Scheduled Recording issue (1 Viewer)

[underthecovers]

Hello,

I am currently using Mediaportal 1.3.0 using it as a single seat (where I am using the PC as a TV Server and watch TV), and OS is Windows 8, as this is a new set up, for some reason, I seems to be having issues in recording that are scheduled, which has been happening since I set this up.

The TV Card are - 1 x TBS 6280 - Dual Tuner.

As an example, I set the following schedule last night (after reinstalling Mediaportal):-
Set up recording to record two programmes on same channel i.e. BBC TWO - 8pm for Chelsea Flower Show, and 9pm for 'Last Days of Anne Boylean' both are one hour long.

I don't expect this to be an issues as both programmes are on BBC TWO, and there is an overlap of approx. 15 minutes i.e. the first wont finish until 9:10, but second will kick in at approx. 08:55, but as they are on the same MUX, I'm expecting this to work in parallel during the overlaps, and got no conflicts reported.

So I then watch a different TV channel 'More 4' and this is on another MUX, so that's OK, as this will use the second tuner on the dual TV tuner card.

But what's been happening is that the first programme (Chelsea Flower show) recording is well under way, and I'm happily watching an another channel on 'More 4', but as it came around 9PM, I was expecting to see the second programme kick in (Last Days of Anne Boylean), but it didn't happened, so I waited until 09:10, when the first programme should finish, and to see if the second programme kicks in, this did not happen, so I then attempted to 'stop' that recording but Mediaportal hangs, and then I try to stop/restart TV Server, but wont work, so I had to reboot the PC, then when it came back, it was happily recording the second programme.

So this is what's been happening whenever I have a consecutive recording Mediaportal don't seem to stop the first recording, and the next programme never get started to record. The only way for me to resolve is to restart the PC, as stopping programme just hangs Mediaportal.

All this time, I never got informed of any recording conflicts at all, or at least what it used to do previously, is stop my 'live' broadcast, and use it to record the other programme - but that did not happen.

I enclose the logs, I can see that the first programme has started to record on Tuner A, and see that the programme I watch on More 4 picked up tuner B, but when the next scheduled programme starts at around 9pm, I don't see any error message/conflicts being reported?

I would appreciate if someone can look at the logs and provide some explanation?

I thought there was an options to inform 'recording conflicts' in Mediaportal TV Server, but I don't see this anymore?

 

[underthecovers]

Sending in further logs from yesterdays recording, following more testing of recordings, it seems inconsistent, as I did a batch in the afternoon, all seems OK, but then when it came to my regular recording which are 'Coronation Street' on ITV (not HD), you will see that this is two separate programme, the first being 7:30pm for 30 minutes, and the second at 8:30pm again for 30mins. What's interesting is that the first recording started OK, but didn't terminated as expected at 8:10pm - I left it until 8:15pm and it was still recording when it shouldn't so again I tried to stop recording in Mediaportal, but this usually result in Mediaportal hanging, and so I rebooted the PC again, but the next batch of recordings behaved OK????

I don't see anything in the log as to why Mediaportal failed to stop the recording as expected, as this is one of the issues I am experiencing and as been happening all week, but then I am not the expert to read the logs, so I am hoping some developers/tester can spot the issue and hopefully provide a fix?

 

[mm1352000]

Hello underthecovers

First, thank you for the log files and the full details about the issue.
I've looked at both sets of log files and I understand the problem that you're describing...
It looks like the issue may be that recordings are not stopped if you're using the tuner that is also being used for the recording at the time when the recording should be stopped. It is as if the scheduler thinks it can't stop the recording when the tuner is in use for some other reason... but there doesn't appear to be any useful debug in the log to confirm this guess.

@gibman
This never used to be a problem in the past.
Is it possible a bug crept in with the tuner reservation system?
As the scheduler maestro, your comments would be most welcome!

mm

 

[underthecovers]

Hello MM,

Thanks for responding to this thread.

I noticed this issue just over a week ago, when I started to use this new system I had set up using Windows 8 (previous system is Windows 7, with Mediaportal 1.3.0, but had no issues) in proper production use, it started last Saturday, when I recorded 'Eurovision Song Contest' and at the same time watched it (there was no other programme scheduled to record, and I did not go into another channel), and noticed that it was still recording long after the concert had finish broadcasting, so I attempted to stop recording within Mediaportal, and it did nothing, I then discovered that Mediaportal became 'hung' and non-responsive, so I waited, hoping that it sort itself out, which it didn't after 5 mins, so I then terminated Mediaportal via task manager, and went back into Mediaportal, and found that it was still recording the same programme, so I exit from mediaportal, and went into Service Management, to restart TVSERVICE, but it wont let me do this, saying it timed out, at this stage I had to reboot the system, this seems to be an on going issue now.

So this is just one programme being recorded, and whilst watching the same channel, and yet give problems. But what's interesting is why it won't let me 'stop' recording in mediaportal or why it wont allow me to restart TV service - so is there an underlying issue going on?

If there is anyway I can assist in debugging this issue, then please do let me know, I would be happy to get this sorted, as I have already reinstalled Mediaportal, but are still getting the same issue, otherwise I have to revert to my old system, unless it's Windows 8 causing this problem (as I have two pc's that are on Windows 7, (and this is my first Windows 8) and are not exhibiting this problem)?

Regards.

 

[gibman]

Hello underthecovers

First, thank you for the log files and the full details about the issue.
I've looked at both sets of log files and I understand the problem that you're describing...
It looks like the issue may be that recordings are not stopped if you're using the tuner that is also being used for the recording at the time when the recording should be stopped. It is as if the scheduler thinks it can't stop the recording when the tuner is in use for some other reason... but there doesn't appear to be any useful debug in the log to confirm this guess.

@gibman
This never used to be a problem in the past.
Is it possible a bug crept in with the tuner reservation system?
As the scheduler maestro, your comments would be most welcome!

mm

sorry for the delay.

I did look at the logs.
I also have some past experience where tvservice suddenly refuses to record anything.
and I mean anything, it doesnt have to be back2back or anything. I dont think this is related.
a tvservice restart fixes this.

it looks like the scheduler thread is locked down somewhere in a blocking call or some dead lock.
something that it never gets out of.

attaching a debugger while in this bad state would reveal where it is being blocked.
just hit debugger pause, and enter the "threads view" from within visual studio 20xx.
here you have an overview of all threads and where they currently are (stacktraces).
( just in case you are a dev )

next time, this happens, try and see if you can record anything at all.
just add some once recording, hitting the record button the remote control.

it happens pretty seldomly here.

the tvservice log should have this entry each time a recording is about to happen:
Scheduler: Time to record

like:

2013-05-23 19:53:12.585748 [scheduler thread(10)]: Scheduler: Time to record BBC TWO 19:53-21:00 Chelsea Flower Show 2013

/gibman

 

[underthecovers]

Hello Gibman,

Thank you for taking the time to investigate. Unfortunately the problem has got worse, I took the decision to uninstall (again) Mediaportal, and uninstall (this is new) TBS 6280 drivers last weekend of May 25/26th. I then reinstall in fresh driver and then Mediaportal on top of this. For a week it went fine. Then last night it failed, it was recording 'Fall' on BBC2 and was still recording this morning Yes, this morning!! Again I attempt to stop, but Mediaportal gets all hang up, and it means a reboot. There was only one other programmed being scheduled to record and that was 'Coronation Street' which was 08:30 to 09:10, 'Fall' was the last programme scheduled. I didn't watch any other 'live' TV and instead watched recorded programme.

So Gibman, from what your saying, this don't seems to be an issues as far as your concern, but I don't know if there are any other TBS 6280 communities running on Windows 8 out there (as I got no response from that). So with regards to diagnostic, I'm not sure how this is triggered as you don't say apart from saying 'attaching a debugger' can you please explain how I can debug, as obviously I have a bug, unless someone else in the community has a similar issue, or do I need to revert back to Windows 7?

Thanks,

Underthecovers

 

[gibman]

ofc. its an issue.

download something like visual studio express 2010
http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/products/visual-studio-2010-express

I think your best bet would be to install a debug build of tvservice where you get all the .pdb files (the debug symbols).
This would give you better debugging capabilities.

install VS express on ur rig.
then once it cocks up, then launch VS.

in the debug menu, click "attach to process".
attach to: automatic: native code
show processes from all users.

then locate "tvservice.exe".
then click attach.

if it attached ok, then we can proceed to the next step.

hit the pause button (or hit : ctrl+alt+break)

now in the debug menu, enter windows submenu.
in there select "threads".

now you should see a complete list of running threads and where they are.
if you have proper pdb files u can now click on any of those threads and evaluate what they are doing.
some threads are native and do not have source code available while some are managed threads spawned from tvservice.
like the scheduler thread, which could be interesting.

you can copy the stacktrace to clipboard, ctrl-c.
the interesting part is where the current program cursor is located, where the code is stock at.
this could be valuable info.

regarding pdb/debug build

you or someone willing should be able to retrieve the sourcecode from a git branch that matches that version you are running and then DEBUG compile it from there.

/gibman

 

[underthecovers]

ofc. its an issue.

download something like visual studio express 2010
http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/products/visual-studio-2010-express

I think your best bet would be to install a debug build of tvservice where you get all the .pdb files (the debug symbols).
This would give you better debugging capabilities.

regarding pdb/debug build

you or someone willing should be able to retrieve the sourcecode from a git branch that matches that version you are running and then DEBUG compile it from there.

/gibman

Ok, thanks for the info, and looks like quite a task to do!

Looks like my issue at the moment is where do I get hold of a debug build of TVservice, and then compile it?

Thanks.

 

[gibman]

an alternative would be to use reflector:
http://www.red-gate.com/dynamic/products/dotnet-development/reflector/download

you would then be able to debug in release binaries.

ofc. the best would be install debug install + pdb files for the tvservice project alone.

what version are you running exactly ?
try and look at github
https://github.com/MediaPortal

I seem to remember that you will need to release compile MP before you are able to compile the tvservice sln.

/gibman

 

[underthecovers]

Hello!

Thanks for all the input.

An update, just a bit surprised that there isn't a debug version handy to find out what causing the problem where TV service is not stopping the recording pass it scheduled time. I don't think I will be able to identify the bug and do the coding myself, as I am not a developer. Just out of interest as Mediaportal V1.4 is in beta, surely there is a debug version to identify and fix a problem?

Anyway since then I had reinstall Windows 8 completely from fresh again, and just loaded Mediaportal and TV card's driver, and nothing else was install (no Antivirus, no 3rd party software, etc, just the Windows OS, fully patched and Mediaportal), and guess what - same problem! There is definitely an issue with TV service on Windows 8 from my experienced. So I decide to write off Windows 8 and revert back to Windows 7 on my new HTPC set up, and all is working fine.

Just a bit disappointed that that I am not able to use Window 8.

Cheers