problems with v0.98.8

[frazer]

Hello,

I've been having some issues since upgrading to the new versions. Until today they've just been an assortment of sometimes one off problems, such as one totally choppy recording, and one time when resolving a recording conflict didn't work properly; and then a few occasionally recurring problems, such as a failure to connect with the recording service, or a failure to tune to a DVB satellite channel, or the odd skips when timeshifting or playing back a recording; and then some minor but constant problems, such as a long "not responding" time when closing the configuration panel, or the fact that the epg doesn't seem to update without doing a complete empty first.

Apart from this last issue, everything seems to work, but just not very reliably, and I notice that often the computer seems to be doing something (more than usual) from the sound it's making, but I can't find anything in the task manager that it might be, apart from the fact that the GBPVR recording service and .exe seem to be using a lot of memory. I wondered if this new version uses more memory than the previous 96.12 I was on, and hence I need to add to my paltry 256mb I have installed at the moment.

Anyway, tonight things got a bit uglier, and the whole computer froze a couple of times (with the CPU- p4 2.4ghz- usage locked on 100%), so I've attached the logs from the second occasion in case there is something telling in there, if you have a moment to take a look sub.

Thanks for any help,

Frazer

p.s. I really like this new version, thank you, particularly the ability to record for a selectable time when already watching a channel- very useful if there's no epg data or a programme is overrunning- so I'd be sad to have to switch back to 96.12!

[frazer]

Hello again,

Had another complete hang tonight, and noticed the "the database file is locked" "database is locked" messages again, which I have had a few times now as an unexpected error when GBPVR is trying to add or delete a file. Could the root of all my problems be the sqlite database then; when I did the original conversion from the mdb file, it didn't manage to copy all of my channel sources or any of my custom tasks.

Is there a way of checking if this is the problem, or starting again with a fresh sqlite database without losing everything I've done since the conversion? Or is the lack of memory a more likely cause?

Thanks for any advice,

Frazer

[sub]

Could the root of all my problems be the sqlite database then;

Yes, quite possibly. Things are basically 'clagged up' after this occurs.

There have been a few users getting this over the last couple of releases since the SQLite was introduced as an option. I'm not sure what exactly is different between between these users and everyone else. I havnt yet managed to spot the cause in the logs, but I have been having a good look each time I see logs indicating this problem has occurred.

[frazer]

OK, thanks for looking. Is there a way of "unclagging" then, perhaps by emptying the database and starting again; would I have to go back to the original .mdb database to do this though? (which I have saved, but which had become a bit stuffed up with deleted channels anyway, so I wasn't too sad to have lost most of them when I converted). Or should I just revert to the .mdb database full stop? (which would be a bit of a shame as one of the plugins I use relies on sqlite).

Thanks again,

Frazer

[sub]

Is there a way of "unclagging" then

There is nothing wrong with your database. You only need to reboot, or restart the GB-PVR software. The trick is not repeating whatever set of steps caused the problem in the first place.

The error is just saying something locked the database to make some modification, then forgot to unlock it. I'd love to know exactly what that 'something' is.

[frazer]

OK, I'll try and identify if any particular actions on my part are making it happen, though, from memory, it just seems to be an issue which arises occasionally but not always when I change a channel (I use the timeshift mode). I'll see what happens if I always exit to the TV Guide to change channel for a while.

Thanks,

Frazer

[djphatjive]

Hello,

Anyway, tonight things got a bit uglier, and the whole computer froze a couple of times (with the CPU- p4 2.4ghz- usage locked on 100%), so I've

This has happened to my twice. Nothing but gbpvr was running on the client and it was running at 100 percent. It was not untill I started killing programs that is came back to 1 percent.

[frazer]

Hi again,

The database locking is not as predictable as I hoped; it survived changing channels, but came up in a completely different context when watching a recording; I've included the log (GBPVR.exe) in case it is any help.

I've also included two other logs from more problems I've had tonight; the first (gbpvr.exe-1) seems to involve a "server stack trace" error, and this coincided with another complete lock up of the computer. I don't have the server facility enabled.

The second (gbpvr.exe-2) involves a failure to update my epg file, which seems to relate to errors loading icons; I did have the TVListings plugin and its icons directory enabled before, but I have still had these errors repeated every time since I have disabled both the the icons facility, and then the plugin itself. Further, at the bottom of the log you can see that GBPVR is then failing to connect to the recording service for some reason (this has happened repeatedly as well).

Thanks again for any advice,

Frazer

[frazer]

Well, I discovered that the icons error was nothing to do with the epg file that wouldn't load- that was due only to a missing character in the xml file (I should have gone through the log with a finer comb as it was hidden away in there!). So that problem is an irrelevance.

But had another major hang tonight with a completely different error message from any of the others I had before- which unfortunately I missed saving before it was replaced with more recent ones. I have though found from the event viewer that the recording service connection failures always have the same error in Windows;

"System.Net.Sockets. SocketException: Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted"

followed by a lot of "at..." (I can't find any wau of copying these messages from the Event Viewer). Is this perhaps significant?

Also, on the memory question, is it normal for the Recording Service to take up 115,000K of memory, even when nothing is being watched or recorded? This has coincided with the whole computer grinding to a halt, and between them I have seen the GBPVR.exe and the recording service use over 150,000k before. Is this unusually high, or do I just need more memory to cope with it?

Thanks again,

Frazer

[gabeweisz]

I was having a lot of problems with locking making the UI freeze up while viewing videos - there would be a delay in pausing, skipping forward and back, browsing the TV guide, almost everything. It's interesting that the video would continue to play while the freezes happened (log attached but trimmed to meet the forum limit).

One thing I noticed is that I'd had GBPVR set to transcode from 2 AM - noon, and the problems were only happening within this time period. I just tried changing the transcoding period to not include right now and the problems seem to have gone away (I had previously tried just restarting the computer and just restarting the recording service to no avail).

It seems that my issue at least was due to trying to use the front end during the period where transcoding was active (even though there was nothing actually being transcoded). Hope this can help diagnosing the issue.