Recording service increases shutdown time

[chrisu]

Hi Sub!

First of all thanx for GB-PVR! You did an amazing job and I like GB-PVR best of all the HTPC
software I've ever seen ...

Now to my problem:

After having installed GB-PVR the time to shut down the PC increased by about 15 to 20 seconds.
I found out, that this is due to the GBPVRRecordingService.exe. If I manually stop the service
before shutdown, everything is fine again. Maybe the service does not respond to the shutdown
event it gets from the system before shutdown?

I had this problem with a service I wrote, too. If the system is shut down you get a shut down
event but no stop event, so I just executed the same peace of code in both cases ...

I'm using the GBPVRRecordingService.exe from the v0.99.12 survival guide.

kind regards,
chrisu

PS: At the moment I'm setting

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WaitToKillServiceTimeout

from the default of 20000 milliseconds to a smaller value like 3000.

[sub]

Sorry, I dont know.

I just tried it here on a couple of machines, and it made no noticeable difference to the shut down time on these installs.

[chrisu]

Hi sub!

Well 15 - 20 seconds aren't that much, I admit. If your system takes
about that time to shut down, then you won't even notice the difference, I assume. But my PC takes only a few seconds to power down without the GBPVRservice running, and therefore I notice the difference.

As I already mentioned I am quite sure, that the service does not respond to the shutdown event. Maybe you'll find time to have a look at?

Is there anybody else out there that notices the difference in shutdown time?

kind regards,
chrisu

[sub]

It does already respond to the shut down occuring.

Well 15 - 20 seconds aren't that much, I admit. If your system takes

I'm not saying 15 - 20 seconds isnt much, but rather that timing my shut down didnt make any real difference whether the recording service was running or not (1 - 2 seconds, margin of error type of stuff).

It may vary depending on what you're configured to do though, web server, mvp server, client/server etc. Each of these may add a bit of time to the shutdown.

[chrisu]

Hi sub,

thanx for your fast responses!

I've just a "regular" installation with no web server, no mvp server etc. running. If I stop the service manually with

net stop "GB-PVR Recording Service"

it only takes about 3 seconds until the service has stopped. Therefore I thought there might be a difference between stopping/shut down.

It does already respond to the shut down occuring.

Well, so I bet on the wrong horse

Do you have any other ideas why there is such a big difference on my system between stopping manually / let the system stop the service during shut down?

Here are some measurements for different values of WaitToKillServiceTimeout in milliseconds with GBPVRService running before shutdown:

Code:

2000  | 20000  | 40000 | Message on screen during shutdown
-----------------------------------------------------------
       |        |       | Logging off ...
    6  |     6  |     6 | Saving settings ...
    9  |    10  |     9 | Shutting down Windows ...
   14  |    32  |    41 | PC powered down

This table should be read like "6 seconds after pressing shutdown the 'Saving settings ...' message appears on the screen", and "after 14 seconds the PC is shutdown completely" for WaitToKillServiceTimeout=2000.

Here the same measurements, but GBPVRService stopped manually before shutdown (takes only 3 seconds, see above):

Code:

2000  | 20000  | 40000 | Message on screen during shutdown
------------------------------------------------------------
       |        |       | Logging off ...
    6  |     7  |     8 | Saving settings ...
    9  |     9  |    10 | Shutting down Windows ...
   14  |    14  |    15 | PC powered down

This means, for the default value of WaitToKillServiceTimeout=20000 (20 seconds) it takes about 18 seconds longer until the PC is completely shut down which increases to even 26 additional seconds for WaitToKillServiceTimeout=40000.

One more thing:
If I manually stop the recording service I always get an entry in the system eventlog, but I never get an entry when I shutdown the PC.

kind regards,
chrisu

[sub]

Sorry, I dont really know.

[prouton]

I'm curious as to what the practical effect the additional 15-20 seconds has on your situation. Is the computer a laptop that you're trying to pick and stow away?

Reducing start up time I can certainly appreciate, as that affects how quickly one can start viewing something or setting up a recording.

[4zm4r3d02]

I also experience an increase in my shutdown time if GB-PVR recording service is running, comparable to that of the original poster. However, since my pc is usually on 24/7, I never bothered to mention it here.

[stustunz]

i second that 4zm4r3d02 only time its an issue is resrting otherwise it doesnt get shut down
or even longer if your recording something lol

[chrisu]

I'm not using the PC as a dedicated HTPC, therefore it is not on 24/7 and I frequently reboot it ...

I just thought there might be an easy solution (shutdown event). This does not seem to be the case and there is a registry fix (WaitToKillServiceTimeout) for those who bother. So maybe it's not worth haunting the beast ...

Maybe the recording service wants to perform some action during exit that cannot be finished when the PC is shutting down (e.g. not explicit dependency on another service like writing to the eventlog?) Such kind of bugs are hard to find and might need some debug logs ...