A few issues with NextPVR

[tesla1886]

First please let me say that I have wanted a PVR for years. For the last decade or so I have only Direc TV which my understanding, there is no tuner card that will work. In other words to watch TV with Direct TV you have to use their DVRs and receivers. I recently decided to put up an aerial antenna and was surprised at how many channels I could get. So I decided that I would use my tax refund to build a PVR. However, I still do not have it set up the way I want it, need more money for that!

That being said I have been experiencing quit a few issues of NextPVR, these are listed in ascending order of importance:

1. First npvr hangs or freezes, then in a few seconds Windows forces it to close. Sometimes opening the program and continuing the video it will crash again and other times there are no issues. I cannot swear to it, but it mostly seems to be only happen with programs recorded on one channel. This can occur several times watching a ½ hour program, however I am currently almost 2 hours since the last crash
   
2. Channel 2.2 (LAFF) has four fours of one show I want to record daily, this show is the main reason I put up the aerial in the first place, for some reason only 2 hours of the four are recorded
   
3. Occasionally, some of my channels disappear, for a lack of a better way to put it. I currently do not have a remote that works, so I tune using the on-screen controls with a mouse. Sometimes channels 2.1 (ABC), 2.2 (LAFF) and 2.3 (BOUNC) are not available. Of these three 2.2 is the only one I currently care about. I am not sure about any others. I usually only watch shows that have been record so I can skip through the commercials.
   
4. I am not sure if it is from signal loss on the aerial that I am using or if it is a glitch with the software or what, but it seems video is skipped or missing.
   
5. I am using Schedules Direct to download programming data. However, it does not download data for all channels. I realize that they may not have data for all channels, I just want to verify that there is not something else going on. Some of the channels are again 2.1 2.2 and 2.3. For these channels I download the data over the antenna which only downloads about 12 hours at a time, that makes me a little uncomfortable, but if that is the way it is, then I will just have to deal with it. If it would at least download 24 hours at a time it wouldn’t be too bad.
   
6. Sometimes the video is in slow motion and the audio at normal speed for a few seconds, may 5 or 10 but not more than that. Then they are both at normal speeds
   
7. Occasionally, even though npvr is fast forwarding through the video at a high rate I still hear audio. When I stop it from fast forwarding it skips to the end of the video.
   

I am using version 4.0.4. My system, if it matters is as follows:
AMD FX-6300 6 core
16 gig RAM
Gigabyte MoBo GA-970 DS3P
GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 2 Series GeForce GT 730 video card
1 TB System drive
6 TB for record videos
Hauppauge 1609 tuner card

[tesla1886]

I apologize I forgot to attach my logs.

When I used 7 zip to sip them I got four erros, ndigitalhost-20.log, nditigalhost-22.log, nrecord.log and web.log all could not be zipped because they were in use. I even closed NPVR and the NPVR service. Hopefully this will not prevent finding solutions I listed above.

Thank You again

[Graham]

Firstly, the easiest way to get logs might be NextPVR Settings --> About and click the button to zip your logs. It helps if you tells us the time that you had a problem so that we know where to look in the logs.

Computer devices are reported to have less sensitive tuners that a real TV ... borderline signal quality can cause problems for a computer device that are not apparent with a TV. Are you able to do some test recording after removing any splitters and extension coax from the antenna cable? Does the signal monitor report a good signal ? http://www.hauppauge.com/site/support/su...al+monitor

It is not obvious which of these problems might be due to signal quality ... so lets get that out of the way first.

Plus, getting antenna EPG info while recording often causes problems. Can you make a recording that is not at the same time as an EPG update and does this recording playback properly?

[tesla1886]

Firstly, the easiest way to get logs might be NextPVR Settings --> About and click the button to zip your logs. It helps if you tells us the time that you had a problem so that we know where to look in the logs.

I have attached the logs zipping through the program.

Computer devices are reported to have less sensitive tuners that a real TV ... borderline signal quality can cause problems for a computer device that are not apparent with a TV. Are you able to do some test recording after removing any splitters and extension coax from the antenna cable? Does the signal monitor report a good signal ? http://www.hauppauge.com/site/support/su...al+monitor

It is not obvious which of these problems might be due to signal quality ... so lets get that out of the way first.

I installed the signal meter that you linked to. The channel with the weakest signal usually stays at 19 but it may fluctuate down to 18 or up to 20. This is about where most of my channels are some go up as high as 24. No channels have any errors correctable or uncorrectable. The antenna I have uses an amplifier that must be used, without it I get nothing. I am not sure if that is just the way it works or if it is because the signal is too weak. With that in mind even using the minimum number of splices and no splitters the signal strength does not change.

There are only two channels that I cannot get a signal good enough to watch but either there is a duplicate channel, I get it through Direc TV or I don't watch it.

Plus, getting antenna EPG info while recording often causes problems. Can you make a recording that is not at the same time as an EPG update and does this recording playback properly?

EPG was set at 02:13 am. although no shows have been set to record at that time I do have a couple coming up so I changed to another time. If recordings can affect EPG update over the air I would like to see an option that it would be update when nothing is being recorded.

I have not watched anything or had anything crash since I posted this. I will post and update logs when I do which will be later this evening maybe in an hour or so.

[mvallevand]

I suspect trying to get a Baltimore signal from VA is your problem. Go to tvfool.com and enter your zip code to see what to expect.

You should be able to add a Baltimore zip code to get their OTA listing from Schedules Direct.

Martin

[tesla1886]

I just experienced a crash watching a recording. I was able to watch an entire 30 minute recording with no issue. I started the second and as I advanced past the commecial before the show actually started, went to far while rewinding npvr crashed. Opening the program and starting the same program and using the controls with a mouse caused it to crash again multiple times. I got it working by not using the buttons but just clicking on the time bar. just finished watching the opening punch line.

[tesla1886]

I suspect trying to get a Baltimore signal from VA is your problem. Go to tvfool.com and enter your zip code to see what to expect.

You should be able to add a Baltimore zip code to get their OTA listing from Schedules Direct.

Martin

Thank you, did not think about putting a different zip in. That worked.

[Graham]

Are you recording to a network device? I gave up on my own attempts to record to a network device (despite everything being gigabit) although I can't now remember the symptoms. I now record to a local drive and use the NextPVR Archive function to transfer recordings to the network device once or twice a week.

[tesla1886]

Are you recording to a network device? I gave up on my own attempts to record to a network device (despite everything being gigabit) although I can't now remember the symptoms. I now record to a local drive and use the NextPVR Archive function to transfer recordings to the network device once or twice a week.

No I am not recording to a network drive. It is not even eSATA, it is internal SATA.

[Reddwarf]

Are you recording to a network device? I gave up on my own attempts to record to a network device (despite everything being gigabit) although I can't now remember the symptoms. I now record to a local drive and use the NextPVR Archive function to transfer recordings to the network device once or twice a week.

My experience with gigabit network is that it only provides about 300Mb/s, even using proper CAT-6 cabels and gigabit switch.