[TV] - HD-PVR TV freezes After Channel Change When using SPDIF (1 Viewer)

[cwchapma]

MediaPortal Version: 1.3.0

Description
Live TV freezes when you change the channel and are using the HDPVR with the SPDIF (optical) input. Pausing and unpausing will unfreeze it but that shouldn't be necessary.
I've attached my debug logs but my TV server is a different machine so it won't include server logs.
Thanks,
Clint

Steps to Reproduce:
Setup your hdpvr and channels to use SPDIF optical input.
Start watching live TV
Change the channel
Freeze.

 

[cwchapma]

This looks like it could be more of a general problem than I thought. It appears anytime there's a hiccup in the signal of live TV, it freezes.

27-04-2013 12:42:02.567 Recorder:Pid 1100 Continuity error... 0 ( prev 2 ) - bad signal?
27-04-2013 12:42:02.568 Recorder:Pid 1011 Continuity error... 0 ( prev 1 ) - bad signal?

Appears in my TsWriter log. I remember getting this sort of error as well when my comskip process were overloading the CPU and it would freeze then too, if I was watching at the live point. If I was watching slightly delayed TV, it would just skip over the hiccup and keep playing fine.

Mediaportal always jumps to the live point when it changes channels, changing channels then causes a hiccup, it runs out of data and freezes. If I skip back in the buffer to before the channel change, it plays through the channel change fine.

I'm wondering if there is a way to keep it retrying instead of giving up and freezing like that.

Clint

 

[HomeY]

Hello Clint,

You are right, Continuity errors often show up:
- When there is a lot of disk activity
- PC is overheating
- (heavy) CPU load, like ComSkip.

I would monitor your TV Server first, and see if you have other processes running that consume CPU power. Besides that, a ew things you can try:
Fine tune ComSkip (see bottom)
Try using UNC paths instead of RTSP

I personally don't have a HDPVR, so can't comment on that.

 

[cwchapma]

Thanks @HomeY. I've solved the problem with comskip by changing the process priority. I've even submitted a pull request for that change.

However, this bug is about Mediaportal not responding well to continuity errors for whatever reason they happen.

Clint

 

[HomeY]

I see @jameson_uk has already picked up the pull request

TNX Mike! I even proposed to add a scheduler or something like that (link only working for teammembers)

@cwchapma About ComSkip: I'm using TvWishList and the developer of that plugin gives the option to set a (variable) delay on when the process starts, as in x numbers of minutes after recording finished. Maybe that helps you out some more (and it's a GREAT plugin if you record also)

 

[mm1352000]

Clint,

When you say "freeze" do you mean the picture and/or audio freezes but the MP UI is still responsive?
If so, that would indicate an issue with the codecs you're using, not within MP. And MP would have no way to realise the picture had frozen.
Codecs have varying degrees of robustness when it comes to handling corruption in the stream (which is what continuity errors often indicate).
...so try different codecs.

Please supply full simultaneous client and server logs after you've dealt with the comskip issue if you want to try and take this further.

mm

 

[cwchapma]

@mm1352000, Yes, the picture and audio freeze, the UI still responds. I've tried the LAV and Microsoft codec - same result on both. Are there others I could try? I dealt with the comskip issue a while ago, the only reason I mentioned it was that it was causing the same continutity errors in the TsWriter.log and freezing.

I'll run it again and provide full server logs.

Thanks,
Clint

 

[mm1352000]

I've tried the LAV and Microsoft codec - same result on both. Are there others I could try?

Plenty, if you have them.
Make sure you try the LAV codec in both DXVA and software mode.
Then there is FFDShow and FFDShow DXVA.
Arcsoft
Cyberlink/PowerDVD
Corel
CoreAVC

I dealt with the comskip issue a while ago, the only reason I mentioned it was that it was causing the same continutity errors in the TsWriter.log and freezing.



I'll run it again and provide full server logs.

Yeah, I'm not familiar with comskip so no comment there. I'll reserve my thoughts until I've seen the logs.

 

[cwchapma]

Attached are complete client and server logs. Here's what I did:

1. Start watching live TV change.
2. Hit channel + button. See ir blaster changing channel on DVR. Picture and audio freeze.
3. Hit pause and then play.
4. Plays normally.
5. Rewind to beginning of live buffer.
6. Plays through channel change without freezing.

Hope that helps.
Clint

 

[cwchapma]

Tried changing the audio codecs, between LAV, MPC, and Microsoft. No change.

The reason for trying the audio codecs is that this only happens with the SPDIF connection. No freezing with the stereo analog input of the HDPVR.

I've tried all the codecs I have. None changed. I'm not sure how you select DXVA or software.