Totally Frustrated with "Weak TV Signal" Warning

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bobr31

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Totally Frustrated with "Weak TV Signal" Warning

#1

Post by bobr31 » Thu Jul 28, 2022 2:58 pm

I am trying to solve a recording problem with my Ceton InfiniTV4 tuner. None of my recordings are completing. They start fine but after a random number of minutes I get the "Weak TV Signal" and the program continues to record but the warning is the only thing you can see. The problem started 8 weeks ago after a Comcast outage in my area. I had Comcast out and they spent 2 hours going over connections in the house and on the pole. They did some wiring updates and put on a new amp. They did signal tests that confirmed good signal.

Attached is a screenshot of my signal strength on each tuner this morning. It looks sufficient for proper recording. I am a long time Ceton Tuner user (early adopter since 8/1/11). About 3 months ago I did a fresh Win7 install on an old Dell Studio XPS and got it up and running perfectly. (BTW----EPG123/Garyan is the best) Then there was the Comcast outage and the Weak TV Signal issue started.

I have a 2nd Ceton tuner that I have swapped in & out to rule out a tuner issue and tried several different cable cards from Comcast to no avail. It does not appear to be a problem with the tuner. Based on my attached signal strength report, I'm guessing it's not a signal strength issue. I have tried the registry tweak to the Weak TV Signal module but no joy. My speculation is that there may be signal strength fluctuations that cause a momentary signal drop that may cause the error to trigger. Comcast does not buy this. I'm looking for any diagnostic suggestions on how to solve this. Any software tweaks? The Win7 install is the only thing on my C drive. Recording is done on other drives. Is there a way to disable the warning message? It's a very frustrating issue after having things running perfectly for 11 years!

Thanks
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Signal Strength.PNG

Space

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#2

Post by Space » Fri Jul 29, 2022 1:00 am

You've already indicated you applied the registry fix for the false "Weak Signal" message in WMC, but I've just noticed that the Microsoft page that used to have it is no longer there (or is not currently there for some reason). Here it is for anyone needing it:

Code: Select all

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectShow\Debug\BDA\MSNP]
"WeakSignalDroppedThreshold"=dword:00000032
Put this in a file called WeakSignalFix.reg and double-click on it to apply it to the registry.

You probably have to restart some processes afterwards, but I'm not sure which, so best to just reboot.

Note that this is a workaround to a bug in WMC which is indicating the INCORRECT signal quality to WMC, so setting it to 50% like this registry change does, does not mean the threshold is actually being set to 50% (which in reality if your signal was 50% it would probably not be watchable).

Since this is adjusting a threshold signal loss percentage before reporting a error, you can change the 32 hex (50 decimal) to another value if you wish. The original value is 10 hex (16 decimal). I believe the value is the percentage of signal loss before it reports the weak signal, so originally it is 16% signal loss, and the registry fix changes it to 50% signal loss before reporting. If this fix doesn't work, you can try increasing this value to see if it helps.

Here is some more info from a previous thread.

The Mac

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#3

Post by The Mac » Thu Aug 04, 2022 12:18 am

dont suppose you have a link for that infinitv status plugin?

the author's website link is busted...

bobr31

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#4

Post by bobr31 » Tue Aug 09, 2022 4:08 pm

I had the plugin for years until my setup crashed in May. It is a great way to quickly check the performance of your tuners. I contacted Josh Pollard at DMZ and he was able to go into his archives and find the plugin and send it to me. He said he was going to update the link at DMZ but I just checked and it is still broken. I can try sending you the plugin by private message if you would like. Also, if anyone has a site that hosts other WMC plugins and wants to add this one, let me know and I'll send it along.

bobr31

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#5

Post by bobr31 » Thu Aug 18, 2022 2:09 pm

FYI Update. I was unable to solve the weak signal issue and finally resorted to a fresh install of Windows 7 which solved the problem. All is good.

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