Client / Server slow channel-to-channel change (zapping) (1 Viewer)

TBacker

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June 23, 2011
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I've been a MP1 user for a very long time. I had been using Argus for OTA ATSC recording and viewing which has been flawless. However, with Argus development and support stopping some time ago and the product istelf dying on the vine, I decided to switch to TV-Server a couple of weeks ago.

I got things set up pretty easily. System is:

  • Client (MP 1.24 on Win 7 x64 on an older dual core box) talking fine with the TV-Server (on another Win 7 x64 quad core VM in the basement).
  • Recordings share and the MySQL database server is on a Windows Server (third machine), as was the timeshift share (initially).
  • Network is giagbit ethernet. IP's are static.
  • Shares are referred to by IP in UNC addresses on both client and server.
  • Antivirus exclusions in place for the shares, client and server programs and data, and the MySQL database.
  • No windows firewalls are enabled.
  • Client has multi-seat UNC paths enabled and set in TV advanced settings.
  • Tuners are two HDHomeRun HDHR4-2.
The initial live TV channel startup is tolerable - within 5 seconds. The problem, however, is zapping directly to another channel can take 5-20 seconds, usually on the longer side of that range.

When I looked at the TV-Server log, it looks like the hang up is it has to try twice to delete the old timeshift TS files before it moves on and starts the new timeshift (deleting file > many seconds pass > deleting file > success). This is with full rights to the timeshift folder, and having tried locating the timeshift folder both on the server and on the machine where TV-Server is running (no difference). It seems like maybe the client isn't releasing it's lock on the timeshift file as fast as the TV-Server is trying to clean it up.

I will send up some logs shortly (it's in use at the moment).
 
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TBacker

Portal Member
June 23, 2011
39
12
Home Country
United States of America United States of America
We'll, again I have posted a problem then found the solution myself :whistle:

I incorrectly used "Multi seat setup: use UNC paths" when I was setting up initially and having some trouble with paths. I had clicked help for that setting before I tried using it, but many of the help links in the config utility are broken. Today I searched the wiki for it and found it.

Anyway, disabling it solved the slow change issue (all changes are about 3-4 seconds).

So some things that should be fixed if possible (I know - development time is limited, and this is MP1):

1. Fixing help links in the Configuration utility

2. The ability to directly enter UNC paths in TV-Server configuration > Recording > Folders > Recording Folder and TV-Server configuration > Timeshifting > Folders > Recording Folder. The dialog to set these is locked to only selecting what shows up in the tree (i.e. NETBIOS listed machines in Network) - there is no way to manually enter a path. I don't have NetBIOS enabled on my machines to cut down on traffic and force use of DNS instead.

3. Maybe optimize the TV client code for the UNC path mode to free the file lock quicker should someone need to use that mode?

I do a lot of vb.net programming, but can only muddle through C# a bit given enough time, otherwise I'd offer to make and submit changes myself.
 
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