Together; Pick +1 Channels Problem

Johnboy1951

Is anyone else having a problem with the two channels above?

12207V 27500 QPSK 5/6

The settings seem ok, but scanning is at minimum partly failing.

When playing the channels the output is stop/start.

I would just like to know if this is peculiar to my set up before I go searching for the cause.

Thanks.

Johnboy1951

It seems there was nothing wrong with my set up.

There was something the matter with that mux for most of the day, as other channels on it were not coming through either.

It appears to have corrected itself as both Together & Pick +1 are playing without problems now.

strange ....

Johnboy1951

:mad: :mad: :mad:

This problem is present again today.

This is the only mux I use that seems to have problems, so presumably the dish/lnb/coax are OK ......

Anyone got a guess what might be causing this?
Is the problem present on anyone else's system?

It would be good to know, in the first instance, whether this is peculiar to my setup, or is more widely experienced.

Thanks for any feedback you can provide.

batistuta9

i scanned the mux there, seems ok. the only channel i've enabled on it is sky news, also plays ok.
i'll look at pick +1 later for you

Johnboy1951

batistuta9 wrote: »

i scanned the mux there, seems ok. the only channel i've enabled on it is sky news, also plays ok.
i'll look at pick +1 later for you

Thanks, most channels seem to have alternate frequencies, but these two ---- Together & Pick +1

---

are limited to that mux.

I guess it might be a combination of slightly weaker transmission, with atmospheric or weather conditions and possibly a slightly misaligned LNB/Dish, that is causing this.
I would like to be sure before I call out someone to go up and check alignment.

Thanks for the help.

STB.

Yes it is a slightly weaker TP alright. Fine on my dish, but thats a 1.1m.

Tweak the dish time. You have a signal meter on that box your are using ?

Johnboy1951

STB. wrote: »

Yes it is a slightly weaker TP alright. Fine on my dish, but thats a 1.1m.

Tweak the dish time. You have a signal meter on that box your are using ?

I 'think' I might have the source of the problem ......

I have a tvheadend backend with a dual TBS Sat tuner card, and also a Digibit R1 quad Sat>IP device that also feeds tvheadend. tvheadend then distributes channels as requested to client devices running Kodi.

I believe the fault is with the Digibit .... when a request for either of those channels used a tuner from the Digibit, the channel was bad.
tvheadend reported the state as alternating between Bad and Testing.

When I disable the digibit tuners I can get the channels without problems using the TBS tuners.
DIsabling the TBS leaves me with bad reception.

Maybe the Digibit is overheating, but I think it more likely that its tuners are less sensitive, and the weaker signal just tips the scale.

Johnboy1951

It seems I was looking in the wrong place for the cause of my problems.

I have no problem playing the channels in VLC direct from the Digibit R1. (DLNA?)
The problems are apparent only when playing in Kodi, via the tvheadend backend from the Digibit tuners.
No problem when playing in Kodi, via tvheadend, from the TBS tuners.

No problems with other channels that I am aware of when playing in Kodi, via tvheadend, from the Digibit tuners.

So it seems that tvheadend does not like the output from the Digibit for those channels in particular.

I find this rather weird.
I cannot presently think of a cause.
Signal strengths are OK .... and in any case I can view the channels in VLC.

It seems I have a bit of investigating to do.
No diff with the tvheadend server reboot.

...... and so it continues ......


.

batistuta9

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Thanks, most channels seem to have alternate frequencies, but these two ---- Together & Pick +1

---

are limited to that mux.

Pick +1 played fine for me too. Sky news (FTA) is only on that mux if you want to test another channel

Johnboy1951

batistuta9 wrote: »

Pick +1 played fine for me too. Sky news (FTA) is only on that mux if you want to test another channel

Sky news is also problematic.
Seems everything on that mux has a problem.

It is possible that other muxes are affected but if I do not (or only rarely) use any of the channels I would not realise it.

I would suspect the LNB/Dish except that using the TBS drivers I do not see the problem.

This mornings tests have altered the results too ...... I got failures using VLC, so this seems to put the blame firmly on the Digibit.

I have done a Digibit factory reset without change.

It is difficult to get sufficient time to test properly while keeping the system running for those who might wish to use it.

Johnboy1951

I have now set up a new backend server, using an alpha release of Libreelec and an updated tvheadend.

At the moment I have no problem with Pick+1, Together or Sky News.

Whether this is due entirely to the new setup or maybe something else I am unsure as yet.

It does seem to place the problem with the backend rather than the Digibit. (but I failed to get VLC playing those channels properly this am and the backend is not involved with that)

But as the problem can sometimes disappear for a period I cannot be certain yet.

I will continue to test over the next couple of days.

Thanks again for the help.

STB.

You shouldnt have problems with those channels. They are basic MPEG2 low bit channels. VLC would have no problem with them.

Johnboy1951

STB. wrote: »

You shouldnt have problems with those channels. They are basic MPEG2 low bit channels. VLC would have no problem with them.

Indeed .... but I do and am really puzzled as to cause

If the damned channels would just disappear and stay gone I would be able to locate the cause easily enough.

Johnboy1951

Update:

I have set up a few alternate backend servers for tests to see if the problem shows on any of them .....

1. I updated everything (clean install) on the existing server but the problem remains.
2. Set up a R-Pi-1 with latest LE (8.2.4) (clean install) and no problem.
3. Set up Tanix Tx3 ARM device with LE (8.90.6 community) and no problem.
4. Set up Intel NUC i5-4250U with LE (8.2.4) (clean install) and no problem.

So the problem seems to be confined to the hardware on the existing server.
I find this difficult to comprehend.
If the hardware runs the OS properly for the majority of channels, what could possibly be affecting these channels?

These are not HQ channels or anything heavy on resources and in any case the server has no problems distributing multiple HD channels.

Any ideas; guesses or theories?

Only a couple more tests I can do ....... change the HDD in the server for one.
Secondly I have a duplicate PC which is unused and can try that as the server.
(I got both free a few years ago and have held on to the second one in case of hardware failure of the first. I have not needed it to date.)

It will be a few days before I can get to those two.

In the meantime, I would love to hear suggestions or ideas around what might cause this weirdness.

Thanks.

batistuta9

any luck with it?

Johnboy1951

batistuta9 wrote: »

any luck with it?

None.
In truth I have not made serious effort recently to try to find the cause.

I have rather side-stepped the issue.

My time for such things as TV servers has been taken up by continuing developments in software for the Amlogic cheap tv boxes.

I am using a Tanix Tx3 running CoreElec (fork of LibreElec for Amlogic devices) and acting as a tvheadend server.
It is using the Digibit tuners without problems so far ..... but continuing to test.

I expect I will de-commission the existing Dell server when I am satisfied that the Tanix, with the Digibit and USB DVB-T tuners will replace it without any negative outcomes.
At that time I will likely try the replacement Dell box to see if the same problem occurs in that hardware.

Really the importance of this problem has diminished, and thus my efforts to locate the cause.

At this point The Dell server is sufficient for SWMBO and others, as it has two dual TBS DVB-S and DVB-T cards which do not exhibit the problem.

I have exclusive use of the Digibit for my tv requirements and for testing new software and devices, and generally playing with toys

Whatever the cause it seems to be exceptional and as I have a present working scheme and a future plan that it won't affect, I probably will not bother to delve further at least until any answer will be meaningless (but yes it would be nice just to know ).

All that said ...... if you have a suggestion I have not thought of ......