Live TV problems Kodi 16 RC3 and above.

[browned]

Anyone else having issues with live tv and Kodi RC3 and above with NPVR?

I am getting this in the Kodi log.

14:28:38 T:18860 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(audio)::Get - asked for new data packet, with nothing available
14:28:39 T:20808 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(video)::Get - asked for new data packet, with nothing available

It seems completely random, last night watching James Bond on TV3 (NZ) it died after about 5 mins. This morning it played all the way through to at least 2:28.

I have attached the NPVR Log dir.

I have this same fault on 2 x Nvidia Shield TV and 1 x Windows 10 PC. Running Kodi 16 RC3 or above.

[mvallevand]

Doesn't look like a Kodi or NextPVR problem, your tuner stopped providing data

Code:

2016-02-22 14:28:12.400    [DEBUG][18]    Got request: Range: bytes=20984528896-20984561664-640397    
2016-02-22 14:28:12.400    [DEBUG][18]    Not all bytes read@1 (only got: + 26216). About to do second chance. (file: D:\LiveTVBuffer\live-TV3-16008-1-8.ts)
2016-02-22 14:28:12.400    [DEBUG][18]    Waiting for file to grow. Segment position now 424019336, length now 424019336
2016-02-22 14:28:56.244    [DEBUG][18]    Doing second chance read... (requested 32768 bytes, but only got 26216)
2016-02-22 14:28:56.244    [DEBUG][18]    Segment position now 424019336, length now 424354728
2016-02-22 14:28:56.244    [DEBUG][18]    Remaining bytes required=6552
2016-02-22 14:28:56.504    [DEBUG][18]    Got bytes=6552

Perhaps after 5 hours of live tv some driver or heat issue arrived.

Martin

[browned]

Good to know, I will investigate them. Perhaps after 3 years of running they are getting old and tired.

[browned]

I have been trying to figure this out and still have no real isea where the problem actually is.

My previous setup was
- Kodi with NextPVR client on 2 x Shield TV's, 1 x PC
- Virtual Windows 2012 R2 server with Next PVR Server from 2 x HDHomeruns
- All Kodi 3 clients stop with CDVDMessageQueue(audio)::Get and CDVDMessageQueue(video)::Get errors in the logs.

I moved to
- Kodi with NextPVR client on 2 x Shield TV's, 1 x PC
- Virtual Windows 7 Professional with Next PVR Server from 2 x HDHomeruns
- All Kodi 3 clients stop but on the Windows one with CDVDMessageQueue(audio)::Get and CDVDMessageQueue(video)::Get errors in the logs. The 2 Shield units Kodi Crashed. Perhaps due to my advancedsettings modification to add a buffer to all video streams and the buffer running out.
- New switch for the HDHomerun devices.

I moved to
- Kodi with NextPVR client on 2 x Shield TV's, 1 x PC
- Phycial Windows 7 Professional with Next PVR Server from 1 x Avermedia A188 Dual Tuner
- All Kodi 3 clients stop but on the Windows one with CDVDMessageQueue(audio)::Get and CDVDMessageQueue(video)::Get errors in the logs. The 2 Shield units Kodi Crashed. Perhaps due to my advancedsettings modification to add a buffer to all video streams and the buffer running out.
- New switch for the HDHomerun devices.

While testing all this I have used HDHomerun Config UI tool to stream data from an HDHomerun tuner that has failed in the past and it is still streaming now with no issues. So I believe the tuners are ok. The fact I get the same issue using a new NextPVR setup with different tuners suggests there is something else wrong. If we can prove that NextPVR is all ok then I can move onto Kodi as the cause of the problem. However, I have not noticed any great number of people posting issues with similar setups having issues. Maybe they don't watch the live tv anymore. But with millions of Kodi users I would expect to see or hear something.

My TV recordings for the kids have also been cut short in some cases, now this points to tuners or NextPVR being the cause as a freezing or crashing Kodi client should not affect the NextPVR server from recording right?

I am going to downgrade my Kodi 16 PC to Kodi 16 RC2 again and test it all day today on NZ TV3 as this seems to cause the most issues. In the mean time I have attached new logs from the new physical NextPVR server with avermedia tuners.

Thanks for your help so far.

[mvallevand]

One thinkg I saw is your are streaming two live tv channels when you did an EPG update. Any type of recording during an EPG update is not good.

2016-02-26 03:00:05.885 [DEBUG][20] Renew lease ok (0x140001)
2016-02-26 03:00:08.915 [DEBUG][20] Renew lease ok (0x140005)
2016-02-26 03:00:09.195 [DEBUG][10] About to update EPG
2016-02-26 03:00:09.205 [DEBUG][10] Updating EPG...
...
2016-02-26 03:00:12.395 [DEBUG][10] Scanning Freq:594000 SID:100000
60 seconds remaining...
2016-02-26 03:00:13.425 [DEBUG][10] Scanning Freq:594000 SID:100000
59 seconds remaining...
2016-02-26 03:00:13.915 [DEBUG][8] Renew lease failed (0x140005)
2016-02-26 03:00:13.915 [DEBUG][8] liveHandleRenewalTime contains 2 handles:
2016-02-26 03:00:13.915 [DEBUG][8] - 0x140001
2016-02-26 03:00:13.915 [DEBUG][8] - 0x140005

No idea what state that leaves the drivers in.

Martin

[browned]

Yes while testing each night the EPG is probably updating.

But the problem is random and seems to happen often, last night between 6pm and 9pm it stopped 2 twice. No epg updates at that time I believe.

[mrdally204]

Running NextPVR on virtual 8.1, Kodi on Fire TVs (Android), HDHOMERUN Extend and Connect units and I have not experienced any of these issues. Check the HDHomerun software and make sure you are using the latest Firmware for the unit(s) in question. If the recordings stopped that should eliminate Kodi as a suspect. Only issue I had with my homeruns was when the Extend Transcoding fan got stuck and the unit overheated. Other than that it has been smooth sailing.

[browned]

Yeah I have been using them for at least 6 months with NextPVR with no issues. Before that I used these same units with Windows Media Center for 2 years.

These are the HDHR3-DT units I think, so not the latest ones available. Don't think there are any fans in these models and they stream fine to the HDHomerun config tool without fault. SO something is wrong with either NextPVR or Kodi, I am thinking the later as it is the only thing that has been changing recently (Jarvis 16 Betas, RC's, and RTM if you would call it that). However, both Kodi and NextPVR seem to suggest HDHomerun's as the first logs suggested it stopped transmitting.

If you ask me this is super strange and currently not easy to diagnose. I am testing Kodi RC2 on the PC now using the Physical NextPVR machine, if they run till tomorrow with no issue, I will then test it with the Virtual Win7 and if that is ok I will test it with the Virtual 2012 R2.

[browned]

Well I think I have sorted some of this after testing cables, switches, tuners, Virtual vs Physical, and OSes.

It seems that a faulty cache module on a raid card was affecting the performance of my virtual server, replacing this has the server up and running. Still not 100% though as I still get random pauses of Live TV. I have been playing with Kodi advanced settings to increase the buffer sizes but never needed an advanced settings file before. In saying that, the Android M upgrade in the last week may have introduced some new issues on the Shield TV's but I haven't seen anything posted on those forums.

So for now it seems to be back to normal with some underlying issues of random pauses that more cache seems to help with.

It would be good to know if anyone using Shield TV has advanced settings and wat they are. I never had to use them before.

[browned]

Turns out that Android TV or at least some people are having random pauses on a lot of Android 6 devices. Hopefully if this is actually a bug Google will resolve it and patch systems.

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=261776

I setup ServerWMC last night before I found the forum post above and have had the same pause issue. In reading the forum it mentions other apps and other forms of media so this morning I tested music and same pause problem.

Out of interest to Shield TV owners they have added a play/pause feature to the volume up button on the Shield TV remote. https://plus.google.com/1009309470129842...LpuFuUh4EN

My server has been running without issue since I replaced the failing raid cache module.