I've recently updated to version 2 from version 1.5 and have started having some strange issues.
First, I've had some device failed to start recordings. I have 2 hauppage 2250 tuners that have worked perfectly now for several months. Here's an example log for that error message:
That was a clearqam recording. at the same time, it was doing something in analog, however, earlier in the evening I did have mixed recordings running, so I don't think that that would be the issue. Any ideas?
The other issue, is zero byte recordings.
I was recording back to back shows on a channel, which in 1.5 I could do for hours at a time. It was a string of "Without a Trace episodes". Then it switched to 2 back to back "criminal minds" episodes, which both did 0 byte recordings, but the without a trace episode that followed those recorded fine. All the log says for that is this
Any ideas on that one? I have gotten 0 byte recordings in 1.5 when TWC moved clearqam around, but I definitely had that channel, since it recorded afterwards. Any clue?
NextPVR 2.03 vs. GB-PVR 1.4.7
As NextPVR 2.0.3 is out of Beta and GB-PVR 1.4.7 doesn't get any new code I tried to switch to NextPVR, even if I'm nearly happy with GB-PVR.
The following is based on experience with GB-PVR on XP and 7 (32) and on tests with NextPVR on 7.
Unfortunately, after my tests I still clearly prefer GB to Next.
This could partly change over time. Reasons for this estimation include:
- habituation to new handling
- customization of new program
- different style of new program with no possibility to customize (taste of programmer)
- maturity
- output file format
To give some details: Channel switching in Live TV mode, keys for switching between full screen and normal screen, bad looking fonts in scaled screens (i.e. windows), missing visual feedback of running Recording Service, handling and presentation of manual recordings, a lot of options that pop up only when mouse is over them.
And the output file format of recordings. At the moment this is the most important reason.
In two areas I found Next to better GB: the separation of program files and program data, and the handling of long paths (to pick up below).
As I use analog TV exclusively I'm used to .mpg files, which are program streams, I assume.
Because I watch all videos from outside of the PVR and with VLC media player I have the same problem as Nistrod with .ts files (http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...post405759). I can acknowledge that the viewer in NextPVR shows the duration of the recordings correctly. This problem even made me look for an alternative viewer for my usual video viewing and found MPC Home Cinema to be quite good. E.g. it shows the duration of the .ts files in question, is fast and shows a lot of formats. But to have preferably only one player for most viewing tasks I still find VLC better.
Assumedly I will stay with analog TV for some time to come. And GB has quite a lot of what I need. So why should I switch to Next at all?
There is one problem with GB I didn't find a solution for that would be solved with Next.
Very long paths in GB-PVR
I don't know if this problem is handled in the forum elsewhere. I don't know how I could search for it.
Sometimes I had empty recordings with GB on XP and an error message indicating that GB couldn't recover. So subsequent recordings got lost also. Then the system had to be restarted (manually) to get GB working again.
This happend with shows that had very long subtitles in the XMLTV file, probably when the overall path length of the recording file exceeded 255, with a pattern like this:
[drive:]\GBPVR\title-very_long_subtitle\title-very_long_subtitle.mpg
Somewhere I read that there was an option to strip the directory part of the recording. But I'd like to keep it.
From then I just did the recordings I know would be problematic manually and the rest in the usual way.
Is there a way to make GB handle shows with very long subtitles, e.g. by augmenting the maximum path length considerably or by silently cutting the subtitle if it would cause a too long path name?
- next
PS: I'm happy that "NextPVR" seemingly has won the name war over "g3pvr" and other affected, contrived and mannered products of the marketing and PR departements...
I've just upgraded NPVR from 1.5.33 to 2.03 and see that the Pending list when I go to status is empty though it was populated earlier today before I upgraded. Other functions are OK, including:
-Status shows current recording activity
-Pending recordings are shown in Recordings on the main menu
-All programming remained through the upgrade process
Reinstalling 1.5.33 did not cause it to reappear. Any ideas why the Pending list is now empty?
I can't import reoccuring recordings from the previous version's recurring-backup.xml. THe error given is sic ~recording "not in the current schedule"
The dropped from import recording are all set to "all channels" with "title like %showsname%"
also the taskbar's "show status" pending recording do not show any pending recordings for pending recordings with "title like showsname", but they do show in NPVR pending and reoccuring recordings lists and do record.
It's a just a minor inconvenience though.
NPVR.log snippet
[ERROR][1] Unable to import recurring recording due to problems finding the channel:
<Rules><ChannelOID>0</ChannelOID><ChannelName>All Channels</ChannelName><StartTime>2011-01-21T06:10:00.0000000Z</StartTime><EndTime>2011-01-21T07:10:00.0000000Z</EndTime><PrePadding>3</PrePadding><PostPadding>4</PostPadding><Quality>0</Quality><Keep>0</Keep><AdvancedRules>title like '%Gossip Girl%'</AdvancedRules></Rules>
2011-03-05 15:34:39.666 [INFO][1] UpdateAllRecurringRecordings()
2011-03-05 15:34:39.666 [INFO][1] Deleting existing pending season recordings
2011-03-05 15:34:39.676 [INFO][1] UpdateRecurringRecording(139, 'Dollhouse'):
<Rules><EPGTitle>Dollhouse</EPGTitle><ChannelOID>7154</ChannelOID><ChannelName>C4</ChannelName><StartTime>2010-10-11T08:30:00.0000000Z</StartTime><EndTime>2010-10-11T09:30:00.0000000Z</EndTime><PrePadding>3</PrePadding><PostPadding>4</PostPadding><Quality>0</Quality><Keep>0</Keep></Rules>
2011-03-05 15:34:39.793 [DEBUG][1] LoadListingsMatchingTitle(channel=7154,title=Dollhouse)
Most (all?) of my TS files recorded with NPVR have a problem when played in VLC. Basically, the timing info is missing. VLC shows the current position/total length as 00:00/00:00. It is also unable to skip very well (i.e. not at all).
NPVR deals with it perfectly. I also have problems if I try and play them on a WD TV Live.
If the broadcast stream is not including valid timing information - which I can only assume, as NPVR just dumps this to the file - is there some form of postprocessing I can do to fix this?
Since upgrading to 2.0.3 I am sometimes getting multiple recordings of the same show.
I have attached my logs, but an example is New Tricks_20110304_20332127. This appeared as two files: New Tricks_20110304_20332127.ts, 2GB, which explorer says is 00:00:00 long, and New Tricks_20110304_20332127-0.ts, 454MB, 00:12:06 long.
I have a postprocessing.bat file, which only appears to have run on the -0 file. Only a single recording appears in the Recordings list. If I play this recording, it only plays the short -0 file.
Its not happening on all recordings, but might (only might) be related to multiple recordings happening simultaneously.
I have multiple analog tuners, but consecutive analog recordings always use the first analog tuner, so there is no padding honored. Will the logic to 'prefer alternating analog capture source' be provided in nPVR?
Digital recordings do honor padding and use alternate tuner if available.
I'm getting a lot of crashes with HD content. Usually it occurs when attempting to exit live tv, but occasionally during playback too. The PC locks up completely and has to be powered off.
It seems to happen with any decoder which gives me hardware acceleration, which has been Microsoft, Arcsoft and ATI decoders.
I'm using a Radeon HD 3800 in Win 7 x64.
I've attached my logs, any idea what's going wrong?
