Current NMT/NPVR bugs

[zaldwaik]

I have been using NPVR with NMT for a while and I am encountering some issues that I am hoping Sub would have the time to look into. I have 3 NMT devices with heavy use of live TV and Recordings. I tried all sorts of tweaks including acquiring a new HDhomerun tuner but little changed. I would be happy to do any needed testing.

1. Live TV hangs randomly and only a hard reset of the PCH would fix it.
2. Live TV lack of seek and skip support. I can tell my family to not to do it, but it is hard to avoid and it often hangs the PCH requiring a hard reset
3. NMT would not start sometimes. Apparently this is caused by old connections hanging from another PCH device and not being released. A restart of the recording server is needed to fix this issue

Thanks in advance

[stustunz]

Why not just set it to record in tv guide then select play from the tv guide

Edit sorry changed watch to play

[BrettB]

3. NMT would not start sometimes. Apparently this is caused by old connections hanging from another PCH device and not being released. A restart of the recording server is needed to fix this issue

I am seeing similar behavior sometimes. The workaround that I've been using is to start "extra" MVP servers. I've only got 1 NMT, but I have NPVR setup to start 3 MVP servers. That way, when one gets hungs, the NMT just uses the next one without any user intervention. (Good since my roommate doesn't know how to restart the NPVR server.)

[zaldwaik]

Why not just set it to record in tv guide then select play from the tv guide

I do not think that is a solution. The idea is to browse channels as you would with a regular TV and decide to watch something. If I have to make the family jump through so many hoops just to watch TV, they will throw the PCH away. Ideally the interface will be immune to hanging or crashing, as is the case with watching stuff directly with the PCH, or some other TV box.

[steveum]

I had the same issue in regards to running out of servers. I too just configured npvr to start a couple extra MVP servers. I think I have mine set to 5, but I only have 2 nmt devices. At first when I did this, I thought I would just delay the problem until the extra servers were not reclaimed. But after running this way for several months, it appears that just having just a couple extra seems to totally make the problem go away.

[mvallevand]

Recently I have found that when I get the black screen playing live TV, I can force NPVR into a working state by doing a channel change and then I can either stop or change back to channel I want to watch.

Martin

[zaldwaik]

Thanks, I will give that a try. Is there a reset command in NMT to restart it in cases of a crash? I programmed my remote with reboot button (not available in regular PCH remote) that allows for a soft PCH reboot, only that it does not work from within NMT. I sometimes try

Code:

sh -c /etc/mvpmc/startmeup 2>/dev/null >/dev/null &

through telnet but it is not always successful and requires a laptop nearby.

[mvallevand]

In the livetv blank screen scenario that I am talking about, mvpmcx2 and NextPVR don't crash, NextPVR just thinks it is playing LiveTV and doesn't try to update the screens the mvpmcx2 is waiting for. There no command line for this. You can check to see if mvpmcx2 is running with the ps command and if it isn't you might be able to just use

/etc/mvpmc/startmeup 2>/dev/null >/dev/null &


Sub and I are still looking into solutions for this too.

Martin

[zaldwaik]

Recently I have found that when I get the black screen playing live TV, I can force NPVR into a working state by doing a channel change and then I can either stop or change back to channel I want to watch.

Unfortunately this did not work for me. I even get blank screen on channel changes themselves, not as constant as before, but it does happen.

[sub]

1. Live TV hangs randomly and only a hard reset of the PCH would fix it.

I havnt tested it myself, but you could see if this patch helps.