Available tuner not being used

[cher]

I upgraded my PC and did a clean install of NPVR this weekend. I did a lot of test recordings to make sure I had set everything up correctly and found that some recordings were coming out choppy in both audio and video. Checking the recording status, I noticed that often, 2 concurrent recordings would go to the same tuner (I have 3) instead of each tuner recording 1 show and these "doubled up" recordings were of poor quality. These were all manual recordings, so no pre- or post- padding issues. In reading through other posts on the forum, it seems that if I record 2 shows on the same digital ATSC (OTA) channel (i.e. 13.1 and 13.2) in the same time slot, they will use ONE tuner, even if another one is available. Is this correct? I didn't see a solution posted. If I've understood the previous posts correctly, is there a way to set NPVR so that IF another tuner is available, it will be used instead of doubling up on one tuner?

Logs attached

Thank you!

[martint123]

Recording two shows on the same tuner is not normally a problem. The amount of data pulled off the card is the same.
I have on occasion had 5 or 6 recordings from the same multiplex channel tuner.
The idea is by using multirecord, it leaves other tuners free to record something else on another frequency. If two shows on the same frequency use two tuners you would not be able to record another.

I'll leave it for someone more knowledgeable to have a look through your logs.

[cher]

Thanks for the reply. Perhaps because my tuners are older (Hauppauge 1600 and 1800) I'm getting crappy output. I typically do not record from the secondary channels (13.2, 10.2, etc) so I haven't realized that some of my poor quality recordings may have been due to this doubling up, until I ran multiple test recordings this weekend, and happened to choose linked channels. Maybe I have something set up incorrectly?

[Graham]

In ndigitalhost-24.log, I see

2014-05-27 08:20:02.698 [DEBUG][11] locked=1, present=1, strength=-10000, quality=100 (took 0ms to check)

and

2014-05-27 08:43:44.495 [DEBUG][13] locked=1, present=1, strength=-1000, quality=82 (took 31ms to check)

The variation in values for "quality=..." suggests a signal reception problem. I see similar variation in others of your ndigitalhost log files. Are all cables and connections as good as they can be?

[johnsonx42]

the "doubling-up" will definitely not cause your problems. all tuners always read the entire transport stream of whatever physical channel they're tuned to; it's up to the recording software to select and record the desired video and audio streams. NPVR just has the special ability to use the same transport stream more than once; in fact it's not possible to tell NPVR not to do that as there's no reason not to.

your logs appear to indicate that your signal for physical channel 46, which carries WBGTCD4 and MYROC (and maybe others?), is a bit weak.

[cher]

Yes, 46 and MYROC are weak stations that I don't usually record. I was literally picking half hour shows at random to check that all 3 tuners would function. If I delete all the existing log files, will they automatically be re-created with the next recording? I'd like to create clean logs from channels I actually use and re-post them.

Graham - yes, I did find one loose connection this morning, but got 2 more low quality recordings with my most recent test today. There is not a pattern as to which tuner is giving the bad recording, though.

[Graham]

If I delete all the existing log files, will they automatically be re-created with the next recording?

Yes.

I suggest that you use the Start menu item in NextPVR to stop the recording service, stop NextPVR, delete all of the logs and then restart the recording service.

[Kiwi]

The doubling up definitely wun cause your problems with glitched recordings.

U might want to also check each of your tuners by changing the order of the tuners so that u can verify that each tuner is working properly and receiving adequate signal.

[cher]

In ndigitalhost-24.log, I see



and


The variation in values for "quality=..." suggests a signal reception problem. I see similar variation in others of your ndigitalhost log files. Are all cables and connections as good as they can be?

Until about 2 weeks ago, I was recording on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and PBS regularly with good to excellent quality recordings. I would occasionally get a poor recording which I attributed to bad weather affecting the OTA digital signal. I have a rooftop OTA antenna going to a signal booster, then a 3-way splitter to my 3 tuner cards. Last night, I disconnected everything, ran the antenna lead directly to the TV and measured signal strength on all stations. The lowest signal strength I got was 70, but the picture and sound were still clear. The rest were 90 - 100. I re-attached the signal booster and the station with the lowest signal increased to 80 - 85. So, I don't think the signal booster is a problem and the antenna plus cabling seem to be adequate.

Then, I reattached the splitter, but sent to leads to 2 tuner cards and one lead to the TV, repeated the testing - no change in signal strength. I don't think the splitter is the problem.

Disconnected the TV from the splitter and now have the split signal going to just the 3 tuner cards (as was the usual setup). Set NPVR to LiveTV. Horrible reception on most of the channels. I only sometimes watched live TV in the past, but when I did, it was always through the NPVR LiveTV selection since I didn't want to split the signal again to send another lead to the TV. I changed the tuner priority so LiveTV selects the 3rd tuner card and got the same results. Therefore, I don't think I have one bad tuner card.

This morning, I installed WinTV - the software that comes with my Hauppauge tuner cards - updated the tuner card drivers, and did a signal scan. All the signals are clear and reception is good to great. My tuner cards must be adequate.

I haven't changed any reception hardware, fittings or cables, and I've checked that the tuners are seated firmly in the MB and the connections are tight.

To reiterate, until about a week or 2 ago (when the network season was winding down) I was regularly recording 2-3 shows per time slot every night with generally good to excellent results. Last weekend, I did a clean install of Win 7 (changed from XP) and a clean install of NPVR. Copied and reinstalled my config files, but recording quality has deteriorated.

I'm attaching clean logs from this morning, testing ABC, NBC and CBS. The only thing left (that I can think of) is that there must be a setting somewhere that I have set incorrectly. If anyone has ANY ideas that might be helpful, I'd be glad to try anything.

Thank you for taking the time to help!
cher

[Graham]

I'm attaching clean logs from this morning

Something has gone a teeny bit haywire and the attached zip appears to contain only a shortcut.