Satellite Stream Stops working on HD (1 Viewer)

[DrunkenSquirrel]

MediaPortal Version: 1.6.0

Description
Hi,
I've been having an issue where if I play/record an HD channel, within the first 20 minutes or so it freezes up and stops playing/recording, after reselecting the channel it plays just fine afterwards, SD channels don't have this error, and it's really driving me crazy and I can't understand why, I've tried doing a clean slate reinstall but the issue remains.

(TBS 6922), Win 8.1 (although also present when tried with win 7 and win 8)

Steps to Reproduce:
Watch/Record HD channel, wait for stream to randomly stop.

 

[mm1352000]

Hello

I'm not seeing anything to indicate stream stopping in the log files... but then, it is difficult to be sure because you didn't specify the channel name or time. In general terms, more information is needed.

Also, it looks like you're using XBMC on the front end. Can you confirm?
There's no problem with using XBMC... but we have to consider that the cause of the stopping might be something on the XBMC side. Therefore I have to ask if you're using XBMC, are you able to reproduce the problem with MediaPortal?

Regards,
mm

 

[DrunkenSquirrel]

Hi, Thanks for taking the time to reply, the Channel that crashed in those logs was ITV HD at around quarter past midnight.

Yes, I was using XBMC as a Front End, although it happens even when XBMC is closed, (just set the recording times in xbmc).
I've since uninstalled mediaportal and installed it again to get the mediaportal client, restored my settings, deleted all my logs,and haven't installed the xbmc plugin yet to keep it out of the equation, and scheduled a recording for tonight. I'll report back and let you know how it gets on.

 

[DrunkenSquirrel]

Back again.
Result is the same even with XBMC plugins disabled and doing everything through mediaportal.
Attached are the new logs, with only one operation performed (the failed recording job).

I'm seeing a lot of lines which say "bad signal?" but it seems strange to me that after it has failed once, it doesn't seem to fail again until the pc gets switched off, Also the signal quality and signal level look fine, unless my signal is randomly fluctuating up and down greatly, but the error seems to only happen with HD channels, so I have no idea :/

I got around 10 minutes of footage from a scheduled hour, with lots of artifacts near where it stopped.

 

[mm1352000]

Thanks for the info - that helps a lot.

So, with the ITV HD thing at quarter past midnight: TV Server stopped that stream intentionally because XBMC failed to keep contact with the server:
[collapse]
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,657] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [INFO ] - Controller: Heartbeat Monitor - kicking idle user XBMCpvrclient1
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,658] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [DEBUG] - TVServerXBMC: OnTvServerEvent: EndTimeShifting
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,658] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [INFO ] - Controller: StopTimeShifting 3
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,661] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [DEBUG] - CardTuner.RequestCardStopReservation: placed reservation with id=3, user=XBMCpvrclient1
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,762] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [DEBUG] - CardTuner.Stop: ticket id=3, found=True
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,762] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [INFO ] - Stop cardid=3, ticket=3, tunestate=Idle, stopstate=Stopping
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,763] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [INFO ] - card TBS 6922 DVBS/S2 Tuner: StopTimeShifting user:XBMCpvrclient1 sub:0
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,763] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [DEBUG] - card not IDLE - removing user: XBMCpvrclient1
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,764] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [DEBUG] - usermanagement.RemoveUser: XBMCpvrclient1, subch: 0 of 1, card: 3
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,765] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [INFO ] - user:XBMCpvrclient1 remove
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,765] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [INFO ] - subch:0-0 tswriter StopTimeshifting...
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,765] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [INFO ] - tvcard:FreeSubChannel: subchannels count 1 subch#0
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,765] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [INFO ] - DVB subch:0 Decompose()
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,766] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [INFO ] - FreeSubChannel CA: freeing sub channel : 0
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,766] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [INFO ] - tvcard:FreeSubChannel : no subchannels present, pausing graph
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,766] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [INFO ] - dvbtopGraph called
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,766] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [INFO ] - tvcard:FreeAllSubChannels
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,766] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [INFO ] - dvbtopGraph
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,797] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [INFO ] - debug: IMediaControl stopped! hr = 0x0
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,797] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [INFO ] - dvbtopGraph called
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,798] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [INFO ] - tvcard:FreeAllSubChannels
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,798] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [INFO ] - dvbtopGraph filterstate already stopped, returning.
[2014-02-23 00:16:01,798] [Log ] [HeartBeatMonitor] [INFO ] - user:XBMCpvrclient1 remove[/collapse]

Effectively TV Server thought the connection with XBMC had been lost, so it stopped streaming. This will need to be followed up with the person who is supporting the XBMC client plugin.

As for the recording issue: that is a different story.
You're right to recognise the continuity errors in the TsWriter log. That usually points to poor quality signal or a stressed HDD. Your tuning parameters are correct, so I would first make sure you haven't got some kind of real-time security software (eg. MS Security Essentials, Windows Defender) scanning the MediaPortal and TV Server program/install, timeshift, record and settings directories.

mm

 

[DrunkenSquirrel]

Hi again,
Thanks for getting back to me, it looks like I'm probably suffering two different issues here then, the first being the XBMC plugin which fails within minutes and then is fine afterwards, and the 2nd some kind of Signal/PC issue.

The Recording drive is a 2TB 5400rpm WD Green used pretty much solely by the Satellite Recordings other than some backed up Data, and the only real time security software I'm running is Comodo Firewall, I disabled windows defender on install, and I rely on adblock/noscript for my internet protection.

I'll disable comodo and try another recording, I'm starting to think it could even be the satellite card itself, very strange how it only appears to be an issue with HD channels.

Thank you for all your help.

 

[mm1352000]

Thanks for getting back to me, it looks like I'm probably suffering two different issues here then, the first being the XBMC plugin which fails within minutes and then is fine afterwards, and the 2nd some kind of Signal/PC issue.

Yep, I agree.

The Recording drive is a 2TB 5400rpm WD Green used pretty much solely by the Satellite Recordings other than some backed up Data, and the only real time security software I'm running is Comodo Firewall, I disabled windows defender on install, and I rely on adblock/noscript for my internet protection.

Okay.
Are you using the same drive for recording as for timeshifting?
Also, how is the recording drive connected?

It is not only security software that you need to think about - that was just a common example. Any process (eg. a backup process) that uses that HDD heavily while you're trying to record or timeshift could potentially cause this problem.

I'm starting to think it could even be the satellite card itself, very strange how it only appears to be an issue with HD channels.

I think it is more likely your dish and cabling (are you splitting the signal from the dish?) than the satellite card... though too much heat can also cause issues like this, but that tends to be a rarer cause.
If your dish is not quite aligned properly then you're bound to have more trouble with DVB-S2 transponders which tend to carry HD channels.

 

[DrunkenSquirrel]

Hey,
The Time-shifting and Recording folders are on different drives, and they are all internal via SATA.
My Dad and I share the satellite, It's a Dual LNB, one wire goes to me and the other to him, (he's using a Comag SL40), the problems seem to appear whether he's using the satellite or not.
I've disabled scheduled defrags and maintenance stuff quite a while ago, but to make sure I opened resource monitor on this latest run, HDD usage was very low whilst recording, and when recording stops completely idle.

I caught the recording fail again today and I noticed in the logs that the signal strength reported 92 but signal quality 55, The recording failed, I tried to switch channels and back before realising the card was still locked to the recording operation, so I restarted the TV-service and the recording continued properly (even with the low signal quality?), logs are attached.

After restarting the Tv-server the recording worked fine, even with a low signal quality, which is quite surprising, I'll take a look at it tomorrow and see if I can move the satellite tomorrow and get a better signal, and if that doesn't help I'll buy a new cable and report back.

 

[DrunkenSquirrel]

Thought I'd report back and let you know how I got on.
I tried moving the satellite and got a very slightly higher signal quality (we're talking 2%), but it made no difference (surprise).
I think I've pretty much given up by this point, but I very much appreciate the help especially that it probably wasn't a bug in mediaportal.
Thanks again.

 

[mm1352000]

Thanks for the follow up.
I am surprised that moving the dish didn't help...