Sound stops in recordings after 5-15 minutes (VideOh! PCI)

[jonassimpson]

I have an Adaptec VideOh! PCI card (AVC-2410) that I have used for years with an old version of gb-pvr (without any problems) in an older Athlon XP 2600+ system running Windows XP Pro. I've replaced that system with a new box and moved the Adaptec card into it but I'm having a problem with sound in recorded shows. It is fine for between 5 and 15 minutes into a recording and then the sound disappears, never to return. If a new recording starts the sound is fine again for a similar period and then is gone. It is not a problem with playback as I've tried playing the MPEG2 recordings on three different Windows systems (XP, Vista, Windows 7) and a Mac running OS 10.5.8. The sound stops at the same point on all of them, so it's the recording rather than the playback that is the problem.

The new system is as follows:

Asus A8N-SLI Premium
Athlon X2 4800+
4 GB DDR400 RAM
4 x 200 GB SATA drives (RAID 5)

It is running Windows Server 2003 Standard 32-bit and is patched up-to-date. I put a clean install of gb-pvr 1.4.7 on it and got the card working by modifying direct.ini with the right filter settings for the card.

I've tried moving the Adaptec card into different PCI slots but the problem remains. I've tried all three versions of the drivers for the card (1.0, 1.1 and 1.21) that I can locate, the latest one dated February 10, 2004. I've tried different recording qualities (high, medium, low) in case that made a difference, but it didn't.

I've attached some logs that cover the last handful of test recordings I've tried.

Any help would be great as I love gb-pvr and would really like to continue using it on the new rig.

Thanks,

JS

[sub]

If you play the recordings in VLC, does the auto also stop?

[jonassimpson]

Yes, even playing them back in VLC the sound disappears at exactly the same point in the recording. It's not the same point in every recording but if I watch a specific recording in VLC or watch it in anything else (Zoom Player, TCMP, Windows Media Player, Media Player Classic) the sound stops at the same time.

[sub]

It sounds like some driver bug in the VidoOh device causes it to stop encoding the audio. I'm not really sure what to suggest that could fix that, other than hoping you can find updated drivers which corrects the issue.

[jonassimpson]

I'm just surprised because it was working in the old system and was rock solid for years. I can put it back in the old PC and see if the problem goes away. I'm guessing that would eliminate the drivers as the cause of the problem. I suppose I could also zip up the entire gb-pvr directory from the old system and move it over, too.

Is there any way to crank up the debugging so that I can try and see what, if anything, is happening around the time the sound cuts out? I can mark from when the recording starts to when the sound cuts out and then check the logs for that exact time.

[sub]

I suppose I could also zip up the entire gb-pvr directory from the old system and move it over, too.

I doubt there is a GB-PVR setting that is causing it.

Is there any way to crank up the debugging so that I can try and see what, if anything, is happening around the time the sound cuts out? I can mark from when the recording starts to when the sound cuts out and then check the logs for that exact time.

Unfortunately, no. GB-PVR hooks up the driver components when it needs to do a recording, and set the file name to write to, then tells it "GO", and the device takes care of the rest. GB-PVR then comes back at the end of the recording and says "STOP". GB-PVR doesnt play and active part in process between those two points, so the logs will pretty much only show the attempt to start the recordings, and the later attempt to stop the recording.

[jonassimpson]

I think you're right that the problem is not with gb-pvr. I installed WinDVR 3 which is the recording utility that Adaptec included with the VideOh! PCI adapter and it experiences the same exact problem. The recording proceeds for a few minutes and then the audio disappears.

So... I'll see if I can track down the problem some other way. I think I'll transplant the boot drive from the old PVR into this new rig, update the drivers, and see if the same thing happens. I really hope it's a software problem and not some obscure incompatibility between the A8N-SLI Premium and the VideOh! card. The tuner is fine for my needs and I don't really want to replace it.

Thanks for your help and I'll report back here so the thread has some conclusion to it.

JS