TV Service dying (1 Viewer)

[hucknallred]

Hi

I did post in the watch/listen media thread but not very busy in there...

I've been having a few problems of late with recording & watching TV, either live TV doesn't work at all & I have to kill TVservice or Live TV is working but recordings don't happen - there will be a program highlighted to record in the guide, but if I go to it whilst recording there's no option to watch from the beginning, as it isn't recording, but it can be watched live.

I was using a ramdisk as live buffer, but changed this to a hard drive, but it still happens.

When this happens I can't stop service in TV server config, it has to be killed manually.

I've attached my logs one failed recording today was the F1 qualifying which you can search in the logs "Formula 1: The Italian Grand Prix".

I've uninstalled & reinstalled but it still happens.
Hope someone can help.

Thanks

 

[mm1352000]

Hello hucknallred

I have to confess that this issue has me puzzled. In the case of your recording not working, it looks like TV Server didn't even realise that it was meant to be recording.

The more log examples you can provide, the better. Please remember to note the dates and times and names of the programs that were meant to record, or the dates and times when TV failed to start.

mm

 

[hucknallred]

Hello hucknallred

I have to confess that this issue has me puzzled. In the case of your recording not working, it looks like TV Server didn't even realise that it was meant to be recording.

The more log examples you can provide, the better. Please remember to note the dates and times and names of the programs that were meant to record, or the dates and times when TV failed to start.

mm

Hi MM

OK, just had the problem again, at around 19:45, tried to watch "police caught on camera: tonight" on ITV1 HD, MP just hung.
Killed Mediaportal & restarted, tried to record "Celebrity antiques road trip" BBC 2; it turned red in guide but no record icon.
Tried to again watch "police caught..." MP hung.
Killed TVservice - MP comes back to life with "unknown error".
Closed MP.
Restarted TV Service & look in manual control in config, "Celebrity Antiques...." is now recording.

Dumped logs at this point - attached.

Thanks, hope you can help.

[EDIT] Just looked at the logs & there doesn't seem to be anything until I restarted TV service at 19:53, when the Antiques show recording started, & a regular scheduled Mythbusters started too, 19:53 would be the right time for that 20:00 - 7 minutes padding.
I'll keep monitoring this & maybe take a video of the problem happening.

HR

 

[mm1352000]

Hello again

Okay, this time I can see the problem. It is caused by a deadlock in TsWriter. This is a known issue that we've been trying to get to the bottom of for some time, but it has been hard because we're not able to reproduce it consistently. Alphathon reported the same thing only an hour before you did -->here<--. Please can you have a read of that thread and try the same patch that he is trying.

Cheers,
mm

 

[hucknallred]

Hello again

Okay, this time I can see the problem. It is caused by a deadlock in TsWriter. This is a known issue that we've been trying to get to the bottom of for some time, but it has been hard because we're not able to reproduce it consistently. Alphathon reported the same thing only an hour before you did -->here<--. Please can you have a read of that thread and try the same patch that he is trying.

Cheers,
mm

Thank you, have applied the patch now, I have to leave for work now, will see what's happened on my return.

 

[hucknallred]

Hi MM

I've just RDCed into one of my MP clients, recording seems OK with the fix. In the other thread you mentioned it would be helpful to have a sample of the providers TV stream, I'd be happy to provide this if you tell me how to do it. I'll even revert back to the non patched version to recreate the error.

Regards

HR

 

[mm1352000]

Hello again

Big thanks for testing and reporting - it is much appreciated.

I've just RDCed into one of my MP clients, recording seems OK with the fix.

Cool. So far so good I guess.

In the other thread you mentioned it would be helpful to have a sample of the providers TV stream, I'd be happy to provide this if you tell me how to do it. I'll even revert back to the non patched version to recreate the error.

The hardest thing about this problem is to verify that the issue is resolved. The only way to really do that is to test the patched version for long enough to confirm with reasonably high certainty that it has solved the problem, and then revert to the non-patched version and hope that the problem comes back.

If the problem truly is solved, there is probably no need to get a sample of the providers stream. However it doesn't hurt as a "just in case".
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_MEDIAPORTAL_1/18_Contribute/4_Development/Debugging/TS_Dumps

It should be fairly straightforward. The basic steps are:
1. Start TV Server configuration with the debug options visible.
2. Enable the dump raw TS option.
3. Timeshift CNN for 30 seconds or so.
4. Navigate to your timeshift folder and upload the rawpacketdump.ts file to the FTP server.

Just let us know if you get stuck with any of that - happy to give more detailed instructions.

mm

 

[hucknallred]

Well, it's happened again with the patch , I've now switched to using webepg, I shall do the .ts dump though. The only thing is, I have a number of providers, I get UK DTT & D-SAT from Astra 28.2, with all the duplicate channels merged, which stream do I dump, I've no idea which one causes the problem.

 

[mm1352000]

Well, it's happened again with the patch

I've now switched to using webepg, I shall do the .ts dump though. The only thing is, I have a number of providers, I get UK DTT & D-SAT from Astra 28.2, with all the duplicate channels merged, which stream do I dump, I've no idea which one causes the problem.

Freesat/BSkyB CNN caused the problem before - 12051V on Astra 28.2E. It could just have been your signal quality at the time so it will take a bit of luck to find the problem...

 

[DJBlu]

Hi,

If you are using 1.3.0 Alpha can you try this TSWriter and if it fails then upload the Log files.

I've added a couple of extra checks in the code and if what I think is causing it then this TSWriter will let me know.

Stop the TV service, close Setup TV.
Backup the old TSwriter from Program Files\Team MediaPortal\TV server\
Then place the one from the zip file into the TV server directory.
Start TV service/Open Setup TV.

Let me know how you get on.

Thanks.