Partial Recording

[z06racer66]

My last recording of Fringe on 4/29/2011 seems to be magically missing part of the recording. According to the log, it started fine and ended fine. Looking at the .ts file, it was create at 7:58PM and ended at 9:02PM (60 minutes plus padding). However, the actual length is 32 minutes (which the timeline shows correctly as 32 minutes). When watching, I don't think I noticed anything really unusual. There was a slight audio glitch towards the beginning between two commercials but that was about it. Can anyone shed some light on this?:confused:

Attached is the log when this was recorded. It starts at 2011-04-29 19:58.

[Reddwarf]

My last recording of Fringe on 4/29/2011 seems to be magically missing part of the recording. According to the log, it started fine and ended fine. Looking at the .ts file, it was create at 7:58PM and ended at 9:02PM (60 minutes plus padding). However, the actual length is 32 minutes (which the timeline shows correctly as 32 minutes). When watching, I don't think I noticed anything really unusual. There was a slight audio glitch towards the beginning between two commercials but that was about it. Can anyone shed some light on this?:confused:

Attached is the log when this was recorded. It starts at 2011-04-29 19:58.

Well it IS about fringe science

[johnsonx42]

It looks like you get a very borderline signal on that channel. Both times you tuned that channel in that log, you failed to get a good signal lock, and both the strength and quality ratings of the signal was very poor (lower is better for strength, higher is better for quality on that tuner).

You might try disconnecting and re-connecting all your cable connections, remove any unneeded splitters, replace any poor-quality cable, etc. and see if you get a more reliable signal. You might also try adjusting your antenna a little bit.

[sub]

My last recording of Fringe on 4/29/2011 seems to be magically missing part of the recording. According to the log, it started fine and ended fine. Looking at the .ts file, it was create at 7:58PM and ended at 9:02PM (60 minutes plus padding). However, the actual length is 32 minutes (which the timeline shows correctly as 32 minutes). When watching, I don't think I noticed anything really unusual. There was a slight audio glitch towards the beginning between two commercials but that was about it. Can anyone shed some light on this?:confused:

Was it actually missing anything, or just a case of incorrectly reported duration?

[ElihuRozen]

Well it IS about fringe science

Wasn't that the episode where about half of it took place in the parallel universe? Maybe you have to cross over to the other universe to watch the rest.

[z06racer66]

It's normally a 60 minute show (that episode should have also been 60 minutes). Maybe it's just a coincidence that the signal dropped during the end of one commercial and then 30 minutes later the signal got strong enough and it was on another commercial. On that particular channel, I've rarely noticed any pixelation due to a weak signal, but maybe it could be that the signal dropped for a bit. I'll take johnsonx42 advice and try tweaking the antenna a bit. Thanks.

[z06racer66]

Wasn't that the episode where about half of it took place in the parallel universe? Maybe you have to cross over to the other universe to watch the rest.

That's funny. When I first wrote this problem, I was thinking the same thing.

[z06racer66]

Just to recap, it appears to be my hauppauge hvr-2250. I first was testing the signal with hauppauge's Signal Monitor. For this particular channel the "VSB Sync" would flash red/green for up to 5 minutes and then all of a sudden all of the signals would lock and I would get a SNR of 30 (green). However, using WinTV 7, I would still not get a picture. So, after doing some testing with one of my TV's that displays a signal strength, it appears that I could benefit by using an antenna amplifier. So, I bought one from Radio Shack and it was able to boost the signal on some of known weaker stations. However, it still did not help this particular channel and the VSB Sync. Because this is a dual tuner, I then decided to change tuner priorities in npvr (and restarted the recording service). When I went to that channel, it immediately got a VSB Sync and everything worked great. Then just to make sure, I reverted those changes in npvr and went back and once again, I could not get that channel to come in. SO, my conclusion is that my hauppauge hvr-2250 flaked out unless someone else has some other ideas.

[johnsonx42]

This sounds a bit familiar. I have a vague recollection of reading a similar tale of one tuner on a dual-tuner Hauppauge device getting a poor signal, and the user ended up getting Hauppauge to replace their device.

[ACTCMS]

It certainly does happen - I got a replacement after one half of a Hauppauge dual DVB-T card went belly up within the warranty period.