Random crashes/freezes (1 Viewer)

[hucknallred]

Hi

I'm a big MP fan but still get random problems, not always the same problem, it can be a crash or a freeze, media playing with audio only, the latest was just trying to tune a TV channel - ITV1 HD, nothing happened, guide stayed up, I got sounds when pressing remote buttons, but no response. The only answer seems to be killing the process.

Logs are attached & system spec is in my profile, hope you can help.

HR

 

[mm1352000]

Hi hucknallred

According to your logs, all tuners were occupied. Prior to that I can see that TV Server is trying (and failing) over and over again to record several schedules - I suspect this is somehow the cause of the tuners being in use. The reported recording failure is:

2012-06-08 21:18:13.867000 [scheduler thread(10)]: Scheduler : record to E:\Recorded TV\BBC One HD\Have I Got News for You\Have I Got News for You - 2012-06-08.ts
2012-06-08 21:18:57.880000 [scheduler thread(10)]: scheduler: recording failed, lets try next available card.

Is E:\Recorded TV a share or networked drive of some kind?

mm

 

[hucknallred]

Hi hucknallred

According to your logs, all tuners were occupied. Prior to that I can see that TV Server is trying (and failing) over and over again to record several schedules - I suspect this is somehow the cause of the tuners being in use. The reported recording failure is:

2012-06-08 21:18:13.867000 [scheduler thread(10)]: Scheduler : record to E:\Recorded TV\BBC One HD\Have I Got News for You\Have I Got News for You - 2012-06-08.ts
2012-06-08 21:18:57.880000 [scheduler thread(10)]: scheduler: recording failed, lets try next available card.

Is E:\Recorded TV a share or networked drive of some kind?

mm

Hi MM, thanks for the response, I suspected it was the server getting in a pickle rather than the client. I had tried stopping TV service when I had this problem again later but it wouldn't have it, I had to reboot.

E:\Recorded TV is not a share it's a separate partition on the main drive that I store all my media on.
I'm not sure why the tuners were getting used up, I have 4 of them, BBC One HD is available on them all & I don't recall having 4 recordings at once that night.

During setting up of the system I managed to get 23 channels recording at once with no problems

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again

I'm not sure why the tuners were getting used up...

It is the server getting itself turned inside out. Technically what we'd call a "subchannel leak" I guess. You didn't have to have more than 1 recording scheduled. The issue is the continual failure to start that one recording. TV Server tries each of your tuners in turn and seems to fail to start the recording on all of them... and crucially, it does not free the tuner for later use after the failed recording attempt.

Finding the subchannel leak would be hard and more timeconsuming than I have time for at present. In my opinion it would be more more productive to try and figure out why the recordings are failing to start. I've seen issues like this before, and I've looked at the corresponding code and never been able to nail down exactly where the problem is for certain. However I'm 90% certain the issue is related to networking.

So to give you a more detailed run down of what I see...
The last thing I see before the problems start is somebody starting to watch Channel 5 at about 6:50am on the morning of the 8th. After that there is basically no real activity until just after 3pm when the scheduler wants to record Countdown on Channel 4 HD. This recording fails at the first attempt, and there the problem seems to really take off. I see very regular "card: unable to connect to slave controller at:HTPC-PC" messages in the error log starting at about 8:30am, and these seem to point to a network connectivity issue starting at that time. I can't see any evidence of a change of IP address in the system logs, so I can't be sure what happened - just that "something bad" happened...

TV Server is very heavily reliant on a stable network connection for stable operation. The network connection is used for communication with the database (which contains the schedules, channels etc.) and all MP front ends (even on a standalone installation). Those connections are such a core part of the MP TV "system" that when the network goes down, bad things happen. My standard recommendation to people is that they always use a static IP address on the TV Server, and wired networking where possible - wireless connections seem to have a nasty habit of dropping in and out on occasion. For ultimate reliability, the MS loopback adapter (which is like a dummy network connection) is available, however that is not compatible with a multi-seat installation so is of limited use.

I'm afraid that is all the insight I have for you. I can't prove or explain exactly what happened, but I've told you what I suspect is the general cause. Hopefully my comments make sense...

mm

 

[hucknallred]

However I'm 90% certain the issue is related to networking.

mm

MM

Thank you so much for the detailed response, I think you've hit the nail on the head. 2 things have happened recently, I switched to wired networking using TP-link homeplugs. These are very good, but I'm not using them as intended yet, they are meant to go into a wall socket, but I have some on the end of gang sockets, they do work, but drop out occasionally. The other thing was moving the TV where there is only a single socket, so the TV servers adaptor is on the end of a gang socket. I just need to chop a bit of plaster away in the wall & replace the single socket with a double.

That said I'll still keep an eye on their performance, I got them to improve HD TV on other client PCs which was a bit choppy.

[edit] Have set server up with static IP.

After your explanation I now know what to look for in the logs.

Thanks again.