FAQ : fixes, tricks, tips and workarounds (and other general PC digital TV helpful hints)

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FAQ : fixes, tricks, tips and workarounds (and other general PC digital TV helpful hints)

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Bill
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Joined: 10 Jan 2005
Posts: 2563

Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 4:52 pm Post subject: FAQ : fixes, tricks, tips and workarounds (and other general PC digital TV helpful hints)

Installation: (Clean install)

We’ve seen quite a few problems as a result of installation ‘issues’

Quote:

Uninstall any previous version of DigiTV software.

Open the registry editor and delete the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Nebula key

If you have a Nebula USB device, unplug it, (remove the power if it's a early DigiTV-USB with built-in hub) then open Device manager, click View and select 'show hidden devices'. Remove any Nebula audio or video devices. The DigiTV USB driver is called NebUSB.sys, NebAudio/NebVideo are the drivers for the DigiTV PCI card.

If you have a PCI card, leave the card installed (you shouldn't have any extraneous Neb drivers, but it might be worth a look).

Disable any Firewall or anti-virus software (disconnect from the web)

Extract the installer and other files from the download into a temporary folder

Run the installer.

It should find any PCI card at this stage, but if it doesn't then reboot the machine. If you're asked for drivers (even if it asks for old disk), browse to C:\Program files\Nebula\Drivers (or where-ever you've installed it)

If you've a USB box, plug the power into the USB box (if it is externally powered) then plug the USB lead in. If you're asked for drivers, browse to C:\Program files\Nebula\Drivers (or where-ever you've installed it). Nebula often updates the USB firmware as the USB is plugged in

Run DigiTV - It should start tuning.

Swaping BDA <-> WDM drivers
http://www.nebula-electronics.com/support/faq.asp#17

Nebula wrote:

How to I change my µDigiTV USB WDM drivers for the BDA ones, and vise-versa?

Changing from WDM to BDA drivers (Windows XP):

Make sure your µDigiTV device is plugged in and DigiTV is shut down completely.

Open up the Windows Device Manager.

Navigate to the Universal Serial Bus Devices section.

Right Click on Nebula DigiTV USB and select Update Driver.

Select the No Not This Time option then click Next.

Select the Install from a list or specific location option then click Next.

Select the Don't search. I will choose ... option then click Next.

Press the Have Disk button.

Browse to your ../program files/nebula/digitv/drivers/bda/ directory.

Select the file DigiTV-USB-BDA.inf and click Open.

Click OK.

Click Next.

Click Continue Anyway when asked.

Wait for the drivers to install and then click Finish.

Changing from BDA to WDM drivers (Windows XP):

Make sure your µDigiTV device is plugged in and DigiTV is shut down completely.

Open up the Windows Device Manager.

Navigate to the Sound, Video and Game Controllers section.

Right Click on Nebula DigiTV USB BDA and select Update Driver.

Select the No Not This Time option then click Next.

Select the Install from a list or specific location option then click Next.

Select the Don't search. I will choose ... option then click Next.

Press the Have Disk button.

Browse to your ../program files/nebula/digitv/drivers/ directory.

Select the file DigiTV-USB.inf and click Open.

Click OK.

Click Next.

Click Continue Anyway when asked.

Wait for the drivers to install and then click Finish.

Duplicate channels - [This has been fixed in V3.7]

Depending on your location and signal strength duplicate channels can be found and DigiTV lists them with a number in parentheses (e.g CH4 (001)). Sod’s law dictates that the duplicates will be the ones with the best reception! I had a number of odd problems – crashes, channels not found etc. so, used this work around:

Quote:

In Settings /Tuning/Detailed

If you have a set of channels with duplicates:
Select the ‘Current channels’ tab
Click ‘Frequency’ to list the channels by frequency
Select a known good channel (e.g. BBC 6 music freq = 618.00)
The frequency will be copied in the frequency box
Select the ‘Autotune exceptions’ tab
Click the ‘Add’ button – the frequency will be added to he list
Repeat the process selecting a known good channel in each of the multiplex frequencies (6 in the UK)
Click the ‘Only search these frequencies’ option
Click the ‘Autotune Now’ button

If you don’t have any channels listed (because auto crashes)
Manually enter the multiplex frequencies from your nearest transmitter
(e.g. Sudbury 618, 690, 698, 706, 738, 754) into the Frequencies box
Click the ‘Add’ button – the frequency will be added to he list
Click the ‘Only search these frequencies’ option
Click the ‘Autotune Now’ button

If you want to keep the duplicate channels, sorting the channels by LCN instead of Favourites can avoid timer and recording problems.

Loss of channel info

Problems can be caused by multiple DigiTV start-up shortcuts – (i.e. one for All Users, one for each individual user). This means that two fresh DigiTV instances can be started in short succession, causing a race condition that in some situations causes DigiTV some problems. (Thanks Tony for noticing this one!).

Make sure there is only one shortcut to DigiTV (use msconfig to see what is going on).

Also, dont modify the following registry keys to attempt to speed up PC shutdown (thanks Troy!):

Beware of tweaking utilities that offer faster a shut down option. (e.g. "XP Antispy" - nice one funff)

Registry tweaks wrote:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/WaitToKillAppTimeout

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/HungAppTimeout

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/Control/WaitToKillServiceTimeout

This could cause DigiTV to be killed at shutdown, rather than exiting gracefully, resulting in the registry getting trashed.

Occasional USB (and PCI??) initialisation issues

On some PCs, connected USB devices may not be initialised properly at boot time
For reasons only Nebula would know - A master USB shows up as a slave in the Device Attached list, with a big negative serial number, and doesn’t function correctly until DigiTv is restarted.

HyperReality wrote:

Creating a startup batch file that delays DigiTV startup at boot/login time can address this, ie replace the DigiTV.exe shortcut in the Startup folder, with a batch file containing something like:

@ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2 -w 1000 > nul
@ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2 -w 1000 > nul
start "DigiTV" "C:\Program Files\Nebula\DigiTV\DigiTV.exe" SLEEP
exit

(ping acts as a sleep command, as a generic sleep app isnt available on platforms other than Win2003).

Also worth trying if strange PCI problems are occuring for you at boot.

USB power issues.(Both slave and master devices)

Often shows up as reception difficulties, picture & sound break up, but can also cause devices to disappear with associated failed recordings.

I not sure why, or even if, it is more prevalent in the iTuner versions, but it may be due to the extra load 3.5 places on the CPU and system as a whole.

The solution is usually as simple as powering the device from a good quality powered USB2 hub (i.e. one with a power supply of its own) or even swapping the device to a different port.

Sometimes, particularly in the case of an electrically noisy, or overloaded, PC power supply (prevalent in cheap cases, but also seen with more expensive ones), the PSU may be the root cause. Some people have replaced their PSU and resolved the problems as a result (though most go the hub route in this case).

As noted by GaryL in Nov 2009: "In the UK, the change in transmission modes at DSO results in an increased power demand from the Nebula hardware; this may result in reception problems for PCs that had previously worked properly." These issues also seem to be fixed by improving the power available to the DigiTV Hardware.

PCI card slot issues.

Often show up as reception difficulties, picture & sound break up but can also cause remote control and other problems.

Swapping the card to a different PCI slot, away from other cards can sometimes reduce impulse noise (showing as high BER figures), if the other cards are generating interference, and as it usually forces the mother-board to reallocate Interrupts etc. it can solve a range of other problems.

As mentioned above, sometimes, an electrically noisy, or overloaded, PC power supply (prevalent in cheap cases, but also seen with more expensive ones), may mean the PSU may be the root cause of the problem, as it is spewing noise onto the power supply lines on the PCI bus. Replacing the PSU may be the only choice if moving slots or removing other PCI cards doesnt help.

PS: If you have a dodgy old SoundBlaster PCI card installed and are seeing all sorts of DigiTV PCI strangeness (eg H/W FBUS errors reported in DigiTV and lots of pixelation), then try removing the Soundblaster card and using the on-board motherboard audio instead (assuming your board has it). The SB card/drivers (like "extra" SATA controllers) can hog the PCI bus in a very unfriendly manner.

Folders and Files

Make sure you set the Settings/Playback/General - 'Search these directories for media files' correctly. 3.5.21 seems to have problems with named sub folders if the parent folder is also named (i.e. F:\ plus F:\TV may not work, so use F:\ and check the 'search sub-folders' box when you enter the path)

DigiTV scans the folders for files on a regular basis, corrupted files and, bizarrely (because DigiTV is supposed to play them), MPEG1 files can cause it to hang or crash. If you have a problem as DigiTV is tries to display your recordings, move them to a different folder and replace them one by one to locate the errant file.

There is a known bug in v3.5.21 that causes it to leak file handles when recording, but only if there are playback search folder entrie that don't have "search subfolders" checked. To work around this, please ensure that all the entries in the folder list have this option checked - though you'll want to be careful about what folders you put in the list so DigiTV doesnt end up having to regularly search through large parts of the hard drive for .mpg files. (Thanks to andy_p for reporting that one).

"Shut down after last timer expires" not working (fixed in v3.7.xx)

Set the "Start N minutes before" recording setting to 0 minutes.

Anti-virus and firewall settings

Bit of a minefield this ... DigiTV will co-exist with both anti-virus and firewalls, but it's important to realise they can cause problems if not configured correctly.

If you have to run an automatic anti-virus scanner (I'm not a fan of automatic AV scanners), make sure it is set to avoid scanning DigiTV files (e.g. *.MPG, *.MP2 )

DigiTV needs to have access to a number of network ports and protocols, check your firewall settings to ensure it allows:
Server/Client networking = UDP port 2820, TCP ports 2880 & 2890 (see: settings)
EPG download, = TCP port 80
IPTV =
web interface HTTP port 2880 & 2890 (see: settings)

Web Interface and IPTV
If the web interface crashes when you connect or IPTV has problems, you may need to update the Windows MSVCORE.DLL/WMVCORE.DLL

Quote:

XP,
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/891122
Windows 2000 version:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=F3903E13-7D01-4DB7-9E6F-E9DFFAC6731E

Possible Hyperthreading Related Issues

Does your PC have a P4 HT capable processor? Is Hyperthreading enabled in the BIOS? Are you seeing weird behaviour: random recording problems, SPDIF or other audio dropouts, other strange random acts of bizareness, or is it just that your favourite pet is acting strangely around you?

Try disabling Hyperthreading in the BIOS of your PC (which should disable it in Windows - check by opening the Task Manager and checking that there is only one CPU graph appearing in the Performace tab), and see if any of the strangeness goes away.

Tom's hardware guide - Task Assignment Manager

A few years ago, TomsHardware published this article:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/getting-more-bang-out-of-your-dual-processing-buck,review-960.html

On the first page is a link to a program they developed. I put it in my Windows startup group.

Basically, it seems to watch the launching of applications and checks the EXE name against it's defineable list. If it matches an entry, the processor affinity is set as defined.

You can either add programs by hand, or you can choose an already running application and add it to the list.

Kingjasper

Thanks KJ Smile

A/V sync issues and AMD dual core processor (v3.7.xx up to and including v3.7.06)

May want to try installing the AMD dual core optimiser, available here and see if this makes a difference.

(Note: At your own risk: I've not personally confirmed this one, as I've not seen any problems like this, nor are 100% sure whether DigiTV bypasses the Windows timing API and would hence perform better with this fix).

General Reception and Performance: Use of careful cable routing

Due to the high RF interference environment on the inside of the PC case (some of which leaks out), careful routing of antenna cables, and use of high quality, well shielded antenna cables and connectors, can make a very positive difference to the performance of a DVB-T card or USB device. Keeping the antenna cables away from WiFi antennas and other potential sources of noise is recommended.

Also, some people have found that things like fan speed controllers and other cabling inside the PC, can cause noise and other issues, particularly if they are routed next to PCI cards like DigiTV and other cards. Keeping internal cabling neat and tidy inside the case, and where possible, routing them away from the DVB-T card(s), can help improve reception.

DigiTV USB + HIP + MCE IR Receiver + MCEir.dll

If you are using the above combination of software and devices, and are experiencing some strange behaviour from the DigiTV USB device, please ensure that you are running the latest version of HIP and the latest HIP MCEir.dll plugin for the MCE IR receiver (later than mid-Feb 2006).

There is a bug in an earlier version of the MCEir.dll (ie nothing whatsoever to do with DigiTV), that causes it to try to talk to the DigiTV USB device, rather than talking to the MCE IR receiver. This causes bad things to happen. I (HR) fixed the MCEir.dll code a while ago (thankfully the source was available, and thanks to Anarchi who reported the problem) and provided the updated version to the author of HIP.

SPDIF passthrough

Some people (in particular those using some Realtek audio chipsets) are finding that enabling the SPDIF passthrough option in the Audio Settings is causing DigiTV to be less reliable than it should. If updating the audio drivers and/or motherboard BIOS don't help, then turning off AC3 passthrough to SPDIF appears to be improving stability in these cases. (Thanks to pootle for initially reporting the improvement on his system).

Lame MP3 codec issues

It has been reported that certain versions of the Lame MP3 codecs (v3.95.x) can cause applications to crash, even though the application (like DigiTV) doesnt explicitly install or use the Lame codecs.

If you are seeing random crashes of DigiTV, particularly if the error information mentions anything about "lameacm.acm", then please see this post and look to upgrade the Lame codecs installed on your PC.

Windows XP/MCE/2003 Visual Settings Tweaks and Issues

My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced Tab -> Performance Settings -> Visual Effects Tab

* If you are finding the video is jumping when you open or close other windows, uncheck "Animate windows when minimising and maximising".

* If you are having weird window behaviour with DigiTV (missing caption bar, duplicate windows, and other strange things), ensure that "Use visual styles on windows and buttons" is checked.

Windows 2000 oddities

Users of Windows 2000 should be aware that there are some limitations in the operating system/USB functions that require some adjustments to DigiTV 3.7 and BDA driver operation.

3.7.00 - Using the USB WDM drivers can cause crashes. Please extract the NebUSB.sys (product version 2.1.0.7) and DigiTV_USB.inf, from the 3.5.21 cab file (use winzip or similar). Place these in a new folder and use these in preference to the 3.7 version.

BDA PCI and USB drivers - It is necessary to edit the .inf files (DigiTV-PCI-BDA.inf and DigiTV-USB-BDA.inf) prior to installing the BDA drivers

Change: HKLM,"System\CurrentControlSet\Services\DigiTV_BDATuner","BandwidthMode",0x10001,0

To: HKLM,"System\CurrentControlSet\Services\DigiTV_BDATuner","BandwidthMode",0x10001,8
(8 for UK, 7 for Australia)

speedmeup's v3.7 Timer Reliability Improvement Suggestion

If you have multiple tuners (I have 1 old PCI and one new USB) then doing the following often appears to make recording timers more reliable:

1. Set timers
2. Exit DigiTV completely (including from the systray)
3. Restart DigiTV again

HR Note: Not doing this doesn't make a difference on any of our test machines, but they are rebooted (and hence DigiTV restarted) at least once a day. So, this suggestion may be particularly useful for people who would otherwise leave DigiTV running for long periods of time.

Restarting DigiTV and Windows regularly may be good for clearing out any crud that the software and Windows accumulates over time. Smile

Command Line Options

FULLSCREEN - Startup in full screen
SLEEP - Startup in the system tray
WAKEUP - Used to signal DigiTV was woken from a scheduled windows event
CHAN - Startup on a specific channel
ALARM - Used to indicate DigiTV was woken from an alarm state

Add the command to the end of the file/path (with a space) in the 'Target' box of a shortcut.

e.g.
"C:\Program Files\Nebula\DigiTV\DigiTV-HD.exe" CHAN 705

Vista complications:

There have been a few problems related specifically to Vista that require DigiTV to be run as administrator:

Avid wrote:

The problem is Vista and its "registry virtualization". Unless you run as administrator, configuration updates don't "stick" in the registry and are lost on the next run. This has been seen as the cause of the repeated re-tune, but turns out also to be the cause of the failure to ignore an available tuner

Text screen layout problems - (NebDev)
It is important to use the right font for correct spacing. Its called 'Tiresias' and is distributed with the DigiTV disk under the filename 'tt7268m_802.ttf' which should automatically be installed into your Windows Fonts directory. If DigiTV can't find it, then it uses Arial instead which can lead to the text screen layout being incorrect

Persistant Teletext - (blanchas)

if you press the Escape button on the remote to exit the text rather than the text button it seems to disable the Digital text function so it does not pop up when you change channels.

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To be continued...

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Bill & HyperReality

Last edited by Bill on Wed Nov 25, 2009 7:27 pm; edited 16 times in total

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HyperReality
DigiTV Forum Moderator