recording sometimes works (1 Viewer)

mrkaras

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December 9, 2006
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still the same bug MP always has, sometimes things will record, sometimes they won't. tonight I had one program set to record and an hour after it finishes two others start recording. I wanted to watch each of these two programs, one on the single seat style server and one on a laptop.

of corse that failed (when does anything even slightly out of the ordenery ever work with mediaportal?) the first program could be streamed to the laptop but appares that it is not being recorded and when I tried to watch the second program the client froze (this seems to be the default behaviour for anything other than watching 1 program imediatly after 1 reboot). restarting the clinet did not help, it just freezes again. trying from a third PC again does not help, it too freezes (as expected). trying to turn the working client onto the second chanel frezes it and it is then unable to tune to the first or second chanel.

It apares that neither of the two programs are actualy being recorded but the program scedualed to end by this stage an hour and a half ago is aparently still going.

to say I am sick of the unreliability of even the most basic aspects of mediaportal would be an understatment. Are there any plans to have turn mediaportal into a system that can practicaly watch tv and record tv.

MediaPortal Version: 1.1
MediaPortal Skin: black and white
Windows Version: 7 x64
CPU Type: core 2 duo 2.1
HDD: Hitachi SATA 500Gb
Memory: 1Gb
Motherboard: Asus P5L-VM 1394
Video Card: Saphire ATI HD4350
Video Card Driver:
Sound Card: onboard (ASUS)
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card: kworld (currently removed(BSOD issues))
1. TV Card Type: DVB-T (PCI)
1. TV Card Driver: 4.0.108.4
2. TV Card: ASUS My cinema U3000 Mini
2. TV Card Type: DVB-T (USB)
2. TV Card Driver:
3. TV Card: DNTV! Live Dual Hybrid PCIe (only card currently in use)
3. TV Card Type: twin hybrid
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec:
MPEG2 Audio Codec:
h.264 Video Codec:
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case: thermaltake motzart
Cooling: CPU fan / passive on other
Power Supply:
Remote: iMon
TV: Samsung LA37R7
TV - HTPC Connection: VGA, (not DVI->HDMI, mis-led by samsung)
 

jameson_uk

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    please provide what programs you were recordings and what times they were on.
     

    tourettes

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    please provide what programs you were recordings and what times they were on.

    Also a sample TS file of the recording that causes havoc would be a good thing to have - logs wont help in such cases.

    ps. I think that the bug report's quality is even worser than the one that MP has :D
     

    jameson_uk

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    Things get fixed when there are good quality bug reports and we can track things down. I was doing a little digging and I came across

    I don't think any of your stability issues are related to your hardware or operating system. crashes and freezes are a core part of the mediaportal experience. I don't have much problem with my server, but I use task manager to kill off the client at leas once a day, sometimes immediately after a system restart. always has crashed and frozen, pretty sure it always will.

    so you have been putting up with these issues for a long time...

    My bet here is that your hardware does not like standby. I had issues a few years ago with a Pinnacle card that would invariable through a wobbly after resume from S3 and I would get missed recordings galore.

    I have since been through four different TV cards and since replacing that card MP has been rock solid and I have not had a single recording failure.

    As well as providing the details of what was meant to record so we can make sense of the logs I would suggest three things.

    1) turn off standby and leave the machine on. My hunch is that you will stop getting failed recordings
    2) upgrade to MP 1.2 beta. There is a new feature where you can test how stable your TV card is and it will repeatedly attempt to tune to different channels and it makes TV card issues stand out#
    3) turn off EPG grabbing. This is often a cause of issues and I can see you are using DVB grabbing. Turn it off for a few days and see if that makes things more stable


    Edit: And indeed I just noticed in your logs
    Code:
    2011-06-15 19:42:49.121435 [(26)]: dvb:  using [Tuner]: 7162 BDA DVBT Tuner0
    Same tuner as in the Pinnacle 7010ix that I had so many issues with after standby
     

    jameson_uk

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    There is however possibly something else wrong (hybrid card config ??? mm you there ???)

    Noticed
    Code:
    2011-06-16 18:54:09.254687 [scheduler thread(8)]: Scheduler: Time to record Nine Digital 6:54 PM-7:31 PM The Big Bang Theory
    followed by
    Code:
    2011-06-16 18:54:11.238800 [scheduler thread(8)]: card: Tuner locked: True
    2011-06-16 18:54:11.242801 [scheduler thread(8)]: **************************************************
    2011-06-16 18:54:11.246801 [scheduler thread(8)]: ***** SIGNAL LEVEL: 15, SIGNAL QUALITY: 40 *****
    2011-06-16 18:54:11.247801 [scheduler thread(8)]: **************************************************
    2011-06-16 18:54:11.249801 [scheduler thread(8)]: card: tuned user: scheduler838 subchannel: 0
    2011-06-16 18:54:11.250801 [scheduler thread(8)]: user:scheduler838 add
    2011-06-16 18:54:11.492815 [scheduler thread(8)]: Scheduler: MakeFileName() using "seriesformat" (_isSerie=True)
    2011-06-16 18:54:13.261916 [scheduler thread(8)]: Scheduler : record to C:\ProgramData\Shared Documents\Recorded TV\unknown_46.ts

    but later on you have
    Code:
    2011-06-16 19:28:02.236967 [scheduler thread(8)]: Scheduler: Time to record 7 HD Digital 7:28 PM-8:32 PM How I Met Your Mother
    But this does not seem to do anything and then later on the next actual tune is
    Code:
    2011-06-16 19:32:23.274897 [(33)]: card: Tuner locked: True
    2011-06-16 19:32:23.275897 [(33)]: **************************************************
    2011-06-16 19:32:23.275897 [(33)]: ***** SIGNAL LEVEL: 30, SIGNAL QUALITY: 30 *****
    2011-06-16 19:32:23.275897 [(33)]: **************************************************
    2011-06-16 19:32:23.276897 [(33)]: card: tuned user: Mediaserver subchannel: 0
    2011-06-16 19:32:23.276897 [(33)]: user:Mediaserver add
    2011-06-16 19:32:23.279898 [(33)]: card2:Mediaserver 2 0
    2011-06-16 19:32:23.279898 [(33)]: Controller: Mediaserver 2 0
    2011-06-16 19:32:23.280898 [(33)]: control2:Mediaserver 2 0
    2011-06-16 19:32:23.284898 [(33)]: ControllerActiveHandler: Got event StartTimeShifting - SetAwayMode(True)
    2011-06-16 19:32:23.287898 [(30)]: PID seen - type = Video
    2011-06-16 19:32:23.287898 [(30)]: audioVideoEventHandler Video
    2011-06-16 19:32:23.289898 [(33)]: card: StartTimeShifting 2 C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\timeshiftbuffer\live2-0.ts
    so timeshifting not recording and in the middle it does appear to be stuck in a loop of AdvancedCardAllocation.GetAvailableCardsForChannel for four minutes

    subchannel issue?
     

    mrkaras

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    December 9, 2006
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    please provide what programs you were recordings and what times they were on.


    first:
    6:54 PM-7:31 PM The Big Bang Theory

    later:
    both starting about 8:30 was grays anatomy and Stargate universe


    2) upgrade to MP 1.2 beta.
    I would like to do that but as it will sounds like it will kill fairly much all current plugins and skins I were hoping to wait for them all to be upgraded. also I would need to find at least half a day, every single time without fail I have installed a newer version I have had some sort of issue, tv servers not getting installed, tv not running, lost schedules, all sorts of things, sometimes a few hours to fix sometimes I just have to take it and re tune all my channels or something like that. I will concider it and have a go when I have time, I would like to run that stress test.

    I will check the hybrid card config, but as the only tuners that can't work together are an analogue tuner with a digital tuner and my programs are all digital (analogue requires third party comercial programs that are no longer avalable anyway, according to the links in the wiki) I don't see it should matter. Is it OK now to setup hybrid cards? for a long time seting up hybrid cards would stop things working at all but I think that was a long time ago, I think mine may already be setup, I'll have to check.
     

    CrashUK

    Portal Pro
    July 24, 2008
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    Things get fixed when there are good quality bug reports and we can track things down. I was doing a little digging and I came across

    I don't think any of your stability issues are related to your hardware or operating system. crashes and freezes are a core part of the mediaportal experience. I don't have much problem with my server, but I use task manager to kill off the client at leas once a day, sometimes immediately after a system restart. always has crashed and frozen, pretty sure it always will.

    so you have been putting up with these issues for a long time...

    My bet here is that your hardware does not like standby. I had issues a few years ago with a Pinnacle card that would invariable through a wobbly after resume from S3 and I would get missed recordings galore.

    I have since been through four different TV cards and since replacing that card MP has been rock solid and I have not had a single recording failure.

    As well as providing the details of what was meant to record so we can make sense of the logs I would suggest three things.

    1) turn off standby and leave the machine on. My hunch is that you will stop getting failed recordings
    2) upgrade to MP 1.2 beta. There is a new feature where you can test how stable your TV card is and it will repeatedly attempt to tune to different channels and it makes TV card issues stand out#
    3) turn off EPG grabbing. This is often a cause of issues and I can see you are using DVB grabbing. Turn it off for a few days and see if that makes things more stable


    Edit: And indeed I just noticed in your logs
    Code:
    2011-06-15 19:42:49.121435 [(26)]: dvb:  using [Tuner]: 7162 BDA DVBT Tuner0
    Same tuner as in the Pinnacle 7010ix that I had so many issues with after standby

    I would not tell anyone to upgrade to medaportal v1.2 beta theys a lot of bug still in as does crash a lot.
     

    jameson_uk

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    I would not tell anyone to upgrade to medaportal v1.2 beta theys a lot of bug still in as does crash a lot.
    Brilliant... and you expect these bugs to get fixed by magic :rolleyes: The last bug report you filed for was for MP 1.1 RC...

    In my experience MP 1.2 is actually the most stable version of MP in a long while and some nasty bugs that have been hanging round for years have actually been squished.
     

    elliottmc

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    I would not tell anyone to upgrade to medaportal v1.2 beta theys a lot of bug still in as does crash a lot.
    Brilliant... and you expect these bugs to get fixed by magic :rolleyes: The last bug report you filed for was for MP 1.1 RC...

    In my experience MP 1.2 is actually the most stable version of MP in a long while and some nasty bugs that have been hanging round for years have actually been squished.

    Agreed. MP 1.2.0beta is rock stable, on a system with good hardware and good drivers.

    It is inevitable that a program such as MediaPortal will make good use of hardware, and may expose bugs in driver software that cause crashes. However, don't be so quick to blame MediaPortal. It might be that some of the settings you have are not optimal for your hardware, but you don't give us enough information to allow us to help.

    Mark
     

    mm1352000

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    CrashUK: I have to be honest - I don't like your attitude - it *really* rubs me the wrong way. If you want things to improve then (as jameson_uk says) post bug reports rather than expecting things that we don't know about to get fixed and taking pot shots at us.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    mrkaras
    I don't exactly like the jibes from you either - provoking me (eg: "when does anything even slightly out of the ordenery ever work with mediaportal?") is not the way to get a good response from me - but I understand the frustration. At least you have posted a decent report. There are a *lot* of things going on in your logs. The powerscheduler, EPG grabbing, some sort of emailing plugin (???). They make it hard to tell what is going on, and quite frankly they could easily be contributing to the problem.

    I don't see any attempt to record at 20:30 at all. I see an attempt at around 19:28 though:

    2011-06-16 19:28:02.285970 [scheduler thread(8)]: Scheduler : record, first tune to channel
    2011-06-16 19:28:02.286970 [scheduler thread(8)]: card: Tune 4 to 7 HD Digital
    2011-06-16 19:28:02.286970 [scheduler thread(8)]: card: user: scheduler839:4:-1 tune DVBT:tv:confused:even Network 7 HD Digital Freq:177500 ONID:4115 TSID:1284 SID:1348 PMT:0x440 FTA:True LCN:70 BandWidth:7

    Did the EPG change perhaps? I've heard that the over-the-air EPG in Aus can be wildly inaccurate...

    Putting that aside for the moment, lets talk about your cards. Your DNTV Live! Dual Hybrid is a SAA7164 based card. What jameson_uk said is true. I have had 3 NXP SAA7162 based cards - a DigitalNow Quattro S that is currently sitting in my cupboard gathering dust because the sat tuners are busted, and 2 Pinnacle PCTV 7010ix cards which I still use (aside from having different sat tuner and demodulator chips they are very similar to the Quattro in general design). None of those three cards have been able to handle standby/hibernate very well. Eight times out of ten one of the 7010ixs will not be recognised by Windows when I start up my computer. Sometimes both are not recognised! The only solution to get them redetected is to completely power off the computer and start it up again a few seconds later. I have been told by Blackgold engineers (Blackgold have made several cards based on the SAA716x series) that the SAA716x must be powered up in a very specific order, and if you don't do it right then things "go badly". The problems might manifest in several ways:

    1. Tuners not recognised by Windows on start up or resume.
    2. Tuners not able to lock on signal after resume.

    You may not experience that, but I think you should be aware of it. I *don't* use the powerscheduler or standby/hibernate.

    The other thing that you should know about the TDA8275/TDA10046 chips commonly used as the DVB-T tuner/demodulators is that they like good strong, clean signal. My understanding is that the drivers for the cards were all written by NXP and then customised by the OEMs/resellers. That means that the signal measurements are comparable from card to card. In my experience (I have used these DVB-T tuners as my primary tuners for the last 3+ years), 50-90% strength is ideal. You frequently have less than 30% strength, and that is a bad sign. The second bad sign is the signal quality. In my experience the signal quality drops sharply when the signal is not ideal. You *should* have 100% quality all the time, or something is wrong. With the 30 or 40% quality that you're currently getting I wouldn't be surprised if you have signal trouble.

    What condition is your aerial, cabling and terminations in?
    How are you splitting to the Asus tuner and any other TVs in the house?
    Do you have any amplifiers in the system?
    Do you have any unterminated outputs on splitters?

    So that's two things: standby->resume and signal strength/quality.

    The final thing I'd like to mention is channel mapping. The TV Server was doing some strange tuner prioritisation, and I could be wrong but it looked like you don't have all the channels mapped to all the tuners. I'd double check that if I were you.

    Forget about the hybrid card setup. If you don't use the analog side of the tuners at all then *not* setting them up as hybrid is probably better from a reliability perspective. Not that I know of any bugs with hybrid card handling... just that single tuner handling is more robustly tested.

    So recommendations:
    1. If possible, get a professional in to check your signal level and quality and optimise for the Dual Hybrid tuners if you want to keep the card.
    2. Ensure that all of your channels are mapped to all the tuners and prioritise the more reliable Asus tuner over the Dual Hybrid tuners.
    3. If you experience these problems regularly or are able to reproduce them by doing something particular then please post shorter logs using debug mode (so that all your plugins are disabled), and give us a good description of what you did and what happened. The more exact, the better...

    Best regards,
    mm
     

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