bad recording

[Spark]

Tonight, with npvr (dec 24th release) I tried to record a 2 hour show, and it ended up being about 6GB instead of 12GB (normal shows on this channel are about 6GB per hour), and the recording is unwatchable.
Yesterday, it worked fine, but this is a different channel.

No idea what is up.

Ideas ?

[Reddwarf]

First of all you seem to lack the latest DirectX (mentioned in the "Getting started..." sticky thread), that affects menue rendering and makes it use much more cpu..
In your Nrecord.log it reports signal strength to be 36 and quality to be 91, maybe you had a temporary low signal. I also notice that you have a "Connect Filter failed" message, not sure why.

[johnsonx42]

while different drivers report signal strength different ways, I suspect 36 means 36% which is way too low. anything below about 60% is usually no good.

the "Connect Filter failed" message isn't a problem, it seems to be in everyone's logs including mine.

[Spark]

First of all you seem to lack the latest DirectX (mentioned in the "Getting started..." sticky thread), that affects menue rendering and makes it use much more cpu..
In your Nrecord.log it reports signal strength to be 36 and quality to be 91, maybe you had a temporary low signal. I also notice that you have a "Connect Filter failed" message, not sure why.

Thanks for the information, but I checked the logs for the good recordings, and the signal strength & quality are the same values. I am not sure it is reporting the correct values.

For DX, this machine is only used to record, not view anything, so I didn't bother to update DX--in fact, it is headless, and I use a remote desktop to set recordings.

[Spark]

while different drivers report signal strength different ways, I suspect 36 means 36% which is way too low. anything below about 60% is usually no good.

the "Connect Filter failed" message isn't a problem, it seems to be in everyone's logs including mine.

Is there a way to see the realtime value of the strength--though, I still think it is off, since the same 36 is on the good recording, and that is crystal clear ?

[Reddwarf]

while different drivers report signal strength different ways, I suspect 36 means 36% which is way too low. anything below about 60% is usually no good.

the "Connect Filter failed" message isn't a problem, it seems to be in everyone's logs including mine.

I don't have any "Connect Filter failed" in any of my installations, so I still beleive that it indicates something wrong.

@Spark: No there is no way of monitoring the signal strength/quality, one problem is that devices from different manufacturers reports this each in its own way, no standard for values in other words.

[Spark]

Playing around with this some more, and here are some numbers I got.

strength=36, quality=95 --good
strength=36, quality=94 --good
strength=36, quality=25 --bad, 0 recording size
strength=36, quality=26 --bad, 0 recording size
strength=36, quality=95 --good

In my case, it looks like strength plays no roll/can't be changed, and it is all about the quality level.
The first 2 are from a 2 way splitter, the next 2 are from a 3-way splitter (one on -7db and the other on -3.5db), the last is from a amplified 2-way splitter.

Npvr should throw up a warning/alert that the recording size (data output) is currently 0. Gbpvr had the same issue as well.

[sub]

Npvr should throw up a warning/alert that the recording size (data output) is currently 0. Gbpvr had the same issue as well.

I've added logic to the next release to better cope with this. At the time it closes a recording, if it's zero bytes, it marks it as "Failed" with the reason "No errors, but no data delivered. Most likely the device failed to lock a signal." You'll see this reason shown in red in the Recordings screen.

[Spark]

I've added logic to the next release to better cope with this. At the time it closes a recording, if it's zero bytes, it marks it as "Failed" with the reason "No errors, but no data delivered. Most likely the device failed to lock a signal." You'll see this reason shown in red in the Recordings screen.

Heya Sub,
I ran into a hiccup, and I wondered if it was possible to add a 'quick record' test feature, that records the last channel that was recorded for say 30 secs or so ?

The hiccup I ran into was, that I hadn't noticed my cable came off, and as a result, it was 'recording' a 0 size file. (I blame the dog )
This would be in the device status dialog, with a "test" button, then it can report back a good recording (ie, a file that actually has data in it) or a bad recording.
The way you do this now is, use the guide, pick a show, record for 30 secs, then cancel the recording.

[ElihuRozen]

Heya Sub,
I ran into a hiccup, and I wondered if it was possible to add a 'quick record' test feature, that records the last channel that was recorded for say 30 secs or so ?

This would be useful for a totally different reason for me. My STB remote doesn't have buttons for on or off. There is just a power button. If it is off the power button will turn it on. If it is on the power button turns it off. Right now, there is no way to programmatically tell which state it is in. I have a command line added as command in NPVR to press the power button, but I have to know whether it is on or off. If there was a program I could run to test, I could put that in my channel change command to make sure it is on. Right now I have a reminder in Outlook that I constantly change to reflect when I have upcoming cable recordings.