Please help with LiveTV channel freezes!

[sub]

Yes, clients are certainly freezing, but so is the server! and so are recordings on certain channels!

What exactly is happening when you do a recording on one of these channels? Is it failing while recording, or when playing it back?

[2leftfeet]

Thanks sub,

I know for certain that it is failing in playback. But I am not sure if it is failing in the recording.

Here's what I did:

I setup a test instance of NPVR to run as a standalone server on one PC and watched LiveTV on it. At the same time I had by main server (different PC) record the same show. After ~ 10 minutes, on a 3rd PC (client to the main server), I began watching the show. And finally, on a 2nd client (4th PC), I watched the same show.

In each case the show froze - on the dedicated standalone server, and on the 2nd client. On the 1st client (watching the recording), part way through playback, it too froze. But honestly, I did not think to check the main server to see if the record file kept growing.

Tomorrow I will have time to test this.

[sub]

To be honest, all those different scenarios don't help - if anything, it makes things more confusing, because I'm not sure if your problem is client/server related, or channel related, or device related etc.

What we need is a single scenario, that we can look at over and over, so we can collect more details, hopefully to the point we understand what is happening. Ideally you want that scenario to be as simple as possible. ie, if you're seeing it with a single PC setup, focus on that rather than client/server.

[2leftfeet]

Roger! I will setup such a test case - using npvr to play liveTV on a standalone server and collect more data in this simplified scenario.

thanks sub!

FWIW, based upon what I have seen so far, I suspect it is a signal handling issue, but we will see.

Is there any type of timeout in npvr that triggers npvr to think that a signal has ended, thereby causing npvr to stop playing that signal?
If so, is there an easy way to modify it?

[sub]

Is there any type of timeout in npvr that triggers npvr to think that a signal has ended, thereby causing npvr to stop playing that signal?

Basically... NextPVR starts a recording by tuning to the specific frequency etc, then sits and waits for data from the device, writing anything that arrives to disk, up until the time it's due to stop the recording. ie, it's not trying to monitor the signal status or anything like that (since these types of API are very inconsistently implement in drivers, often using hardcoded values). It all comes down to the data the device provides.

[2leftfeet]

Update:
Pulling my hair out (and there ain't much left) ...

Didn't have much time today, but while watching on a test dedicated server, there were no freezes today on subject channels. After a while I setup a client to point to the test server and it froze multiple times. Will try again tomorrow.

[2leftfeet]

I was able to run a test this morning on the test server. Logs attached.

Test setup:
Using dedicated test server stand alone. Watching ESPNHD, FIOS ch 574. Tuners - HDHR Prime.

Test Scenario:
Play liveTV on standalone server only for ~40 minutes
start client & watch liveTV on both client and server for ~45 minutes - to verify issue is present on client
stop client, watch live on server & record for ~75 minutes

Sequence for log correspondence:
Started LiveTV on server ~6:00am local.
- server did not freeze
Started a client 6:39
Client froze ~6:46
Client manual reset ~6:51
Client froze ~6:57
client manual reset ~7:02
hiccup in test (wife turned on main server - everything froze) ~7:07
reset from hiccup ~7:07
client froze ~7:14
client manual reset ~7:19
client froze ~7:25
client exit ~7:27
client log generated ~7:27
server back in standalone mode ~7:27
started recording ~7:31
Stopped recording ~8:46
Test ended 8:46

Results:
server did not freeze except for hiccup event at 7:07
client did freeze multiple times
Recording and playback had no issues.

Notes & observations:
server did not freeze, except as noted above
client seems to freeze with a periodicity of 6-7 minutes -
this is roughly same periodicity seen in the other data sets collected.
** not sure if coincidence, but - this is roughly the same periodicity that the livetv buffer switches files**
neither server or client liked it when main server (different PC) was turned on
HDHR prime continued to stream data during client freezes

Other Info:
Last night installed Kodi & setup npvr client on it
- Kodi client froze multiple times when pointed at test server.
- Kodi client also froze while pointed at main server.

[sub]

So you didn't manage to find a scenario that was a single machine setup? ie, problem was only when you were doing client/server?

[2leftfeet]

Parts 1 & 3 of the scenario was a single machine - no issues encountered with it today. Part 2 of scenario was client/server, and client had issues with freeze ups - Occurred about every 6-7 minutes fairly regularly.