Guest Gizmomelb Posted October 1, 2004 Posted October 1, 2004 Hi all, good news for the Avermedia DVB-T owners. I've got a new beta for you to have a look at and trial. I have been giving this software a fairly extensive test through most of today and so far these are the bugs I have encountered: 1. Tuning - The frequency used by Aver for the SBS Network is 536500Mhz, but the actual transmission frequency (for Melbourne) is 536625MHz. 2. Crashing - Windows XP gives a Blue screen crash after just a couple of minutes of watching TV (no recording or time-shifting as yet), then rapidly changing TV channels. The error message is: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL STOP 0x000000d1 (0x00000004, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0xFBB3E6BC) attscap.sys - F8B3E6BC base at F8B3D000 datestamp 3ef833aa 3. Timeshifting - the application freezes then crashes the computer (DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error, ATTSCAP.SYS causing the crash once again) when Timeshifting SD (Standard Definition) or HD (Hi-Definition). I can reproduce this error consistantly if I follow this procedure: Timeshift for 31 seconds, then ALT-F to 'jump 10 seconds until we are at 'real time' again the application will freeze consistantly, every time with the DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error after a little more testing: 32 seconds crashes the application, DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error 33 seconds is ok, but exits back to real time TV when you get to 3 seconds 34 seconds is ok, but exits back to real time TV when you get to 4 seconds 35 seconds is ok, but exits back to real time TV when you get to 5 seconds 36 seconds is ok and continues timeshifting when you get to 6 seconds 37 seconds is ok and continues timeshifting when you get to 7 seconds 38 seconds is ok and continues timeshifting when you get to 8 seconds 39 seconds is ok and continues timeshifting when you get to 9 seconds 40 seconds crashes the application, DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error 41 seconds crashes the application, DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error for any of the values above which crash the application, I can exit Timeshifting successfully by pressing ESCAPE to stop. 4. Teletext - General Teletext does still not work. Teletext VBI subtitles do work! What seems to be very strange is Teletext decoding was working correctly when I tested it this morning. By switching to teletext page #801 I was able to clearly and correctly see the VBI subtitles broadcast for Australia television. I checked this again in the middle of the day and it does not appear to be working correctly - instead it seems 2 - 3 lines of teletext from other pages are displayed at random instead of the titles. This may be related to a lack of teletext VBI information being broadcast during the middle of the day, I will need to check this at nighttime and over the weekend. What the Teletext decoding really needs is a way to display the teletext in the Avermedia Application window so that it is shown over (above) the video for the show. If the user wants to watch DVB-T TV full screen then they cannot see the Teletext / subtitles because they are shown in another window on the desktop **UPDATE** ok, I just checked VBI subtitles again and they are indeed working again. Either there is an error where the subtitles crap out after a while, or it was because there weren't any shows with subtitles being broadcast during the middle of the day. I have been testing the SD and HD recording and scheduler and so far have had no problems with them. I will test this more in depth over the weekend. **UPDATE** I programmed 6 schedules across various channels for 5 minutes each, 1 minute delay between the end/start of the new recording session and let it rip. All schedules fired off with no errors (ie: being forgotten) and all recordings were intact (no more 3 seconds of video). This is looking really good people! The Intervideo version appears to be the same as the earlier v1.3.57.6. So I can only guess that Aver have tightened up their DirectX device graph connections. The file is about 10.5megs (the previous 80meg version I was given had the AverAlbum help PDFs in every language included with them) and I will try to find some web space to host the files for everyone. As with all beta releases of software there are no guarantees it will work correctly for you and no guarantee it won't format your hard drive for you while it shaves the cat. Use at your own risk. You *must* have DirectX 9.0 installed for this software to work. If you can help out with 10.5megs of web hosting, please let me know via PM. Thanks. Cheers, Gizmomelb
mistertrent Posted October 1, 2004 Posted October 1, 2004 I've seen that error before with irq sharing issues... but as you and others have pointed out previously, putting the Avermedia in slot #2/3 for bus mastering to stop it sharing IRQ's fixes it, etc... it seems weird that the error would be IRQ Sharing related when its obviously not... maybe that error occurs for other reasons apart from IRQ Sharing.
Guest Gizmomelb Posted October 1, 2004 Posted October 1, 2004 I've seen that error before with irq sharing issues... but as you and others have pointed out previously, putting the Avermedia in slot #2/3 for bus mastering to stop it sharing IRQ's fixes it, etc... it seems weird that the error would be IRQ Sharing related when its obviously not... maybe that error occurs for other reasons apart from IRQ Sharing. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hiya, yes I think Jasoroony is on the right track with the Avermedia/Intervideo CODEC cacking itself when the audio/video gets too out of sync. But apart from rapid channel changing (and I mean rapid) and the established 'return to realtime rounding errors' (my theory ) this version appeared to be very stable today for the 6 or so hours I was testing it. I encountered one other strange thing with audio letting out a constant hi-pitch squeal. No idea what caused it and I wasn't able to replicate the problem. Gizmomelb
mistertrent Posted October 1, 2004 Posted October 1, 2004 I've seen that error before with irq sharing issues... but as you and others have pointed out previously, putting the Avermedia in slot #2/3 for bus mastering to stop it sharing IRQ's fixes it, etc... it seems weird that the error would be IRQ Sharing related when its obviously not... maybe that error occurs for other reasons apart from IRQ Sharing. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hiya, yes I think Jasoroony is on the right track with the Avermedia/Intervideo CODEC cacking itself when the audio/video gets too out of sync. But apart from rapid channel changing (and I mean rapid) and the established 'return to realtime rounding errors' (my theory ) this version appeared to be very stable today for the 6 or so hours I was testing it. I encountered one other strange thing with audio letting out a constant hi-pitch squeal. No idea what caused it and I wasn't able to replicate the problem. Gizmomelb <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Thats intervideo thing... really owned the carp out of a lot of my codecs... it seems it borks itself and other completely unrelated codecs... Some of my files that were somewhat not really required, suddenly stopped working on a previous beta release... I was not really concerned because most of it was just ahhm... porn. But yeah, haha it was still an issue.
Guest Gizmomelb Posted October 1, 2004 Posted October 1, 2004 Thats intervideo thing... really owned the carp out of a lot of my codecs... it seems it borks itself and other completely unrelated codecs... Some of my files that were somewhat not really required, suddenly stopped working on a previous beta release... I was not really concerned because most of it was just ahhm... porn. But yeah, haha it was still an issue. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> a pron collection borking itself? yeah, I think I've seen that AVI as well
mistertrent Posted October 1, 2004 Posted October 1, 2004 Heres some links to the new Beta... Three Parts. Avermedia 1.3.59.1 Part 1 Avermedia 1.3.59.1 Part 2 Avermedia 1.3.59.1 Part 3
Guest Gizmomelb Posted October 1, 2004 Posted October 1, 2004 Many thanks to Mistertrent for hosting these files! All that needs to be done is download all three files and then unRAR the first part and it will automatically extract a directory named "Disk Images 2004-09-25Ver1.3.59.1". Go into that directory and run the SETUP.EXE. It is recommended that you UNINSTALL any previous version of the Avermedia software. If you have any comments, or you encounter any bugs then please leave me info here and try to give as much information as possible regarding your computer setup/configuration, as well as if you can replicate the problem using a set series of actions. I'll be doing more testing myself over the weekend, but I'm especially interested in feedback regarding the scheduler and scheduled recording. Many thanks in advance and I hope you enjoy the new software. Gizmomelb
KingJasper Posted October 1, 2004 Posted October 1, 2004 Hi all. (My first post but I have been lurking for a while) just downloaded 1.3.59.1 (thanks mistertrent). For the first time in a long time I have been able to tune the card and it has picked up ALL the stations first time after install. (I'm in the UK by the way.) will be testing with recording l8r on, but just thought I would put this up. Maybe there is some hope for this card afterall???? Anyway, recording results from the UK l8r 2day or 2morrow. Thanks, Phil
mistertrent Posted October 1, 2004 Posted October 1, 2004 Wow, After running the new beta drivers for about 15 minutes... switching channels often, going from HD to SD, recording, etc... everything is working 95%... although there is one problem... No video playback of recordings whatsoever. I've recorded a few channels for a few minutes, and nothing that I record is playing back... although, I can open the file with Media Player, and it plays fine. I don't know yet if this is an issue with something that I have done wrong with my installation or my dodgy codecs... but I'll find out soon enough if other people have the same problem... if its my fault, then I'll be giving these drivers a good 4 stars at least so far. The schedules are working fine it seems... I'll have a play around and see if I can find out why I have no recording playback, and see what happens.
mistertrent Posted October 1, 2004 Posted October 1, 2004 hmm, o.k. Make that 3 stars, I just got the IRQ error.
KingJasper Posted October 1, 2004 Posted October 1, 2004 ok, been running the drivers for a while and all seems pretty good. My CPU usage seems to have gone down although not sure why as nothing in the PC has changed for the best part of 6 months. Scheduled recordings seem to work. Have setup a set of 10 1 minute recordings across multiple channels. All worked perfectly. I can also play them back inside the Aver software, unlike mistertrent. Also (and I'm not sure if I was alone in this in the UK), but I got the EPG to work!! You need to leave it for about 10 seconds, but then double clicking on the channel in the list wil populate the program listing. depending on the channel, can take a while to get the max future listings. some channels (BBC1 for example) go up to 7 days in advance. As I have never got this working before, not sure if this is what should always have been there anyway. I have so far only got one BSOD, and it may not have been the Aver software as I was runing another prog in the background. Plus my PC reboots automatically rather than letting me see the screen, so will change this to see if it is ATTCAP.SYS causing problems again. Anyway, my rating (so far) has gone up from 1.5 stars to 4 stars. Let's see what happens when recording a film or two. Phil
oblong Posted October 2, 2004 Posted October 2, 2004 http://aver.oblong.com.au/ now has 1.3.59.1, too. Bob Long
oblong Posted October 2, 2004 Posted October 2, 2004 My first impressions (up to now I had been using 1.3.55.2): Can record and view in full screen (except for aspect ratio black bars). Changing channels seems faster. When playing back HD recordings using the Aver software, there are lip-sync problems (tried that only on Ten HD so far, as the others have only test loops with background music which don't have any clues to check). Not yet tried scheduled recordings. Bob Long
mistertrent Posted October 2, 2004 Posted October 2, 2004 I really don't understand how a company can fix issues with something, then suddenly create a whole set of new issues, with a beta software, I mean, I understand that they're probably working hard and all, but damn. The lifetime of the Avermedia DVB-T Card will be up before the driver becomes stable, then everyone will be all buying a new card, and won't need the drivers anyway, they have to get their act together, I looked at a Dvico Fusion today, and I was so damn tempted to pick one up and walk out of the store, and dump this Avermedia in the bin. I used to have an Avermedia TVStudio With Radio... and it was just as dodgy, crashed constantly, recorded badly, wouldn't schedule correctly... and its lifetime is done, obviously I bought a new card, the DVB-T... and to this date there is still no decent driver for my older card,... or for the new card, which will probably be upgraded again in a few months or so, and noone will need drivers for it anymore. hmm I just repeated myself in this reply, oh well, my bad.
clayton Posted October 2, 2004 Posted October 2, 2004 This new release is much better than the previous official release and the beta release. All channels look better - HD and SD and Guide channels. There is a strange lipsync problem with channel 9 Melb on SD and HD. any body else see that? I also got one BSOD. It wasn't the usual one with IRQ_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL. This one was "writing to read only memory - cmuda.sys" Anyway good to see some improvement.
noreaster Posted October 2, 2004 Posted October 2, 2004 Sorry can't agree. Problems: 1. Trying to find a program to unrar. Never heard of rar files. Had to search the internet to get a trial of Zipy Pro to unzip the files. 2. The change for SBS (Melb) to 536.625 would not work for me. Had to change to 536.600. 3. The installation was a big problem. Had to try it 3 times with uninstalls & installs before I could eventually get it to work. It would not do a hardware test & oscillated on the jigsaw. Eventaully got it going. 4 Seemed to be O.K until I tried to schedule from program not running. It came up with a beeping in the audio no picture. 5 Gave up & went back to 1.3.57.6. now seems O.K. I was using 1.3.57.0 build 060504 don't know where I got that but it was the most stable That I have used. System: XP Pro SP2 AMD 2000 512 memory 64m mx440 Video Hope my observations help.
kallehopp Posted October 2, 2004 Posted October 2, 2004 I've tried EPG, scheduling and direct record and it worked fine(first time). The program hasn't crasched yet. The tuning works somewhat, only missing channel 43 and 58 but there aren't any freeview channels on those(anymore) so it doesn't matter. *Update. The program doesn't seem to change aspect ratios automatic like the previous drivers.
murrayt Posted October 2, 2004 Posted October 2, 2004 noreaster Do a google for WinRAR and you should find the application
oblong Posted October 2, 2004 Posted October 2, 2004 1. Trying to find a program to unrar. Never heard of rar files. Had to search the internet to get a trial of Zipy Pro to unzip the files.www.7-zip.orgBob Long
clayton Posted October 2, 2004 Posted October 2, 2004 Well there is no lipsync problem on Channel 9 this morning. Might just have been the program I was watching yesterday. I have tried to reproduce the timeshifting crash that gizmomelb got. I didn't see that problem. Timeshifting worked perfectly. There was no rounding and it didn't crash. But the timeshifting is still once only. I am really hanging out for them to improve the timeshifting. That will improve the card useability SO much!
noreaster Posted October 3, 2004 Posted October 3, 2004 Thanks for the rar info folks. Have now downloaded 7-zip & the file unzips O.K. Still does not alter the fact that for me the version 1.3.59.1 has been least reliable of the last 5 updates that I have tried. The only thing that seems to be extra was the fact that the full screen mode worked when recording. The scheduler has worked for me on earlier versions & is working now on 1.3.57.6. I also received the DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error, ATTSCAP.SYS causing the crash when trying to schedule in 59.1. Previous version was uninstalled before trying 59.1 & no hardware was changed or moved. Oh well back to 57.6 & wait for a tried & tested non beta working version. Don't get me wrong I don't mind the card it does most of the things I want it to do & see no reason to rant & rave about its faults & compare it with the socalled better cards that have faults too. For general viewing I use my Strong 5390 & the 771 card for recording & archiving.
LoungeLizard Posted October 3, 2004 Posted October 3, 2004 OK, I've been lurking here for some time without posting, but I'm finally seeing some advance with this latest version. First off many thanks Gizmomelb for your onging efforts at getting the most out of these cards. My main requirement is recording SD and converting to DVD, and had found 1.3.57.1 the most stable version till now. HD reception has always been problematic (but I can live with that)- always breaking up and CPU usage of around 65 - 80% plus (usually around the 50% mark for SD channels). Signal strength generally around the 80% mark on all channels. Otherwise reception very good and excellent picture quality. Main problem for me has been the failure for multiple scheduled recordings. Gizmo, I had also managed to shedule several short recordings successfully with most previous versions, but the problem would come with longer recordings - 30 minutes or 1 gig file seems to be about the breaking point - application would freeze after finishing first recording and never record more than a few seconds of any subsequent recording without resetting capture time to unlimited and stopping and restarting application. However, new version seems very promising. Managed a five hour recording last night, followed up by one of 40 minutes. Application automatically restarted after each recording and although capture time had reset itself from unlimited to some specific time, it didn't seem to affect it as in the past. Will try some more scheduled recording setups over the next few days and report back, but first impression is that we may finally have a reliable scheduler. PC setup is P4 1.7 Ghz, 512 Mb RAM, GeForce2 MX400 64 Mb cheers LoungeLizard
Guest Gizmomelb Posted October 3, 2004 Posted October 3, 2004 Hi all, Just thought I'd cover the recommended installation of this Avermedia Application once again with some extra things I thought of (and unfortunately you can't edit earlier messages any more, so sorry I didn't mention/think of these points earlier). 1. UNINSTALL the previous version of the Avermedia software from your computer 2. UNINSTALL the Intervideo SDK from your computer (look in Control Panel / Add Remove Programs). 3. It's probably a good idea to do a REBOOT after uninstalling the above software 4. Avermedia recommend you should have DirectX 9.0C installed. 5. So far as I'm still aware you will need a video card with 64MB of on-board memory for HD support. 6. The DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error (thanks to the work and suggestions of Jasoroony) seems to be caused when the Intervideo CODEC used by Avermedia generates too many errors (this would mainly be when changing channels, or starting a scheduled recording session) Thanks for all the feedback, it's really appreciated and as much info I can get really does help when I collate it all and send it back to Avermedia. I'm still doing testing and I would imagine I'll need to do a few more days testing with recording/scheduling/teletext/remote control etc. all needing stability testing before I can send my 'final' report back to Aver on this version. Considering they've already got an 80MB file with all the PDF help files in every language I'm guessing v1.3.59.1 will be the next official release of the software. Nice to see many 'lurkers' out there posting and contributing! So, going through all the feedback sequentially: KingJasper - I'm especially interested to hear how you found the software to be working/tuning with UK transmissions. May I ask if you could please try/let me know if teletext is working properly for you? Also does the aspect ratio change proplerly between 4:3 and 16:9 video? MisterTrent - hmm no video playback is a very weird one. All I can think of is that maybe other CODECs you have installed are at a higher priority for MPEG2 playback and they aren't working through the Avermedia Application software (and the fact that you can play the recordings fine through Media Player strengthens that opinion). Maybe if you uninstalled the Moonlight CODECs etc. then that might solve the Aver playback problem for you. Oblong - the HD lip-sync issue, what speed is your CPU please (sorry if you've told me before, but I don't keep records of people's comps once I've done a hardware survey to send the info back to aver) - I noticed on the 1.6GHz P4 at work that playback of channel 9 HD recordings (1920x1088i) had lip-sync issues, but channel 10 and ABC (1440x1088i) were fine. So I was assuming channel 9 was having problems because I didn't have a fast enough machine. MisterTrent - I know how frustrating it is re:software support - believe me! I get the impression that the software support has been 'moved' from Taiwan to mainland China and the new team seem to have more resources available to them to address concerns. Aver also appear to have ackownledge that hardware lives or dies with software support - so that's why I'm still hopeful. I've also got the DVIco hardware and while the software for that is better in some ways (than the Aver) I still find the Aver the more user friendly (software usage wise) of the two cards. Clayton - the CMUDA.SYS file is part of the AC97 CMedia on-board soundcard, so it's possible the Aver may have caused an error by trying to get the sound card to play a frequency or channels it may not have been able to handle (digital TV is 48KHz stereo, or 48KHz AC3 Dolby Digital generally in Australia). I'd recommend checking your motherboard manufacturer website and seeing if there's a newer set of drivers for your on-board sound. (Failing that, this web site has driver: http://www.station-drivers.com/page/cmedia.htm - web site is in French, but easy enough to work out) Noreaster - sorry for packaging the file with RAR, I assumed (wrongly) most people would have winRAR or similar capable of unpacking a multi-part file (I split the file up into three parts to it'd be easier to re-download a chunk of the file if it was corrupted on initial download). www.winrar.com has a shareware/demo version which can be installed and will unpack the file correctly. The broadcast frequency variance broadcasters use can be a pain, especially as the Aver software is using pre-set list of frequencies rather than letting the MT352 do a full frequency scan and find the channels itself (which would be the ideal situation). I'll try scheduling from within the application, hadn't done that as yet - thanks. Hmm, could be XP SP2 related errors, I'm only running SP1 and I've seen a few users having problems with SP2 - I'm going to do a rebuild (and make a GHOST image) again soon anyways, so maybe I'll upgrade to SP2 as well and try it. Kallehop - nice to see you back again and glad to hear the tuning works ok! Interesting that it doesn't tune the stations with (I'm guessing) encrypted video. No way I can test that in Australia sorry. What if you manually edit the frequency into the channel list? Does the application detect the (pay per view) channels then? Sorry for asking a stupid question, but with the aspect ratio not changing, did you enable the 'maintain aspect ratio' option? (right click on the application window and it will allow you to select different output resolutions and enable aspect ratio changing automatically). Again, I cannot check that here in Australia as all programs are broadcast as widescreen (older 4:3 video has black bars added to the side by the broadcasters to make it 16:9 widescreen). LoungeLizard - thanks for the feedback, yeah I'll be testing the scheduler quite heavily myself over the next couple of days to see how stable and reliable it is etc. May I suggest if you replace your Geforce 2 MX400 video card with a card that has DXVA support (ATI Radeon 9200SE or Geforce 4 MX440) then you *should* get smooth HD playback and recording as you have more than a good enough signal strength but it's your CPU usage which I feel is causing the break ups. With a DXVA card CPU usage should drop down to about 5-20%. Actually, I might have a Geforce 4 MX440 for sale if you're interested. thanks once again everyone, keep the feedback coming! Gizmomelb
clayton Posted October 3, 2004 Posted October 3, 2004 FIrst time I did the isntall I just uninstalled the avermedia software and not intervideo SDKFilter. And it all worked fine. Then I thought I'd try your suggestion of deinstalling the Intervideo SDK to make sure everything was clean. There were actually two listing for the intervideo SDK filter so I unstalled both. The uninstalled avermedia then rebooted and installed the lot again. This time I got horrible video errors on all 1080i channels but others worked OK. The screen was jumbled was green bars etc. And it crashed the VPU a few times. I rebooted - still same problem. I reinstalled the software again over the top and then 1080i started workign again. Very strange...
noreaster Posted October 3, 2004 Posted October 3, 2004 Update give it another go. After reading Gizmo's report I as others had not uninstalled the SDK when changing versions . Did so & gave it another try. Install went without any hiccups & tested O.K until I did a schedule from the desktop. Schedule from operating program went without problems but from program closed down (i.e. from the desktop) gave me the BSOD DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error, ATTSCAP.SYS causing the crash . Tried one of our old fix's increased the delay from 1500 to 2000 & wallah!! schedule from desktop worked. Now giving this version some longer tests.
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