone who has working TV run ReClock for me and see what it says for them? And does anyone know why it says no video and how I might go about correcting this?

 

[Cafe Racer]

Try whacking the shared video memory up to the maximum.

 

[PsyVision]

Can someone confirm that UMA Frame Buffer Size is the correct setting mentioned by Cafe Racer?

I have increased that setting to maximum (1GB) with no change in results.

 

[RitchieTheBrit]

I can sympathise PsyVision. If I pause/skip back the screen fades to black for no reason I can fathom. I can rewind fine, and this doesn't happen on channel change.

Never found a cause...

 

[PsyVision]

Hmmm not comforting at all

Do you think it's worth either doing a system restore to when i had just installed windows or a fresh install? It would be easy enough to do as all my data is on a NAS.

 

[springtide]

If I was a guessing man, I would say H/W and/or signal strength.

I have noticed in the past that some h/w is better at recovering from lack of data than others. It's also worth mentioning that, from the tuners I've tried, they seem to need a better siginal than the TV.

And there's always the removal of the card, remove all the drivers, and reinstall - always worth a try.

 

[PsyVision]

Thanks for the help guys!

I've got a signal amplifier on the way which I will be hooking up as the TD-500 takes two inputs.

Anyway, I used a system restore last night, I went back to just after installing windows, re-installed my ATI drivers and the Hauppauge driver.... AND IT WORKS!!

The picture was a little choppy so I think it needs a boost still - the one on my main freeview box is fine but my HTPC runs from the aerial out on the set top box. With the help of the booster I think I will have it sorted!

I'm presuming that something that was installed after caused it to break. These were:

ffdshow
Media Center Classic
Haali Splitter
Media Browser
Tunder Free MCE
VIA Sound Driver
Realtek Sound Driver

I will start reinstalling components following Davey's guide again creating restore points along the way and see if/when it breaks