TV402U: Only records first few minutes...

[lukekb]

Hi, I have been having trouble getting my ConvertX TV402u to record TV correctly. It works great for LiveTV, and timeshifting, but unable to record programs correctly.

GBPvr seems to be working correctly, according to the logs it is starting and stopping at the correct times. Also the record light on the ConvertX comes on and goes off at the correct times. The problem is that the record file only has the first minute or so of the recordings in it.

Are any other GBpvr users having similar problems?

I have GBpvr ver 0.91.9 installed. I have both WinDVR and WinDVD creator installed. WinDVR seems to recording correctly.

From the GBpvr logs there are some suspecious stuff ( I'll attach the full logs):

14:30:00.312 VERBOSE FindFilterByName failed to locate filter: Plextor ConvertX TV402U Tuner
14:30:00.328 VERBOSE FindFilterByName failed to locate filter: Plextor ConvertX TV402U Audio

According to graphedit, my filters are called:
Plextor ConvertX TV402U TV Tuner
Plextor ConvertX TV402U TV Audio

I also get this error, not sure if it related to these filters failing:
14:30:00.906 ERROR ConnectFilters:Failed(2)

This is the graph that GBpvr ends up building:
14:30:00.984 VERBOSE Graph contains the following filters:
14:30:00.984 VERBOSE - File Writer
14:30:00.984 VERBOSE - AVI Mux
14:30:00.984 VERBOSE - MPEG Layer-3
14:30:00.984 VERBOSE - Plextor ConvertX TV402U A/V Capture
14:30:00.984 VERBOSE - Plextor ConvertX TV402U CrossBar
14:30:00.984 VERBOSE - Plextor ConvertX TV402U TV Audio
14:30:00.984 VERBOSE - TV Tuner

So it looks like it finds the Plextor ConvertX TV402U TV Audio filter... but not the Plextor TV Tuner filter.

Also it doesn't use the GBpvr File Writer filter, it uses the generic one instead.

If anyone has solved this problem before, let me know. Also if any TV402u users have it working perfectly, could you look in your logs and see if anything looks different. Thanks!

[sub]

According to you log, it looks like it should have completed. Can you do long recordings with WinDVR?

What happens to the light on the front of the TV402U?

From the GBpvr logs there are some suspecious stuff ( I'll attach the full logs):

14:30:00.312 VERBOSE FindFilterByName failed to locate filter: Plextor ConvertX TV402U Tuner
14:30:00.328 VERBOSE FindFilterByName failed to locate filter: Plextor ConvertX TV402U Audio

According to graphedit, my filters are called:
Plextor ConvertX TV402U TV Tuner
Plextor ConvertX TV402U TV Audio

Sorry, I've decided that is a red herring. If it doesnt find the first set of names, it'll look for the ones that match yours.

[lukekb]

WinDVR has no problems with doing long recordings, also the new version of MediaPortal handles it fine too... unfortunatly those programs just aren't as nice to use as GBpvr. GBpvr is averaging only the first three or four mintues of half hour shows. The length of the recording doesn't seem to matter.

The record light on the ConvertX stays lite for the correct amount of time, so I think the problem might be somewhere in the graph. Maybe because it is using the generic File Writer filter instead of the GBpvr one?

Also, sometimes GBtray or Reocording Service will crash and continue to say it is recording even after the logs say it has crashed. The record light will stay on the ConvertX too when this happens.

Any pointers or things I can try out? I also have a AIW 9600pro installed, but I tired removing the card, drivers and filters and it didn't help at all...

[sub]

I'll run some test with device tomorrow morning to see if I can see any problems.

Do you also have problems if you schedule a recording using the 'Custom1' setting? This uses MPEG2 instead of AVI.

[lukekb]

Thanks for looking into this Sub. It might be something with my system. I did a few more WinDVR recordings last night and had something similar happen for one of the recordings. It only recorded the first 45 minutes of a 2 hour program, and then WinDVR hung at the end of the recording. Still it is little different, if you get a chance to test some things on your TV402u that would be great. I am also going to contact Plextor.

[lukekb]

I updated WinDVR to the latest version and that seems to have fixed its problems. GBpvr is still only doing partial records though...

I watching one the partial records in the Task Manager and there is definately a memory leak in GBPVRRecordingServices. It looks like it is losing roughly 8kb each time the display gets updated. Also right before it crashes it looks like it is decreasing it's memory usage slightly, it will go down by about 700kb.

The Custom1 record setting seemed to work fine. Also the previous version of GBpvr also seemed to work... but I do remember it having similar problems occasionanly, however it would never consistantly like it does now. GBPVRRecordingServices usaully crash when it reaches around 61,236kb of memory, but sometimes it will go a lot higher.

Any ideas of other things to try?

[sub]

No, sorry I dont know.

[lukekb]

This is going to seem weird, but I went to back to GBPVR v.91.05 because it remember it worked a lot better... And the weird things is that it seems to be doing a good job. I had about 7 recordings today work. With v.91.11 I didn't have any recordings last more than 5 or 10 minutes.

I did a fresh install of .91.05... but I had done that before with .91.11 twice and I used the same settings for both version. .91.05 doesn't seem to have a memory leak in GBPVRRecordingServices. Also it seems to have slightly lower cpu usage... I know this seems crazy since not much changed, but there does seem to be a big difference.

Thanks for the program
-Luke