Transcode problem

[bgowland]

Just spotted this...

Recorded Doctor Who tonight on BBC3. My usual setup - dvr-ms recording with ASAP transcode to mpeg2 and set to update the DB and delete original file afterwards.

The mpg file that was created is 64MB in size, the original dvr-ms file is 1.2GB (and thankfully wasn't deleted) and the DB still points at the dvr-ms file.

The GBPVRConvert logfile shows success though. Other DVB-T recordings also seem to have failed to transcode properly.

[bgowland]

Not an intentional bump (not totally anyway ). Just wondering if anyone else with 0.97.7 was having problems as I describe above. i.e., recording digital programmes using dvr-ms with ASAP transcode to mpeg2 enabled.

Further tests show the dvr-ms files themselves are fine and I can manually use GBPVRConvert to convert them to mpeg2. It's just the automatic transcode that seems to fail about 60-70MB into the process and the DB never gets updated even though the log file shows that all is well.

Cheers,
Brian

[sub]

Sorry I havnt replied yet. I've been a bit snowed under the last couple of days. I've save this post URL in text file of things to look at in the next few days.

[bgowland]

No problem - as much as anything I'm curious to know if anyone else has seen this or if I've somehow done something to my machine to cause it.

There's been so little worth recording on the digital-only channels recently, I only spotted it yesterday. It's not a major problem - it just confused the heck out of me when I discovered a load of dvr-ms residue and partial mpg files.

Cheers,
Brian

[gEd]

not trying to dodge the issue here but couldn;t you just obtain the cyberlink mux to save as mpeg instead of to dvr-ms?

[bgowland]

not trying to dodge the issue here but couldn;t you just obtain the cyberlink mux to save as mpeg instead of to dvr-ms?

I've got a Cyberlink mux - GBPVRConvert uses it to do the transcoding. In the past I always had problems recording straight to mpeg2 using it but found dvr-ms to be stable and the transcode worked fine afterwards. Just a real-time problem I never sorted out.

Perhaps it's time I tried again with the Cyberlink mux (or a different version). There's been quite a lot of versions of GB-PVR since I last tried so maybe things might have changed. There would be a few advantages doing it that way.

Cheers,
Brian

[bgowland]

sub - revisiting this one but with some more info.

The failure of the transcode from dvr-ms -> mpeg2 is consistent with about 60-70MB being the most I get. The resulting mpg file is, however, playable and stable WRT audio/video - it's just shorter than it should be. The DB also never gets updated to point to the mpg file.

I decided to do tests using manual recordings. If I set the record length to 2 mins, for example, the dvr-ms is approx. 25-35MB. In this case the transcode is completed successfully and the DB DOES get updated to point to the mpg rather than the original dvr-ms.

Then I spotted that the failed transcodes show an all zeros event code as in...

Code:

05:00:37.389    VERBOSE    DatabaseConnectionString:Data Source=".\gbpvr.db3";Version=3;New=True;
05:00:42.999    VERBOSE    Received event code: 00000000
05:00:42.999    VERBOSE    transcode processing complete

But the successful transcodes show this at the end of the log...

Code:

05:52:19.607    VERBOSE    DatabaseConnectionString:Data Source=".\gbpvr.db3";Version=3;New=True;
05:52:21.779    VERBOSE    Received EC_COMPLETE
05:52:21.779    VERBOSE    transcode processing complete

Is that any help?

Cheers,
Brian

[sub]

Can you see if the attached patch helps?

[bgowland]

I'll setup some tests and let you know.

[bgowland]

Yes. Looking better. I've done three tests and all transcoded automatically after recording.

In one test case, however, the DB didn't get updated to point at the mpg. When I deleted it from the MVP menu, the dvr-ms file disappeared from the folder and not the mpg.

I'll keep an eye on this and let you know if it happens again. Just happy that the transcode seems to be working OK now.

Cheers,
Brian