Can I limit the number of simultaneous recordings? (1 Viewer)

[GreenMug]

I'm using MP1.6. Have aK-World dual DVB-T USB tuner, and a single USB-T2 tuner (can't remember the brand off-hand, but it's the £80 unit from Maplin in the UK).

Edit - this one. But they aren't Hauppage, I don't think. http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/hauppauge-pctv-dvb-t2-hd-a86kk

Basically, it'll allow me to record many programs on the same multiplex - but as the number of recordings increases, they become full of glitches. If like to drop the number of recordings down to one per tuner so I may try and find out what is wrong.

PS - I'm in the UK, and we have Freeview.

Thanks!

 

[mm1352000]

Hello and welcome GreenMug

No it isn't possible to reduce the number of recordings to one per tuner without carefully scheduling recordings in such a way that each tuner gets allocated precisely one recording. In your position people usually simply post log files and ask us to help figure out what is going on.

There are a range of possible explanations. Some of the most common involve the recording/timeshifting HDD being stressed or less than ideal signal quality.
The HDD could be:

• too full
• too slow
• being scanned by security software (eg. MS Security Essentials) => high load
• in PIO mode (rare)
• overheating
• old and on its last legs

The signal quality can be affected by:

• bad aerial alignment
• location with marginal reception (eg. behind a hill, in a valley)
  
• weather conditions
• bad cabling or terminations
  
• signal splits

Hopefully that gives you some ideas...

mm

 

[GreenMug]

Wow - brilliant reply, thanks!

Will give a better reply when at a proper keyboard, as well as logs. When I looked, I'm sure the issue in the logs was a weak signal - but channels are fine when viewed or recorded individually. Wondered if it was hard drive throughput before that, but don't think it is. 160gb PATA for OS and timeshift, 2x500gb in a dynamic volume [maybe wrong terminology? Not used to Windows. ] for recordings. 4gb RAM, e5300 2.6ghz CPU [have overclocked to 3.33ghz, same issue]. Video is Geforce 9500gt. Win7 64 bit.

Aerial is good, as is cabling. Using a proper splitter, all cable is shielded.

 

[GreenMug]

Finally got a chance to have a look at the logs - they appeared to show nothing bad about the period where the recordings were playing up.

Did a dummy run today - scheduled as many recordings as possible for the same time, to the point where it complained there were no tuners available for further recordings. Everything appears to have behaved correctly - no distortions, random blocks, A/V sync issues. The only thing done differently is I have disabled background/idle EPG population.

Will see how it goes and report back. Have attached the current logfile - started playing around 1.10pm or thereabouts today, 27th Jan.

Thanks!