This page contains all known bugs from drivers, codecs, Windows, etc. which can cause issues in MediaPortal.

Display Issues

Text with special (extended) characters does not render properly

Reason:

This is a known limitation of MediaPortal's font engine. When rendering text, especially when rotating or scrolling, if a character in the string is outside the range of characters rendered to textures, the font engine will use an alternate method to render the text. It will use DirectX sprites. Sprites are 2D objects and cannot extend on the z-axis. When rendering sprites, only the part that lies on the z=0 plane is visible - everything else is clipped.

Solution:

A work around is to either

1. change the "characters" tag in the language file, e.g.:

<Language name="Croatian" characters="512">

1.  use the useExtendedCharsWithStandardCulture in debug section in Mediaportal.xml.
   As of MP 1.2.0+ you can add:

<entry name="useExtendedCharsWithStandardCulture">512</entry>  to MediaPortal.xml

Both will increase the number of characters rendered to textures BUT as a result will increase GPU memory usage.

Using first approach, skin cache will be "lighter" but you loose the setting on each install. The second approach will use more cache (more memory) but will keep the setting on reinstall.

MediaPortal GUI gets black after video playback stops

Reason:

This problem occurs in some cases when you use MPV or ffdshow as video codec, in combination with the Enhanced Video Renderer (EVR). 

Solution:

You can solve this problem by using an updated version of the Mpeg2DecFilter from MPC home cinema or another codec, such as from PowerDVD or WinDVD.

DVD Menus are black

Reason:

The DVD Navigation filters are very sensitive to the video and audio filters (codecs) you use.
If these filters are "incompatible", then you might encounter none working DVD menues.

Solution:

The only solution for this issue is to use a working combination of "DVD Navigator" and audio/video codecs. 
It's known that the inbuild DVD Navigator and audio/video codec of Windows Vista are working well together.
The DVD Navigator and audio/video codec from PowerDVD 7 are working very well too.

Video Playback is black

Reason:

There is a bug inside DirectX which causes a problem that as soon as you increase the DPI for the fonts in Windows, the video playback in MediaPortal becomes black.

Solution:

The only way to avoid the display problem in MediaPortal is to set the DPI setting to Windows default.

MediaPortal displays images 90° rotated

Reason:

MediaPortal reads the exif from your picture to find out if it has to be rotated (not all image viewers do that).

Solution:

If your image files contain a faulty orientation value in the Exif then you have the following options: 

1. Fix the exif value (depending on the amount of pictures you have, this can be a lot of work)
2. disable the feature that MediaPortal reads the Exif
   1. go to MediaPortal Configuration -> Pictures and disable the Exif feature 
   2. clear the thumbs cache
   3. delete your PictureDatabase.db3 inside the UserFiles
   4. clear the thumbs cache

Audio Issues

No audio on some channels

Reason 1:

Sometimes this happens when you selected "S/PDIF passthrough" in the codec configuration and connect your TV with analog stereo to the HTPC. This means that on channels which broadcast AC3 audio, you won't hear anything from your TV speakers, because "S/PDIF passthrough" is selected. 

Solution:

Either choose "decode to speakers" in the filter configuration, or connect the SPDIF of your HTPC to your Dolby Digital-capable receiver. 

Reason 2:

If the TV channel where this issue occurs contains an MPEG1 mono audio channel, then you will have to choose an audio codec which is able to process this audio stream.

NOTE: This can happen on stereo channels as well, goes hand in hand with a random chance on a still picture (Ziggo NL) aka Discovery Channels fix.

Solution 1:

Choose LAV or ffdshow as audio codec.

Open ffdshow audio decoder configuration -> codecs -> MP1,MP2 to mp3lib + Apply & OK

Solution 2 (for Vista users):

Choose Microsoft DD decoder as audio codec.

Reason 3:

AC3 audio using Microsoft codecs - either TV or Video. Microsoft codecs will not output any sound for AC3 (and all Dolby licensed formats) when not used in Microsoft products.

Use MPC codecs in Codecs and Renderer setup

No audio for some seconds when using skip steps / fast forward

Reason:

This is a specific issue with some codecs like Cyberlink. You watch an movie or TV and after you used the skip steps or FF/FR the video plays but there is no audio for ~10 seconds.

Solution 1:

Select a different audio codec like LAV, ffdshow or MPA.

MediaPortal controls system sounds instead of only its own

When selecting Wave as Control in Volume Settings, MediaPortal should only change volume and mute its own sounds however using Windows 8 this is not possible. MediaPortal will instead control all system sounds.

Reason:

There is no audio mixer in this environment as there is in the desktop. It still exists for desktop applications, but your app won’t show up here because we felt it was not a great experience to pop out into desktop to adjust relative app volumes. Instead, we are encouraging apps to not include volume controls. This way users are focused on the master volume control which helps simplify the entire volume experience as well – but that’s a different story.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsappdev/archive/2012/08/23/media-playback-what-you-need-to-know-about-playing-media-to-make-your-app-shine-in-windows-8.aspx

Storage Issues

Network drive is not reachable so no media is displayed

Reason:

There can be many different reason why a network drive is not reachable, until you click at it once in the explorer, after you started your PC. 
It is possible that your network card was not ready fast enough or some other network related problem. 

Solution:

You just need to use UNC Paths when you add shares inside MediaPortal configuration.
Easiest way to do so is to select the "network" instead of the network drive, then your server PC and then the folder you want to use. 

TV-Server Issues

Slow Zapping or interaction with database

Reason:

Anti-virus / firewall software can slow down interaction between MP and database (NOD32 seems to sometimes be worst for this). This can be changing channel, adding recording schedules, removing schedules etc (anything which needs MP client to interact with database) 

Solution:

Try disabling your anti-virus / firewall / anti-malware software. If MP speeds up then look at what settings need to change inside the security software. If you are unable to get them working then contact your security software provider. 

TV-Service fails to start with an Socket Exception

Reason:

False signatures (e.g. from Windows Defender see CNet news for details) might have caused an alteration of your %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file.

Solution:

Go to:  C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc 

127.0.0.1 localhost
::1 localhost

1. Open the hosts file with Notepad (On Vista and Windows 7 you might need to run Notepad in elevated mode by opening the start menu, start typing "Notepad" and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter).
2. Make sure that the file contains at least these two lines.
3. Save the file and reboot your PC (make sure that it does not get saved as hosts.txt).

No MySQL database connection (client/server)

Reason:

After a fresh install (can sometimes happen on an upgrade too) on a multiseat environment the TV Client may not able to connect to the TV-Server.

Symptoms:

The TV Client is not able to connect to the TV-Server but there is TV program information available on the TV Server. On the client side you will get an error that the database is not available.

An error.log will be created which should have entries similar to this:

Exception :Error: DatabaseUnavailableUnclassified
Gentle.Common.GentleException: The database backend (provider MySQL) could not be reached.
Check the connection string: Server=localhost;Database=MpTvDb;User ID=root;Password=***;charset=utf8;Connection Timeout=300; ---> MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlException: Unable to connect to any of the specified MySQL hosts. ---> System.Exception: Exception of type 'System.Exception' was thrown.
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.NativeDriver.Open()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.NativeDriver.Open()
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.Driver.Create(MySqlConnectionStringBuilder settings)
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlPool.GetPooledConnection()
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlPool.GetConnection()
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlConnection.Open()
at Gentle.Provider.MySQL.MySQLProvider.GetConnection()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at Gentle.Common.Check.FailWith(Severity severity, Error error, Exception e, String msg)
at Gentle.Common.Check.Fail(Exception e, Error error, Object[] args)
at Gentle.Provider.MySQL.MySQLAnalyzer.Analyze(String tableName)
at Gentle.Framework.GentleAnalyzer.UpdateObjectMap(ObjectMap map)
at Gentle.Framework.ObjectFactory.ConstructMap(PersistenceBroker broker, Type type)
at Gentle.Framework.ObjectFactory.GetMap(PersistenceBroker broker, Type type)
at Gentle.Framework.SqlBuilder..ctor(IGentleProvider provider, StatementType stmtType, Type type, LogicalOperator logicalOperator)
at Gentle.Framework.SqlBuilder..ctor(StatementType stmtType, Type type)
at TvPlugin.ChannelNavigator.ReLoad()MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlException: Unable to connect to any of the specified MySQL hosts. ---> System.Exception: Exception of type 'System.Exception' was thrown.
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.NativeDriver.Open()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.NativeDriver.Open()
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.Driver.Create(MySqlConnectionStringBuilder settings)
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlPool.GetPooledConnection()
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlPool.GetConnection()
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlConnection.Open()
at Gentle.Provider.MySQL.MySQLProvider.GetConnection()System.Exception: Exception of type 'System.Exception' was thrown.
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.NativeDriver.Open()

If you open the TV Guide on client side you will get a picture similar to this:

 

Resolution:

1. Navigate to the folder: 

   C:\ProgramData\TeamMediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server

   (note:

   ProgramData

   is a hidden folder)

2. Open

   gentle.config

   with a text editor

3. Search for the line which looks similar to:

<DefaultProvider name="MySQL" connectionString="Server=localhost;Database=MpTvDb;User ID=root;Password=MediaPortal;charset=utf8;Connection Timeout=300;" />

1. Change the red marked word above to:

<DefaultProvider name="MySQL" connectionString="Server=<NameOfMyTVServer>;Database=MpTvDb;User ID=root;Password=MediaPortal;charset=utf8;Connection Timeout=300;" />

* *where <NameOfMyTVServer> is the name of your TVServer.

1. Save the file

If this does not help and you still don't get a database connection look for the

gentle.config

in 

C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal

on *client side *and redo the steps above.

TV Client Issues

FileReader::Read() no open file

Reason:

Windows occasionally seems to lose the remote (timeshift) file connection on a Multi seat setup (maybe because of network dropouts/problems). This ONLY applies if you use UNC paths for LiveTV!

Solution:

Fixed in MP 1.8 (and there is replacement TsReader.ax file here for older versions of MP)