CrazyScan for TBS5925 / TBS5922SE - how to make it work on a virtualized machine?

[drhans]

Hello....

since I need Crazyscan and EBSPro in Windows but I also have my own linux-based streaming server, I wanted to run Linux and Windows on one machine. ESXi 6 was the clear choice for this - but the problem is no software can access my TBS tuners Drivers installed correctly - check the screenshot. But the tuners just don't work

Did anyone ever run Crazyscan in a virtualized environment such as ESXi? I don't really care if it's ESXi or a virtual machine running within Linux or Windows, I just need to be able to access the TBS5925 USB tuner from two systems without having two computers running - so both or one needs to be virtualized. I'm willing to buy different DVB tuner as long as it's as good as the 5925 and as long as it works with Crazyscan.

 

[CrazyCat]

See streamreader.log for more info

 

[drhans]

sure... thanks for looking

obviously something is wrong here but I have no idea what needs to be fixed

03:57:12 - 12/10/2016 RunGraph() : Cannot run graph
03:57:12 - 12/10/2016 No such interface supported

03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 StreamReaderEx BDA Ver:1.2.3.1396-commited (Sep 29 2016, 22:53:08)
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 Log level = 1
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 DLL_PROCESS_ATTACH hModule = 6DFD0000
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 CheckForDVBEx(0x003F9150)
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 PID filtering disabled !
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 Power-off LNB on exit: ENABLED
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 SendDiSEqC use 2 repeats
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 Default modulation: AUTO
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 Default spectral inversion: AUTO
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 Default pilot: AUTO
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 Default rolloff: AUTO
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 Preffered BDA device type: AUTO
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 Allowed IF Freq 950-2150 Mhz
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 Inverted LOF<6000 and >21000 Mhz
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 Available BDA-devices:
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 Device 0
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016     Name: TBS 5925 DVBS2 Tuner
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016     Type: DVB-S/S2
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016     Index: 0
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 Device 1
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016     Name: TBS 5922 USB DVB-S2 Tuner
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016     Type: DVB-S/S2
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016     Index: 0
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 StartDVBEx(-1)
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 Device_ID: 0
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 Use Device 0
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016     Tuner filter: TBS 5925 DVBS2 Tuner
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016     Capture filter: TBS 5925 DVBS2 Capture
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 Input num 0
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016 RunGraph() : Cannot run graph
03:57:03 - 12/10/2016     No such interface supported
03:57:12 - 12/10/2016 StartDVBEx(0)
03:57:12 - 12/10/2016 Device_ID: 0
03:57:12 - 12/10/2016 Use Device 0
03:57:12 - 12/10/2016     Tuner filter: TBS 5925 DVBS2 Tuner
03:57:12 - 12/10/2016     Capture filter: TBS 5925 DVBS2 Capture
03:57:12 - 12/10/2016 Input num 0
03:57:12 - 12/10/2016 RunGraph() : Cannot run graph
03:57:12 - 12/10/2016     No such interface supported
04:27:31 - 12/10/2016 DLL_PROCESS_DETACH hModule = 6DFD0000

 

[Captain Jack]

I run it Parallels Desktop on my Mac with no issues. VMWare also ran it fine...

 

[drhans]

I run it Parallels Desktop on my Mac with no issues. VMWare also ran it fine...

Can you tell me which TBS tuner, which VMWare product and which guest/host OS did work for you? Was the host always a Mac?

 

[Captain Jack]

5925 USB tuner, VMWare Fusion 8.1.1 and Windows 7.

 

[drhans]

Alright and which Mac was it?

 

[Captain Jack]

Latest iMac 5k

 

[drhans]

ok thanks for the tip, I ordered a mac mini and will try with that one

 

[drhans]

just to give an update... got my new mac mini and tbs 5925 works in vmware/win7... so that just leaves me more confused as to why it's not working on the dedicated ESXi server even though I've tried 2 different motherboards and CPUs...

on the mac, scanning and tuning works perfect but streaming is impossible, too slow... it would probably need ESX to be installed or PCI passthrough

 

[CrazyCat]

And what guest win os ? Win2008 Server and later not have BDA subsystem.

 

[drhans]

And what guest win os ? Win2008 Server and later not have BDA subsystem.

On all 3 configs (vmware workstation, ESXi, vmware on mac) I tested Win 7 Pro and on ESXi also Windows 8 and 10. The only way to get the tuner working was on the mac running vmware fusion - it worked in Win 7 so I suppose it would work with other guest OS too. BDA support can be installed to Win Srv 2008 R2 too.

 

[CrazyCat]

As alternative you can use my CrazyBDA driver instead TBS.
Driver self-signed, so for Win x64 need enable test mode and add my cert to trusted (run testcert.cmd with admin rigths and reboot guest os).

 

[drhans]

As alternative you can use my CrazyBDA driver instead TBS.
Driver self-signed, so for Win x64 need enable test mode and add my cert to trusted (run testcert.cmd with admin rigths and reboot guest os).

right - my last test was trying normal linux PC, install vmware and virtualbox and try - and surprise, it works, the TBS5925 tuner works in both virtualbox and vmware, with both TBS and CrazyBDA drivers

so it's still not a perfect solution, running ESXi would be the best but anyway this works too in a way so I'm happy

also noticed the CrazyBDA driver seems to do a faster spectrum scan, that's nice

 

[drhans]

just a small update... I've been running Ubuntu host and Windows 8 as guest OS through vmware and although the TBS tuners work in Windows, I have to power cycle the tuners after using them in ubuntu - in other words, once I use the tuners in linux and then start vmware and attach the USB devices, the tuners are found and I can run scan but no signal is detected until powering the tuners off and back on, which is not good...

so I still haven't found a working virtualization solution that would allow running a tbs usb tuner (5925) on linux as well as windows without having to power off the tuners before switching

By the way I've tried ESXi 4, 5 and 6, all same - tuners don't work at all. In VMWare workstation hosted on Linux, they work with limitations above. On Mac it worked in vmware fusion but slow and with pixelation when streaming.

Did someone try Hyper V server? I think it can't do USB passthrough at all, right? Or any other virtualization OS?