Recording freezing/stopping early - Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-955Q (1 Viewer)

cpilot15

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I have multiple TV tuner cards. My Hauppauge HVR-950Q works fine, but the HVR-955Q seems to pretty consistently stop recording early. I initially thought it was an issue with recording 2 shows simultaneously, since that's the only time the 955Q is ever used. So I ran some experiments.

Here's my summary:
- Recording on 955Q without watching - fails after short period of time regardless of whether or not other shows are being recorded
- Recording on 955Q while watching - same result
- Simply watching live TV on 955Q - works just fine
- Recording on 955Q using Hauppauge WinTV software - works just fine

The really strange part is that MediaPortal seems to think the show is still recording, as indicated by the big red dot. Also, the lights on the tuner indicate that it is on and active. The logs don't appear to show anything obvious at that point either. Logs are attached, but for clarity, here's the timeline of one of my trials (2016-04-28):
23:11 - TV stream turned on to watch live
~23:19:30 - Hit record button to start recording
After ~40s, the TV stream froze and data stopped being written to the external HD
~23:21:30 - Manually stopped the TV stream, then cancelled the recording

Anyone have any idea why this would be happening? Is the HVR-955Q just not compatible with MediaPortal?

Thanks,
Chris
 

mm1352000

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    Hi Chris

    First let me address this question:
    Is the HVR-955Q just not compatible with MediaPortal?
    The HVR-955Q should be fine. There are no known compatibility problems with it.

    ...and now this one:
    Anyone have any idea why this would be happening?
    Your TV Server log files show that TV Server definitely isn't stopping the recording intentionally. TV Server thinks you're recording successfully until you manually stopped the recording at 23:22:17:
    [2016-04-28 23:22:17,899] [Log ] [32 ] [INFO ] - Scheduler: stop record WLWT-HD 4/28/2016 11:19:39 PM-4/28/2016 11:35:00 PM WLWT News 5 at 11:00 - New

    That's why you continue to see the red dot in MediaPortal.

    The above details mean that the problem is caused by something outside MediaPortal.

    TV Server's TsWriter log file shows the following approximately 10 seconds after you hit record:
    [2016-04-28 23:19:36,794] [Log ] [scheduler thread] [INFO ] - Scheduler: Time to record WLWT-HD 11:19 PM-11:35 PM WLWT News 5 at 11:00 - New
    ...
    [2016-04-28 23:19:39,627] [38bd610] [1820] - Recorder: RECORD Start 'E:\Recorded TV\WLWT News 5 at 11_00 - New - WLWT-HD - 2016-04-28_1.ts'
    ...
    [2016-04-28 23:19:45,568] [38bd610] [1ae0] - Recorder:pid 51 Continuity error... 7 ( prev f ) - bad signal?
    [2016-04-28 23:19:45,568] [38bd610] [1ae0] - Recorder:pid 51 Continuity error... 7 ( prev f ) - bad signal?
    [2016-04-28 23:19:45,568] [38bd610] [1ae0] - Recorder:pid 56 Continuity error... 5 ( prev c ) - bad signal?
    [2016-04-28 23:19:45,568] [38bd610] [1ae0] - Recorder:pid 56 Continuity error... 5 ( prev c ) - bad signal?
    [2016-04-28 23:19:45,583] [38bd610] [1ae0] - Recorder: TIMESHIFT Info : Program clock reference forward jump ( 430725 ).
    [2016-04-28 23:19:45,583] [38bd610] [1ae0] - Recorder: RECORD Info : Program clock reference forward jump ( 430679 ).

    Continuity errors and program clock reference jumps usually mean that:
    1. There's a disturbance in the stream received from the tuner (ie. a signal strength or quality problem), OR...
    2. TV Server is having difficulty accessing the time-shift/recording file(s).
    You said:
    - Simply watching live TV on 955Q - works just fine

    From TV Server's perspective, the only difference I can see between "simply watching" and recording is that your time-shift and recording folders for the 955Q are located on different drives:
    [2016-04-28 23:11:08,560] [Log ] [19 ] [INFO ] - card: StartTimeShifting 12 C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\timeshiftbuffer\live12-0.ts
    [2016-04-28 23:19:39,549] [Log ] [scheduler thread] [INFO ] - StartRecording to E:\Recorded TV\WLWT News 5 at 11_00 - New - WLWT-HD - 2016-04-28_1.ts

    I don't know if you have the same configuration for the 950Q, but that could be something to look into. Check if the problem occurs if you configure the 955Q to record to a folder on the C: drive instead of the E: drive.
     

    cpilot15

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    Good call. It appears to be an issue between the 955Q and a USB connected external hard drive. 950Q doesn't appear to have the issue. I tried a few different variations, and anything involving that combination (time shifting or recording with external HDs) fails quickly, even with the Hauppauge WinTV software.
     

    mm1352000

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    Hmmm, I wonder if you could be hitting a USB bandwidth or power limit. You may be able to resolve it by juggling the USB connections or adding a powered USB hub.
    Does the external HDD have an external power supply, or does it draw it's power from the USB connection?
    Is the HVR-955Q connected to the same USB controller as the HDD?
     

    cpilot15

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    That would make sense. They are all connected through the same powered USB hub. I'll try some different combinations of connecting them directly. Unfortunately, both external hard drives get their power from the USB connection. I'll also see if I can find an externally powered HD and report back. I still struggle with why this would only be an issue with the 955Q and not the 950Q, although perhaps the newer model eats up significantly more bandwidth. Anyway, I also contacted Hauppauge support, so we'll see where that gets me.

    Thanks for all the help.
     

    cpilot15

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    Sorry for the delay in responses. After some further experimentation, I'm a pretty confident that it is a USB bandwidth limitation I'm running into. The good news is that the bandwidth seems to be sufficient to record from all my TV tuners at the same time onto the local hard drive. My solution is to just run a script to copy any recordings each night onto my external hard drive. Unfortunately, I then have to manually run cleanup and import in MP1. I'd like to automate these 2 tasks, but a quick search through the forums looks like this might require some pretty involved coding. Is there an easier solution, or should I roll up my sleeves and get my C++ on?
     

    mm1352000

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    No need to apologise. The most important thing is that you're making progress towards a solution. (y)

    My solution is to just run a script to copy any recordings each night onto my external hard drive. Unfortunately, I then have to manually run cleanup and import in MP1.
    Yes, correct - that would be the side-effect of your current solution.

    I'd like to automate these 2 tasks, but a quick search through the forums looks like this might require some pretty involved coding. Is there an easier solution, or should I roll up my sleeves and get my C++ on?
    Correct - currently there's no automation for the clean-up and import.

    I can think of two possible automation solutions.

    The first would be to modify TV Server Configuration. I wouldn't say the coding for that would be particularly "involved" for a moderately experienced programmer. After all, the functions you need already exist. All you'd need to do is make them accessible via command line switches or similar, and then you can trigger them at the end of your copy script. Note that it would be C# rather than C++.

    The second (and in my opinion, better solution) would be to directly modify the database contents. You can execute the MySQL command line client from your copy script. It becomes a matter of writing an appropriate SQL statement. Something like: UPDATE Recording SET fileName = REPLACE(fileName, 'C:\\RecordedTV', 'E:\\Recorded TV');


    I still think it should be possible to avoid all this complication by connecting the USB HDD(s) and tuners to separate controllers. Assuming that each USB controller has its own bandwidth pool, one controller should give the tuners enough bandwidth while a second controller should do the same for the HDD(s).
     

    cpilot15

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    I still think it should be possible to avoid all this complication by connecting the USB HDD(s) and tuners to separate controllers. Assuming that each USB controller has its own bandwidth pool, one controller should give the tuners enough bandwidth while a second controller should do the same for the HDD(s).

    I could be wrong on this, but as best as I am able to tell, all 3 USB ports on my computer appear to share the same bandwidth pool. It's a pretty cheap mini-PC, so not a huge surprise.

    The second (and in my opinion, better solution) would be to directly modify the database contents. You can execute the MySQL command line client from your copy script. It becomes a matter of writing an appropriate SQL statement. Something like: UPDATE Recording SET fileName = REPLACE(fileName, 'C:\\RecordedTV', 'E:\\Recorded TV');

    That does sound like a perfect solution. You're right, modifying the TV server configuration code doesn't sound too bad, but this is much easier. Thanks! I'll report back once I get this up and running.
     

    CyberSimian

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    I'll report back once I get this up and running.
    Please do! This is a capability that I would like too (a command that one can issue from a batch file to perform database clean-up after copying and deleting recordings).

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    mm1352000

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    This is a capability that I would like too (a command that one can issue from a batch file to perform database clean-up after copying and deleting recordings).
    Note that the query I proposed is only suitable for MySQL, and only addresses movement of files. It does not address clean-up only.
     

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