Some solutions - some questions

[ccihon]

For those using HDHomeRun dual and possibly having issues with skip and ff/rw not functioning properly with some recordings, I seem to have solved it by using the HDHomerun config utility and selecting generic ATSC/QAM as application rather than NPVR. Seems counter-intuitive, I know, but before selecting that, every FOX affiliate ATSC or QAM recording of some length I made, as well as some ABC ones, would hang or lock on a skip, precluding the use of comskip. Will monitor - seems to work reliably now. Have not tried any other HDHR application profiles yet to see if others would work as well or better. I think the channels in question were recorded with ts files that contained timing errors - and now they are not!

On to the questions:

Lately I have noticed that if I watch a recording while that recording is still in progress, I will be "kicked-out" of the playback stream when the recording ends as scheduled (in my case 2mins after program end). I do have comskip enabled "on the fly" which is to say, it generates commercial info via edl file during recording. Is this why playback is stopped - and/or can that be avoided?

Other question - do "AV"-specific hard drives offer better performance on PC pvr apps or only on dedicated DVR hardware? Should it matter much if one spools live timeshift files to another volume or physical device than the one used for recording?

Thanks all!

[whurlston]

Interesting idea on the ATSC/QAM. I just happened to make that change myself for other reasons but I'll keep an eye on my FOX recordings to see if it fixes the issue.

RE: AV specific drives are basically enterprise class 5400rpm drives without RAID TLER. They are a mid point between the consumer drives and the enterprise drives. Unless you are planning on multiple recordings 24/7, there's really no need for them.

[BrettB]

For those using HDHomeRun dual and possibly having issues with skip and ff/rw not functioning properly with some recordings, I seem to have solved it by using the HDHomerun config utility and selecting generic ATSC/QAM as application rather than NPVR.

Back when NPVR first came out and the HDHR only had a GBPVR setting (not the NPVR setting), I recall having to set my HDHR to the "Other ATSC/QAM" option to get it to work with NPVR. One "downside" to that setting was that the HDHR would send the entire transport stream from the channel over the network to NPVR which could results in network saturation of a 100Mbit segment with a couple of concurrent recordings of "full" channels. With the setting on the HDHR as GBPVR (or later NPVR), NPVR sets the HDHR to filter out the parts of the transport stream not associated with the "program(s)" or "sub-channel(s)" that NPVR was actually recording which greatly reduces the network rate (at least with my cable and HD channels).

You might want to use the HDHomeRun Config (GUI) application to monitor the Network Rate for your tuner with each of those settings.

[fuzzweed]

On to the questions:

Lately I have noticed that if I watch a recording while that recording is still in progress, I will be "kicked-out" of the playback stream when the recording ends as scheduled (in my case 2mins after program end). I do have comskip enabled "on the fly" which is to say, it generates commercial info via edl file during recording. Is this why playback is stopped - and/or can that be avoided?

Are you running the latest version with patches. This was a known bug a while back, but it was fixed a release or two ago on my machine.

[ccihon]

Back when NPVR first came out and the HDHR only had a GBPVR setting (not the NPVR setting), I recall having to set my HDHR to the "Other ATSC/QAM" option to get it to work with NPVR. One "downside" to that setting was that the HDHR would send the entire transport stream from the channel over the network to NPVR which could results in network saturation of a 100Mbit segment with a couple of concurrent recordings of "full" channels. With the setting on the HDHR as GBPVR (or later NPVR), NPVR sets the HDHR to filter out the parts of the transport stream not associated with the "program(s)" or "sub-channel(s)" that NPVR was actually recording which greatly reduces the network rate (at least with my cable and HD channels).

You might want to use the HDHomeRun Config (GUI) application to monitor the Network Rate for your tuner with each of those settings.

I do think the network rate indicated is much higher, but I am running gigabit wired throughout and have no issues. At least for me, the NPVR-specific setting causes major skip issues.

[ccihon]

Are you running the latest version with patches. This was a known bug a while back, but it was fixed a release or two ago on my machine.

I applied the very latest patches just a few days back and still experience this issue - I will try comskip as a post-process only and report back - thanks!

[ccihon]

Are you running the latest version with patches. This was a known bug a while back, but it was fixed a release or two ago on my machine.

I just tried to playback with comskip placed as a strictly postprocess, and disabled the "livetv"option, so no edl existed during playback. Unfortunately, playback halted right when the recording ended regardless. I do have the very latest patches installed. Any ideas? This occurs on a machine that is set as a client. I can try to convince the family to wait until a recording is ended before starting playback, but it won't stick.

[johnsonx42]

very odd... there was a bug like this, introduced and then squashed by updates to NPVR 2.3.6 if I recall correctly. I watch recordings in-progress all the time, and have never encountered this.

edit: actually it was a bug in 2.4.3, fixed with a patch shortly after release. that one only affected PC Clients, not the main NPVR machine.

please post logs showing this happening. Are you just running on one machine, or is this a client-server setup? If the latter, post full logs from both sides.

[ccihon]

It's a two-machine setup - a client and server. This issue does not occur when watching playback on the host machine, only on my stand-alone client machine.. Attached is the log from the client when it last occurred - you'll see near the end where "Survivor" stopped playing as the recording ended, but playback was at about 70% thru the recording. Which logfiles(s) from the server machine would be useful?

I realized I am running the very latest "post rollup" patch files with the exception that I am using the "NShared" file specifically called out for use with Web Console here:
http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...-1-Release - might that file be an issue? Log file from client below...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]35999[/ATTACH]

[johnsonx42]

That nshared is very back-rev from the current code. Please update to the latest... I don't know if it has anything to do with the problem or not, but there have been a bunch of changes to NShared since then so there's no point in troubleshooting on old code.

Reven ought to update his install notes to say not to overwrite newer nshared versions (and that future nshared versions are fine to use).