Failed back to back recordings

[soccerdad]

Over the last few weeks, I have been having failed 0 byte recordings. I get them when I have back to back recordings. Tonight I tried testing and have some logs. I scheduled two recordings back to back on the same channel. Then for the next time slot, I scheduled a recording for a different channel and then another for a different channel again. I got the first two correct, then on the channel change, (19:30 smarter than 5th grader), I got a zero byte and again at 20:00. I manually stopped the recording and restarted it and it started recording fine.

Ideas? I see in the logs that it knows it is not recording, but I don't see anything as to why.

[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

[soccerdad]

With more testing it again failed on back to backs when it had to change channels on my QAM tuner. B2B on the same channel works fine. Also, it will change the channel fine and record if it is not back to back with another show.

Anyone else have this issue or knows that yours does work on QAM switching channels on back to back recordings?

I rescanned and remapped the channels and it did not help. Switching QAM channels in live tv is not a problem.

[soccerdad]

I also should add that I tried unchecking "use live TV..." and I can change channels fine. This really confuses me since I thought this preplay delay was actually starting recordings so I would have expected some tuning issues jumping around since this is kind of like back to back recordings.

[soccerdad]

Well this seems to be more than just failed back to back recordings. I get 0-byte files on single recordings as well. Problem is it is not all the time. I have not found a pattern yet. I completly reinstalled a fresh version of gbpvr and still get the same problem. Full rescans and all. I works fine on live tv and on time shift, but spotty on scheduled recordings which is killing me for the low WAF. I have heard cable DVR too many times this week!

Since the logs notice the "unusually small recordings" and trys to relock, I guess it is a tuning issue. The signal is very good and everything else works with the tuner. Is there any setting I might have missed? I have all the BDA twice settings true. Any thoughts?

[mian]

2009-10-09 18:27:38.297 VERBOSE [5] Found new Pending recording needed wakeup request: Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? * (10/9/2009 7:30:00 PM)
2009-10-09 18:29:00.099 ERROR [5] Unexpected error checking tuning on back-to-back multirecords

I had the exact same error in my logs a few weeks ago with a few of my digital recordings. As I was using 1.3.11 still (and still am), I applied the recommend patch for multirecord issues (don't use if you aren't using 1.3.11) and haven't had the issue repeat since.

I don't understand what multirecording does, but even so I'm getting ready to turn it off. This wasn't the first time I've some issues with multirecording errors, and since I don't know what benefit it brings, I may as well try it without it.

[soccerdad]

Thanks for looking at the logs. I am on 1.4.7 so I don't think I need the patch. I might try turning off multirecord to see if it helps, but that does not really make sense. ... but I guess I don't understand what it is doing now.....

FYI, QAM can broadcast many shows on a base channel. That is why you see 115.224, 115.12 etc. All of those channels are on a single transport stream "channel". The QAM tuner tunes to that transport stream channel and then the software (gbpvr) works its magic and splits out the specific sub channel you want to record. Multi record let's you record as many sub channels off a single TS at a time that you want. Many cable companies put several or all of the networks on a single TS. This will let you record ABC, NBC, Fox all at the same time off a single tuner (if they are on the same TS). That works really cool and is why I am on cable and not OTA.

[mian]

Thanks, that actually does sound cool. I'll have to collect my hd channels and see which ones share a ts.

I know not many share on my setup, but I seem to recall at least a couple being paired together.

[nightwalker]

This probably isn't it but it's worth looking at anyway. The last time I had a problem like this, after a lot of hair pulling and trying to find wrong settings, etc. The problem turned out to be a hard disk going bad. Sometimes all worked perfectly, other times recordings got cut short or just didn't record at all.