TV server - freeze (3 Viewers)

[Phaedra]

I agree completely.
Discussing this with a colleague, he gave me the same arguments : current affordable HDDs can't take advantage of the extra bandwidth of the SATA-600 interface.
Motherboard requirements for my TV server will be : (taking into account that I will also be using it as a NAS)
- multiple PCI-e slots to allow more tuner cards to be added
- dual gigaBit Ethernet : one I will dedicate for streaming to the client in the living room, the other for all other purposes (NAS, streaming to other clients, ...)
- low power consumption

For timeshifting purposes, I thought of doing the experiment of starting a manual timeshifting for a HD channel, and try to estimate the maximum size required per channel.
It would be nice if I could fit this into a RAM drive, but I doubt it seriously. It's not purely a performance issue, but also a power consumption issue. An SSD would be too costly, and it also wears out with this type of usage.
In the end, a 30 Euro HDD can't be a bad choice...

I will try the Maxtor drive to see what it does to the freeze problem....

 

[Phaedra]

I tried the Maxtor drive yesterday.
When I changed the timeshift buffer location and did my first tests, freezing was worse than before.
I rebooted the server, to no avail.
I then noticed I had activated the WebEPG and XmlTV plugins for testing the evening before, so I disabled them to get back to a "clean" configuration.
Apparently, that dit the trick. In the limited time I had, I had live TV without freezing in two sessions of an hour each.
The first was interrupted due to a PSU failure in the client (picoPSU 150W unable to sustain 50W of load for more than an hour).
The second session ended because I wanted to go to sleep

So, at first sight, the freezing problem seems solved by using another HDD for timeshifting.
Next problem is getting an EPG in some form without freezing up Mediaportal : using DVB as the EPG source is discouraged, WebEPG seems to be causing trouble too (or is it the XmlTV part ?). I saw an entry about a "PowerEvent" in the tv.log file at the time of freezing, but could not find an explanation about this.
I want to be using the FTR plugin to manage recordings; this plugin is already active and apparently causing no trouble.

 

[Phaedra]

After a long struggle to get EPG data (which I didn't), I'm back at square one today.
Came home, fired up the server, tried a manual timeshift : NO SIGNAL.
Rebooted the server, delayed start of the TV service, tried a channel preview : NO SIGNAL.
Sigh.
Started a channel scan : I get normal response, signal levels and quality as before.
Tried another preview : NO SIGNAL.
Sigh.
Since I was running a patched version, I re-installed the original TV server code, and restarted : NO SIGNAL.
If I wasn't desperate yet, I am now.
The limits of my creativity and patience are once again challenged.
What is it this time ?

 

[glenn 1990]

Have you checked your signal (maybe it was low and now dropped a bit further).
Don't rely on the signal quality bars from the tv server, they are unreliable.

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again

If I wasn't desperate yet, I am now.
The limits of my creativity and patience are once again challenged.
What is it this time ?

I would be tearing my hair out too!

Came home, fired up the server, tried a manual timeshift : NO SIGNAL.

So a cold boot, or resume from hibernate?

Rebooted the server, delayed start of the TV service, tried a channel preview : NO SIGNAL.

Did you shut down, or restart?

Started a channel scan : I get normal response, signal levels and quality as before.
Tried another preview : NO SIGNAL.

Post logs please (if you still have the energy...).

 

[Phaedra]

Came home, fired up the server, tried a manual timeshift : NO SIGNAL.

So a cold boot, or resume from hibernate?

First attempt was resume from standby, second attempt restart, and finally a cold reboot (literally, I had to get away from this machine for a while )

Started a channel scan : I get normal response, signal levels and quality as before.
Tried another preview : NO SIGNAL.

Post logs please (if you still have the energy...).

I will try to generate a log when I get home after work.
It seems that whenever I change the tiniest thing about this TV server, I get into serious trouble.
But this time, I believe that I reverted everything back to the state it was when everything worked fine.

My problems with EPG will be the subject of a separate thread, this one is complicated enough as it is

 

[Phaedra]

As could be feared or expected (depending on your state of mind), everything is working normally again without me changing anything.
I noticed in the error.log file the following entry :

2011-02-24 19:16:13.055081 [DVB EPG timer(5)]: Exception :Error: DatabaseUnavailableUnclassified
Gentle.Common.GentleException: The database backend (provider MySQL) could not be reached.
Check the connection string: Server=Quaddie;Database=MpTvDb;User ID=root;Password=***;charset=utf8;Connection Timeout=300; ---> MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlException: Connection unexpectedly terminated.
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlStream.LoadPacket()
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlStream.OpenPacket()
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.NativeDriver.ReadOk(Boolean read)
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.NativeDriver.SetDatabase(String dbName)
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlConnection.ChangeDatabase(String databaseName)
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlConnection.Open()
at Gentle.Provider.MySQL.MySQLProvider.GetConnection()

This would explain the fact that enabling the EGP grabbing blew up the database.
But it doesn't explain why it is working again today....

I've read about similar problems in other threads, so I'm wondering if it wouldn' be advisable to switch to MS SQL Express for the database backend ?

Still leaves me clueless on how to get EPG data without getting the TV server into trouble, though.

 

[Phaedra]

Came home today, started TV server, guess what : NO SIGNAL.

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again Phaedra

From the looks of your first logs, it seems that the EPG Grabber wanted to grab data, but the tuner was not available, and the database was also not available. Have you made sure to set your TV Server up with a static IP address?

[Edit: please also take a look at ==> this <==]

 

[Phaedra]

Errr, no... didn't know that was a prerequisite....
I changed from DHCP to fixed IP now, but I presume I need to reinstall everything before this takes effect ?
Anyway, how comes this DHCP is a problem ? For the db connection, I don't see any references to an IP address, but either to localhost or to computername..
When I start the TV server configuration tool, and request a channel preview, I presumed that it refers to localhost, in which case it should get the correct response....that is the way I'm testing it now, anyway.