Windows Media Center (WMC) cannot find network TV tuner problem after FreeNAS 9.2.1.4 installed

[Flag815]

I am posting this information in the hope it will help someone who might run into the problem that occurred recently. But first, let me quickly describe the home network: One Dell Precision 490 (16GB) FreeNAS server running the latest 9.2.1.4-Beta release, one HP Envy h8-1420t (16GB RAM) Windows 8.1 Pro (64bit) PC, one Dell Inspiron 530 (4GB RAM) Windows 8.1 Pro (32bit) PC, one SiliconDust HD HomeRun Prime 3 TV-tuner network devices with a CableCard plus a Cisco (Cox Communications) tuning adapter, plus other computers and devices that are not material to the problem situation.

Both Windows 8.1 Pro PCs have Windows Media Center(WMC)installed and both units had no trouble connecting to a SiliconDust HD HomeRun Prime network device on the home network. The WMC units were working fine until I upgraded my FreeNAS server to version 9.2.1.4. (I did not make the connection at first that this event is what triggered the problem.) About 2 days after the FreeNAS upgrade,I noticed that WMC could NOT find the SiliconDust network turners. I followed SiliconDust’s 10-point troubleshooting guide “Windows Media Center reports NO tuners found when trying to complete TV setup.” Everything checked out ok. Running the program (as administrator)

c:\windows\ehome\ehprivjob.exe /OCURDiscovery

finds the 3 HDHomeRun Prime tuners after searching for about 45 seconds. But WMC reports almost instantly that it cannot detect any tuners; no time is used before WMC issues this error message. The results were identical when we started up WMC on the second Windows 8.1 Pro PC.

I reported my problem to Microsoft Support and got up to a “level 2” technician. Once he learned that the problem manifested itself on 2 computers, he was convinced that it was a network problem of some sort. He suggested contacting my cable provider (Cox Communications) and re-install and re-activate the CableCard HD HomeRun Prime network tuner. If that did not clear the problem, he suggested trying to refresh one of the two PCs. If neither option worked, we would get back together later.

The SiliconDust network tuner re-install/re-activation with Cox did not clear the problem. I then prepared to refresh my 32-bit PC because it had very little 3rd-party software installed. But my first attempt at the refresh failed because I had not attached the removable drive with the refresh image.

But before I made another attempt at a “refresh,” I remembered that I upgraded the FreeNAS operating system just before my WMC problem occurred. [Note: Previous upgrades of the FreeNAS operating system had no impact on WMC.] I then experimented by disabling SMB/CIFS services on the FreeNAS server. With CIFS down and after the 64-bit Windows PC was restarted, WMC could find the network tuners and proceeded with setting up the TV tuners. (It looked like the previous setup information was lost.) After WMC seemed to be working properly on this PC, I restarted SMB/CIFS services on the FreeNAS server and re-established my network shares. WMC continued to work properly after the CIFS service was started. I rebooted the PC again and WMC continued to work.

Now, I started the second (32-bit) Windows 8.1 Pro PC to check its WMC status. This unit could not find the network tuners, just like before. Now for the second time, I stopped SMB/CIFS services on the FreeNAS server and then rebooted this Windows PC. As before, this PC’s WMC could NOW find the network tuner and it needed to go through the TV setup process again to bring in live TV channels.

So, what do you think happened? Who is at fault here?

 

[Yatti420]

9.2.1.x has alot of SMB/CIFs issues.. If it persisists I would file a bug report @ bugs.freenas.org ... You may also want to try limiting SMB/CIFS to SMB2 (max protocol) see what happens..

 

[Flag815]

Thanks for the advice. I will try to limit SMB/CIFS to SMB2. But I also have NEW information. Rebooting the FreeNAS server causes the problem with WMC inability to find the HD HomeRun tuners to come back. On the 64-bit PC that had an iSCSI drive enable to record TV, I had to disable iSCSI services and remove that drive as a recording option before WMC found the network tuners. Anyway, it seems that the booting of FreeNAS 9.2.1.4 does something to Windows Media Center that cause it to lose the network tuners.

 

[Flag815]

Update #3: Limiting the max SMB/CIFS protocol to SMB2 seems to prevent the WMC problem from occurring after a fresh reboot of FreeNAS 9.2.1.4. Good job, Yatti420.

 

[cyberjock]

It sounds like either you have a networking configuration problem that is making it appear to be FreeNAS or your upgraded version of FreeNAS is changing the behavior of something in WMC. I'll elaborate on the second one...

Pretend WMC connects to your tuner and attempts to open your network shares at the same time. If either one fail, you get an error that the "tuner is not detected". The error may not be providing accurate information. Last time I tried to use WMC it was very very fragile doing things over the network. It got *very* upset and threw nonsensical errors if your network share went down. This was more than 3 years ago though, and was not on Windows 8.

So I'm inclined to think it may be related to FreeNAS upgrade, but not necessarily FreeNAS directly. You didn't mention what version you were using, but Samba version updated from 3.x to 4.x and with it HUGE changes in permissions, guest account behavior, and others. So if you were using 9.2.0 and went to 9.2.1.4 I'd bet your CIFS shares are the problem. You might want to try forcing SMB2 since SMB3 seems to not work for some people with Windows 8. Even between the 9.2.1.x series there have been changes as bug were fixed, options were added, etc. I'm not a Windows 8 user(most of us experienced people don't use Windows 8) so much of our experience is just anecdotal from other users.

Other than that, I don't have any recommendations. :(