Announcing DVBLink for HDPVR RC3!

[fredx21]

We now have a shiny web site for DVBLink for HDPVR. We took the decision to create a web site to try helping users following the development of DVBLink for HDPVR (following all the different forum threads is not for everyone!). An RSS feed is also available to help users quickly get updates about new releases.

The officials announcement and downloads will be available on the 1geek1tool.com website. The discussions will remain at the dvblogic forums in order to use that global knowledge available among the community.

Read the details from 1geek1tool.com here.

Fred

[GarryWMA]

Hi Fred

Thanks for this I will give it a try later. One thing I have noticed which is a bit odd. I use SPDIF for output from my Media Center, when watching my DVB-T tuners through media center the volume control in Media Center will control the volume of the output but when watching the DVBLink channels it doesn't. It will mute the volume when it gets to 0 but that is it. I use SPDIF input from the HDPVPR.

Any thoughts
Garry

[timf]

Hi Fred,

Great work - I'll likely try it out later today.

Few questions though - what's the easiest route to upgrade ? I assume my existing config file can be re-used.

So it'd be a complete removal and re-installation of all components I guess ?

Being lazy and not wishing to damage the WaF or ithe installation as a whole while it's working so well, could I just switch out the .dll file for the one from this package ?

Thanks Tim

[Oberon]

What I have noticed is that you do not have to re-run TV Setup if you uninstall and re-install DVBLink Server. MediaCenter will pickup your newly re-installed tuners as is with all channels, settings and scheduled recordgins. Just make sure that you have backed up and then restored source configuration xml file.
So what you have to do is the following:
- Save your source(s) configuration file
- Uninstall DVBLink products (in your case DVBLink for HDPVR)
- Uninstall DVBLink Server
- Reboot
- Install DVBLink Server
- Reboot
- Install DVBLink for HDPVR
- Copy your previously saved source configuration file, overwriting the default one
- Restart DVBLink Server
- Start MediaCenter. You should be able to use your HDPVR channels in MediaCenter as they were configured before

[cl0ud6]

Just got this installed. I followed the directions as noted by Oberon for upgrading. Everything seems to be working perfectly so far.

I'm also having the same problem with the volume control that GarryWMA mentioned. I'm just using the rca audio. The volume slider goes up and down, but doesn't raise or lower the volume until it gets to 0 (its muted).

[philibert]

I use SPDIF for output from my Media Center, when watching my DVB-T tuners through media center the volume control in Media Center will control the volume of the output but when watching the DVBLink channels it doesn't. It will mute the volume when it gets to 0 but that is it. I use SPDIF input from the HDPVPR.

Got the same thing, I was under the impression it was something with my hardware... seems its not the case. I would love to find out why this is as well.

[nick12]

I thought that Media Center can't control the volume of digital audio, no matter what the source, since it's passthrough to your tv/receiver? Mine only lets me control volume if the audio is analog.

I just gave RC3 a shot, and it works fine when it's running, but I'm still having all sorts of problems everytime I turn off my TV/receiver but leave the PC on. When I turn the TV or receiver back on, usually Media Center freezes and I can't do anything until I restart the PC. I've verified this is dvblink causing this, because if I uninstall dvblink and leave everything else the same, the problem no longer occurs. Also, I've been using this since the early dvbsbridge betas, and this didn't start happening until the recent RC's of dvblink. Even the betas of dvblink didn't cause this. The few times that Media Center DOESN'T freeze when turning back on, I'll get "Video Error" when I try to tune to any channels, and the only way to fix it is to restart Media Center.

Anyone else experiencing anything like that?

[philibert]

I thought that Media Center can't control the volume of digital audio, no matter what the source, since it's passthrough to your tv/receiver? Mine only lets me control volume if the audio is analog.

My MCE lets me control the volume on DivX or other such digital videos... but not on the HDPVR audio stream.

I just gave RC3 a shot, and it works fine when it's running, but I'm still having all sorts of problems everytime I turn off my TV/receiver but leave the PC on. When I turn the TV or receiver back on, usually Media Center freezes and I can't do anything until I restart the PC. I've verified this is dvblink causing this, because if I uninstall dvblink and leave everything else the same, the problem no longer occurs. Also, I've been using this since the early dvbsbridge betas, and this didn't start happening until the recent RC's of dvblink. Even the betas of dvblink didn't cause this. The few times that Media Center DOESN'T freeze when turning back on, I'll get "Video Error" when I try to tune to any channels, and the only way to fix it is to restart Media Center.

Personnaly, I never turn off the Receiver (because of the programmed recordings). I know that HDPVR doesn't behave very well without a receiver. Can you check the following next time it happens:
-If you open the Windows Task Manager, can you see the service "dvblinksrv.exe".
a) If not, try starting it manually to see if you have any results (you can open the DVBLink Server Configuration Tool and close it, that will restart the service).
b) If you see it, try restarting it manually.
I will check on my end if I can reproduce this behavior.

[sdigre]

maybe I'm missing the context of the audio volume control issue, but I am running component video and spdif optical cable and my hd pvr source volume behaves like all other NTSC ota atsc tuners. Win 7100

[HookedOnTV]

I'm not sure that this new way that turns off capturing works better. I'm finding that if I watch tv for a couple hours then don't for a couple hours I then get the "not capturing" error. Have to power cycle the hdpvr to fix it. I used to only have to power cycle the thing every few days and now it's down to hours. Can this feature be disabled?

[nick12]

philibert, I don't watch any divx vids, so I guess our cases our different... I was just referring to playing actual dvd's, or media center recorded content that has digital audio. Can you control the audio of those things? Maybe it's the fact that I'm using hdmi...

as far as the other stuff goes, we might not be on the same page... when I say receiver, i mean my stereo, not the cablebox. It has hdmi processing, so I have hdmi from my PC to the stereo, and then hdmi from the stereo to my TV. This way I get pure digital audio to the stereo for surround sound and pure digital video to the TV. Anyway, I tried putting the PC into sleep mode at the same time as turning off the stereo and TV (and set dvblogic to to stop acquisition when idle), and when I turned them back on, it seemed to work. Hopefully this wasn't a fluke, I'll see how it acts tonight. But so far it looks like the fix to my problem may be that all of the hardware has to either be on or all hardware has to be off for things to work correctly.

[sdigre]

Audio.

Everything, regardless of source, played within media center is controlled by media center volunt controls.

Hdmi,optical spdif, analog spdif or analog RCA - all should fall under mc volume control. And do on my 2 systems, I have tested and used all of these scenarios.

[philibert]

I'm not sure that this new way that turns off capturing works better. I'm finding that if I watch tv for a couple hours then don't for a couple hours I then get the "not capturing" error. Have to power cycle the hdpvr to fix it. I used to only have to power cycle the thing every few days and now it's down to hours. Can this feature be disabled?

If you get the message "manual power cycle" then YOU ARE NOT using the "Idle mode" that turns off capturing when not using Live TV or Recorded TV. This message can only occur if you actually loose the capturing unexpectedly... when capturing is already turned off, this message cannot be shown. In the file Config.xml you shall find the parameters that controls this idle mode and their documentation.

[HookedOnTV]

The not streaming popup is going crazy. I'm watching a movie (an mpg from videos that has nothing to do with tv/dvblink) and the popup is coming up like one a second over and over. Can't even watch my movie.

[nick12]

Just an update, if I set the PC to go to sleep when not in use (and have acquisition turn off when idle), then it seems to have fixed the original problem of media center freezing when turning my tv back on... but all my overnight recordings are failing for some reason. I get media center errors that there was no tv signal.

Also, I set background scanning to "disabled" in the mc addin, but every so often I can see it doing the background scanning anyway. Is there something else I have to do?