Recordings fail: empty .ts file (1 Viewer)

RobNorthcott

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  • October 9, 2007
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    FWIW, my system has done this twice in the whole time I've been using MP (getting on for two years now). The second time was last weekend, which prompted me to search for this thread.

    I only use DVB-S, with only one tuner, so it can't be a "per card" setup issue in my case. There's only one user, which is an admin, so I don't think it's user rights either. The empty recording last weekend was directly before another one that did work. I don't think it had any odd characters in the title (it was the Aussy GP highlights, BBC3 I think).

    If the log covering that time is still there, I'll grab it tonight and see if it sheds any light on things.

    Rob
     

    RobNorthcott

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    OK, here's my logs in case they help matters. The failed recording is visible in tswriter.log at 29-03-2009 18:57:19. Looks like it just gave up at the "pmtgrabber : do calback" bit. The next recording immediately afterwards worked fine.

    There seem to be a scary number of "infinite loop" errors in there as well, but that's probably another thing altogether - possibly related to epg by the look of it.

    I'm using DJBlu's modded tswriter, by the way, if that makes a difference.

    Rob

    EDIT: I've just noticed the other recording that failed is still in the tswriter.log as well (Cracking Contraptions on 3rd January) - and coincidentally it was on the same channel (BBC3). I wonder if it could be something to do with the channel...
     

    Owlsroost

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    Hi Rob,

    Reviving an old thread, but I've just had exactly the same 'failed recording' problem with programs on BBC3....

    It's because BBC3 is a time-shared channel that is off-air until 19:00 - in your logs MP starts the recording at 18:57 (when there is no video/audio being transmitted) - it looks like the filtergraph is built and the file created, but nothing is written into the file. It doesn't automatically recover when video/audio starts at 19:00 either....

    My logs are attached - the failed recordings are "26-04-2009 18:53:05.207 Recorder: RECORD Start 'D:\TVserver\Formula 1_ The Bahrain Grand Prix\Formula 1_ The Bahrain Grand Prix - BBC THREE - 2009-04-26 - 19_00.ts'" and "25-04-2009 18:53:10.550 Recorder: RECORD Start 'D:\TVserver\Graham Hill_ Driven\Graham Hill_ Driven - BBC FOUR - 2009-04-25 - 19_00.ts'"

    Since pre & post time padding of scheduled recordings is normal in MP, this is a real problem - it means that recordings of the first show after a channel goes 'on-air' will always fail.

    I guess that the way to fix the problem is for TV-server to check that video/audio is actually being received, and if it isn't then re-try periodically for a while i.e. during the pre-show padding time. When the stream actually starts up it can then start the recording.

    Tony
     

    RobNorthcott

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    That's a good point Tony. But if you tune to BBC3 outside its normal hours, doesn't it just show CBBC or CBeebies? Perhaps MP "knows" it's not really BBC3 and fails the recording.

    Rob
     

    Owlsroost

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    No, BBC3 and CBBC are both on the same mux (rf channel), but in terms of their programme ID (PID) etc they are different channels - they just share part of the mux data capacity between themselves on a timeshare basis.

    If you select say BBC3 in 'My TV' when it's not on-air MP will eventually pop up the 'no video/audio found' dialog and ask if you want to go back to the previous channel. I suspect it's the TV-plugin in MP which works this out (because the timeshift file is empty), rather than being told by TV-server.

    The problem with scheduled recordings is that TV-server appears to just blindly start the recording (and stop it at the end time) without checking if anything is actually being written to the file.

    Tony
     

    Paranoid Delusion

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    Guys

    We have pretty accurate broadcast times, we've had this before, the workaround is to have a 2 minute pre-record enabled, this allows BBC3\Cbeebies etc to work correctly, as the broadcast switches at 2 minutes to hour both ways, ie 6.58pm.
     

    jhb

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    September 19, 2006
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    Hi,
    I have a similar problem...

    I have a non CAM-based card with lower prio and a card without CI as highest prio, to make sure that I always (as far as possible at least) use the card without CAM for the not encrypted channels...

    I have all channels mapped to both cards, which is OK since the server automatically ("CAM No" set for card) uses the card with CAM for encrypted channels. This is however not working with recordings. Then I get an empty TS-file in the recordings folder for the non-CAM card when trying to record from an encrypted channel.

    If the MUX is tuned (watching channel, or another channel on the same MUX), recording succeeds.

    I have now tried to take away the encrypted channels from the card without CAM to see if it works...
    ...and will report back more when I know more....
     

    jhb

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    September 19, 2006
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    Hi,
    I have a similar problem...

    I have a non CAM-based card with lower prio and a card without CI as highest prio, to make sure that I always (as far as possible at least) use the card without CAM for the not encrypted channels...

    I have all channels mapped to both cards, which is OK since the server automatically ("CAM No" set for card) uses the card with CAM for encrypted channels. This is however not working with recordings. Then I get an empty TS-file in the recordings folder for the non-CAM card when trying to record from an encrypted channel.

    If the MUX is tuned (watching channel, or another channel on the same MUX), recording succeeds.

    I have now tried to take away the encrypted channels from the card without CAM to see if it works...
    ...and will report back more when I know more....

    And after removing the encrypted channels from the non-CAM card the recording work.
     

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