Random Reception Issues

[grayman001]

Hi,

I am having some random reception issues. I live in Australia so the finals are on at the moment for AFL. Couldn't watch as it kept fluttering and making that random noise as it tries to sort itself out. The funny thing is soon as it goes to an ad break everything becomes normal again. The game comes back on and the same thing happens. It is also happening this morning with NFL. Both the AFL and NFL are obviously streamed live

Also if I am uploading something from my computer, again the reception will go bad and same if I turn the microwave on. The microwave is a new one isn't old.

All my devices are on the 5GHz network. I am using a hdhomerun tuner. I watch everything through Kodi however this morning when NFL was on I quit out of Kodi and tried the MythFrontEnd and had the same issue as I do within Kodi. So i suspect it might be a configuration issue or not really sure?

My router is situated at the back in my dining room. It is more then 3feet from my hdhomerun tuner.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[grayman001]

Any update on this? It's happening to just a normal TV station at the moment with a movie on yet every other station is fine? And then same as before an ad comes on and it's fine again

[pvr4me]

Any update on this? It's happening to just a normal TV station at the moment with a movie on yet every other station is fine? And then same as before an ad comes on and it's fine again

If you use mythfrontend, perhaps the log will indicate what is happening. Start up the frontend, play until you experience the issue and then quit mythfrontend. The all-in-one installer directs Myth to store logs in /opt/dvr/var/log/mythtv.27 -- look for the most recent file and attach the whole file to your next posting.

Craig
(But I'll bet that the issue is just wifi congestion or interference. Wired really is superior.)

[grayman001]

Thanks for the reply mate. I turned off all my devices with wifi and still the same issue. What puzzles me is it is only the one channel which is 7MATE. Every other channel is fine. So if it was wifi congestion wouldn't it be happening to every other channel? Also what puzzles me is when it goes to an add its fine. However when the movie/sport or whatever is on at the time comes back on and the reception goes really bad.

[pvr4me]

Thanks for the reply mate. I turned off all my devices with wifi and still the same issue. What puzzles me is it is only the one channel which is 7MATE. Every other channel is fine. So if it was wifi congestion wouldn't it be happening to every other channel? Also what puzzles me is when it goes to an add its fine. However when the movie/sport or whatever is on at the time comes back on and the reception goes really bad.

Thanks for the log. It shows that Myth tried for 90 seconds to prebuffer and decode frames from the stream with no success. Viz:

Code: Select all

2015-09-28 13:53:54.987002 N [455/1811] CoreContext mythplayer.cpp:2133 (PrebufferEnoughFrames) - Player(0): Waited 2182ms for video buffers AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAuLP
2015-09-28 13:53:55.073630 E [455/73239] Decoder avformatdecoder.cpp:4759 (ProcessAudioPacket) - AFD: Unknown audio decoding error

The following link seems to show there are a cluster of transmitters near Chatswood:

http://ozdigitaltv.com/transmitters/NSW ... Willoughby

Can you receive other channels from that cluster? Is your antenna designed to receive the frequency they are transmitting on? (I notice they are the lowest frequency of the group listed on the above page.)

Do you have any reports of success or failure with MythTV and that channel? I have another case where a US broadcaster seems to be transmitting an out-of-spec MPEG2 stream that Myth can't decode. I guess it is conceivable that your broadcaster could also be broken.

Craig

[grayman001]

Sorry mate not sure what you mean? I can receive every other channel without any issues. Its just the one channel 7MATE. But then when an ad comes on its fine. Why would it do that? I will have a look when I get home.

If I switch to say just normal TV without running through the tuner everything is fine. But soon as switch back to Mythtv it goes bad again.

What you mean by success or failure? It used to work fine its only recently that it has started happening.

[grayman001]

Same issue mate. Every other channel is fine. Just 7MATE that is unwatchable.

[pvr4me]

Sorry mate not sure what you mean? I can receive every other channel without any issues. Its just the one channel 7MATE. But then when an ad comes on its fine. Why would it do that? I will have a look when I get home.

If I switch to say just normal TV without running through the tuner everything is fine. But soon as switch back to Mythtv it goes bad again.

What you mean by success or failure? It used to work fine its only recently that it has started happening.

OK, I didn't know that it worked before and then became a problem. The issue may be that something changed on your side or on the broadcaster's side. When I asked about success or failure, I meant have you searched the web for other people's experience. I don't live in Australia--let alone Sydney--so I don't pay attention to local issues. If other Myth users can still record/play 7MATE, then it may be an OS X-specific problem. Conversely, it may have nothing to do with MacPorts.

Please run the standard SiliconDust network test. From your earlier posting, I can't tell what physical channel your problem channel, 7MATE, is on. I presume you know?

Stop mythbackend, then from Terminal issue the following commands:

Code: Select all

mythdhdomerun_config ffffffff set /tuner1/channel auto:42 # replace "42" with your actual channel number
mythdhdomerun_config ffffffff save /tuner1 null

Let this run for at least 15 minutes. Every second, the program will print a single character. A period (".") means no errors. Other characters indicate problems.

After 15 minutes, stop the test by hitting Control-C. Please copy the output and post it here. When finished, either power-cycle the HDHR or send it the following command:

Code: Select all

 mythdhdomerun_config ffffffff set /tuner1/channel none

Documentation for these commands is at:
http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/hd ... opment.pdf

Craig

[grayman001]

Okay I think I have this right. Not the best at this stuff. Has to be channel 5 as 7MATE is listed under that channel Program 1379 73 7mate. All the other channels for 7 are listed under there.

These are the commands I ran:
hdhomerun_config 1221361C set /tuner1/channel auto:5
hdhomerun_config 1221361C save /tuner1 null

Soon as I ran it in the HDHomeRun it came up with "ERROR: communication error"

So not sure if I did that right?

Output was this:
nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn^C
-- Video statistics --
148324 packets received, 0 overflow errors, 88773 network errors, 0 transport errors, 0 sequence errors

I upgraded the firmware and same issue. I tried running the channel from HDHomeRun and same issue. Which means its not MythTV which makes it not your problem hahaha. Signal Strength, Signal Quality and Symbol Quality is all 100% the only different is the network rate is around 10mbps. The other channels it doesn't go any higher then 4mbps

[pvr4me]

In the web searches I tried, "5" never came up for 7MATE. Rather than guess, please run a channel scan:

Code: Select all

hdhomerun_config 1221361C scan /tuner1

You should then run the test against a channel that you know works and then with 7MATE.

Craig

[grayman001]

Okay gives me this:
SCANNING: 177500000 (au-bcast:5)
LOCK: t7qam64 (ss=100 snq=75 seq=100)
TSID: 0x0506
PROGRAM 1376: 7 7 Digital
PROGRAM 1377: 71 7 Digital 1
PROGRAM 1378: 72 7TWO
PROGRAM 1379: 73 7mate
PROGRAM 1380: 70 7 Digital
PROGRAM 1383: 74 TV4ME
PROGRAM 1384: 78 RACING.COM

but tried all of these and nothing works. Sorry I don't have much of an idea:
hdhomerun_config 1221361C set /tuner1/channel auto:73
hdhomerun_config 1221361C set /tuner1/channel 1379:73
hdhomerun_config 1221361C set /tuner1/channel auto:1379

These are the help options:
/sys/copyright
/sys/dvbc_modulation
/sys/debug
/sys/features
/sys/hwmodel
/sys/model
/sys/restart <resource>
/sys/version
/tuner<n>/channel <modulation>:<freq|ch>
/tuner<n>/channelmap <channelmap>
/tuner<n>/debug
/tuner<n>/filter "0x<nnnn>-0x<nnnn> [...]"
/tuner<n>/lockkey
/tuner<n>/program <program number>
/tuner<n>/streaminfo
/tuner<n>/status
/tuner<n>/target <ip>:<port>

[pvr4me]

You used hdhomerun_config instead of mythdhdomerun_config. I take it you downloaded and installed this from Silicondust's web site? Do you have the gui version as well as the command line utility? If so, you can use the gui to verify channels and sub-channels (aka Programs).

I don't know DVB-T but I would interpret your scan to mean 7MATE is broadcast on sub-channel 73 of physical channel 5.

BTW, with Myth, can you record view channels like 7TWO and TV4ME ok?

Did the scan command not locate a bunch of other channels; you've only posted the scan of "177500000 (au-bcast:5)". Did you do the command 'mythdhdomerun_config ffffffff set /tuner1/channel none''? We want to compare a good channel with the bad one.

Maybe try the following:

Code: Select all

hdhomerun_config 1221361C set /tuner1/channel au-bcast:5
hdhomerun_config 1221361C set /tuner1/program 73  # 7MATE
hdhomerun_config 1221361C save /tuner1 null
# let run for a few minutes
#
hdhomerun_config 1221361C set /tuner1/program 72  # 7TWO
hdhomerun_config 1221361C save /tuner1 null
# again let run for a few minutes
#
hdhomerun_config 1221361C set /tuner1/channel none

Craig

[grayman001]

Sorry for the delayed response mate. Been busy these last couple of days.

I do have the gui version. All channels work fine apart from 7MATE when viewed through GUI. Same issue as what happens in MYTH/KODI. The only difference is when I am on the other channels the network rate sits around 2MBPS when I am on 7MATE it sits at around 11MBPS. Not sure why it would be doing this? Then comes up saying communication error. So I am guessing maybe the network rate is the issue and its so high it is causing the issue. But I am not sure why its sitting so high?

You are correct with DVB-T

Myth can record view channels like 7TWO and TV4ME without any issues.

The scan did pick up all the other channels. I just posted the results for "177500000 (au-bcast:5)" As 7MATE is the problem child.

Running 'mythdhdomerun_config ffffffff set /tuner1/channel' doesn't work. Comes back with 'mythdhdomerun_config: command not found'

Running 'hdhomerun_config 1221361C set /tuner1/channel au-bcast:5' gives invalid channel.

Running:

hdhomerun_config 1221361C set /tuner1/program 72 # 7TWO
hdhomerun_config 1221361C save /tuner1 null

gives

-- Video statistics --
0 packets received, 0 overflow errors, 0 network errors, 0 transport errors, 0 sequence errors

Just has me puzzled as why its one channel and then soon as an ad comes on its the best reception you have ever seen. I also re-tuned my channels through normal TV. Thought maybe there might be something wrong with my antenna or the channel but it worked fine tuning through normal TV

[grayman001]

haha this thread sums up my life. Good to see they are all over it and helping out. Any other suggestions on a good TV Tuner? Might cut this stupid silicon dust away.
https://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewt ... 87&t=19171

[pvr4me]

...Running 'hdhomerun_config 1221361C set /tuner1/channel au-bcast:5' gives invalid channel.

Can you take a screenshot of the gui when you have 7MATE running? I think it displays the physical channel and program.

...Just has me puzzled as why its one channel and then soon as an ad comes on its the best reception you have ever seen. I also re-tuned my channels through normal TV. Thought maybe there might be something wrong with my antenna or the channel but it worked fine tuning through normal TV

You may need to take this up with Silicondust. The MPEG2 transport stream format involves a myriad of knobs and dials that the broadcaster can twist and it is not uncommon that advertisements get different settings from the main program. Especially since it used to work and then stopped. Silicondust will probably need a sample of the problem video to analyze. That's why I wanted to know if you'd done some web searches to see if others are experiencing the same problems.

At the moment, it looks to me that Myth is being fed a stream that it isn't programmed to accept. Maybe Myth needs to be fixed. Or maybe the broadcaster is out of spec and needs to tweak their settings.

Craig