Failed to lock a signal

[roy]

Attached logs show these recordings, and results:

22:30 - 22:40 - good recording, 833MB, 9:58 long

22:35 - 22:50 - .ts file is 82MB, timeline shows 14:58, but only has video from 10:58 to 11:43

22:45 - 22:55 - .ts file is 77MB, timeline shows 9:59, but only has video from :58 to 1:08

22:50 - 23:00 - .ts file is 13MB, video plays for an instant only

[ttfitz]

Did you ever resolve this, because I am having the same problem. I thought I might have gotten somewhere when I switched the priority of the two tuners back to tuner0 being first (I had switched them up for some reason) and dual back-to-back tests ran fine, but I did another test with manual recordings and had the same problem you reported - the first two recordings worked fine, but one of the second two had a 0 byte file.

[roy]

Maybe, but I have not confirmed it, so I hadn't posted here yet. And it's kind of a long story.

While doing the testing I reported above, I noticed that my cablecard was no longer "activated". While I could still tune most channels, some channels were a problem, and I noticed that these channels had CGMS protection, but CCI protection was "none" (see the pictures above). I had already been in contact with a local Comcast about some other channels that had CCI protection and they promptly removed it, but they told me these channels were correct. I googled it some, and it seems that the CGMS protection is low level DRM that comes in the stream with the channel. The Comcast CCI level "Copy-freely" should override that CGMS protection. Since my card was not activated it was not getting the proper CCI input, so the CGMS protection was causing a problem.

I was then in contact with a very helpful national tech at Comcast (who had helped me with the initial activation), and finally yesterday my card was activated again. So now all channels show CCI "copy-freely" and CGMS as "n/a" and I was able to view all channels properly. Tonight I hope to do some test recordings to see if this has resolved my original issue.

This cablecard DRM stuff is a real pita.

[ttfitz]

This cablecard DRM stuff is a real pita.

Tell me about it. I had read online that if you had channels that were protected that shouldn't, you could contact Comcast to get them set to "copy freely", since that was company policy. So I went through and found about half a dozen channels that were "copy once", including half of the Encore channels - half were "copy freely", including the main Encore HD channel. So I contacted them with the list of channels, and after about a week, all the non-Encore channels were set to "copy freely", while ALL the Encore channels were now "copy once."

If I had only known they might do this, I wouldn't have pointed out the ones that were "copy once".

[roy]

Well, it's not resolved. Did some back to back recordings and all after the first on each tuner failed. Logs attached.

Sub, are you still looking into this? Would you like specific scenario logs again?

Thanks

[sub]

I havn't looked at it since I last posted, but I'll hopefully find a chance to look into those logs again in the next couple of days.

[roy]

Great, thanks. I'll post again if I can get get clear simple logs of the problem.

[ttfitz]

I havn't looked at it since I last posted, but I'll hopefully find a chance to look into those logs again in the next couple of days.

In case it might help, I'm attaching one of my logs for a test that had the problem. The second "Paid Programming" was a 0 byte file.

[roy]

This log shows 4 back to back recordings. The third (Aqua Teen Hunger Force) was 0 bytes. The other 3 were good.

[sub]

Sorry, but can you reproduce it with this patch, then post the nrecord.log again? I've added a couple of lines of logging.