Skipping problems with certain recordings in Samsung app

[cncb]

I have many recordings which cause skipping problems in fred's Samsung app. Skipping will work reasonably well until about 30 minutes into the program when skips are ignored and then playback often freezes. If I try to resume the recording it is unsuccessful and starts from the beginning.

The problematic recordings are OTA MPEG2 recordings from CBS at 1080i. I have one CBS recording that is perfectly fine but most of them are problematic (I can tell right away if I try to skip 20 minutes into the recording since it doesn't work on the "bad" ones). I tried to open the problematic recordings in tsmuxer to try to remux but tsmuxer gives me some kind of "bitstream" error and won't even open the file. I haven't done a ton of testing but the 720P recordings from FOX and ABC seem to not have any skipping problems.

I have tried the MB3 Samsung app and it has similar behavior with these recordings so it appears that there is something that the Samsung player doesn't like about these recordings. Is there some kind of report/data that I can provide you with for the "good" and "bad" CBS recordings in an effort to determine what is causing the skipping problems in certain recordings? Thanks.

[cncb]

Some more testing: The problematic recordings seem to skip and resume ok in OpenElec/XBMC, but consistently freeze up NPVR on my PC when trying to skip past ~2 minute mark (using Microsoft decoders).

[sub]

NextPVR's digital recordings are just a dump of whatever the broadcaster is transmitting. If the Samsung player doesn't like this, it's most likely one of two things.

1) The player doesn't like timeline changes in source material. ie, sometimes they splice together different content, leading to multiple segments of recording using different time lines. Some very basic players look at the first timestamp and the last timestamp in a file, and the length, to determine where to skip to. If this is the problem, you should find that remuxing your recordings helps resolve the issue.

2) Alternatively, they might just have math problems in the player. ie, like they're using 32 bit numbers, and when it gets over a certain size, like maybe bigger than 2GB (signed 32bit number) or 4GB (unsigned 32 bit number), then the math starts producing the wrong numbers. I seem to remember that CBS-HD was one of the highest bitrate ATSC channels, so it could be reaching these problem numbers before other channels. If this is your problem, then Samsung are going to be the only people capable of fixing it.

[sub]

Some more testing: The problematic recordings seem to skip and resume ok in OpenElec/XBMC, but consistently freeze up NPVR on my PC when trying to skip past ~2 minute mark (using Microsoft decoders).

Are you talking about playback in NextPVR on your PC now?

[cncb]

Are you talking about playback in NextPVR on your PC now?

Yes. It might take a while, but I could upload a sample somewhere if it would be helpful.

[Zeb]

If you are you using an HDHomeRun, have you tried selecting Other: ATSC/QAM as application instead of NextPVR?

[sub]

Yes. It might take a while, but I could upload a sample somewhere if it would be helpful.

Ok. I'm pretty sure this will just be decoder related though, or we'd see a lot more reports. I'm guessing your file wont freeze up on my machine.

[mvallevand]

For NextPVR recordings it should be using Timing.Info for seeking. Could you upload the NPVR logs showing the seek and the Timing.Info file for one of those files?

Martin

[cncb]

Where would I find Timing.Info?

[cncb]

If you are you using an HDHomeRun, have you tried selecting Other: ATSC/QAM as application instead of NextPVR?

I actually had it set to Windows Media Center. I didn't think this settings made a difference anymore, but I have changed it now.