NPVR 3.2.9 won't record with Bitdefender AV Free

[JimF]

This is not exactly specific to 3.2.9, but also happens to some extent with 3.1.1, but here is the problem thus far:
Using Bitdefender Free anti-virus (a cloud-based service) causes NPVR to not record any show the next day. Apparently this is due to the overnight scan that Bitdefender performs, which seems to lock up NPVR. When it happened on 3.1.1, I simply uninstalled Bitdefender and the problem went away. I also run BOINC for distributed computing, and I thought that might be a part of the problem.

With a new installation of Win7 64-bit and a different version of BOINC I tried again with Bitdefender and NPVR 3.1.1. Initially, everything worked fine. But then Bitdefender flagged a file as suspicious (I suspect a false positive, as it was just a file on SourceForge.net), and then this morning I upgraded to NPVR 3.2.9. Now nothing will record, and un-installing Bitdefender does not fix it. A show folder and title will be created, but I get only 0 bit recordings. I have tried going back to 3.1.1 and various registry cleanings and re-installations, but that does not fix it. The tuner (HDHomeRun Prime) seems to be working fine, and seems to be detected properly by NPVR insofar as I can see.

Also, the NPVR recording service stops, usually as soon as the recording starts; restarting it does not help, and it just stops again.

I haven't seen 0 bit recordings in a while and forget the tricks to fix it. Any ideas?

EDIT: The problem has been fixed by uninstalling 3.2.9, re-installing Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 (vcredist_x86.exe) and also DirectX. But the DirectX was installed from the full redistributable this time; I had tried the web installer already, and that did not fix it. Finally, I re-installed 3.1.1 and it is working again. Whether there is a problem with 3.2.9 or not I don't know at this point, but will stick with what works.

[Reddwarf]

I guess 3.2.9 will run just fine now that you got 3.1.1 running and stay away from Bitfender. I'd recommend Avira, thou it is not the very best antivirus it coexists fine with npvr. Without logs it is hard to say, but I guess you had a firewall related problem.

[JimF]

I guess 3.2.9 will run just fine now that you got 3.1.1 running and stay away from Bitfender. I'd recommend Avira, thou it is not the very best antivirus it coexists fine with npvr. Without logs it is hard to say, but I guess you had a firewall related problem.

I always turn off the Windows firewall anyway, and the free version of Bitdefender does not have one. It is something about how they stop files they don't like from functioning. It had worked OK after the first nightly scan, and so I thought I was safe enough. But finding the false positive seemed to trigger its bad behavior again, though that might be just coincidental. At any rate, I will just use MSE; it works well enough. And I will try 3.2.9 again in a while too, though I didn't see any fix or feature relating to me, so it is not a high priority at the moment. Thanks for your input.

[Reddwarf]

I always turn off the Windows firewall anyway, and the free version of Bitdefender does not have one. It is something about how they stop files they don't like from functioning. It had worked OK after the first nightly scan, and so I thought I was safe enough. But finding the false positive seemed to trigger its bad behavior again, though that might be just coincidental. At any rate, I will just use MSE; it works well enough. And I will try 3.2.9 again in a while too, though I didn't see any fix or feature relating to me, so it is not a high priority at the moment. Thanks for your input.

I'd recommend upgrading anyway, if you run into any problem your logs will not be compatible, and there are some nice improvements in 3.2.9 too

[sub]

To be honest, there is nothing I can do about antivirus apps incorrectly thinking NextPVR is suspicious. Your best bet would be to contact the manufacturer of Bitdefender, and hopefully they'll fix the problem in their detection.

[JimF]

To be honest, there is nothing I can do about antivirus apps incorrectly thinking NextPVR is suspicious. Your best bet would be to contact the manufacturer of Bitdefender, and hopefully they'll fix the problem in their detection.

Quite right, and I was not expecting you to at all. I am a bit surprised that no one had mentioned it before though. But my setup with BOINC tends to cause problems once in a while, though it is hard to predict when they will come. I am going to banish it from my main PC, since I use mostly dedicated machines for distributed computing anyway.

By the way, Panda free is another cloud-based AV that works well and caused no problems; I used it for a while. I expect it is hit or miss which ones work and which cause problems though.

[johnsonx42]

your problem with 3.2.9 is likely completely unrelated to bitdefender, it just has similar symptoms to your previous problem. Install patch #1 from the patch sticky (or re-download NPVR 3.2.9; the installer has been updated to include this fix).

[JimF]

your problem with 3.2.9 is likely completely unrelated to bitdefender, it just has similar symptoms to your previous problem. Install patch #1 from the patch sticky (or re-download NPVR 3.2.9; the installer has been updated to include this fix).

Yes, I had concluded that already. I tried the new installer, and it records fine now. Thanks for your efforts.

But another problem with 3.2.9, which I think has already been reported, is that the program guide no longer shows up in red for the program currently being recorded. Also, I have found that it is not possible to cancel a recording in progress. That worked OK in 3.1.1, but now in 3.2.9 the show just keeps on recording.

[johnsonx42]

the program guide no longer shows up in red for the program currently being recorded.

yeah, I see that here too. I think sub was trying to grant one of my wishes at the last moment before release, and that change fouled this up. the feature I wanted seems to work, but this side-effect won't be popular; presumably it can be fixed without breaking the new feature again.

Also, I have found that it is not possible to cancel a recording in progress. That worked OK in 3.1.1, but now in 3.2.9 the show just keeps on recording.

I'm not seeing that here, I just canceled a recording and it worked normally. However, perhaps your issue is a further complication of the original issue with cablecard devices so I wouldn't see it here anyway.

[BrettB]

But another problem with 3.2.9, which I think has already been reported, is that the program guide no longer shows up in red for the program currently being recorded. Also, I have found that it is not possible to cancel a recording in progress. That worked OK in 3.1.1, but now in 3.2.9 the show just keeps on recording.

Do you mean that you can't cancel the recording from the TV Guide? The bug where the TV Guide stops recognizing that a show is recording (i.e. it briefly turns red, but then goes back to gray) means that the TV Guide option for Cancel isn't made available (since it doesn't think the program is being recorded). BUT, if you go to the Recordings list, the recording is listed properly there, and you can select it and cancel it from there.