Cleanly restarting recording service

[ttfitz]

Looks like I was right, nobody responded in the other thread. So let me try again in a thread all its own...

Is there any way to cleanly restart the NPVR system? I have tried going into Services and stopping then restarting NRecord, I have tried using the links in the NPVR folder to Stop NPVR Service, then Start NPVR Service, and I have tried using "Restart Recording Service" from the context menu on the tray application. In almost every instance (the "Restart Recording Service" worked the first time, but never again), after restarting the tray application is messed up - won't accept a right click. I've even tried exiting tray application first, then stopping and restarting, but no luck.

So, best case if I could get things to work cleanly from a scheduled task, that would be great. But even if I had to do it manually, as long as it didn't mess stuff up that would help.

Thanks.

[sub]

Any of those methods should be fine for restarting the application, and all work well here. They all do pretty much the same thing.

If the right click isn't working on the tray app, this is usually a sign the recording service isn't running. If it is running, but you've having this issue, maybe look into what firewall software you're running. It might blocking the communication.

[ttfitz]

Just to be clear - I can right-click the tray app just fine all the time, but if I stop the recording service through any of the methods I've listed, and restart it - and it does appear to be running at this point - the right-click no longer works on the tray app. If it was a firewall issue, wouldn't it show up before I did the shutdown/restart on the service?

I can try turning off the firewall to check later after tonight's recordings are done and I won't have to mess anything up, but I figured I would ask about this now.

Thanks.

[sub]

Just to be clear - I can right-click the tray app just fine all the time, but if I stop the recording service through any of the methods I've listed, and restart it - and it does appear to be running at this point - the right-click no longer works on the tray app. If it was a firewall issue, wouldn't it show up before I did the shutdown/restart on the service?

You'd certainly think so. The behaviour your describe is what happens when it can't communicate with the recording service though (which would typically mean it's either not running, or something is blocking communication). I just checked, and it's working correctly here.

[ttfitz]

Okay, so I tested it out. I'm running the Windows Firewall, I turned it off. I right-clicked the tray app, selected Restart Recording Process, and waited a bit. Brought up the Services console, and verified that Nrecord was indeed running. Right-clicked the tray app, nothing.

So then I brought up Task Manager, and ended the ntray.exe process. Brought up Services again, stopped the service, then started the service. Went to the NPVR directory and started up ntray.exe again. Right-click, still nothing.

I should add that after doing this, I started up NextPVR and tried to start recording a program that was currently showing, and nothing started recording, although it shows up as "pending". Just in case it might help, I'm attaching the logs from this period.

So, any ideas?

[ttfitz]

Quick update - I stopped the service in order to zip the log files. When I restarted the service, the pending recording started. I then tried to record another program on the other tuner, and it didn't start recording, but shows up as "pending".