Failed to lock a signal

[roy]

Since upgrade to 2.3.6, I have done multiple recordings with my DCR-2650 without the locking up problems I had previously, as described and fixed by these items from the change log.

- digital recording is now done 'out of process' to workaround an issue where digital devices could sometimes lockup when stopping recordings, requiring recording service to be restarted.
- fixed a problem that could cause a DCR-2650/Prime to indicate it was still in use even after it finishes with the tuner.

Now I get the occasional failed recording error message "No errors, but no data delivered. This is usually because the device failed to lock a signal". These recordings have a 0 byte .ts file.

I am also occasionally getting successful recordings, but that when played, do not have the full recording. The timeline shows the full recording time, but when played skips through to various spots in the timeline, and the file size is much smaller than it should be. It seems like it locks the signal and starts the recording properly, but then loses the signal off and on. I don't know if this is a similar issue to Sheik Yerbouti's post here today.

I've been having these problems with the DCR-2650, and prior to 2.3.6 they would lock up the recording service and/or tuner. Now that the locking up has been eliminated, how can I debug this problem?

Can nPVR tell when the tuner failed to lock a signal and try again?
Is my signal strength an issue? The tuner diagnostics show it is good.
I didn't gather the logs from when this occurred last night. Should I reproduce and provide logs?

Thanks for all the work on 2.3.6 for the DCR-2650.
Roy

[sub]

Just to be clear, its only the digital recording plugin that does out-of-process recording. ie, ATSC/QAM/DVB-S/DVB-T/DVB-C. The DCR-2650 uses a different capture plugin, so isnt out-of-process. Just about nothing should have changed on the DCR-2650 front.

If you've got a recording that is still in-progress but sitting at 0 bytes, probably your best bet is running the HDHomeRun Config utility to check what it says is happening. ie, whether their is a channel lock, and the network rate.

If it's happening often enough, there is some lower level logging we can turn on tell if it's receiving data from the device.

[roy]

OK, I'll keep an eye on it.

Thanks

[roy]

I scheduled dual back to back to back recordings. At 18:00 both recorded properly. At 18:30 "UNO's Sports" recorded properly, but "How it's Made" created 0 byte file on tuner 1. The picture attached shows the status of each tuner during this time, both look normal. At 19:00 both recordings created 0 byte files. I cancelled each recording and the tuners released gracefully. Prior to 2.3.6 the tuners and recording service would have been all locked up at this point. Logs attached.

I just tried and was able to watch both channels live, and the tuner status was similar.

Low level logging?

[sub]

Try creating a c:\temp directory, and set HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\NPVR\LogNetPush=1 (DWORD), then post the c:\temp\netpush.txt (along with nrecord.log) after the problem recurs. I think it'll only log from one device though, so we might not see the output from both.

[roy]

netpush.txt quickly grew to 600MB while the problem recured. Too big to post, but the logs attached include a snip from it that I think shows where the error occurred.

[sub]

Can you see if this helps? If not, post the logs again.

[roy]

No, it didn't.

[roy]

Sub, Are you sill looking into this? It is a problem for me. Can I provide more info?

Thanks

[sub]

I couldn't really tell anything from the log. Try this. It might help. If not, post the logs again.