progdvb.com

I have used Progdvb 4.56.2 with my Technotrend Skystar 1 for years, but after i upgraded from a 1.8ghz p4 processor to a 3.4 Prescott HT processor i couldn't listen to audio channels anymore. It would only work when i uncheck 'receive mpeg2 from skystar 1', but then the record function for radio and tv doesn't work! (result is 0 byte or corrupted file)

I tried 4.85.3 : When i search, no channels are found!

I tried other versions of 5.x and >4.86. I get a lot of crashes, pin errors and simular things. But no working tv or even radio. When i go back to 4.56.2 i have no problems with filters, decoders, etc.. but just the radio doesn't work.

When i put the card back in the old p4 1.8 ghz or even an athlon 900 processor with the same configuration, (also same decoders!) except processor, things work fine. What is going on here? It doesn't seem a problem with just this 3.4 HT prescott computer. I have another P4 3.0 HT prescott PC which has the same problems with progdvb.

I use the 2.19 (old 2005) drivers for my technotrend.

Other config:

PowerDVD 6 filters
FFdshow & ac3filter

Did you try hardware mode, to compare?

I can't remember whether i have used/tried hardware mode or not. I think i have tried it a few times.. However i am not interested to use hw mode because it's limited to 4:3 and sound goes via external cable.

I have got more news.

4.84.4 : i can scan channels and add them to the list, but more problems:

- progdvb crashes after a channel switch
- radio channels play with 'receive mpeg2 from skystar1' checked! (they don't play when i uncheck it) but several radio channels have distortions (like those you will hear when you have bad signal) every ~30-60 seconds.. this is not a problem with the signal, because.. when i load 4.56.2 on the same radio channel (with receive mpeg2 from skystar 1 unchecked) .. there are no distortions!
- Radio recording results in bad .mpa, which couldn't be played properly in winamp. I wonder if it was a .mpa at all. It looked more like the whole pva stream to me. -> not what i want

4.85.3 : i added the channellist from 4.84.4. Same problems as above

4.71.3 : w000t. It works! Radio channels play with/without 'receive mpeg2 from skystar1' checked. Recording works! No dropouts or distortion, proper .mpa recordings like 4.56.2 used to do for me, BUT....
When 'receive mpeg2 from skystar 1' is checked TV channels now do not play properly. There is a lot of stuttering... I have tried all renderers. When i uncheck the option the tv channels play fine.

Current status:

4.71.3
- playing/recording tv channels works with 'receive mpeg2 from skystar1' unchecked.
- playing/recording radio channels works with 'receive mpeg2 from skystar1' checked. Unchecked is playing only.

Goal: I want to play/record TV and RADIO channels with 'receive mpeg2 from skystar1' checked. They need to record and play without distortions.

Guess i will try some more 4.7x versions.


NOTE: I haven't done ANY system changes during these tests. Seems to me progdvb has a lot of bugs.

I have been busy with this for several hours now, maybe you could point me to a version which does what it is supposed to do? Or can there be a fix released or something...

You may be having some PCI latency issues.
That's why I asked to compare with HW mode.
Solving there may also help in SW mode.
It's easy, just close the SW mode device, activate the HW mode one. Re-start ProgDVB, check device options (overlay and alike).
You can get back to SW mode at any time.

However, HW mode should also be able to do 16:9, if adjusted properly. HW sound would go into sound card Line In in HW mode, if connected.

I did play with the latency timer a few days ago. But that didn't help.

I have tried hardware mode today...
In hardware mode everything is perfectly fine. I can record and play radio/tv without problems. (either with mpeg2 from skystar 1 checked or unchecked, if that has any influence in hw mode) What is funny: I mentioned 4.84.4 having distortions in the audio. (4.78.x also has this) When i listen via the line-out of the ss1 card with headphones and have my receiver play the software decoded audio: the line-out has no distortions at all, but the software decoded audio has distortions.

Seems to me it is a software problem.
Also: this is my htpc. I play mpeg1,mpeg2,x264,xvid,blu ray and dvd on this pc. All without problems. The only program i have problems with is progdvb.

I have yet not managed to route the audio to my soundcard without having to use an external analog cable. Also in hw mode it displays 4:3 only, and i have a 16:9 screen.

If there is anything else i need to test, please let me know.

nemo wrote:I did play with the latency timer a few days ago. But that didn't help.

I have tried hardware mode today...
In hardware mode everything is perfectly fine.

If picture is fine on the TV screen in HW mode, PCI latency is OK.

I can record and play radio/tv without problems. (either with mpeg2 from skystar 1 checked or unchecked, if that has any influence in hw mode)

May have an influence on your recordings, if used outside of ProgDVB, like for stupid WMP or DVD authoring.

What is funny: I mentioned 4.84.4 having distortions in the audio. (4.78.x also has this) When i listen via the line-out of the ss1 card with headphones and have my receiver play the software decoded audio: the line-out has no distortions at all, but the software decoded audio has distortions.

This may be codec related, e.g. if it has an internal level control or whatever kind of dynamic expander, and / or if wave audio is set to high on your mixer, causing overdrive that way. ProgDVB itself does NOT change digital audio levels or dynamics in any way.

I have yet not managed to route the audio to my soundcard without having to use an external analog cable.

Depending on your precise SS1 version, it may also provide an internal connector, AFAIK.

Also in hw mode it displays 4:3 only, and i have a 16:9 screen.

Should be set correctly in device options. Wide screen TV, of course...
This is a hardware option, that's part of the SS1 basic concept.

What is funny: I mentioned 4.84.4 having distortions in the audio. (4.78.x also has this) When i listen via the line-out of the ss1 card with headphones and have my receiver play the software decoded audio: the line-out has no distortions at all, but the software decoded audio has distortions.

This may be codec related, e.g. if it has an internal level control or whatever kind of dynamic expander, and / or if wave audio is set to high on your mixer, causing overdrive that way. ProgDVB itself does NOT change digital audio levels or dynamics in any way.

I have tried many different codecs. ffdhsow (mp3lib,libmad,aud-x), ac3filter,microsoft decoder, elecard audio decoder. Everything which harms the volume in any way is turned off. Also, why do i get distortions with later versions of progdvb, but not with earlier ones? If it was a codec problem, this should be present in all versions?

Also in hw mode it displays 4:3 only, and i have a 16:9 screen.

Should be set correctly in device options. Wide screen TV, of course...
This is a hardware option, that's part of the SS1 basic concept.

It is set in device options. But whatever i do, 16:9 broadcasts are squeezed to 4:3 in hw mode. (widescreen mode on, letterboxed mode turned off) Also it doesn't seem possible to zoom 4:3 broadcasts to 16:9

Anyway, i am not that interested in hw mode. I have noticed the deinterlacer is quite bad. Bob mode is horrible in earlier versions, in later versions it performs better but not as good as powerdvd. Turning bob mode off looks horrible because of the interlacing. (since i play on a progressive output)

I am now using 4.56.2 for watching/recording tv and listening to radio.
When i want to listen/record to radio i fire up 4.75 which works fine. i get video stuttering in 4.75 when 'receive mpeg2 from skystar is turned on', so i can use that for tv watching only. (in earlier remarks i said tv recording works when 'receive mpeg2 from skystar' is turned off.. but thats not true. The .pva is corrupt) Someone explain to me why 4.75 works fine with radio and 4.56.2 doesn't.....


Btw, i have fixed the channel switch crash issue which i experienced in the later versions by installing that microsoft dvb patch. In the meantime i have upgraded my technotrend drivers to 2.19h as well.

I have tried the last 4.x version: 4.89.4
radio plays perfectly fine with it (no distortions), mpa recording works great. However when decoding mpeg2 tv, i hear audio but no image is shown. It gives a pin connect error with all renderers. (using powerdvd 6 and powerdvd 7 decoder) And i noticed the 'receive mpeg2 from skystar' is grayed out. Maybe prog could work on this issue to get the tv image going again...

There is something else i noticed: the 4:3 to 16:9 zoom feature of progdvb is not working when powerdvd 7 decoder is used. Image stays 4:3.

I have also tried ALTDVB and Ritzdvb. They work perfectly fine. But i don't like the gui of those at all, plus they don't feature .mpa recording.

In SW mode, video options for the PC screen picture depend on the codec, the renderer, their cooperation, your VGA card and driver (settings) and more.
Similar goes for audio then.
For example, some combinations may give OSD, others won't.

Regarding the audio issue, Prog did not intentionally fumble around on any mechanics for this, that might directly cause things like this.
But the whole engine of ProgDVB has been rebuilt twice, with separation of the engine1 and then with change to engine2, as you may know. However, ProgDVB still does not even try to fumble around with the data streams in any way.
Though, in the computer universe, you can never know what exactly happens, even being caused by some SDK, compiler or whatever else

One side aspect of this, an extra channel of the biggest FTA provider in Germany also gives some strange audio distortion, in HW mode or on all receivers I know. This happens due to uplink multiplex priority issues and transponder overcrowding. Some software codecs do not let this be recognized, perhaps due to bigger buffers or some extra error compensating cosmetics.

There is no real deinterlacing in HW mode, as HW BOB only throws away every second half picture, by this reducing vertical and temporal resolution to half. For use of such, make the display use it's own deinterlacing routine on full range interlaced input.
There's another good reason for this, only the TV monitor itself knows exactly, what frame / scan rate it's panel is really using. So you can avoid a lossy extra conversion on the way to the screen.

16:9 output on the TV out normally should work fine in HW mode, like it does over here. I'm just not regularily using it here, as my professional SONY TV monitor KX-27PS1 is (true) 4:3, PAL/NTSC/SECAM 50i / 60i. No AR control, no double scanning, not even OSD, so no dirty digital whatsoever...
But don't mix up HW picture and DirectShow, which is only for the PC screen.

HW option 'receive mpeg2 from skystar1' was ONLY meant for recording to .MPG in early days, with old drivers and firmware. In all other cases it should be off, specially for PVA (for those who insist in still using this proprietary format). Over here, it's even IMPORTANT to have it off, if wanting to quick correct / PS convert by PVAStrumento / projectX or reprocess for DVD and similar.
But I did not make PVA recordings for quite some time now. Just still have to convert and cut a couple of years old long recordings to PS / MPG, when I find the time.
MPG with 'receive mpeg2 from skystar1' off works far better for me, on all versions since around 4.2x.

p.s.
I am using 4.75w9x for HW playback here, as all later ones have issues with this. Engine2 won't even try, due to ActiveMovie used instead.
For watching TV or recording to MPG it's 4.84.1w9x.
Similar on Win98SE, Win2kSP4 and XP SP2 (for testing only).
For some of my friends and family, I am still occasionally authoring DVDs, but at home I am either playing through the HW TV out or from an external USB2 HDD media player, which accepts the MPG from ProgDVB without any issues, even in SloMo backwards...
Same goes for my cheap old DVD player, for MPG files on a data disk, it just has a file size limit of 1GB.