Couple of DVB Dream Questions...

[mastermesh]

I'm running DVB Dream with a DVB World USB 2 Box. It's fine most of the time, but my computer's a bit on the old/slow side... 1.5ghz with 512 mb ram. I love watching WGMU on Sundays, and previously had DVB Dream set up to record a few shows on there, but found that for some reason if I have the scheduler set up to record rendered, I max out computer's cpu and it almost always crashes... but if I do renderless it's ok... My issue is that when recording renderless, it seems like it only records a certain number of minutes before it stops recording mpg file and/or that if I have it set up to do multiple recordings that it'll record the first renderless recording fine, then try to start a second one after the first one ends and the second one is a 0kb mpg file that has nothing in it. Workaround for that is record one, shut down dvb dream, and restart it before second one - but that's not a viable solution since it requires me to be at the computer - annoyance when I'm out of town, or outside mowing on weekends, or whatever.... kinda makes the scheduler not worth using?!?...

It's an annoying bug I think, or something. Anyone else experience this and/or have any suggesstions on how to fix the problems. Sometimes it works fine, but most of the time, I seem to hit these problems. I was going to try working around the second video recording being a 0mb problem by just recording about 6 hours as one file, and then later going back, and editing out commercials before recording to a dvd for later watching, but even that's not working because of the max number of minutes or whatever... What's a solution to using dvb dream the right way. Maybe this is all my fault for not having a faster computer, or for trying to install that dang ts reader demo a while back. I finally got rid of the ts reader dlls and driver hooks using registry editor, but maybe I missed something? Anyone run in to similar situations? I'm hoping that next dvb dream version fixes these issues, but I doubt it will?!?...

 

[oncewaslost]

Anyone run in to similar situations? I'm hoping that next dvb dream version fixes these issues, but I doubt it will?!?...

I was running dvbdream 1.3C on a PIII 866Mhz w/256mb. I had the sonic codec's installed at the time. It ran about 50-60% cpu recording while rendered. 10-15% renderless (single standard def channel). I was recording to tp files ok, then changed to mpg. I had some problems with 0-byte files when recording to mpg. I would also get "out of space" errors. Then changing back to tp I still had the problems. I deleted the settings.cfg and restarted the prog. It is like starting fresh. Would work with tp ok, but changing to mpg resulted in problems again. Started fresh again and stayed with tp files this time. As long as I stayed with tp files and didn't record more than two pid's of standard def at one time, it was fairly stable.

Since then I have ran it on amd64 3400 w/1gb, and now on an amd64 x2 4600 w/1gb. It has been solid. MPG works fine. I really like dvbdream. If you have a C-band dish, you can record all five networks at once from the Carribbean mux on G16.

Good luck!

 

[mastermesh]

Which exact ini file do I need to delete to fix the problem like you did, and what settings do I need to change to change back from recording mpg to to tp?

It sounds like going to tp files will be the way to go, assuming I can get tp in to mpg easily (cheaply, freely, etc?)... I use womble to edit out commercials and winavi to convert mpg files over to vob files that can be recorded to dvd. I guess adding one more step in to that process, changing tp to mpg won't be too bad of a problem?!?...

When I originally got dvb dream and dvb world it worked perfect, but my problems started creeping up one time when I tried to install ts reader's demo... I think maybe ts reader's demo somehow majorly corrupts something somewhere inside of dvb dream, but it's hard to tell exactly what.

WAIT A SEC... maybe I just answered my own question... I think womble's mpg2vcr may be able to open ts files?... I'll have to check tonigt... Hopefully it does.

 

[Anole]

how many ways to skin the cat ?

Sounds like oncewaslost was suggesting you might benefit from more horsepower or the right codec...?
I like the idea, but . . .

If you choose to record the .TS instead, then try VideoReDo for editing out the parts you wish to save.
Go on the pull-down menu to:
Tools | Options | Stream Parameters | Ignore Transport Stream Maps
and check the box.
Then, when you run VideoReDo, load your .TS, and on the menu select:
Tools | Select Stream
to pick out which stream you want to work with.

As for WinAVI, I bought it a year or so back, and use it for occasional format conversion.
While it will make .VOB files which can be burned as a DVD, there are much better true authoring tools.

On the VRD forum, many of the members seem to like the free GUI_DVDAuthor.
A bit cruder and still free, is Muxman.
I use a full-featured (and costly) authoring tool called DVD Labs Pro, which makes beautiful menus, supplies chapters, etc.
None of the above will re-encode your video, and are therefore pretty fast.
To each his own.

 

[mastermesh]

I'd love to have an upgrade the computer and get a new one, preferably a quad core, if possible, but the wallet just doesn't seem to keep enough money in it to afford that at the moment...

 

[oncewaslost]

The file is settings.cfg, I would recommend renaming it rather than deleting I edited the original post to prevent confusion about the file name. You will be required to choose mpg or tp when you restart.

My experience may be completely unique to my setup, but it couldn't hurt to try. If you are like me, often I have more time than money!

 

[mastermesh]

Urgh... trying to fix all of this stuff, I somehow managed to disconnect the usb device, lost the driver and now in dll hell trying to reinstall. Every time that I run through the nextstorm installer program to install driver and program it's creating some sort of USB Device in Device Manager called Unknown Device. Trying to manually update it to the correct driver ain't working. Going to have to fiddle fart with this darn thing all weekend to get it figured out.... may requre registry hacks? Anyone know exactly which files are tied to dvb world usb 2.0 device, and which registry keys are as well?

 

[oncewaslost]

Every time that I run through the nextstorm installer program to install driver and program it's creating some sort of USB Device in Device Manager called Unknown Device.

Well, I know nothing about the dvb world usb device. What operating system are you running? If win2K/XP You might try uninstalling any software related to it from "add/remove" software in control panel. Also uninstall the "unknown device" from device manager and any other reference to the dvb world usb. The install as the instructions require, but use a different usb port.

 

[mastermesh]

I've got Windows XP. The cd that I got with the device is a little bitty one. I bought from ebay, so I think they made copy of the official cd and just sent that. It's got a winnt folder that has the drivers for manual installs and has a program to install the "normal way"...

I've tried uninstalling the "unknown device" a number of different times, and reinstalling quite a few times. Every time that I run the "normal" installer thingy it creates the unknown device instead of the driver that it should be tied to. When I try to update the driver on the Unknown Device to the one that's in the folder manually, I get an error that it won't work... I know that it will work because I've had it working before... I just got to figure out how the heck to make it work again...

I think the installer is running fine, but it's windows that's screwing things up somehow... urgh, darn windows... Anyways, I ran in to another problem like this a looong time ago when I tried to install ts reader's free version and dvb world kept wanting to install that ts reader driver instead of the other correct driver, even after manually updating driver. I can't remember what I did to fix that, but think I may have to do something similar to that fix this go round........ urgh.

I haven't tried the different port trick. I may try that one and see what happens?

 

[jerry50]

Are the networks on G16?
I scan the bird and get WHT,LESEA,and some music.
I get the analog also.
But no networks
But I was looking for the networks

 

[oncewaslost]

Jerry50,

If you are using dvbdream, just scan 3950H SR12296.
Otherwise, you can go to lyngsat.com and look at free TV for G16. All the info you need is there if you need to manually enter pid's.

 

[mastermesh]

it's finally working again...

Stupid user error... I finally went back and re-read the manual. I have usb2 via a pci card. I had to unplug power to usbworld device, restart computer with it unplugged, and then plug it in before starting the dvb world or dvbdream programs... apparently there's some glitchy thing in windows that causes stuff hooked up to a usb done through a pci port to not work right until the computer is powered up just with the pci card in first of all so that it recognizes the pci driver stuff before adding on top of that or something wanky like that... Crazy freakin Bill Gates thugs.

 

[Anole]

USB: ugh

... Crazy freakin Bill Gates thugs.

I have a Twinhan StarBox USB, and have encountered similar troubles.
My laptop didn't have USB2, only USB 1.1.
So I put in a PCMCIA card to get 2.0
Half the time, I got USB 1.1 speeds through the 2.0 plug-in.
Only by doing some stupid sequence could I ever get the 2.0 communications mode.
Luckily, the whole thing worked just as well using the USB 1.1 on the motherboard.
Go figure.

I've pretty much sworn off USB.
While it -can- work pretty well some of the times...
... some of the time you can't debug it to save your life.
And much of it comes down to drivers and other things out of the user's control.
When all else fails, change PCI cards (or PCMCIA cards), change card drivers, change computers, change OS, or just change your mind and go PCI like I did.
I even put a blank hard drive into a spare desktop, and installed the current XP (up from W2k) from scratch, just to cure USB troubles.

 

[digiblur]

I'd be stuck without USB on my 8PSK USB tuner setup.

 

[mastermesh]

Yes, usb does have it's downfalls... If you have too many devices on it, you will see cpu usage rise a lot. To get descent results on my dvb world watching, I usually unhook a lot of other usb devices.... I have a scanner, a wacom tablet, a webcam, an ati all in wonder remote control reciever thingy that works like a mouse, a couple of external hard drives, and some other stuff. Usually, disconnecting the external hard drives keeps cpu usage from going out the roof....

 

[virsingh]

dvb question

i am new to this stuff
please bear with me
so inorder to use dvb dream
u must hook up a dish to ur computer through the tv tuner jack or is there some thing else to hook it up

 

[genpix]

i am new to this stuff
please bear with me
so inorder to use dvb dream
u must hook up a dish to ur computer through the tv tuner jack or is there some thing else to hook it up

Coax cable from dish should be connected to "Satellite input" connector of your receiver (or DVB-s card).
"tv tuner" is a term which is usually used for terrestrial analog reception.

these things are incompatible.