"Root element is missing" - failed live TV and recordings.

[njc]

Looking for some help please on the intermittent issue I have with NextPVR.

My setup is:
Windows Server Essential 2016, running NextPVR v5.0.7.200726
HDHomerun Quattro for Freeview
Nvidia Shield running Kodi 18.7 and NextPVR add-on.

Every now and again, about weekly but no fixed pattern, I have problems such that Kodi is unable to stream live TV.  Playback of recorded TV is fine though I think ongoing/upcoming recordings fail.

Restarting the NextPVR service will generally fix this though usually fails again within an hour or so.  The only way to successfully recover for a prolonged period is to reboot the server.

I did have v4 on here previously and had some trouble uninstalling it, eventually had to resort to deleting the v4 program directory.  Incremental updates to v5 have installed fine.

The NPVR web GUI shows "Root element is missing" next to failed recordings.

Any help greatly appreciated, logs attached.

[Graham]

Every now and again, about weekly but no fixed pattern, I have problems such that Kodi is unable to stream live TV.  Playback of recorded TV is fine though I think ongoing/upcoming recordings fail.

Can you tell us the date and time that this happened so that we know where to look in the logs ... Thanks

[njc]

Every now and again, about weekly but no fixed pattern, I have problems such that Kodi is unable to stream live TV.  Playback of recorded TV is fine though I think ongoing/upcoming recordings fail.

Can you tell us the date and time that this happened so that we know where to look in the logs ... Thanks

Thanks for responding, Graham.

First instance is at 2020-08-08 08:18:36.099 in file "nrecord.log.2", for a recording.

I then restarted the service and got it going again, but about an hour later live TV failed at 2020-08-08 09:57:00.946 (in the same log file).

2020-08-08 09:57:00.946 [ERROR][9] Unexpected error on LocalRecorder.StartStream(): System.Xml.XmlException: Root element is missing.
  at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
  at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseDocumentContent()
  at System.Xml.XmlLoader.Load(XmlDocument doc, XmlReader reader, Boolean preserveWhitespace)
  at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader)
  at System.Xml.XmlDocument.LoadXml(String xml)
  at NShared.LocalRecorder.StartStream(ChannelMapping channelMapping, String target, String& reason)

Thanks

[mvallevand]

Those are coming from the device process not starting the turning and returning an empty value. There was a similar issue with BDA drivers and sub is going to need to look into it. https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?tid=61338 except instead of not creating the graph it doesn't tuner the HDHR.

Martin

[Graham]

2020-08-08 09:57:00.946 [ERROR][9] Unexpected error on LocalRecorder.StartStream(): System.Xml.XmlException: Root element is missing.
  ...
  at NShared.LocalRecorder.StartStream(ChannelMapping channelMapping, String target, String& reason)

I don't know ... It might be that the data that defines channels in the NextPVR database has got itself in a pickle ... perhaps the switch from previous tuners to the current tuners muddled the database.

Your options include deleting all channels and rescanning ... but you will have to delete and re-add all recordings ... or you can wait for someone who knows stuff to come along and tell you a better way.

[njc]

Thanks for the replies so far, I'll try keeping the tuners primed whilst I hunt around for how to re-add old recordings and/or wait for any other suggestions.

[mvallevand]

Bad idea IMO. You will get faster tuning but keeping HDHR devices primed means for each tuner you are streaming data continuously over the network

Martin

[Graham]

Thanks for the replies so far, I'll try keeping the tuners primed whilst I hunt around for how to re-add old recordings and/or wait for any other suggestions.

You don't need to re-add existing recordings (i.e. recording files already created) ... you will need to re-add pending and recurring recordings ... You should be able to Export Recordings and then re-import recordings ... https://github.com/sub3/NextPVR/wiki/Add...g-defaults

But ... but ... From Martin's comment ... I am not sure that there is a problem with the database ... so ignore me.

[njc]

Thanks for this info, I've now left the tuners unprimed and clearly the export/import is easy - part of the reason why I moved away from TVHeadend was that it is too difficult to do these kinds of things which should be basic functionality.

I'll keep an eye on that other thread too.

[sub]

When you had this error happen, does it look like the recording actually started? ie, was a file created on disk, and it got some data in it? It kind of looks like it was, but it incorrectly reported this as an issue.