Messy Recording Results - Padding Issue?

[jcole998]

I don't know if this is a problem but I'd like the experts to have a look at a messy recording results from Friday night, 02-02-2018, using my DCR-3250 Triple Tuner.

Setup:
NBC 8pm Blindspot 9pm Taken
CBS 9pm Hawaii Five-0 10PM Bluebloods
ABC 9pm Agents of Shield

All shows scheduled have 1 minute pre- and post-padding. I see no conflicts here and should be a no-brainer for NextPVR.

(I hope I read the logs correctly......Use NRecord.log.1)
The problem begins at 8:59pm. The log shows the 9pm ABC show starting. The 9pm CBS show should also start. The 9pm NBC show should also start by "T-ing" off the 8pm NBC show. That didn't happen. Please look at the entry at 2018-02-02 20:59:01.635. The 9pm NBC show was moved to another tuner claiming that no tuner was available due to Live TV but I cannot see any other live TV entries nor was I watching live TV. I probably don't know what to look for but that clobbered the 9pm CBS show startup.

Anyway, things went downhill from there. The recording results were as follows:
- 8pm NBC recording was OK - Tuner0
- 9pm NBC recording was OK - Tuner2
- 9pm CBS recording was only 60 seconds long(I manually re-started recording this show to get the remainder.)
- 9pm ABC recording was OK - Tuner1
-10pm CBS recording was zero-length.

I monitored the tuner status during the evening by watching the tuner status web page presented by the Hauppauge DCR-3250. Tuners in use at any given moment never showed a zero-byte output. Where did the data go for the 9pm and 10pm CBS shows?

I'd like to understand how this happened. Maybe I can take measures to keep this from recurring.

Thanks.

Edit: Attached logs.)

[johnsonx42]

The messages about a tuner being used for Live TV are a bit misleading, they just mean the tuner is in use for *something*; if it was in fact Live TV using the tuner, a code path would be followed that actually would end Live TV in favor of the recording, otherwise it just keeps checking every second or so to see if a tuner is available. If sub were to clean up this logging it would make reading the logs for these sorts of scenarios easier.

To get "Taken" to be recorded on the same tuner as "Blindspot", you need to set the priority of "Taken" above the priority of "S.H.I.E.L.D." and "Five-0". This will allow overlapping padding on the same channel (used to be it wasn't possible with a cablecard tuner, but it can do it now)

I'm not sure what evidence led you to cancel and restart the "Five-O" recording; all the log shows is a normal recording start, then you canceling it at 21:04:10. There's no indication of the recording ending after a minute. (I'm not saying it didn't, but NRecord didn't do anything to cause it that I can see)

It does appear that NRecord never received any data for the "Bluebloods" recording, as when the recording time ended NRecord went hunting for an another airing of the show which it wouldn't do if it thought the recording was ok. In this instance Multi-record was used to get overlapping padding on the two CBS shows. Did you get the complete recording of "Five-O" with padding up to 22:01? Or did the stream stop at 21:59 when it started "Bluebloods"?

[johnsonx42]

also, while I don't think it addresses your specific issue (if your issue has anything to do with NPVR code at all), nonetheless it can't hurt to have the latest update to the NPVRWriter:

https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.ph...post520979

[jcole998]

Good information, johnsonx42. Thank you.

I hadn't thought that a recurring recording's priority can come into play. Now that I'm aware, I'll try to set priorities of shows on the same channel next to each other. I know that this is no guarantee but it can only help. Any advice?

With regard to Five-0...I looked in the recording folder and noticed that a byte-length was being reported even though the show was still in progress. That normally happens when the recording is stopped. Or so I thought. That turns out not to be the case here but I have learned that this can happen and I will leave it alone.

Five-0 file shows it stopped recording at 10:01 as it should have. The playback showed the end of the episode but is inclusive in that it did not show the beginning of the next program.

I've installed both NPVRTSReader4.ax and NPVRWriter.ax. I'm trying out the new writer this morning.

Thanks for all your help.

[johnsonx42]

I hadn't thought that a recurring recording's priority can come into play. Now that I'm aware, I'll try to set priorities of shows on the same channel next to each other. I know that this is no guarantee but it can only help. Any advice?

yes, that will help fairly reliably especially when the TV schedule is consistent and you don't have random episodes popping up at different times.

With regard to Five-0...I looked in the recording folder and noticed that a byte-length was being reported even though the show was still in progress. That normally happens when the recording is stopped. Or so I thought. That turns out not to be the case here but I have learned that this can happen and I will leave it alone.

I can be a mystery when Windows will and won't give you a byte count on an open file... sometimes you can literally watch it grow, sometimes you get no byte count, sometimes you get a byte count after the first committed write and then no update after that even though more writes are occurring. As you've found, don't assume it means anything.