Digitalwatch 2.0.7.* Options

[anthonyshephard]

Hi,
Updated to TSFileSource2.2.0.6 and this seems better but I can still see a few problems
1) As you may know, the UK have two audio streams for some channels. If I change channels with timeshift on, after about 3.5 seconds I get a picture, but I get audio from the wrong stream. After about 2 further seconds (sometimes up to 8) I get the correct sound. I thought it just took a while for the audio to come through (as mostly the description channel is blank), but happened to change channel this afternoon to one with the audio description active . Plus some channels only have one audio stream and I get the audio straight away.
2) The audio change is noticable causing pops in the audio for about 10 seconds after the change.
3) Manual audio changing via key U is very slow. Video and audio freeze for upwards of 60 seconds, then video goes fast to catch up. There is a similar delay using the I key to jump back 10 seconds. Basically unusable.

Anthony

[bear]

hi anthonyshephard,

Updated to TSFileSource2.2.0.6 and this seems better but I can still see a few problems

As long as the stutter is gone, were progressing.

1) As you may know, the UK have two audio streams for some channels. If I change channels with timeshift on, after about 3.5 seconds I get a picture, but I get audio from the wrong stream. After about 2 further seconds (sometimes up to 8) I get the correct sound. I thought it just took a while for the audio to come through (as mostly the description channel is blank), but happened to change channel this afternoon to one with the audio description active . Plus some channels only have one audio stream and I get the audio straight away.

Have a look in the Channels.xml file for which audio stream is first up in the list. Or better still upload the file for me to look at. This is something that still needs looking at I guess.

2) The audio change is noticable causing pops in the audio for about 10 seconds after the change.

Sounds like the wrong pid is used for the audio media type.

3) Manual audio changing via key U is very slow. Video and audio freeze for upwards of 60 seconds, then video goes fast to catch up. There is a similar delay using the I key to jump back 10 seconds. Basically unusable.

Interesting, it's not meant to behave that way, it should be almost instant. There may be some lag if the file access is restricted by something. Like if your timeshifting multiple channels at the same time. Maybe upload your settings.xml so I can see what modes your using. Maybe a log file also.

Thanks for the feedback Anthony, cheers
Dan.

[anthonyshephard]

Hi Bear,
The correct audio stream is first (i.e. lowest numbered is the normal audio).

Files attached as requested

Interesting, it's not meant to behave that way, it should be almost instant

Yes I sort of gathered that :-)

Thanks for the feedback Anthony, cheers

No problem. It's only because it looks good that I'm spending the time...

Anthony

Attached File(s)

 Channels.zip ( 6.34K ) Number of downloads: 24

 

[Guest_Spoonfed_*]

still enjoying the latest but timeshiftting is somewhat buggy for me. Sometimes channel changes are fairly fast, others seem to take ages, like 10x more than previous change etc. Sound is often choppy, seems more so if don't have alternate cards on, ie just use one card.
normal live viewing is pretty stable, sometimes though just get a blank screen, can change channel, get signal strength etc but no pic without starting dw again.

is there a way to reduce the time the osd displays?

keep up the good work

[bear]

hi Spoonfed,

Sometimes channel changes are fairly fast, others seem to take ages, like 10x more than previous change etc. Sound is often choppy, seems more so if don't have alternate cards on, ie just use one card.

Are you using 2.0.7.4? Are you using FullMux format for TimeShift, if so try TSMux or MpgMux, uses less disk space.

normal live viewing is pretty stable, sometimes though just get a blank screen, can change channel, get signal strength etc but no pic without starting dw again.

Yes I sometimes see this too, I think that the MS Demux is getting the wrong PAT data after a channel change and then stalling, will need to look at a restart to fix this I think. Will slow down the channel change though.

is there a way to reduce the time the osd displays?

No, they are hard coded ATM, will need to add them into the settings.xml for them to be customised.

ATM i'm working on a number of fixes, ATM just getting the DSNetworking working better as well as getting radio channels to behave. Hope to have something by weeks end.

Thanks for the feedback.

This post has been edited by bear: Jul 25 2006, 10:07 PM

[Guest_Spoonfed_*]

ahhh i was down a version (only 2.0.7.3 .... how slack hehe).
Yeah always using TSMux for shifting.

Seems similar though, haven't been able to reproduce choppy sound but. Normally this is just a lotto, along with the channel changing speed/reliablity in timeshift. Sometimes if sat and changed channels for minutes working pretty much spot on, then other times lucky to get a 1 or 2 changes before issues present. Makes things hard no doubt pin down.

The PAT thingy will slow changes I have found with live viewing that usually if one gets picture straight away then from then on changing channels are fine, its nomrally when first starting to watch.

Update: The choppy audio is still present, occurs on the TwinHan and Dvico cards, i use Spectrums TH drivers, but updated to the latest Dvico just to test, still there. I also tried different audio filters without luck.

This post has been edited by Spoonfed: Jul 26 2006, 03:58 PM

[Guest_Spoonfed_*]

Still not having much luck with timeshifting. I now have SP2 on my machine (previous only SP1) still the same. Though now i seem to get a "hung" DigitalWatch process. If i sometimes try to start Timshifting in get the windows error thing (says DW cause fault in NTDLL) then the digitalwatch process still stays in task manger and cannot be killed. Well if i open DW again it doesn't work (ie no channels appear, not even the channel title info) then i close it and digitalwatch.exe is no longer a running process.

the card is then dead to the system until a reboot (yay)

at a lost what to do, just avoiding Timeshifting now as its pain in the arse haha.

Updated the latest FusionDTV app, timeshifting works great but its a pig, total bloat, ages to load, channel changes take decades etc hmmm.

[bear]

hi Spoonfed,

Still not having much luck with timeshifting.

Sorry to hear that, I'm still working on the next release but you can get a preview of ver 2.0.7.5 now on the hosting site now if you want to give it a try, best run it from a fresh location to see how it performs from first time run.

[Guest_Spoonfed_*]

Hey Bear,

finally had a chance to try the latest, seems to work somewhat better, will see how it goes with normal use, thanx

on thing, when time shifting, and then channing to seven it seems to stick. stays paused with a skip or two forward after a short bit, pausing then playing seems to fix this, its not always but seems to be Seven.
The occational nothing on shift, or no picture but sound etc, but pause etc usually sorts it

This post has been edited by Spoonfed: Aug 4 2006, 01:35 PM

[bear]

on thing, when time shifting, and then channing to seven it seems to stick. stays paused with a skip or two forward after a short bit, pausing then playing seems to fix this, its not always but seems to be Seven.
The occational nothing on shift, or no picture but sound etc, but pause etc usually sorts it

Is this using multiple cards or single?

[Guest_Spoonfed_*]

Im just using single card (the TwinHan).
Rather just leave the other free (for WS etc)

[bear]

Try changing the timeshift channel change speed to slow, see settings/global/timeshift/channel change/slow

[Guest_Spoonfed_*]

I think ive worked out the crashing issue.

While i was testing today with reanosably good reliablity, sure the odd blank channel now and then but no crashes. Just tested on the PJ and soon as timeshifting, crash and windows error, the task eventually dies but the card is locked.

The only difference is the main VGA head of the Video runs the pj, the DVI head with lil addaptor runs the monitor i was testing before.

The monitor runs 1600 x 1200 at 60hz, the pj only 800 x 600 at 50hz.

Will have to try the other res on the monitor head to check if its not the res doing it, if its that for some odd reason, will have to live without TS as native pixel and refresh are needed most hehe.

[rpalmer68]

bear,

I'm finding that DW often starts up with sound but a blank screen the first time I launch it for the day.

I launch DW from my remote control and often the screen saver is running when it launches and gives the blank screen. Doesn't seem to happen if the screen saver isn't running.

Have attached the log. [attachment=831:attachment]

Any ideas?

Cheers
Richard

[bear]

I can see two issues in the log,

Error: Can't connect to overlay mixer, already be in use: -2147467259
OverLay Failed so now trying to use WindowLess Render
Error: Can't set windowless mode: -2147467259
Error: Can't use Windowless Render either: -2147467259

The above would suggest that the video card/drivers have been affected by the screensaver, or the screensaver is still holding access to the overlay mixer. nate may have something to say on this. I have no idea.

Tuner Not Running.

This suggests that there is no data flowing so the tuner is still unlocked, I seem to see this occur on first startup of DWII after a power down of the pc. Changing channels seems to work and all seems ok after that.

[Guest_Spoonfed_*]

Was meaning to reply much earlier but only just remembered. I can confirm that the crash I am talking about (which renders the card dead until reboot) occurs on either head at my 800 x 600 (native to the PJ) res at 50hz. Not sure if the 50hz has anything to do with it? This as mentioned only occurs when trying to timeshift in at this res/refresh.

During just viewing it is quite reliable, only issue is changing from 9 to 10 or 10 to 9 does not always work, ie just blank. Changing between other channels is fine or from other changes to/from 9 or 10 is also fine.

[bear]

I can confirm that the crash I am talking about (which renders the card dead until reboot) occurs on either head at my 800 x 600 (native to the PJ) res at 50hz. Not sure if the 50hz has anything to do with it? This as mentioned only occurs when trying to timeshift in at this res/refresh.

One thing to ask is does the crash occur if you run DWII from a timeshift shortcut, eg.

CODE

"C:\Program Files\DigitalWatchII\DigitalWatch.exe" "TS://0x1013:1284:12840/0x546"

or does it occur when you cross from Watch TV mode to Timeshift mode, like when you press pause?

In the settings.xml change the LogBufferLimit value to 0 eg. "<LogBufferLimit>0</LogBufferLimit>" and save it before running DWII, then this should log every event at realtime so when you have the crash we can see where the crash is occuring from the digitalwatch.log.

[Guest_Spoonfed_*]

Yep, i post today at work, and now its working, weird.
Only thing that i have changed on the system is cleaning out the prefetch cache, which helped with boot up but can't see how it was related. Heres hoping it stays working

[bear]

rats!

[Guest_Womble_*]

I've just tried out DW2 and am very impressed. I'm another UK user, and had been putting it off until the Network ID issue was resolved. Many thanks for that.

Even with our now unique long network name, it isn't easy to remember whether the channel you want is on "Sandy Heath 1673" or "Sandy Heath 73248". Would it be possible in future to have a user defined alias for the network name?

There are lots of services on each MUX in the UK, e.g. pay to view, radio, etc. It would be great if the user could disable certain services, and put others in a separate group / pseudo network for channel zapping.

I tried making these changes by editing channels.xml but DW2 corrected my transgressions after a few channel hops.

Cheers for the excellent work.