LiveTV Freezes Are Back on Clients

[ga_mueller]

Here are the server logs. Also, when freezing during live tv the client usually throws (but not always) an unhandled exception, "attempt to divide by zero". There is some additional logging for this, but I'm not sure how to capture it. The error message is "Unable to find available capture device".

Edit: Once the client locks up, the server tuner (2650 for live TV) that was in use, is no longer available. Only a server reboot will bring the tuner back online.

[ga_mueller]

Some more info regarding my client freezes:

- client freeze only happens when dcr-2650 is used for live tuner
- when hvr-950 is used for live, client does not freeze (but channel changes are very slow).

[trummel]

Did anyone ever find a definative solution to this? Are there any complications in downgrading the server to 2.5.5? It may be just a coincidence, but I seem to get it freezing mainly as the program I'm watching is coming to the end. Or maybe that's just the time it pee's me off most!

[smajor]

No, not solved here. I think when more folks started reporting it, that was right about the time sub left town, I assume for his day job. Maybe it'll get some attention when he has some free time again.

When I downgraded, I basically exported all my recordings from 2.5.9 and set everything up from scratch, then re-imported my recordings.

[ga_mueller]

smajor

So are there any downsides to running 2.5.5 server? Is live TV on clients still working OK with 2.5.5?

Thanks

[smajor]

2.5.5's LiveTV clients are stable as heck. We've watched literally 100's of hours of Live TV on 4 clients since I downgraded without any issues. In fact, you can even upgrade your clients to 2.5.9, they work well too. The freezes seem to be only with the server side.

Downsides:

- if you want to mess around with LiveTV and XBMC, somethings you'll need to do to get it to work are in the X-NEWA thread. I never tried sub's XBMC client add-on with it.
-obviously you won't get the fixes 2.5.9 does offer. A couple were a trade-off for me.

[ga_mueller]

Awesome.

I'll leave my client at 2.5.9, and downgrade my server only.

Thanks a lot for you response.

[Zogg]

I'll just chime in here and report the same problem with multiple clients. My server is running 2.5.9 and all patched up. Watching live TV from my HDHR Prime and after a while the stream just stops, usually within a few minutes.

[smacrae]

Me too, all patched up on server and clients running 2.5.9, doesn't happen all the time. I personally think it's the client boxes having the issue because when it freezes I click on the skip forward button on my remote and it then unfreezes and continues to play LivevTV...the thing is you have to press the skip forward button fairly shortly after it freezes otherwise even this trick doesn't work....

[trummel]

It happens to me on all of my clients at least once every hour or so if watching live tv from the EPG. It always is at the point of switching from 1 buffer file to the next, but it doesn't do it at every switchover. When the video freezes, I can get back to the menu as long as I only hit the back key on my remote. Anything else and the client crashes and I have to restart NPVR. In most cases, the server remains happy, but I have occasionally seen a tuner getting locked up and then needing a server restart as well.

If I quick record and then play the recording, it works flawlessly, so thats what I do most of the time. It's been like this so long now that the boss has completely given up on it though and just watches ordinary freeview now:-(

Still at least the earache has stopped.