Comcast switch to MPEG-4 - How to change config with least impact/hassle?

[HarryH3]

Alas, we still can't watch Live TV or recorded programs from Comcast Channel 621, USAHD. Just get a black screen. We also can't watch or record Channel 669, BTVHD, as it causes the recording service to instantly crash and restart. :o I can watch both channels via the HDHomeRun View application. I've been working with Comcast and they have contacted SiliconDust, but SiliconDust had me put my HDHomeRun Prime in logging mode and said that since it reports good signal, good symbol quality, non-DRM AND I can view the channels in their application, that the tuner is working fine (as I suspected anyway since it works on every other channel that we subscribe to).

My setup that works for ALL of the other channels is:

OS: Win 7.
Next PVR v3.9.2 (161119).
H.264 decoder: CyberLink Video Decoder (PDVD 13).

Martin noticed a while back in one of my uploaded video chunks that there are anomalies in the delivered stream. However, the HDHomeRun View app isn't bothered by them. At this point, Comcast is pointing the finger at NextPVR since the stream works with other applications. Is there a better decoder that I could use? I have SAF installed and have tried all of the other decoders included with it. Only the CyberLink one doesn't have problems with jumps forward and back. (Though none of them will display those 2 broken channels). Is there a way to get detailed info on the data stream so that I can hopefully get Comcast looking at the right thing to figure out what is broken in their streams for these 2 channels? I passed along his previous info, but it seems to have fallen on deaf ears, or hasn't reached the people that would understand it and know what to do to fix it.

[BrettB]

Alas, we still can't watch Live TV or recorded programs from Comcast Channel 621, USAHD.

If you record something with NPVR, will the recorded file play with any other player (VLC, etc.)?

[sub]

Harry, can you supply a short sample recording that I can look at?

[HarryH3]

If you record something with NPVR, will the recorded file play with any other player (VLC, etc.)?

On channel 621 a file does get recorded and will play in MPC, but not in VLC. I can't test channel 669 right now, as it will crash the recording service and booger the shows being recorded right now. :o

[HarryH3]

Harry, can you supply a short sample recording that I can look at?

Sure. I just uploaded a 1-minute recording from channel 621, USAHD. I started a "Quick Record" and then cancelled the recording after 1 minute. I put it on Dropbox at https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2693...tanding.ts

Thanks for taking a look! There are a couple of other Houston area Comcast users back in this thread that are having the same problem. Hopefully we can come up with some terminology of the problem so that perhaps Comcast will fix things on their end. I can't think of any other reason that ALL the other channels work fine, but these 2 have a problem.

[sub]

The PMT is broken in these recordings.

Does it help if you set this registry key:

64 bit windows:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\NPVR\ NetPushRewritePMT=0 (DWORD)

32 bit windows:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\NPVR\ NetPushRewritePMT=0 (DWORD)

then try recording/watching this channel again?

[HarryH3]

The PMT is broken in these recordings.

Does it help if you set this registry key:

64 bit windows:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\NPVR\ NetPushRewritePMT=0 (DWORD)

then try recording/watching this channel again?

Setting that key lets me watch both channel 621 and 669. Yay! I have a recording set on 621 so I can test comskip and manual jumps after while. I had made that same change back in October :o but it didn't help (Post #20 of this thread). Has something changed in another part of NPVR since then that would affect this?

[HarryH3]

The recording that I made seems to work fine. Comskip jumps worked properly, as did random forward and backwards requests from the remote.

[HarryH3]

The recording that I made seems to work fine. Comskip jumps worked properly, as did random forward and backwards requests from the remote.

Sub, I'm curious as to what that registry mod actually does. Obviously, there is something wrong with the stream, but how does this "fix" it and make the file view-able?

Thanks!!!!!!

[sub]

Great.

The app defaults to rewriting the PMT it receives from a HDHomeRun Prime because some cable companies include streams we want to get rid of. In this case it looks like something must have been going wrong with that process.

If you want to supply a sample recording now your have this feature turned off, I can check why it wasn't managing to rewrite these PMTs.