Author Topic: Avast! interferes with Transcode360 (Transcode 360)  (Read 44100 times)

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Offline Vlk

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Re: Avast! interferes with Transcode360 (Transcode 360)
« Reply #30 on: January 05, 2007, 06:31:23 PM »
James, thanks for the details description. I have one more simple question: where do I find the "more info | Transcode" thing? Is it in the T360 GUI? Or in the Media Center GUI? Or elsewhere?

Also, is there a MCE of Vista? I thought it was replaced by the "Ultimate" Edition, that is, the Ultimate Edition contains the Media Center as well...

Thanks
Vlk
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JacobKlein

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Re: Avast! interferes with Transcode360 (Transcode 360)
« Reply #31 on: January 05, 2007, 06:42:46 PM »
I can help here I think...

After you have Transcode 360 installed...
You can access the "Transcode" button within Media Center by:
  • (if on Media Center PC): Right-click a show, click "More"
  • (if on Xbox360): Have show highlighted, hit X, click "More"
  • (if on other extender): Find a way to get to the "More" screen of a show

You should then see the "Transcode" button.

In regards to finding "Windows Media Center" in editions of Vista...
If you look at http://www.winsupersite.com/vista/
and then click "Windows Vista Review, Part 2: Windows Vista Product Editions"...

You can find "Windows Media Center" in:
  • Vista RTM Home Premium
  • Vista RTM Ultimate

Hope this helps.  I don't know how busy James is, but I'll try to answer anything I can.
Regards,
 Jacob

James, thanks for the details description. I have one more simple question: where do I find the "more info | Transcode" thing? Is it in the T360 GUI? Or in the Media Center GUI? Or elsewhere?

Also, is there a MCE of Vista? I thought it was replaced by the "Ultimate" Edition, that is, the Ultimate Edition contains the Media Center as well...

Thanks
Vlk
« Last Edit: January 05, 2007, 06:45:00 PM by JacobKlein »

JacobKlein

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Re: Avast! interferes with Transcode360 (Transcode 360)
« Reply #32 on: January 06, 2007, 10:19:41 AM »
Because I only have 1 Vista box at the moment, I was only able to attempt 1 of these 2 recommended test cases... Unfortunately, the results are disturbing  :'(

"on the PC you already have it set up on already just try to transcode Media on the PC i.e. click more info | Transcode on a video [...] the only thing is it might not hit your network driver in the same way the 360 does but it is worth a try."

Attempt 1:
Vista RTM Ultimate,
T360 Vista v1.6.1 beta,
Avast v4.7.925 beta: Fully enabled, except low-level-service-starts: 2 4 4
--->  "Media Center has stopped working." "No solutions" "Media Center is retarting" It restarts.

Attempt 2:
Vista RTM Ultimate,
T360 Vista v1.6.1 beta,
Avast v4.7.925 beta: Fully enabled, except low-level-service-starts: 2 4 4
--->  "Media Center has stopped working." "No solutions" "Media Center is retarting" It restarts.

I'm not even sure this is a valid test, but I figured I'd post my results anyways.  I might try to install Vista RTM on another box here this weekend, but no guarantees.

Vlk / James: I'd be interested in knowing what your results are if you do the 2-Vista-box test.  I just want to get this bug fixed :)

Regards,
 Jacob

Hi Guys,

I am the main developer in charge of Transcode 360 for Windows Vista, I see you are struggling for an Xbox 360 (no i am not offering to lend you mine), I do a lot of my testing on my development machine before it hits my life media center.

One way you could try this is if it is a network driver issue, install Transcode 360 on to 2 PCs on 1 of the PCs set it up as a media server (this must be a normal RTM copy of Windows Vista and not Media Center) and configure the distributed file options in the GUI and on the other which is a Media Center version of Vista set it up as the client and point it to your other PC. If you then treat the media center like an extender and do the more information | Transcode button it should request the other PC to transcode the media and then send it down the line to the Media Center which is near enough a full test.

The above is the ultimate test of the network side, the other thing you could try which is far easier... on the PC you already have it set up on already just try to transcode Media on the PC i.e. click more info | Transcode on a video if it has the same issue users experience on the Xbox your on to a winner if not you might try the above suggestion, this 2nd way is how I test the add in and back end on my development PC the only thing is it might not hit your network driver in the same way the 360 does but it is worth a try.

If you have any questions drop me an email I would love to get this issue resolved and add Avast to the supported AV list! You would be the first non Microsoft solution to work, might even get people flocking to you as nobody likes supporting Microsoft!

Cheers

James

JacobKlein

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Re: Avast! interferes with Transcode360 (Transcode 360)
« Reply #33 on: January 06, 2007, 04:54:57 PM »
James:
  So I stayed up all night installing Vista on a 2nd box :)  I think I might need a little help getting this network distributed transcoding feature to work.  I've tried unsuccessfully to distribute the transcoding -- maybe you can tell me what I'm missing?

PC A [Da-Cheat]:
  - Windows Vista Business (does not contain Windows Media Center)
  - T360 v1.6.1 beta - acting as Server
  - avast! not installed
  - T360 configuration:
     - Install: Tray-tool option, port 1401
     - Post-Install compatibility: Run as admin
     - T360 General tab -> Transcode buffer folder: c:\TranscodeBuffer
     - T360 Network tab -> Share dropdown -> \\DA-CHEAT\TranscodeBuffer
     - Upon run: Ready to accept connections on port 1401
     - c:\TranscodeBuffer is shared to Everyone, permissions Full Control

PC B [Snakeman]:
  - Windows Vista Ultimate (contains Windows Media Center)
  - T360 v1.6.1 beta - acting as Client
  - avast! v4.7.925 beta, fully enabled except low-level-service-starts at 2-4-4
  - T360 configuration:
     - Install: Tray-tool option, port 1401
     - Post-Install compatibility: Run as admin
     - T360 General tab -> Transcode buffer folder: c:\users\Public\videos\TranscodeBuffer
     - T360 Network tab -> Forward [checked] -> Da-Cheat
     - Transcode 360 Distributed Networking Test
         - Successfully established a connection with the remote computer.
     - \\Da-Cheat\TranscodeBuffer can be accessed, files can be created/deleted in it

Test:
  - PC B -> Windows Media Center -> ... -> Click Transcode
  - Dialog box:  "TRANSCODE 360  Unable to queue video file for transcoding and streaming.  [OK]"

Note:  I have tried this test with both firewalls (PC A and PC B) off, but the test failed.  I have also tried with avast! uninstalled on PC B, but the test failed. (was: I'm going to uninstall avast! on PC B and see if that makes any difference.)  Is this feature broken?

Kind regards, awaiting your response,
  Jacob W. Klein

One way you could try this is if it is a network driver issue, install Transcode 360 on to 2 PCs on 1 of the PCs set it up as a media server (this must be a normal RTM copy of Windows Vista and not Media Center) and configure the distributed file options in the GUI and on the other which is a Media Center version of Vista set it up as the client and point it to your other PC. If you then treat the media center like an extender and do the more information | Transcode button it should request the other PC to transcode the media and then send it down the line to the Media Center which is near enough a full test.
« Last Edit: January 06, 2007, 05:07:31 PM by JacobKlein »

JacobKlein

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Re: Avast! interferes with Transcode360 (Transcode 360)
« Reply #34 on: January 06, 2007, 06:24:41 PM »
Vlk:
I did some further testing on these low-level-services...

UI ENABLED, 4 main services DEFAULT (auto-auto-man-man startedx4), aswMonFlt=2, aswRdr=1, aswTdi=1
avast! UI shows 7/7 running
T360 fails (as expected, since these are all default values)


UI ENABLED, 4 main services DEFAULT (auto-auto-man-man startedx4), aswMonFlt=2, aswRdr=1, aswTdi=1
Through GUI, I "terminated" the culprits (Network Shield and Web Shield)
avast! UI shows 5/7 running
T360 fails (probably because the culprit services still start with Windows network stack)


UI ENABLED, 4 main services DEFAULT (auto-auto-man-man startedx4), aswMonFlt=2, aswRdr=3=Manual, aswTdi=3=Manual
avast! UI shows 7/7 running
T360 fails (probably because, even if set to Manual, the culprit services still start with Windows network stack)


UI ENABLED, 4 main services DEFAULT (auto-auto-man-man startedx4), aswMonFlt=2, aswRdr=4=Disabled, aswTdi=4=Disabled
avast! UI shows 6/6 (Network Shield is gone, but Web Shield says active but doesn't do anything = bug!)
T360 works!


So, again, the only working scenario is to actually disable=4 the culprit services (aswRdr and aswRdi).  But it looks like you have another separate UI bug where Web Shield thinks he's on when in fact he's not!

Kind regards,
  Jacob W. Klein

Further experiments INDEED.  Belated Christmas-colored experiments!  Copy/paste to notepad if the color is bothersome or irritating :)

Services:  0=Boot 1=System 2=Auto 3=Manual 4=Disabled
Defaults for low-level-services:  aswMonFlt=2, aswRdr=1, aswTdi=1


Here's what I tried (using v4.7.925 Beta):
Note: The first 8 tests have UI and main services disabled, so just look at the low-driver-level start-numbers
Note: But the 9th test is tricked out for avast! and T360 to work together (ie: temporary workaround fix)
------------------------------------

UI Disabled, 4 main services DISABLED, aswMonFlt=4, aswRdr=4, aswTdi=4
T360 works!


UI Disabled, 4 main services DISABLED, aswMonFlt=2, aswRdr=1, aswTdi=1
T360 fails.


[...]

UI ENABLED, 4 main services DEFAULT (auto-auto-man-man startedx4), aswMonFlt=2, aswRdr=4, aswTdi=4
T360 works!   (mouseover UI shows 6/6 running)


I guess my conclusion is that there are problems in BOTH:
- "aswTdi.sys (avast! Network Shield Support, avast! TDI Filter Driver)" and
- "aswRdr.sys (avast! TDI RDR Driver)"

Where do we go from here?

« Last Edit: January 06, 2007, 06:26:58 PM by JacobKlein »

Offline Vlk

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Re: Avast! interferes with Transcode360 (Transcode 360)
« Reply #35 on: January 06, 2007, 10:25:43 PM »
Quote
But it looks like you have another separate UI bug where Web Shield thinks he's on when in fact he's not!

Well, the thing is, WebShield really is active, but the auto-redirect feature is not. You can still use WebShield if you tell your browser to use proxy server at localhost:12080 as described here: http://www.avast.com/eng/faq-home-webshield.html

So it's really questionable whether the status "Active" is adequate or not in this case...


BTW I won't be able to do any tests in the next 3 days because I have to (unexpectedly) go to the UK. I will be monitoring the progress though. From what James said I'm a bit afraid that this may be a generic compatibility issue between (any) TDI filter and .NET 3.0 remoting. And that would be quite unfortunate because virtually all applications that rely on .NET remoting (and the number of those is not so low) would be broken.

Thanks
Vlk
If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving's not for you.

JacobKlein

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Re: Avast! interferes with Transcode360 (Transcode 360)
« Reply #36 on: January 11, 2007, 08:03:16 PM »
VLK:
Any progress on this Avast bug?

James:
How do I setup Distributed transcoding in order to simulate the bug without an extender - as you can see above, I have tried but my setup must be wrong - can you get it to work?

Regards,
Jacob W. Klein

Offline Vlk

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Re: Avast! interferes with Transcode360 (Transcode 360)
« Reply #37 on: January 11, 2007, 09:47:24 PM »
I'm back from the UK but haven't had the chance to have a look at the problem so far, sorry :-\

We're very busy preparing the upcoming avast update at the moment (due VERY soon).
Next week, I'm in Italy but I promise I'll try to have someone simulate the problem for me... :)

Cheers
Vlk
If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving's not for you.

james194zt

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Re: Avast! interferes with Transcode360 (Transcode 360)
« Reply #38 on: January 11, 2007, 10:30:33 PM »
Hi guys,

Sorry for not responding, I am in the middle of transferring ISPs and phone companys due to the many many issues with my previous provider unfortunately I don't get broadband activated again until 16th of Jan but I am still working on T360 and trying to keep on line to help.

I have not really played with distributed transcoding, I hacked its code a bit to see if that would resolve another issue but basically if I remember correctly there is checks in it to ensure it is running on a non MCE PC by checking for a file in the ehome directory (I am going to change this soon as its a crap way of doing it) this is why you need to make sure not to run it on a MCE version of Vista otherwise the options won't appear under the Video options as they are conditioned by the above file, you then have to share the buffer folder on the back end PC and then point the front end at it, to do this you tick the distributed transcoding option under videos which will let you select where to get it from. I had it working locally on my PC when I was hacking so I know it works on Vista but I haven't played with it much, I will take a look at the code if you still struggle getting it working and work out exactly how it is configured from that.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

James

JacobKlein

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Re: Avast! interferes with Transcode360 (Transcode 360)
« Reply #39 on: February 06, 2007, 04:45:39 AM »
Vlk:

We are still anxiously awaiting a true FIX for this issue.  I'm STILL running avast! in an unsecured fashion, hoping that one of your updates will fix it.

I've tried to get James to give me instructions on remote transcoding, since I simply cannot get it to work.

What is your status?

Kind regards,
  Jacob W. Klein

Offline Vlk

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Re: Avast! interferes with Transcode360 (Transcode 360)
« Reply #40 on: February 06, 2007, 06:31:02 PM »
Sorry, we were a bit busy releasing a new version of avast for the last couple of weeks.
Tomorrow, we'll restart the investigation of this issue.

Thanks
Vlk
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Offline Vlk

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Re: Avast! interferes with Transcode360 (Transcode 360)
« Reply #41 on: February 07, 2007, 06:47:24 PM »
I found out that one of our developers own an Xbox 360 so I told him to take it to the office - so we'll try to simulate the problem with real hardware...

Thanks for your patience,
Vlk
If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving's not for you.

Offline Vlk

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Re: Avast! interferes with Transcode360 (Transcode 360)
« Reply #42 on: February 09, 2007, 03:30:00 PM »
OK, we now have the problem simulated.
It remains to find the cause and fix it... ;)

Please stay tuned.

Cheers
Vlk
If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving's not for you.

JacobKlein

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Re: Avast! interferes with Transcode360 (Transcode 360)
« Reply #43 on: February 17, 2007, 03:12:12 AM »
Excellent.  Thank you.  As I've said in previous posts, the problem lies in two of the lower-level services, I believe.  Good luck!

OK, we now have the problem simulated.
It remains to find the cause and fix it... ;)

Please stay tuned.

Cheers
Vlk

Offline Vlk

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Re: Avast! interferes with Transcode360 (Transcode 360)
« Reply #44 on: February 18, 2007, 08:17:36 PM »
It turns out that the problem doesn't have anything to do with Transcode360. It simply occurs even if you try to play back a MPEG-2 stream (with no transcoding involved).

We have contacted our friends in Redmond and are now investigating the issue together. Hopefully, a fix will be found soon.

Cheers
Vlk
If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving's not for you.