Zero Length Recordings

[Anthony]

> Have you checked out antennaweb.org?

Yes. All of the stations in my area are 20-22 miles away within a couple of degrees of each other. I've confirmed the aiming with a compass as well using a remote desktop and my laptop to watch the signal level as I fine tune it. Right now I'm getting about 24-26 SNR on most stations, though a couple hover around the 20 mark (occasionally dropping to 18 or 19).

> that tuner is "broken"

I don't think that applies in my case, as I can usually record with both tuners without any problems. Unless the hardware is failing intermittently, it's more likely a signal or software issue.

Anthony

[observer_11]

Sub you were correct, it was the PVR500 (tuner#1 actually). I had recently changed PCI slots and (I think) the PVR500 didn't like the new PCI slot. Once I returned it to the original PCI slot it began working like a champ again. Of course it didn't help anything that there were no error messages in Device manager, using devicetypedetect, driver installation, etc.:confused:

So to summarize - my 0 length recordings were related to the tuner failing at the hardware level. In this case changing PCI slots caused and corrected the problem.

Thanks so much again Sub for the quality/quick support. WAF is returned to normal levels...

PS: I had a few bucks (USD) left over in my paypal account so I couldn't think of a better use then to donate your way.

[Anthony]

Sub,

I had another recording end up as zero bytes this afternoon. This time I know I had a really strong signal as I've spent the day going through my antenna setup and have had really good reception.

I was trying to record "Ask This Old House" from 1800 to 1830. I have attached my logs.

I have noticed the problem seems to be occuring on 10.2 most often (perhaps all the time, but I haven't been paying attention that long).

See anything that looks like a possible cause in the logs?

Thanks!

Anthony

[sub]

Unfortunately no. Everything looks ok, it has valid signal, and no sign of anything resulting in an error. It might be worth briefly going back to the DVR-MS mux to see if the problem recurs.

[Anthony]

Sub,

OK, since my zero length recordings all "appear" to be on 10.2, I thought I would go back in the config app and just make sure everything was setup correctly. I rescanned and remapped all digital stations. But, I have a few questions...

1. Why does 10.2 show up as both KOPB-SD (000) and KOPB-SD (000[AC3])? I had the non-AC3 item selected before, but selected the AC3 item this time since all but one of my other stations have the AC3 identifier. In WinTV, I only get a single KOPB-SD channel, but several of the stations in GBPVR have both the AC3 and non-AC3 versions?

2. I was going to try performing a "manual" recording of 10.2 to see if it would record correctly. However, 10.2 is not showing up as I cycle through the channels in the manual record setup. It DOES show up if I cycle through channels in Live TV. 10.2 is enabled on both digital tuners (not on either analog), and it is checked on the "channels" tab in the config app. It seems like one or two other channels are missing in the manual record channel listing too, but I didn't take the time to determine which are missing (they don't seem to be in any apparent order).

3. What is the function of the BDAUsePSIParser option? I know I changed it to false at some point to try and fix signal problems, but have to change it back to true to scan for digital channels. What does this option do?

Ideas?

Thanks,

Anthony

[sub]

1. Why does 10.2 show up as both KOPB-SD (000) and KOPB-SD (000[AC3])? I had the non-AC3 item selected before, but selected the AC3 item this time since all but one of my other stations have the AC3 identifier. In WinTV, I only get a single KOPB-SD channel, but several of the stations in GBPVR have both the AC3 and non-AC3 versions?

This is because there were multiple audio streams available. Broadcasters sometimes transmit more info giving you something KOPB-SD (esp) and KOPB-SD (eng), letting you know one is spanish, the other english.

In your case they've transmitted '000' as the language, and it looks like one is MPEG1 Layer2 audio, and the other is AC3 audio. You can choose to map to whichever one you want.

2. I was going to try performing a "manual" recording of 10.2 to see if it would record correctly. However, 10.2 is not showing up as I cycle through the channels in the manual record setup. It DOES show up if I cycle through channels in Live TV. 10.2 is enabled on both digital tuners (not on either analog), and it is checked on the "channels" tab in the config app. It seems like one or two other channels are missing in the manual record channel listing too, but I didn't take the time to determine which are missing (they don't seem to be in any apparent order).

I cnat think of any reason it wouldnt show up. Are you sure its not just in a part of the list you werent expecting.

3. What is the function of the BDAUsePSIParser option? I know I changed it to false at some point to try and fix signal problems, but have to change it back to true to scan for digital channels. What does this option do?

Its used to give GB-PVR all sorts of information about the broadcast stream. I'd leave it set to 'true' unless for it is crashing the application with it.

I'd try the DVR-MS mux.

[Anthony]

I cycled through the channel list several times on the manual recording screen, thinking I may have missed it. But 10.2 never shows up.

In fact, I just made a list of all my channels and then cycled through the channels on the manual recording screen, checking them off as I found them. Turns out every channel EXCEPT 10.2 is there.

So I wonder what's up with 10.2? It shows up last in my EPG if that makes any difference.

Thanks, as always!

Anthony

[sub]

zip and email me your database and I'll look. I'll PM you my email address.