Problems with new HDHR tuner

[sub]

There was an error when I ran the NexgPVRServer program: "Unhandled exception. System.Collections.Generic.KeyNotFoundException: The given key '47' was not present in the dictionary.
at System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2.get_Item(TKey key)
at NShared.RecordingService.WorkerThread()
at System.Threading.Thread.StartCallback()"

I'm wondering if maybe this was because scheduled to be recording at the time? I should maybe have suggested stopping any recordings scheduled for the next hour or so.

[sub]

After logging in and opening Settings/Devices, it displayed the 4 ATSC tuners that I had set up, as well as a list of devices that I thought I had deleted (HDHR, QAM, etc).  I deleted them again and rebooted again.  After rebooting, I opened Devices again, and the list reappeared. 

As mentioned earlier, it's normal for them to reappear - but they will have no channels on them now, so when you do the 'Update EPG', it wont schedule any recordings to use them.

[MovieBuff]

Thanks for the guidance … running the EPG update seems to have addressed the problem with the previously scheduled recordings not running properly.

Regarding the other issue that I observed, where recordings from channels with strong signals are failing due to lack of signal, I think I found a potential cause.  I was running some additional channel scans for the tuners in Settings/Devices.  I then went into Settings/Channels to assign the EPG Source and then merge the shared channels and sub-channels.  I noticed that some of the Frequency/SID values were inconsistent for the same channel and sub number combinations.  For a given combination, e.g., 8;2, some entries showed one FREQ/SID, while other entries showed a different FREQ/SID for the same combination.

I compared some of these values with the values shown for the same channels in the HD HomeRun setup application.  The FREQ/SID shown in this listing typically matched one value in the NextPVR/Channel listing, while the other 4 values in the Settings/Channel listing did not match.As an example (screen prints in the attachment) the NextPVR Settings/Channel listing shows 5 lines for Channel 8.2.  Four of these lines identify a frequency of 11 and a SID of 8 (these four lines appear to agree with the values shown in each for the 4 tuners for channel 8.2 in the Settings/Devices page), while one line shows FREQ 9 and SID 4 (I don’t know where this 5th value comes from).

In the HD HomeRun setup application, in the digital antenna tab (which I refreshed it just before this comparison), guide channel 8.2 tunes to actual channel frequency/SID 9-4, which appears to agree with the single line in the Settings/Channel listing.  The other frequency identified in the NextPVR Settings/Channel listing, frequency 11, does not appear in the HD HomeRun guide (TheHDHR listing defaulted to a sort by guide (FREQ/SID) number, but I scanned down the list just to be sure).

I am guessing that the recording failures for these stations is due to a mismatch between the frequency information between the two systems, and the data is not getting passed through for recording.  I hadn’t noticed this inconsistency before because I ran the Auto-merge option and grouped channels by the channel numbers without looking for potential issues..

I don’t know why the new channel scans that I am running seem to be acquiring a FREQ/SID different from the frequency that HDHR indicates that it is using for the same channels.  I have done this several times now, with the same result each time.  I have over a half dozen channel/sub combinations that are exhibiting this inconsistency.  They are just one or two sub-channels within a group, while others within the same channel are consistent throughout.  For example, Channels 8.1 and 8.4 are entirely consistent, using Frequency 9 across all five entries, while Channels 8.2 and 8.3 have inconsistent data, with a mixture of Frequencies 9 and 11.

I am also wondering where this 5th value in the Devices/Channel for each channel/sub combination in the listing might be coming from.  There are 4 active tuner, but 5 lines in the Channel listing for most channel/sub combinations.  I am definitely thankful that it is showing up since that data element seems to agree with the HDHR listing.

I’m also not sure how to proceed from here.  I tried coding the 4 lines that don’t agree with HDHR listing as EPG source “None” so that these FREQ/SID’s would not be used when making a recording, and to make recordings from the other remaining line that I coded as XMLTV and appears in the guide.  However, since that line does not correspond with one of the 4 active tuners, this did not seem to work. 

I also tried merging these 5 rows to see whether the entry with the HDHR values might somehow come out as the primary information listed for the channel.  However, it did not … the merged channel showed as a Frequency 11.  Since I had set the Frequency 11’s to have an EPG update value of None, all the channel 8.2 values disappeared from the program listing.  However, this test did produce an interesting result:  when I unmerged this channel, there were only 4 lines displayed, and not the original 5 that I saw before the merge command.  One of the four FREQ 11/SID 8 lines had disappeared.  One line displayed with FREQ 9 SID 4, but it shows an EPG input of “None", suggesting that one of the lines with the FREQ 11/SID 8 before the merge action was replaced by the FREQ 9 SID 4 when I unmerged the channel.
 
I was curious whether the 8.2 channel information had disappeared from one of the tuners, since all had reflected Frequency 11, and only 3 lines now show Frequency 11.  I looked at each tuner in the Settings/Devices tab, and found that the last tuner now showed FREQ/SID of 9/4.  Very strange.

Do you have any suggestions as to how to address this mismatch between the HDHR and NextPVR channel information?

 Thank you!

[mvallevand]

Some cities have the same channel on multiple frequencies from different antennas   NextPVR will merge these based on name only.  Often one is weaker.  Only automerge if the channels have the same strength

Martin

[MovieBuff]

It just seems strange that multiple Device scans that I ran over several days seem to keep producing FREQ/SID values for these channels that are different from the values shown by the HDHR unit.  The antenna is pointed toward the station and the HDHR tool shows 100% signal strength.  If there is a weak duplicate out there, it seems odd that the Device scan would keep selecting that option across so many scans.

Is there a way for me to manually change the FREQ/SID shown for a channel in the Device or Channel tabs, so that they agrees with the values shown on the HDHR setup tool?

[mvallevand]

Try this.

- empty all your channels by opening each tuner and clicking the trashcan.
- restart the server
- scan on tuner 0 (HDHR mode preferred)
- add your EPG source.
- check to see the if the same channel is on multiple channels and delete the weaker one
- scan 1-3 but copy tuner 1-3 when prompted.
- send the zipped logs.

Martin

[MovieBuff]

That seems to be the fix!  After clearing out all of the existing channel information and then making a fresh start with a Device scan, the resulting NextPVR channel information appears consistent with the channel information displayed in the HDHR app. 

The first batch of test recordings using this channel information was successful.  These were all recordings that I scheduled after completing this process.

However, a second batch of recordings, consisting entirely of recordings scheduled prior to scanning for these new channels, all failed, with failure messages of either Channel Not Found:  Deleted?  or No Data Delivered Failed to Lock a Signal errors.  I tried the EPG Update button on the Settings/About page.  This had fixed the issue I had seen earlier with previously scheduled recordings.  Unfortunately, re-running the Update EPG, doesn’t seem to have the same effect this time.  I ran it twice and am still having these failures.

I tried deleting one of the scheduled recordings and replacing it with a new one, but it also failed with Channel Not Found.  I am wondering whether I have a similar issue like the one above, where there may be old channel information in memory.  Do I need to delete the existing scheduled and recurring recordings, reboot to clear memory, and then schedule fresh recordings?

You have each been brilliant suggesting fixes to each of these issues.  And each time you suggest a fix, it seems like this should solve the last problem, but then a new one crops up … this is maddening! 

I have attached two extracts of log files … the first one right after I updated Devices/Channels, and the other contains the latest log information.

Thank you!

[mvallevand]

We deleted all the channels so yes you would need to update the recordings to the new channel. This is necessary because you didn't create the channels properly in the first place. The only way I know to change this is via Kodi, so better to recreate them although I don't know if importing recurring recordings needs a fixed channel id or not.

Of note:

- you are now using ATSC mode and not HDHR mode which you used initially so it is hard to support a moving target. You do a lot of minor channel collection recording so it makes sense it just makes it hard to know how to help you.

- you also have disabled tuners which don't help either of us.

Martin

[MovieBuff]

Got it …. Thanks very much for your comments explaining why new issues seem to keep popping up as others get fixed, and for your patient explanations for how I should resolve them.

I deleted all recurring and scheduled recordings, rebooted, and then re-loaded the recording requests.  Based on the test recordings already completed, it looks like both scheduled and recurring recordings now seem to be starting and recording properly.  The link between the HDHR tuner and NextPVR setup data seems to be working OK as well.

Thank you both very much for your help and for all that you do!