Cannot play recordings, but live TV is fine

[DSperber]

First time I've posted here in a while. I bought another Android streaming device, the Xiaomi TV Stick 4K, and it just arrived yesterday. So I'm going through some very preliminary setup, experimenting, comparing with Shield Tube (updated to Experience 9 and Android 11), seeing if apps I can run fine on the Shield will or will not run fine on the Xiaomi (also at Android 11), etc.

So specifically I'm using the SD Flex 4K tuner, with HDHR DVR engine server to support it. Also, NextPVR 5.2.6 Server. And then I've got the HDHR client app running on both Shield and Xiaomi, along with uiDroid client app also running on both Shield and Xiaomi. I'm specifically focused on testing support for the ATSC 3.0 channels, to see what/quality of sound is produced out of my 5.1 audio system.

I'm not very far along past day one playing around, but one thing I have noticed is that uiDroid does not seem to be able to PLAY A RECORDING. This is true both on the Shield as well as the Xiaomi. I don't know that I've ever really tested playback of a recording with uiDroid, so this issue may be long standing and I just never knew about it until today.

There's no problem playing live programs (both ATSC 1.0 and 3.0) from the Guide, setting a recording from the Guide, etc. I actually have three recordings I've now tried to play back and all of them fail to begin (once I push the PLAY button). The app is apparently "stuck" as soon as I push PLAY, and is totally unresponsive to any additional remote key presses. Eventually the app appears to crash I'm guessing, and I'm re-presented with the top-level Android TV Home Page screen of either Shield or Xiaomi. These are all ATSC 3.0 recordings.

Again, no problems at all playing live TV. Only this issue playing a recording. Clearly the app is getting "stuck" or "in a loop"or something, because once I push PLAY it becomes 100% non-responsive, until it crashes and I'm presented with the Android TV Home screen.

I will do some more experimenting and data gathering, and varying whatever I might think can be varied, to see if I can get ANY recording to play. I've upgraded to the very latest APK available and that's made no difference. Still won't play a recording.

Is it me and BOTH of my Android devices??  Or is uiDroid??

[mvallevand]

Yes uidroid can play recordings, I don't have issues on the Xiaomi 4K and it is well tested on the Shield too. I think the last sentence in one of my posts to you is quite fitting https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.ph...#pid566408

You might consider a test with an ATSC 1.0 recording too. The only thing that might be an issue is if you have subtitles turned on since AC-4 closed captioning is quite different then. Always best to use the current version of NextPVR and uidroid too.

Finally we don't have ATSC 3.0 in Canada so I can't test recordings just files other users have provided. If you place a sample on Google Drive or OneDrive and send me a link and I can test it here on my device.

Martin

[BrettB]

I'm not very far along past day one playing around, but one thing I have noticed is that uiDroid does not seem to be able to PLAY A RECORDING. This is true both on the Shield as well as the Xiaomi. I don't know that I've ever really tested playback of a recording with uiDroid, so this issue may be long standing and I just never knew about it until today.
...
Is it me and BOTH of my Android devices??  Or is uiDroid??

Considering that there are several of us playing recordings with uidroid on a daily basis, I would have to believe that there is something unique in your setup.

As Martin stated, you continue to make wild claims about things "not working" while failing to provide any logs to allow others to assist you or to determine if there is some sort of bug to be fixed.

If you want support, then you should:

1. Make sure that you are running to current/latest versions of the software. (Your post indicates that you are not running the current NextPVR server version.)
   
2. For uidroid clients, make sure that you are capturing a logcat logfile while testing.
   
3. Do a fresh start of the server & the client(s).
   
4. Perform options that are and are not working--noting the time, activities, and success/failure status.
   
5. Get the .zip file of the NextPVR logs from the web app Settings page.
   
6. Add the logcat logfile to the .zip file.
   
7. Upload the .zip file as well as your description of the time, activities, and success/failure status to a post in the appropriate forum here.
   
8. Optionally (but extremely helpful if the problem is related to a specific file, file format, etc.), upload a copy of the recording file from the testing to someplace like OneDrive, Google Drive, etc. and include a link to it in your post.
   

[Jaggy]

If you want support, then you should:

1. For uidroid clients, make sure that you are capturing a logcat logfile while testing.

I am not sure I have ever seen how you actually go about doing this step?
Which maybe I just missed something somewhere along the way which is more than quite possible

[mvallevand]

I am not sure I have ever seen how you actually go about doing this step?
Which maybe I just missed something somewhere along the way which is more than quite possible

True, typically we have only needed that log for beta testing, and I agree I don't think we need it now, but if this turns out to be a AC-4 issue it would be needed.  I don't know if there are any other ATSC 3.0 users so this new format is new to all of us, and we are in an information gathering stage, which is way I asked for one of his recordings.

Also the Xiaomi 4k is actually the only TV box that I've seen that can play them with direct play, and that includes the NVIDIA Shield so 

Martin

[DSperber]

Ok. Case closed. User error.

I had obviously messed up recording folder contents through manual deletions, but failed to also "delete" the supposedly present recordings as enumerated in the "recordings catalog". So trying to play these recordings encountered non-existent files.

Recordings now play fine, once I booted to Win10 and "cleaned house", getting rid of everything in the recording folder (which had been put there through the Win7 NextPVR server, according to my Win7 config.xml). I also deleted all leftover non-existent supposed recordings (from January, long since physically deleted from disk) whose "recordings catalog" still showed that they should be there.

Then I created two brand new new recordings, produced through the Win10 NextPVR server. This time correct expected folder structure and filenames were newly created.

And now uiDroid did in fact play these new recordings without a problem (including with AC-4 sound), both through Shield Tube as well as Xiaomi Stick. I haven't yet looked closely at the "quality" of the AC-4 audio handling as compared to true local decoding by a licensed Dolby AC-4 codec (i.e. within the LG OLED TV, as facilitated through LG HDHR app). There's no reason to compare it to any HDHR app using cloud-decoding, because to my ears that audio is just a non-starter and not even in the game.

Obviously I need to be careful to use the GUI to manage recordings, which will accomplish BOTH the physical deletion of appropriate folders/files as wellas updating the "recordings catalog". This is very different from how WMC works, where any time you launch the client app a brand new index is developed of everything currently discovered to exist in the recordings folder. So you can manually add or delete things, and then launch the client, and the new list of "recordings" will always match whatever is physically now in the recordings folder, however it came to be there. Also WMC does not have "program sub-folders". You can choose to sort the recordings folder content to present things in several different ways, but if you choosed "program title" (conceptually the same as NextPVR's program name sub-folders) this simply produces a major/minor sort that collects things by (a) program title major, and (b) recording date minor, for each recorded program with the same program title. It's not in an actual program title sub-older, it just presents as if it were.

Anyway, I will get used to this.

Case closed.

[BrettB]

Ok. Case closed. User error.
...
Obviously I need to be careful to use the GUI to manage recordings, which will accomplish BOTH the physical deletion of appropriate folders/files as well as updating the "recordings catalog". This is very different from how WMC works, where any time you launch the client app a brand new index is developed of everything currently discovered to exist in the recordings folder. So you can manually add or delete things, and then launch the client, and the new list of "recordings" will always match whatever is physically now in the recordings folder, however it came to be there.

You are correct that unlike WMC, NextPVR uses a database of recordings which increases speed and efficiency of maintaining a list of recordings. If you want behavior similar to WMC (dynamic display of available recordings from any source), then you want to use the Videos screen in NextPVR not the Recordings screen.

If you want similar behavior for recordings where NextPVR will automatically remove any "missing" (i.e. deleted) physical recordings from its database, then you want to change the following line in your config.xml:

Code:

<AutoRemoveMissingRecordings>true</AutoRemoveMissingRecordings>

NextPVR is primarily designed to be a PVR not a "media center". So searching for and adding recordings from other sources (including other instances of NextPVR that you might be running) is not functionality built-in. If you really want that functionality, you can use NextTool (it can be downloaded here). Then you would use a command like

Code:

NextTool.exe -import some_folder_path

You should back up your npvr.db3 database first, just in case! Also, this is a one-time import, so if you want it to continually update automatically, you would need to put in a Windows scheduled task or something similar.

[mvallevand]

Manual deleting was my first assumption since you have previously asked about the default https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.ph...#pid566592, so I was thinking you were playing around with the setting. Setting it to true will cause the database and file system to stay in sync. If you do want to keep recordings but not keep them in NextPVR, move them to a new folder.

Note in another thread you have a lot of wtv files, be aware that if you import them ExoPlayer doesn't support that container, you they would need to be remuxed.

Martin

[DSperber]

You are correct that unlike WMC, NextPVR uses a database of recordings which increases speed and efficiency of maintaining a list of recordings. If you want behavior similar to WMC (dynamic display of available recordings from any source), then you want to use the Videos screen in NextPVR not the Recordings screen.

If you want similar behavior for recordings where NextPVR will automatically remove any "missing" (i.e. deleted) physical recordings from its database, then you want to change the following line in your config.xml:

Code:

<AutoRemoveMissingRecordings>true</AutoRemoveMissingRecordings>

NextPVR is primarily designed to be a PVR not a "media center". So searching for and adding recordings from other sources (including other instances of NextPVR that you might be running) is not functionality built-in. If you really want that functionality, you can use NextTool (it can be downloaded here).

Thank you very much for these tips.

I wasn't actually aware of "Videos" since I never used it or probably never even explored it. I have just been using and assuming that "Recordings" was the right thing to use for my "TV recordings". I don't actually have any "videos" that would be played through NextPVR.

The automatic sync'ing (or not, optionally) of the recordings database catalog with the actual content of the recordings folders was just something that works differently in WMC, so I was just surprised to discover things are different with NextPVR. Not a problem, just something that needed to be discovered. I just really need to use NextPVR more, and become more familiar with its features and design and use (as well as its extensive customization options). This will happen over time.

I think I had run across that "AutoRemove" variable in some other thread posting previously, but perhaps hadn't appreciated it before. Now that you clearly explain what it is for exactly, and seeing how useful it would have been given my manual playing with folder contents during this pre-production experimenting, it is clearly what I should now quickly set to TRUE. I really don't have any intent or expectation of manually tampering with folders or deleting files through Explorer once I "go live". Obviously the GUI supports "delete" of recordings (same as with WMC), and that's where this action should be performed when the recording is no longer needed, and that is certainly how things will be done once this all settles down.

I am certain I have no interest in NextTool, because I am NOT looking for a "media center". I only need a DVR for TV programs, both OTA and cable. So WMC is (or was) perfectly adequate for all ATSC 1.0 and cable TV needs through its "extenders".  And I'm sure NextPVR server and either NextPVR client app (ATSC 1.0) or uiDroid (ATSC 1.0 and 3.0) on my assorted client devices will be perfectly adequate and acceptable for all OTA needs (where WMC is not adequate).

The situation right now is that I'm still not "in production" with NextPVR or HDHR as far as what I plan to do with ATSC 3.0 channels. Here in LA so far there are only two that I might possibly ever watch, and only one (FOX) for real ever watch. And as it turns out I virtually NEVER watch anything on FOX anyway, so this is really all quite theoretical. Playing with new Flex 4K, Android and other client devices, playing with new software products to view live/recorded content, getting sound out via AVR and speakers that sounds GOOD or GREAT, not just 2.0 stereo, it's all still a big laboratory of discovery right now.

So I'm still comparing NextPVR/uiDroid to HDHR. And I'm still evaluating Shield Tube vs. Xiaomi Stick vs. ATV4K vs. LG HDHR app, enumerating the various pros and cons of each. Most bothersome is that all apps do not work identically on all devices, or even all apps (e.g. Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, etc.) working perfectly on just one device! Seems like we must have 3-5 devices in order to be able to be able to find that one service/hardware/software combination that provides "perfect audio/video" for each given source, in order to overcome the random and assorted imperfect results commonly encountered with either audio or video from each different source running on each different device.

I'm really just still getting started with all this new OTA ATSC 3.0 stuff (if only with two channels so far) and still exploring and learning about HDHR and NextPVR and their user interfaces and functionality.

[DSperber]

Manual deleting was my first assumption since you have previously asked about the default https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.ph...#pid566592, so I was thinking you were playing around with the setting.  Setting it to true will cause the database and file system to stay in sync.  If you do want to keep recordings but not keep them in NextPVR, move them to a new folder. 

Note in another thread you have a lot of wtv files, be aware that if you import them ExoPlayer doesn't support that container, you they would need to be remuxed.

Martin

Yes, I've now learned my lesson. Even though manual deletion of folder/file is not something normally done (even with content in WMC's recordings folder), it occasionally is done. Same with copying recording files from somewhere else into the recordings folder. Not common, but occasionally there is such a need. I had simply assumed the current state of things would be automatically discovered (in BOTH directions) as it is automatically with WMC.

I have a feeling that "AutoRemove" is only going to be a one-way protection, automatically removing obsolete breadcrumbs in the recordings database catalog if files that should be present are discovered to be "'missing". So unless I'm wrong about this my guess (even from its variable name) is that it most likely does not also work in the opposite direction.

So if I were to just copy something new into the recordings folder, namely a correctly structured and named folder/files set, which is exactly how it would look had the recordings represented by those folder/files actually taken place on this server, that the new items will be "absorbed into the recordings database catalog" and appear in the GUI display list of recordings. I predict they will in fact simply be "orphan" folder/files, and NOT shown in "Recordings" of the GUI.

Is there, in fact, a way to "manually add" an external recording folder/files set by simply placing it in the recordings folder? Or is it simply impossible? Is there an "AutoAbsorb" variable, being the functional opposite of "AutoRemove"?

As far was my screenshots showing WTV files, that was only to visually demonstrate the naming conventions and syntax of recordings made by WMC (e.g. including channel ID in the external file name, along with series/episode, program title, date/time the recording started). I wasn't thinking of making them available to NextPVR as WTV files for playback (even as "videos").

Note that TS files CAN be played by WMC as "videos". I was actually planning to make use of that in my "pilot project" two years ago when I built a combination Win10 host machine with NextPVR running "native" in Win10 and handling OTA recordings (and producing TS files), and also running WMC inside of a Win7-VM for Spectrum cable support (and producing its normal WTV recordings). Turns out the NextPVR TS recording files could be played by WMC as 'videos". So out at my extender/HDTV locations around the house (fully supported by WMC running inside of the Win7-VM) I could still use WMC to play both cable (WTV via Ceton tuner and WMC) and OTA (TS via Hauppauge tuner and NextPVR) recordings.

The Hauppauge tuner card was not supported inside the Win7-VM by its own native PCIe driver, because that hardware was not supported by VMWare Workstation Player that I was using. That's why I couldn't just continue to use WMC in Win7-VM for the Hauppauge tuner and OTA broadcasts. But the Ceton tuner was of the ETH variety, i.e. like the Flex 4K it was a network-based 6-tuner box with a LAN IP address. Since WMC and the Ceton Win7 drivers supports network-based Ceton-ETH tuners, and since VMWare makes network objects visible to programs running inside Win7-VM, WMC still could operate the Ceton tuners and thus could provide cable TV support directly. But I had to find a solution to my Hauppauge OTA needs, and that is how and when I first discovered NextPVR.

Interestingly, although my "pilot project" was a success, in the end I decided not to go forward with that Win10 host and Win7-VM approach, despite Win7 going legacy by Microsoft in January 2020. I have instead simply continued to run my Win7 desktop HTPC machine "forever", exactly as it is, since it continues to operate just fine even [theoretically] absent any major maintenance updates by Microsoft, although surprisingly there is still a "Windows Update Tuesday" even for Win7.

So actually, my need for and interest in NextPVR dropped to zero at that time when I made the decision to retain and operate my Win7 HTPC. But here we are again, with my interest in NextPVR coming back to life specifically due to the arrival of ATSC 3.0.