Charter, Schedulesdirect, NPVR or user fault?

[soyrunner]

I failed to record Orphan Black for the last three weeks for one reason or another missing the new episodes. I had upgraded my Charter account to Silver expressly for the BBC HD Orphan Black series. Last night the failure was due to my having turned on Windows firewall for the first time since starting recording some weeks ago. I got zero file size .ts recordings and couldn't get LiveTV on NPVR. I got that sorted out this morning with firewall exceptions.

So, to test the quality of Fast DIVX AVI (at 100% quality) versus Normal (at 50% quality) on MCEBuddy, I recorded a half hour BBCA HD expecting to get Blue Planet. I got instead a half hour of a skin care commercial (Charter Cable has skin in the game, Tivo rentals?)

So, I looked at the Zap2it again and saw it was still suppose to be Blue Planet on channel 770 but on NPVR channel 770 LiveTV there was another half hour long infomercial. I turned on the Charter set-top HD cable box (which I avoid if at all possible) to see what it had on 770 and found Blue Planet playing. I said okay, I must have the wrong lineup on Schedulesdirect.

Rather than go right to schedulesdirect and change the lineup I decided to troubleshoot the lineup choice using Zap2it first. I shut down NPVR with the infomercial playing on ch 770 and allowed 770 to continue playing Blue Planet on the TV. There are various location choices for Charter in my area. The list shows Charter Digital Rebuild, Charter Cable, and Charter Digital. I had the rebuild for a while until they stopped providing it (last week's loss of Orphan Black) after which I changed schedulesdirect to the Charter Digital lineup and all seemed only. As it turns out the other two choices aside from Charter Digital are no longer functional. Clicking those on Zap2it gets a 404 page error.

So, I open NPVR LiveTV to ch 770 and now Blue Planet is playing right along with the TV.

So, I deduce that either NPVR had wrong data that changed or Charter is screwing with me.

How did the LiveTV of NPVR change from showing different content on a channel that is on the cablebox output to suddenly having the identical content without any changes? I have autoupdate of EPG turned off as I found it would kill MCEBUDDY transcoding.

Looking for input on this loss. Thanks.

soyrunner

[sub]

What device are you recording with?

If you can reproduce the problem of the content not looking correct, and can post the logs showing the attempt, I can at least confirm what channel it tried to watch.

[soyrunner]

Okay, which log would you have me post?

I note I don't believe it's a drm problem. I had tried streaming from HdHomeRun to a WDTV Live with WDLXTV firmware. The connection quality was poor probably due to low memory so that's out but I did stream a few channels. Those HD channels having drm were noted with [drm] following the channel ID. I did stream a channel having the [drm] tag so shows get through, although I don't know if the particular show at that time was drm protected. Anyway, the Blue Planet show this morning would not have been drm protected.

[sub]

Probably best to zip and post them all.

[christheman]

I got zero file size .ts recordings and couldn't get LiveTV on NPVR. I got that sorted out this morning with firewall exceptions.

I record off my cable box to a Hauppauge HD-PVR (for the time being). I have had zero byte files happen, just like you did, but for different reasons. I have had connection issues between my cable box and my capture device with both HDMI and analog component cables. Resetting the power to the capture device usually fixes it. It is not that common though, and I suspect the cable box causes it when it reboots in the middle of the night to download its TV Guide info.

So, to test the quality of Fast DIVX AVI (at 100% quality) versus Normal (at 50% quality) on MCEBuddy, I recorded a half hour BBCA HD expecting to get Blue Planet. I got instead a half hour of a skin care commercial (Charter Cable has skin in the game, Tivo rentals?)

Could the skin care commercial have been on the lowest channel? (ch 2 ?) If so then your device may have reset and gone to the lowest channel.

So, I looked at the Zap2it again and saw it was still suppose to be Blue Planet on channel 770 but on NPVR channel 770 LiveTV there was another half hour long infomercial. I turned on the Charter set-top HD cable box (which I avoid if at all possible) to see what it had on 770 and found Blue Planet playing. I said okay, I must have the wrong lineup on Schedulesdirect.

Rather than go right to schedulesdirect and change the lineup I decided to troubleshoot the lineup choice using Zap2it first. I shut down NPVR with the infomercial playing on ch 770 and allowed 770 to continue playing Blue Planet on the TV. There are various location choices for Charter in my area. The list shows Charter Digital Rebuild, Charter Cable, and Charter Digital. I had the rebuild for a while until they stopped providing it (last week's loss of Orphan Black) after which I changed schedulesdirect to the Charter Digital lineup and all seemed only. As it turns out the other two choices aside from Charter Digital are no longer functional. Clicking those on Zap2it gets a 404 page error.

So, I open NPVR LiveTV to ch 770 and now Blue Planet is playing right along with the TV.

So, I deduce that either NPVR had wrong data that changed or Charter is screwing with me.

How did the LiveTV of NPVR change from showing different content on a channel that is on the cablebox output to suddenly having the identical content without any changes?

Could be a communication problem with the device feeding your NPVR. Did you reboot something just before the channels finally lined up?

I have autoupdate of EPG turned off as I found it would kill MCEBUDDY transcoding.

Looking for input on this loss. Thanks.

soyrunner

The only thing I could clearly imagine would be intermittent connectivity issues leading to a mistuned channel, like I mentioned above, but that is only a guess.

[soyrunner]

Yes, it's a mistuned channel I think. I called Charter and was told that they thought it was their fault so I just said yes and hung up. Then I tried going to QuickTV of HDHomeRun3-cc and dialed in channel 770 and got the correct show just like from the cable box while in nPVR if I go to that channel I get various other channels.

I did the merge channels with same names once but have gone thru and unmerged all channels one at a time.

I go to Settings->Channels->770 BBCA HD, click Details, it's mapped properly to 770 BBCAHD, I click OK, then right click 770 and click Unmerge. Still, if I go to TV Guide, and click 769 then Watch, the program corresponds with 769 from the cable box, if I click 772 (there is no 771, I may have deleted it and haven't found a way to put it back) on 772 is the same program as on the cable box but on 770, although the TV Guide shows BBCA HD, and shows the listing Weird Science (which is playing on the cable box 770), if I go to watch Weird Science on nPVR I get what's on channel 3 and I've disabled channel 3 on schedulesdirect then emptied and updated the EPG.

So, it looks like I'll fail to record Orphan Black again this week. I'd just rather not sit up and watch it at 1AM or pay for it on Hulu Plus.

So, suggestions on how to put this right?

[soyrunner]

It's a foreign channel in a xenophobic hinterland. Few in the hinterland record the channel and those that do use the cable company Tivo or Tivo with subscription for scheduling data. I'm likely the only user in this zip code that records that channel using data from schedulesdirect and the schedulesdirect get's its lineup channel code from Zap2it - recall it's a hinterland zipcode and lineup so non-visible inaccurate code information on that channel might get by unnoticed except by scheduledirect users of that particular lineup and channel.

Why one would ask? Besides that they just can?

Once upon a time in a fabled, politically powerful area of the northland, a corrupt politician looked at various cable companies vying for the fabled kingdom's contract to be the one and only cable company to serve that northland. That corrupt politician bought lots of stock in one company then told his cronies to give the kingdom's blessing/contract to that cable company. They did. He became wealthier but ended up before a grand jury. Many of the jurors knew one of the major witnesses against that powerful corrupt politician because somehow the jury pool was from a hamlet of which the major witness had at one time been mayor. Why would the kingdom's court clerk sit a tainted jury that way? Well there was a bigger game afoot. One of the corrupt politician's sub-group of the political party was also to be before that grand jury for another matter, taking low interest loans for not collecting interest on the area's tax gelt held by the banks. When an indictment was passed on the corrupt powerful politician, there were reactions in the lives of the jury members, albeit more subtle than a case in the far west of the land where a victim was beaten badly by the knights, went to court, knights in that far west then started giving speeding tickets to chariot drivers who were friends and neighbors of the jurors and other sum such. So, when the low interest loan case came up the jurors, now wondering what hornets nest they had stirred up with the indictment of that powerful corrupt politician (who could almost claim the jury was prejudiced against him) they decided not to indict that low interest taking friend of the corrupt politician. That low interest taking friend of the corrupt politician went from comptroller to senator of the kingdom bringing with him the story of how an indictment against him for taking low interest loans failed to stand. That larger game which had been afoot was just that. The kingdom's banks now had a friend in the senate and soon other senators took low interest loans. Say 30+ years pass and the banks start to fail. A vote is taken and the banks are told to sink or swim on their own, they aren't getting a bailout and everyone goes home for a holiday. Not all go home however. The chair of the banking committee (having taken no-interest loans) calls another vote with only his friends in town and the vote grants the banks their bailout. But not indicting that low interest taking politician didn't help all the jurors way back there 30+ years ago. One of the jurors previously bowled in the same league as the major witness, former mayor of his hamlet. As those things go, although not on the same team, they did get to sit and chat when sitting as opponents and thus were on a first name basis. That juror died a few short years later but those were difficult years for him and his family, after the jury. The family moves eventually to the southland but strangely it was not just a trade of a devil you know for another, but devilish effects from that northland continued to effect the family. The small cable company became very powerful and is probably responsible for the high cost of watching TV as high profits were in the interest of that corrupt powerful politician. A former COO of that now powerful northern cable company became the CEO of the southland cable company of which minions might be sending wrong data to zap2it and thence onto schedulesdirect. Ah it's a cruel world.

[mikeh49]

Nice story, but I don't think it's quite that complicated to get NPVR to tune BBCA-HD.

Why haven't we seen any logs?

[soyrunner]

Okay, I've shut down NRecord in taskmanager so as to gain access to NRecord.log. I put a line across the log so as to differentiate new recordings. I will now record BBCA HD channel 770, which by the way is still showing channel 3, and post the additions to the log. I'll Quick Record for 2 minutes then mash cancel. Well, that might not work. I see a number of Block Erupters I have running here have all gone dead indicating that my cable connection just went down. Then the power went out. Back up, I'll try again. No devices and nPVR. Okay got devices back and recording started automatically. Recording just shut down as the show ended. A new log started. It states I'm getting Top Gear on BBCA HD recorded but what's in the .ts file is channel 3 MyTV airing an Atlanta music training commercial I think.

[...startup]
2014-05-17 11:58:13.843 [DEBUG][6] MVPManager thread started
2014-05-17 11:58:13.875 [DEBUG][6] MVP Server: C:\Program Files (x86)\NPVR\NextPVR.exe
2014-05-17 11:58:14.046 [INFO][4] Using local in-process recording service
2014-05-17 11:59:07.781 [DEBUG][4] RecordingServiceProxy@exit
2014-05-17 11:59:09.921 [INFO][4] RecordingService.Startup()
2014-05-17 11:59:09.921 [INFO][4] Starting remoting service (on port 8968)
2014-05-17 11:59:10.859 [DEBUG][4] OnStart() complete...
2014-05-17 11:59:10.937 [DEBUG][7] Requesting wake up for 'EPGWAKEUP' at 5/18/2014 9:00 AM
2014-05-17 11:59:10.937 [DEBUG][7] Next EPG update time: 5/18/2014 9:00 AM
2014-05-17 11:59:11.421 [INFO][5] RecordingService starting...
2014-05-17 11:59:11.640 [DEBUG][5] PurgeOldDeletes()
2014-05-17 11:59:11.640 [DEBUG][5] Loading recording schedule
2014-05-17 11:59:11.718 [DEBUG][5] CancelAllWakeupRequests
2014-05-17 11:59:11.718 [DEBUG][5] Requesting wake up for 'RecordingOID1461' at 5/17/2014 10:58 AM
2014-05-17 11:59:11.718 [DEBUG][5] Requesting wake up for 'RecordingOID1451' at 5/17/2014 8:58 PM
2014-05-17 11:59:11.718 [DEBUG][5] Requesting wake up for 'RecordingOID1459' at 5/17/2014 8:58 PM
2014-05-17 11:59:11.734 [DEBUG][5] Requesting wake up for 'RecordingOID1460' at 5/18/2014 6:28 PM
2014-05-17 11:59:11.734 [DEBUG][5] Requesting wake up for 'RecordingOID1457' at 5/18/2014 7:28 PM
2014-05-17 11:59:11.734 [DEBUG][5] Requesting wake up for 'RecordingOID1456' at 5/18/2014 8:28 PM
2014-05-17 11:59:11.734 [DEBUG][5] Requesting wake up for 'RecordingOID1452' at 5/18/2014 8:58 PM
2014-05-17 11:59:11.734 [DEBUG][5] Requesting wake up for 'RecordingOID1449' at 5/18/2014 9:58 PM
2014-05-17 11:59:11.734 [DEBUG][5] Requesting wake up for 'RecordingOID1458' at 5/19/2014 7:58 PM
2014-05-17 11:59:11.734 [DEBUG][5] Requesting wake up for 'RecordingOID1453' at 5/19/2014 8:58 PM
2014-05-17 11:59:11.734 [DEBUG][5] Requesting wake up for 'RecordingOID1454' at 5/19/2014 8:58 PM
2014-05-17 11:59:11.734 [DEBUG][5] Requesting wake up for 'RecordingOID1446' at 5/21/2014 7:58 PM
2014-05-17 11:59:11.734 [DEBUG][5] Requesting wake up for 'RecordingOID1447' at 5/21/2014 7:58 PM
2014-05-17 11:59:11.734 [DEBUG][5] Requesting wake up for 'RecordingOID1455' at 5/21/2014 7:58 PM
2014-05-17 11:59:11.734 [DEBUG][5] Requesting wake up for 'RecordingOID1448' at 5/21/2014 9:58 PM
2014-05-17 11:59:11.734 [DEBUG][5] Requesting wake up for 'RecordingOID1450' at 5/23/2014 9:58 PM
2014-05-17 11:59:14.500 [DEBUG][5] DefaultDirectoryChoice: first
2014-05-17 11:59:14.515 [DEBUG][5] allocating recording target filename: C:\Temp\Top Gear\Top Gear_20140517_11001200.ts
2014-05-17 11:59:14.531 [DEBUG][5] About to start recording (1461 on 27): C:\Temp\Top Gear\Top Gear_20140517_11001200.ts...
2014-05-17 11:59:14.531 [DEBUG][5] Free space 1322924613632 (C:\)
2014-05-17 11:59:14.593 [DEBUG][5] HDHomeRunRecorder@1
2014-05-17 11:59:14.593 [DEBUG][5] HDHomeRunRecorder@2.0
2014-05-17 11:59:14.593 [DEBUG][5] HDHomeRunRecorder@2.1
2014-05-17 11:59:14.593 [DEBUG][5] HDHomeRunRecorder@2.2 nextPort=36312
2014-05-17 11:59:14.593 [DEBUG][5] HDHomeRunRecorder@2.2.0
2014-05-17 11:59:14.593 [DEBUG][5] HDHomeRunRecorder@2.2.0@allocated
2014-05-17 11:59:14.593 [DEBUG][5] HDHomeRunRecorder@2.3
2014-05-17 11:59:14.593 [DEBUG][5] Allocated port: 36312
2014-05-17 11:59:14.593 [DEBUG][5] HDHomeRunRecorder@3
2014-05-17 11:59:14.593 [DEBUG][5] About to start HDHR device. Checking status for information sake... (could tell if it's already in use elsewhere)
2014-05-17 11:59:14.593 [DEBUG][5] Executing: C:\Program Files\Silicondust\HDHomeRun\hdhomerun_config.exe 131C41E7 get /tuner0/status
2014-05-17 11:59:14.640 [DEBUG][5] Status: ch=none lock=none ss=0 snq=0 seq=0 bps=0 pps=0

2014-05-17 11:59:15.984 [DEBUG][8] Client Listener starting on port 7969
2014-05-17 11:59:18.515 [DEBUG][5] SetTarget@2
2014-05-17 11:59:18.515 [DEBUG][5] Executing: C:\Program Files\Silicondust\HDHomeRun\hdhomerun_config.exe 131C41E7 set /tuner0/vchannel 3
2014-05-17 11:59:20.281 [DEBUG][5] ForcedIP.xml does not exists
2014-05-17 11:59:21.015 [DEBUG][5] 131C41E7 can be found via adapter with ip address: 192.168.1.12
2014-05-17 11:59:21.015 [DEBUG][5] Executing: C:\Program Files\Silicondust\HDHomeRun\hdhomerun_config.exe 131C41E7 set /tuner0/target rtp://192.168.1.12:36312
2014-05-17 11:59:21.015 [DEBUG][5] SetTarget@2
2014-05-17 11:59:21.015 [DEBUG][5] Allocated Handle: 1
2014-05-17 11:59:22.000 [DEBUG][5] Temp at 5/17/2014 11:59:32 AM
2014-05-17 11:59:22.000 [DEBUG][5] Started recording (1461:1:C:\Temp\Top Gear\Top Gear_20140517_11001200.ts)
2014-05-17 11:59:30.937 [DEBUG][5] No C:\Documents and Settings\All Users.WINDOWS\Application Data\NPVR\Scripts\ParallelProcessing.bat
2014-05-17 11:59:30.937 [DEBUG][9] DownloadMetaData: 'Top Gear'
2014-05-17 11:59:30.937 [DEBUG][9] DownloadMetaData@1
2014-05-17 11:59:31.062 [DEBUG][9] DownloadMetaData@already has poster
2014-05-17 11:59:31.062 [DEBUG][9] DownloadMetaData@2
2014-05-17 11:59:31.062 [DEBUG][9] DownloadMetaData@exit
2014-05-17 12:00:00.125 [DEBUG][5] Stopping recording (1461 on 27). Past end time of recording. 1
2014-05-17 12:00:00.343 [DEBUG][5] StopStream(1)
2014-05-17 12:00:00.343 [DEBUG][5] Stopping graph
2014-05-17 12:00:00.343 [DEBUG][5] SetTarget@2
2014-05-17 12:00:04.359 [DEBUG][5] Graph stopping...
2014-05-17 12:00:04.500 [DEBUG][5] Graph stopped
2014-05-17 12:00:04.500 [DEBUG][5] Removing filter NPVR Writer
2014-05-17 12:00:04.515 [DEBUG][5] Removing filter NPVR Net Push Source
2014-05-17 12:00:04.625 [DEBUG][5] Executing: C:\Program Files\Silicondust\HDHomeRun\hdhomerun_config.exe 131C41E7 set /tuner0/channel none
2014-05-17 12:00:06.000 [DEBUG][5] No C:\Documents and Settings\All Users.WINDOWS\Application Data\NPVR\Scripts\PostProcessing.bat

soyrunner

[mvallevand]

Compress and attach this output from your HDHR http://<192.168.1.12/lineup.xml?show=unprotected. Do that for logs next time too.

Martin